Annnnnnnd we went to Paris

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November 7th 2007

Published: November 11th 2007

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Lina TdK

Oh it's 5:45 AM

don't we look lovely take note, i pretty much wore the same jacket + scarf every day ... these are not all from the same day

Wow. Paris is cool. Our three day weekend was amazingly well spent considering the last minute plannage that went into making it happen. We managed to see and do a lot considering how little time we had there. I really enjoyed it and immediately fell in love with the city regardless that it was only sunny for about 5 hours total during our trip. We also managed pretty well considering what little to no French we know and everyone we met was very friendly and willing to help out. I want to try to keep this as short and simple as possible due to the amount we did, so I've broken up our trip into our three days. Being concise about my adventures though isn't really my style, so bare with me if I dive into too much detail....

Day One

We woke on Friday morning at 2:45AM in order to make a 5:45AM flight ... We made it to the airport with plenty of time along with the other 300 people who had early flights through RyanAir, ah the conveniences of budget travel. I don't remember much of the flight except blacking out and randomly waking up

We're HERE!

On our way to hunt down some fooooood

at the perfect moment to see the sky lined with black, red, blue, and orange light = gorgeous. This timing also went along with the passing out of beverages, of which the water I asked for (and then returned) cost 2.50 Euros...no thanks. We flew into an airport about an hour outside of the city so we had another hour long trip to sleep through until Paris would be ours to discover. Upon arriving to the station, we soon discovered the metro we needed was closed, so we had to walk to another station and as luck would have it we received directions from a very nice American couple who I'm going to venture to say have lived there for a while. Once we found the metro, madness ensued. It was very crowded, smelled of non-showered French people, and the trains allow one to swing open the doors before it comes to a complete stop...JUMP!From landing to arrival at our hotel, almost 4 hours have passed ... we discover the last minute reservations I made are being changed, and the really nice owner of the sketchy hotel relocated us to another place (which turned out to be a lot closer

SO BIG

This coke made my day as I got a refill without having to ask/pay extra ... oh Paris

to center and probably a lot nicer & not so much in a shady neighborhood). As soon as we set our things down, we immediately go hunting for food as we were all starving. I asked the man at the front desk where we could find crepes and he exclaimed, "Why does everyone just want crepes!? Everyone always asks where to find these crepes, I must have a sign in front of me "Ask me where to find crepes!" " .... quite humurous. After more walking than necessary, we finally picked a place and had a rather enjoyable meal. Juan's French friend Aurelio met up with us and invited us to go out that night. He was really great and so helpful. Then we had Nutella crepes...heaven. After lunch we rode the metro with him and he showed us where to check out some shopping and other sights. We went directly to the Opera and went on a guided tour. This is the point where my camera decides to tell me it's almost out of battery power and smart as I am I left my charger in Madrid...lovely. It was beautiful and really interesting. We wanted to try to catch

FINALLY!

SO excited to finally be at the foot of Sacre Couer!!

a show at some point, but all of the operas were sold out and heck, why see a show when there's the rest of Paris to see? Afterwards we headed towards Sacre Coeur, something I have been dying to see since my first French class freshmen year with Miss Litchfield. Let's just say I had a moment when we reached the top of some very long stairs and was overjoyed to be in Paris. It was stunning, inside and out (and I was kicking myself for the camera issue). And for having as many people inside and out (there's a large 'plaza'/'garden' bit in front of it) it was very peaceful. We walked down through the garden area where there were street performers and such and bought a delicious ham and cheese crepe and walked in the direction of the Moulin Rouge. I find it interesting that these two 'icons' are so near one another, not sure how the city planner managed that one, but oooooooook. We then decided it was necessary to have some downtime before meeting with Aurelio for a night out so we headed back to our 'hotel' and took a nap ... 1.5 hours later we

Oh my

it's SO pretty, we couldn't take any pictures inside but take my word for it, it's stunning

were rushing to gather ourselves and then left to meet our friend. He took us to this AMAZING street near Place Monge filled with small restaurants and creperies ... it was fantastic. I had such a good meal that night and really enjoyed walking the street with a beer in hand and observing everyone. I would love to return to that very place someday soon. Aurelio then took us to the new happening place right off of Pont Neuf called Kong. It is on the top floors of this building and has an amazing view and was filled with very fashionable 20-30somethings. Needless to say I felt very underdressed and out of place but it was neat to experience that. Without our unofficial tour guide we would have never known that place existed. We then sort of ran amuck trying to meet up with some of Aurelio's friends but exhaustion soon hit and we decided to put an end to day one and catch some sleep.

Day Two

We woke up and packed up as we were moving to our next hostel that morning across the river and well basically the city. After dropping our bags off

Patata

Instead of saying 'cheese' the spanish say potato ... interesting. Nikki, Juan,& I on our way down from Sacre Couer

we went on another search for food and ended up on Rue de Saint Germaine which is a poshy kind of area with high end shopping and whatnot. That being said our lunch was rather expensive and lacking in any sort of 'Voila!' tastes ... we did make up for it though by buying nutella crepes from a street vendor. It was really nice walking around because we would see things that would make us stop and say ah! Or 'must get a picture of that!' (utilizing my friend's cameras ...) We headed in the direction of Ile-de-Cite where Notre Dame is situated. We took in a lot in those 20 minutes. This cathedral is impressive. So much bigger than I previously imagined, which was already pretty big....I felt very very small....We managed to hop on a free English tour which was pretty neat, learned a lot of random and interesting things. We wanted to try to go up the towers but the line was very long, are legs were very tired, and we were quite cold....so we opted for some really bad really expensive coffee instead. From there we walked through some beautiful streets to reach the Pompidou Centre

Green!

