On Saturday we woke up bright and early to catch the train from Nantes to Paris. It only takes about 2 and a half hours to go from Nantes to Paris by train so by the time I was done with my second "Monde Magazine" we were there! We navigated the metro to our beautiful apartment in the 11th arrondissement which is really close to the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery. After hauling our luggage up 5 flights of stairs we finally got to see where we would be staying. One of my friends had booked the apartment and I wasn't sure what to expect. Our apartment was seriously amazing. We had a 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms a living room and a full kitchen. We decided to take full advantage of our kitchen and at night we cooked dinner all together and blasted our ipods over the stereo system. It immediately felt like our own little home.
After getting settled we headed out to see some of what Paris has to offer. We first stopped at Notre Dame. I had seen the outside of the church before but this was the first time I was able to go inside (the first time I was at Notre Dame I slept on a wall adjacent to the church because I was dying with a migraine.) The church was beautiful and filled with statues, stained glass, and candles. After Notre Dame we went to Shakespeare and Company which is an old bookstore that Hemingway used to hang out in. This place was filled with books! Every corner, table, crack in the wall was stuffed full of books. They also have a real typewriter that people can use to write a great novel or just finish a paper for school. After that we grabbed a nutella crepe and slowly walked all the way from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower along the Seine. I don't know what it is about being able to walk around Paris with a warm and melting nutella crepe that makes it so amazing but I could have done that for the rest of my life and been perfectly content. It was a very long but very beautiful walk. We passed the "love lock bridge" for lack of a better name. It was really cute to see all the locks and read all of the inscriptions. Some people take this really seriously. A few of the locks were actually engraved. By the time we made it to the Eiffel Tower it was dark and a little chilly but in that good way where your cheeks turn pink and you can see your breath but you aren't freezing to death. The cold made it a little more magical if that's even possible. We got there just in time to see the tower sparkle. Every time I see the tower sparkle I almost feel like a little kid. I absolutely love how beautiful it is.
The next day was our museum day. Me and my friend headed out early to go to the Louvre. The building itself is just as amazing as the art it contains. We wandered around for a while and I got to see my favorite sculpture Winged Victory. After that we walked through the Tuileries Gardens to get to the Musee D'Orsay. I have to say Musee D'Orsay was even better than the Louvre. I got to see works by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Serault and others. After that we headed to a cafe with one of my friends friends (thats a complicated sentence to write) who is studying in Paris. It was at this cafe where I realized I could probably never spend an entire semester in Paris. We got cafe au lait as usual but instead of being 2.10 euro per cup like they are in Nantes they were 5 euro per cup! Paris lives up to its title as one of the most expensive cities in the world. After a long day of walking we headed back to the apartment for diner. We decided to have a pizza and cidre night. Instead of ordering pizza we decided to see if the supermarchet around the corner had any good pizza for a cheaper price. What we found was a 2euro frozen pizza with goat cheese, bacon, and olives. Only in France would a 2euro frozen pizza from the grocery store come with goat cheese. Needless to say it was delicious.
ceiling of the Louvre
view of the Sacre Coeur from Musee d'Orsay
The following day was filled with amazing views. We first went to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre to see the church and check out the artists. It was really interesting to see all the different perspectives of Paris among the various artists. By the end of our time at Sacre Coeur we all really needed to find a bathroom. Bathrooms in Europe are not as easily accessible as they are in the US. Here if I want to use a bathroom I usually have to buy something first or pay to get in. We found a free bathroom in the middle of the sidewalk in front of Sacre Coeur. However, this was a weird self cleaning bathroom. After each use it cleans itself so you have to wait a good 3-4 minutes in between people. If you don't time it right you could get stuck in the bathroom and sprayed down with cleaning solution. We were dying by the time it was our turn to use the bathroom but at least it was free right?
After that we tried to meet up with a French friend from Nantes. The other thing about Paris is even if you speak French to people they will speak to you in English (another reason I couldn't spend a semester in Paris). This is incredibly frustrating and meant that I hadn't really spoken French in 3 days. So when I attempted to talk to our French friend on the phone in the loud metro it was a little difficult. After some confusion and miscommunication we met up with him and his Parisian friend. They were nice enough to be our tour guides for the afternoon and we ended up on the roof of Galeries Layfayette. From the roof there is an amazing view of Paris. Also on this roof was a Russian guy who was trying to be ghetto/gangster for what I assume is the russian version of a hip hop music video. It was hilarious. On our way down from the roof we saw a sign for this place called Angelina's. Angelina's is a beautiful tea/cake restaurant with the best hot chocolate in Paris. The only way I can describe this hot chocolate is it was like drinking warm chocolate ganache. It was so thick it stuck to the pitcher when we poured it.
view from galeries layfayette
The next day most of our group decided to go to Versailles. Since I had already been there me and a friend decided to do something we had never done in Paris and climbed the Arc de Triomphe. The view was amazing and you could see down all the grands boulevards that come out of the Arc de Triomphe. We also took advantage of the fact that we were on the Champs d'Elysees to do some shopping and take some creeper pictures of Parisian style. Im sure more than one person caught me taking pictures of them but oh well. After shopping it was time for La Duree. One of the girls I practice English with told me that La Duree has the best macarons in Paris. Once I heard that I knew it had to be included in our Paris itinerary considering how much I love coffee flavored macarons. I got a couple different flavors but the best had to be coffee and raspberry. After that we all headed back to the apartment to get our things ready for Barcelona. We all just hung out and talked and listened to music. It was a great way to end our time in Paris. The next day we woke up at 5am to make it to Beauvais airport for our flight to Barcelona. Overall Paris was perfect. It's such a beautiful city filled with interesting things to do and see. I can't wait to go back.
creeper shots of fashionable people
arc de triomphe
we climbed 284 steps to the top!
cheesy myspace shopping pics
in order: coffee, raspberry, caramel, praline, rose petal
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