my trip to paris was unbelievable. paris really is more than I could’ve ever imagined it to be. It was beautiful and interesting and exciting and peaceful and delicious all at once. It was really weird coming back to spain—it was like I was going back to “normal” after traveling, but really I was going back to MADRID, which is still new and exciting. i was even super excited to go back to speaking spanish--bonjour. merci. au revoir. s'il vous plaît... was about all i knew around those parts...It also made me really thankful to have a great host family that I feel really comfortable and “at home” with. (obviously there is nothing like being at home home…but this was a great consolation prize.) it was neat to come back and sort of look at madrid in a new way—seeing paris helped me to notice things that are particular about Madrid…the architecture, the feel, the food. it was great to have more exposure to Europe so that I could learn more about the intricacies of each country.
Katy and I got into orly airport at around 11am Thursday morning SO excited to be in france. Katy has a friend aurelie who she met online doing an exchange type correspondence program during high school & they have kept in contact for four years, but have never met in person! Aurelie offered to pick us up from the airport and take us wherever we needed to go—what a treat. She and her brother drove us an hour into the city & we looked out the window in awe at the bright city and beautiful buildings. Madrid is so colorful and has so much red—paris has pretty much all white buildings. We drove through the main streets—down the champs elysees, passed the arc de triumph…it was a great little tour/preview for the next four days. We were shocked that they came to the airport to pick us up, drove us all the way across town, AND had bought us metro passes for our first ride. So so kind.
They left us at spencer’s, which was in the 14 area (northwest) just a little ways beyond the arc de triumph. We had 45 minutes to kill before spencer got home from school, so we explored his beautiful neighborhood, where we saw the first of many “la boulangerie’s” & stumbled into a gorgeous church (which is in the photos). We met up with Spence & Tia (his awesome gf) after that and went to a market and bought a couple baguettes, smoked turkey, hummus, apple juice, brie and sat out in the park near his house. it was one of my favorite times all four days—SUCH delicious food, a beautiful day, an awesome park. It was so nice to just chill outside and soak it in. mmm. The food is unbeatable. After lunch, Tia & Spence had to head back to school so katy & I walked from his house down to the arc de triumph & all the way down the champs elysees to the monument park near the louvre. Katy and I were thankful for having walking legs from Madrid, it was so much more enjoyable to be out and about all day instead of stuck in the metro…The whole walk was just amazing…we walked for a good 4 hours that afternoon. The arc de triumph was beautiful, it was so much fun to see up close…soo many tourists everywhere. We walked home and made it ¾ of the way there by memory, then got lost. The good thing was we got to see ALL of spencer’s neighborhood in case we hadn’t already… we finally made it to spencer’s, where we hung out with his friends there for awhile, then trekked out into the paris night. we walked by the Moulin Rouge & were SO disappointed to not have our camera. We just walked around that night, got falafels at a yummy restaurant & watched some golf in a bar for awhile—what is it with bars showing golf?
The next day (Friday) Spence, Tia, Katy & I made it to Versailles…which was super incredible. The place is just ginormous. It’s like what were you think king louis XIV? But really all the rooms were crazy and we couldn’t believe how ornate they were. It was really a treat to see after having seen spain’s palacio real just earlier that week. Inside was swell but my favorite part of Versailles (& one of my favorite parts of the whole trip) was walking around out back in the gardens and near the ponds & fountains out back. We were in search of marie antoinette’s quarters and never really found them, though we walked for a good while and enjoyed the green pastures & beautiful trees. We even saw sheep & horses! It was just so beautiful out there—soo so green and rich. We started to head back after a few hours as it began to rain…but on the way back the rain stopped and the sun came out and it was one of the most beautiful sites—check out the photos for sure.