It looks so magical

which I had been recommended to see by my friends. Very very cool. The area surrounding it was full of neat foutains and random statues and street performers. We then walked from there down a main avenue towards the Louvre and La Concorde which is a very old monument, but we had a really great view of it, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe. We continued walking towards the Eiffel Tower which we thought was much closer than it actually was, but we ended up walking by things we didn't expect or mean to, so that was neat. We crossed this amazingly decorated bridge and saw random street art and finally arrived at our destination just in time to see it light up marking 7pm. We chose to save going up the tower until the following day as lines were very long and it was getting colder by the minute, so we walked around aimlessly looking for somewhere to dine. We picked a place we thought had a lot of potential and were very sorely disappointed and handed over way too much money, but the dessert almost made up for it. We proceeded to head home as we

From below

it lights up at night in all its majesty

had done so much that day and worn ourselves out. We thought we'd make it an early night and get a lot of sleep ... little did we know we had a crazy lady sharing our room with us who thought it was completely appropriate to return at 7AM and proceed to get ready for TWO hours with the lights ON.....I don't think any of us really slept well that night.....

Day Three

After a rather restless night, I got up in time to go have breakfast and prepare myself for the day. Once we left, we headed straight for the Louvre...as it was the first Sunday of the month, all museums have free entrance, how perfect! We had a small snack before entering and joining the other 100s of people planning to spend hours in this huge building. We hit every floor. We almost hit every corner ... we walked through a large portion of this museum but didn't really see everything ... if that makes sense. We walked by many things in order to get to the things we wanted to see and those were very nice. We also found artwork that was intriguing and

Comfort

She looked rather down so I gave her a hug

interesting by just walking the wrong direction....Note to self, it is VERY easy to take a wrong turn in the Louvre. After visiting Mona Lisa, Louis jewels, and other famous pieces of work, we headed outside to the famous entrance which we actually did not use....Then we headed directly to the Eiffel Tower. We chose to ride the metro this time and on our walk from the station to the tower, we passed a quaint little bakery and thankfully Nikki had a crossaint craving, so we entered. I immediately eyed this perfectly sized quiche and decided it was time for lunch. BEST MEAL OF THE TRIP, next to the crepe....after walking a couple of blocks and sharing my delicious treat with my friends, they decided it was necessary for them to return and order a mini quiche as well....OH the treasures one finds without realizing it! We made it to the lines for the Eiffel and the sun had finally come out for some of the day so we were excitedly expecting some great views when we reached the top. Our line moved with ease but by the time we made it to the second level, the sun was about

Moulin Rouge

Yes, we sang the song for the remainder of the night

to set. Still got some great shots and views in from this point and had my breath taken away. This was pretty much the quicket way to see all of Paris for a relatively good price. By the time we reached the top of the tower it was turning into night and the city was lighting up, gorgeous. It became numbingly cold so we stayed up there for maybe 15 minutes, but it was totally worth it. We were going to try to make it to mass at the Notre Dame that night, but the lines held us up and we just met up with Aurelio for dinner. He took us back to the center of the city to a relatively touristy area but we ate some very very good cheese fondue. (it reminded me of our trips to the melting pot - Furman girls!) It was very tastey. The streets he took us through were really neat and had a variety of restaurants, anything from Paris' best mexican to chinese to italian, it was all right there. We then grabbed some gelato which was oh so yummy and headed back towards our hostel for another 'early' night. We thanked

Molina

just like the movie ay?

Aurelio for hanging out and entertaining us while we were there and said goodbye. I was pooped and after taking the fastest most disgusting shower of my life (note to self, hostel showers = gross) immediately got in bed as we were hopping in a cab at 430 the next morning. Little did we know our crazy spanish friend would be at it again that night by chatting it up on the phone between 1 and 2 AM and then managing to scare the pee out of us when the receptionist from downstairs burst into our room at 3 AM looking for Rosa saying "your friend is waiting for you downstairs!" to which she proceeded with no action making me think we'd missed our taxi & flight altogether .... oooohmygahhhhhh. So when 4 AM rolled around an hour later, I had no problem repaying her with the same kindness she'd bestowed on us, lights on, normal voice volume and all. We made it to the bus station with plenty of time and our flight as well. A long day was ahead of us as we had to go directly from the airport to school to teach for the day, but

Intimidation

This crepe definitely won the battle, I couldn't finish it but loved every single bite

we survived.

That about sums it up, it was an amazing trip that I would definitely repeat without a doubt. Paris is as great as everyone has ever said to me and I am very grateful to have gone. I am now settling into my new apartment with my new awesome room mates and finally getting into a pretty etched groove here in Madrid. I hope that you are all well and had a great weekend!!! Feel free to send any mail/pictures/goodies my way, I will definitely send something back ... or you know, come visit sometime ... 😉 Take care and keep in touch!!!!

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