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Published: February 9th 2010
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Last wednesday ECCo had a break, with the intensive course ending that day with a final exam and then legit classes not starting till Monday (except those of us who already have UniBo classes). So my friends and I took the long weekend and headed to Paris followed by Milan. What's great about Europe is that everything is close and you can get pretty cheap flights (RyanAir or EasyJet). Flying RyanAir from Bologna to Paris was less than 30 euros. Of course, part of the reason that its so cheap is that they don't take you to the most important (or convenient) airports. Luckily, they fly out of Bologna, which is exceedingly convenient for us. But to get to paris, RyanAir doesnt fly to Charles de Gaulle, but to Beauvais, which is about an hour and a half outside the city. There is a bus thats about 14 euro though that you can take to get to Paris, so its still less than 40 euro to get to Paris from Bologna, which is insane (especially considering that to get to Pescara from Bologna its like 44 euros just for the train ticket--and that's a lot closer...dont get me started on the
plane ticket prices).
We were staying in a hostel in Montmarte and unlike what the website told us when we made reservations all 5 of us could get a room together (only us in the room, which was great). We took the metro from where the bus dropped us off to our hostel (the metro in France is a far, far cry from the subway in New York. to start with: its clean). the french, ew've learned, really like stairs. to get from the metro stop above ground was 80 steps. and then we had to climb 40 more steps to get to the street where our hostel was. and then once we got to the hostel (which is nicely only a few blocks from the metro) we had to climb about 80 more steps since the French really like spiral staircases and we were on the top floor. Awesome. haha but we were all together, it was 20 euros a night in Montmarte and close to a metro stop. so all in all, pretty good (although the light working would have been great).
ironically, even thugh we stayed in montmarte we didnt really explore montmarte, which is
really sad, and I definitely want to do that if i get another chance to go to paris. thursday, our first full day in paris, we basically just walked around everywhere. we walked from the bastille up the Seine to Notre Dame (which, by the way, is absolutely amazing and breathtaking), taking Paris in had lunch (ordered a croque monsieur, which is probablyt the most talked about dish in middle school french class--its the french version of grilled cheese, just with ham, which sounds like i shouldnt like it but is AMAZING. it was probably my favorite food i got in france), then walking to the Louvre. One of my friends was an Italian citizen, so with her passport she was allowed in for free (EU citizens get in free), and just to see what would happen, i showed them my italian visa, wondering if it would get me in for free, or at least a discount. In all honesty i didnt think it would work--but it totally did. I got in the Louvre completely free. Apparently my visa makes me a temporary EU citizen. Sweet deal.
The Louvre gets its own paragraph because it is AMAZING. And for
me to say that about an art museum is insane, because im not the super biggest art fan. i definitely appreciate it, but i am not the person to wander around an art museum looking at paintings for hours. However, i could definitely do that looking at architecture. And that is probably what makes teh Louvre amazing. It's not just the art, the enitre palace (its hard to just call it a museum, it's a gigantic palace) is its own complete work of art in its architecture. its probably not normal, but i loved the architecture of the louvre maybe more than the art (although the art was amazing). saw the mona lisa, its so funny how much security it is for the little painting compared to verything else in the musuem. its incased in glass, has at least 4 staff people around at all time, you have to be 10 feet away from the glass at all times, and then every few minutes the lights would dim to protect it. but its crazy, no matter where you go mona's eyes follow you. its crazy. I realized that I really like David. Fun fact. and also that I know nothing
about art history since art has never been my thing--luckily i am taking an art history class here.
After dinner, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower, because you have to see it at night. Every person who has ever gushed about hte Eiffel Tower is completely right. Especially at night it is breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking. i dont know if photos can show it. but I tried. we kind of just hung out in front of the Eiffel Tower staring at it for quite a while. At midnight a light show started and sparkling lights went off everywhere. It is so beautiful. and its so big. Everything about it is grand. The legs of the tower are ginormous. Its just gigantic and big. There was an elevator which went up it. Given my fear of heights that sounds terrifying, but we didnt take it, so no break downs occurred. although, going up it might be something that happens once in a lifetime, so if im ever with a group that goes i mighthave to suck it up because how amazing would that be? to see the entire city from the Eiffel Tower?
Friday, we went to Versailles,
which is about a 30 or 40 minute train ride from Paris. Before going in we decided that food was definitely going to be needed to appreciate the palace fully, so we started wandering around to find anything that resembled a reasonably-priced place (Paris has very, VERY expensive food--I spent all my money on food in Paris). Randomly I see the cutest little side street with a little cafe that has good prices (4 euro for a croque monseiur instead of 10 euros in Paris) and we decide to eat there. The man who runs it is this adorable french man who went out of his way to help us and make sure everything was great. We ended up staying and eating and enjoying our food for a lot longer than we had imagiend.
After our extended lunch we finally went to Versailles. Those with visas in EU countries can also get in here for free. Score! Versailles is another one of those places that you can't actually fully explain. It needs to be seen. It is almost too big to even fathom and just gilded and opulant to excess. It is very easy to see how this created
a deficit in France. Within the palace, my favorite rooms were the king and queen's chambers. they were so detailed and so beautifully designed. It's crazy, I cannot believe anyone really lived there. Although the hall of mirrors is absolutely stunning as well. It's so hard to describe, hopefully photos can do it some sort of justice. The gardens were also great, znd would probably be breathtaking in the spring and summer with the flowers in bloom, but even in February were stunning. As far as your eye could see are the gardens are Versailles, which is crazy. Luckily, the day was beautiful so sitting in the gardens was a perfect end to the afternoon.
Versailles took up most of the day so we couldn't really do anything later (and we were also super tired from all our sight seeing and walking around within the last two days) which is how i missd Montmarte and the Sacre Coeur. But I was definitely one of the ones being like "i just need to sit and drink some coffee and chill". Probably the one thing I do like Italy more for is the presence of cafes/bars. you can't walk a block
in bolgona without finding at least one cafe'/bar where you can sit down and drink some coffee. They are far more difficult to find in Paris, which is slightly unfortunate.
Overall, paris is amazing, especially once you walk up the Seine, although this should come as no surprise since it is one of the most famed cities in the world. clearly, worth a trip, though I doubt you needed me to tell you.
Next entry: Milano
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Mom
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whats not to love
Lauren, you did a great job telling what you liked about Paris -- I think it is such a beautiful city! The Eiffel Tower is gorgeous at night (and I did not go up either -- more due to the lines and the shortness of time but I am not a fan of heights either so ... ) -- Love, Mom