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Published: October 3rd 2009
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Ahhh Paris. As Elyse would say, everything there is “such a delight!” Haha. After a surprisingly painless 8 hour flight from O'hare, we arrived not so fresh looking (Carrie Bradshaw would not be proud) in the city of love! We did not sleep at all on the flight, being way too distracted by the awesome free movies we had at our disposal. "The Proposal" was my highlight, being way funnier than it should be after a couple of glasses of the complimentary champagne and wine. Arriving off the plane, we found our kickass personal driver who picked us up via Mercedes and then took us to our hotel. The ride to the hotel was slightly terrifying, being that is was Paris rush hour and drivers in Paris are insane and change lanes left and right, and at one point we weren't even sure where the lanes were. We got to the hotel and power napped before our first Parisian excursion- "To the Louvre!" (Eurotrip anyone?)
We decided to take a stroll down the Champ's Elysees, which was beautiful! We hiked a while but finally made it to the Louvre, where we got our Paris Museum Pass which allowed us to
dominate the Parisian sites throughout our stay. We spent about 2 hours in the Louvre (pretty impressive considering the size). We did get lost several times, and spent forever looking for the Egyptian exhibit, which was sort of a let down 😞 But everything else was AMAZING! The Louvre itself is so beautiful despite all of the artwork- just the architecture of the beauty is breathtaking. We found tons of our works we studied and I also discovered some new favorites of mine (Prudhon and Delaroche!). We hung with Mona and Venus for a few, but tried to avoid getting too caught up in the tourist traps (which is sort of a common theme of ours throughout our visit) to have an opportunity to experience the lesser known things that we’ve studied and appreciate the wide selection of art.
After the Louvre, we made our way to L’Orangerie (with only a half an hour until closing!) to see one of my favorite artists, Monet’s, early water lily paintings. They took up entire walls and were basically awesome. There was also an unexpected gem of an impressionistic exhibit on the lower level that we also loved. After visiting the museum,
we strolled back to George V and found a place for dinner (even though we got lost on the way and ending up seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time on accident). Our whole time in Paris, we had delicious meals even though we always would just stop at the first place nearby where we were that had reasonable prices and a menu in English. We both got the Chevre, which became our instant favorite French meal (goat cheese, honey, tomato, nuts, toast and salad). We then headed back to our hotel for a good night’s rest (we were 48 hours awake and sort of dying).
Our second (and last ) day in Paris was a whirlwind. We started off the day getting our Metro pass (we felt like real Parisians!), which was slightly scary at first but by the end of the day we were rocking it. We jetted off to the Musee d’Orsay and finally got to see the Seine (we knew it existed somewhere!) and the more artsy Left Bank. At Orsay, we found hot guys in works of art (see the pictures for visuals) and checked out some sweet artworks up close and personal.
After Orsay we went to the Conciergerie, which was really fun and a break from all our museums. For those who don’t know, the Conciergerie was the prison in Paris which held criminals such as Marie-Antoinette before they went to be executed. We saw Marie’s cell and learned all about the prison, then headed off to Notre-Dame for some quality photo-ops. We missed Quasi though, he must have been hiding behind the bells. We ate a quick pizza (delicious again!) and met a cool American couple. The rest of our day was spent riding the Metro and failing at getting to see our Opera House where the Phantom of the Opera supposedly dwells and our badass cemetery where all these famous people are buried, both which we were only a few minutes late to. We ended our day at the Pompidou and saw some crazy modern art. We ate some more Chevre for dinner and had our first crepe, then crashed before our flight to Venice in the morning. Only 2 days in Paris (and one being spent completely sleep deprived) was not enough, and we were both sad to leave. Weird as it sounds, it sort of felt
like Paris was home and we had really gotten to know the city, streets and Metro.
So, overall, my basic impressions of Paris:
1) Everyone who is anyone drives motorcycles (Girls, you look even cooler if you work black leather pants, a scarf and trench coat)
2) People are always rushing to get somewhere! Never before have we seen so many people run around in a hurry to get somewhere. They also cut in lines like it is their job. Every single line we stood in we got cut. And not like by one person. Like we would be the next people in line and about 5 people just come in from the side and cut us right before our turn. Basically, we learned we aren't aggressive enough. That's what we get for growing up in the Midwest!
3) Crepes are DELICIOUS.
4) Chevre is our new favorite dish 😊
5) Everything is bound to close earlier than you would like, and too early. Hence we missed our sweet cemetery by 1 minute and our Opera House by a half an hour. We were NOT pleased.
6) People are stylin in Paris.
7) Paris is AMAZING. Enough said.
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"Aunt Pam"
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WOW
Looks like your trip started out great! Be sure to wear your life jacket when floating around Venice!:) What a special experience for you. Soak in every day. I will keep checking for new entries. I talked to your mom yesterday to find out how your trip was going. Thought you had been there longer. She is so excited for you and as she talked, I heard your dad in the background adding his comments. Sound about right? Enjoy! Love, Pam