Bonjour de Paris!

Paris!

Bonjour! Paris was quite the hectic trip because my friends & I lost our letter to Regents saying we were students so they arrested us thinking we were illegal immigrants until our headmaster at Regents could clear things up...It was a total mess & the scariest thing I've ever been though...

Haha just kidding! April fools!
       Paris was amazing! We left Regents at 6am friday morning & we took a train that brought us there around 1130 pm. We had to get metro tickets, take the metro a few stops & get the the hostel. We got to the hostel around 1pm but we couldn't check in until 2. So the tamers, a guy named Christian we met, and I walked down the street to get an idea of where we were & to grab lunch! We ate at a small patisserie and had great sandwiches on homemade French bread! Yum! We got back to the hostel a few minutes before 2 & headed to our room of 12 girls from school! Luckily we got to organize the rooms ourselves so we were all friends & has a great time rooming together! (oh this was a Regents organized trip so there was a total of like 60 people on this trip!)

We left the hostel around 215 to explore! We started at the Arc de Triumph which was sweet! We climbed up top & got a good view of the city & the cool octagon circle streets that surrounded the Arc. We also got our first glimpse of the Eiffel tower which was just incredible! So we headed back down the Arc and walked down the Champs de Élysées street that was right next to the Arc. This is a big shopping street and also one of the streets that the Tour de France runs though, so it was very neat to see. The street was very wide & lined with trees along the road which made for a nice atmosphere.  After we walked both sides of the streets we headed to the long anticipated wait to the Eiffel tower! The line to go up was 2 hours so we decided to take pictures & look at it during the day, & then try again later. So we crossed under the Eiffel & headed towards the Seine river where we sat on stairs for an hour enjoying each others company & people watching. At 6pm we got up & found dinner at a place called Cafe Central. Half the group went here & the other half went somewhere else since there was so many of us. We all had great meals though & went back to the Eiffel after.
        On the way back to the tower however we saw this older man leaned over forward taking out a tissue from a tweety bird package, very slowly. We were wondering what was taking him so long or if he was sick until we realized his pants were on the ground, his butt in the air, hunched over...oh ding ding he just pooped! Yeah people I'm not even kidding he squatted next to a tree on a main road...& went to the bathroom. We held our breathe as we crossed the street & bursted out laughing. However once we got that out of our system we talked about how sad & embarrassing that had to have been seeing as he was homeless & old and could've been confused. If I was in a desperate situation I think I'd at least try to find an alley or bush to go in, instead of on a main road! But anyway...we made it to the tower at 8, and at 830pm they lit it up! Then at 9 & every hour on the hour after that, it sparkled for 5-10 mins. It was absolutely breathtaking, none of us had the words to describe it we were all just so happy to be there! It was super romantic but oh wait... most of us are single so we had to enjoy each other! & we did!
      Two guys, Andrew & Christian climbed the 669 stairs with Elana & I- then we took an elevator to the summit! The view of the city lit up was awesome & so much fun! If it hadnt been so windy or cold, I would've stayed up forever! The other half of the group made it up too so we got to meet up with them as well, & the Tamers waited for us at the bottom bc they're dad is taking them later! So it was a great group & loads of fun! We made it back to the hostel around 1130pm, showered & went to sleep!

       Saturday we got up & ate breakfast at 930. We started at the Louvre museum and saw the Mona Lisa first. The painting was a lot smaller than you would expect which we were made aware of beforehand. It's a little larger than a sheet of paper so pretty small but still amazing to see! We also saw the Venus de Milo (aphrodite) statue and walked the wings of the Greek & Egyptian artifact rooms! It was all really neat! The louvre was huge & each different was so uniquely designed, it was just amazing how detailed the ceilings were in each room.

      Afterwards we headed to the LongChamp store where 9 out of the 12 girls bought purses all in different colors! Yeah the store had that many colors...it was awesome & we were so excited because they are much cheaper in Paris!
Then we walked down the street & ran into a main square with the obelisque statue! We grabbed a few pics & then crossed the river to go to the musee d'orsay! Here we saw paintings by van gogh, claude monet, edgar degas & more! We also saw Rodin's "thinker" sculpture which I was extremely shocked by! This thing is not on it's own, instead it's sculpted in on top of a large mantelpiece.  I was very surprised by its size maybe a foot tall, if that? But it was really cool getting to see all those famous pieces.
        By this time we were all exhausted because it was 4pm & we had been walking all day so we decided we needed a pick-me-up & what better than a crepe! So we all got nutella crepes at a nearby cafe before hitting the metro for one last stop! The Notre Dame Cathedral!

        The outside of the cathedral was really cool because there were lots of gargoyles on top! Luckily we were able to go inside & I say this because the next day was palm Sunday of course & they were about to have a Saturday evening service. But inside was dark & very different from other churches ive been to. There was a lot of detail but the arched ceilings really caught my eye & distinguished it from other basilicas. Most of the church was wood and there was a lot of paintings & smaller rooms off to the side to light a candle or pray silently. It was very peaceful & beautiful.
        So that was our last stop but we did run into a souvenir store outside the church. We grabbed falefels (a hummus type thing fried & mixed in with veggies on pita bread) for dinner on our way home. Half ate there & half (me included) went back to the hostel to have a drink with our meal. We all met in the room after & showered & had girl talk before going to bed early! I stayed up until the UK game started at 1am here but ended up falling asleep. Luckily I woke up to good news & lots of stories from friends back home! I was super jealous I wasn't there for such a great victory but I know I'll be even more jealous after Monday night! I'd love to be celebrating at home!

But anyways...

      This morning we woke up at 730 & had breakfast at 8. We left the hostel by 830 and Hannah, Lindsay, Scott, Risa, Sam, Lia & I went to Versailles to see the palace & walk the gardens. We took a train that got us there by 1030 and we walked the gardens, saw Marie Antoinette's home & had lunch in a cafe by 1230. We did a little souvenir shopping and then took a 130pm train back to Paris. We had to pick up our things at the hostel and get back to the Eurostar train station at 430 to catch our 558 chunnel ride home! 

      Now I am getting organized for the week & updating all my followers! Its April 1st meaning I will be home in 34 days! I can't believe it! But I've had such an incredible time & Paris was just another bundle of memories to add to my journal & view of life! We had a great weekend & everyone got along. We were also all able to see what we wanted & more which never happens! I would love to go back and explore other parts of France because minus the language barrier (which so far was the worst here), it was a great experience & a beautiful area! 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

                      Y.O.L.O -- Court :)