From Versailles, Katy & I were to meet Aurelie at her house as she was so excited to have us over for dinner with all her friends. We ate potluck style with pizza and pasta salad and salad & her friends were SO SO nice & super fun. From there, those girls were going out to a club in the city so we trekked with them on the metro to the center of the city (aurelie lives in the outskirts of paris—in the southeast corner, which is the absolute opposite end of spencer, who lives in the northwest corner). Katy & I made it back safely to spencer’s house after that & we woke up early the next morning for a long & full Saturday…
Saturday we woke up & walked back down the champs elysees to eat at the delightful café, PAUL, which looked delicious & was an obvious stop. J it was really good & lots of fun to take back the little sugars wrapped in paper that says PAUL on it. hehe. We walked all the way down to the champs elysees back to the louvre, which was SUCH a great time. it was like the biggest place ever with the most amazing art pieces ever—Grecian pieces, German, Dutch, French, Egyptian. Everything you could think of—& of course the classics: la venus de milo, the mona lisa (I snuck a couple photos, even though I definitely wasn’t supposed to…), winged bull…everything was beautiful & just so diverse. It was so neat to see so much amazing art in one place that was from so many different places. It was like 4 floors of wing after wing after wing of art. We spent the bulk of the morning there, then our bellies led us to get a couple of crepes to share and eat along the seine. It is so lovely eating along the river—it was gorgeous. The notre dame is just on the other side of the river, so we went there after lunch, which was a lot of fun as well. it was humongous and beautiful. The stained glass was gorgeous. after spending some time inside, we walked along the seine and visited the shops along that area—saw the outside art and such. We wrote some postcards along the river and watched this crazy rollerblading show that some kids were putting on. Some of the craziest tricks I’ve seen…very impressive. As it started to get darker (& started to rain) we hopped on one of the boats to take the boat tour, which was really fun to take, especially since it beat getting wet/being inside somewhere. We saw the Eiffel tower & dusk had just rolled in, so it lit up just as we parked the boat at that stop. Later that evening aurelie & her brother and his friend romain picked us up at the notre dame for dinner, which we ate in the city. After that we headed to a club for some dancing & it was the funnest club I have ever been to. It was like they played actual music that made me want to get up and dance…literally. It was very casual and informal, and there were some legit dancers in there. It was called “barrio latino” & I really wanted to get my bros+paul a shirt there but it was a little over my budget. [foto] we had a really good time, then they drove us to aurelie’s aunt’s house where katy & I slept for the night.
Sunday morning aurelie’s aunt was there to make us breakfast (we had stayed there alone) & I asked her how her trip was (thinking she had been away for the weekend) but she had just gone to sleep at aurelie’s house so we could have a place to sleep! I couldn’t believe it. she was incredibly hospitable and so so nice (just like aurelie). After breakfast, katy & I headed off to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, and totally took the wrong metro stop…we thought it looked like such the perfect stop from the map, but saw metro stop after metro stop as we got closer and closer the sacre coeur. I was really thankful for the “mistake” b/c we were able to see a totally different side of paris—the run-down, poverty stricken side. It offered a more complete & realistic view of paris. It is really interesting how in paris all of the affluence is in the heart of the city, and the minorities live on the outskirts (so often it is the other way around). So we got to walk through some different and interesting neighborhoods Sunday morning, and the streets were lined with the most ethnic foods I had seen the whole trip. We didn’t see anything that resembled anything French until we got to the bottom of the hill near Montmartre. We climbed the long set of stairs to the highest point in paris…WHAT a site!!! Sacre Coeur/Montmartre was easily my favorite part of the trip. The basilica was incredible and it was so pleasant to sit there on Sunday morning and be absorbed by the peaceful ambience. We spent a good while inside, then walked to the fun artist area behind the cathedral. Katy made the mistake of buying a beret that morning, and consequently got bombarded by artists who just HAD to draw her with her beret on! Some were actually very upset when she refused…we ate a delicious bruschetta tomato “pizza” on a sidewalk on the streets of Montmartre and were able to escape the of-&-on rain that kept rolling in. After that we walked down the front side of Montmartre (we had come in through the back) & walked down that neighborhood to see the coolest shops…I couldn’t get enough of that neighborhood. Every shop was so unique! As per Katy’s request, we walked the path from Montmartre to the café in which the movie Amelie was set…so cute. Katy was ecstatic. We walked a little further and were so surprised to stumble onto the footsteps of the Moulin rouge! We couldn’t believe it was so close! We were pretty happy that we had a second chance at photos, since we had forgotten the camera the first time by. After that we headed to the pompidou (modern art museum) to meet Lauren, a friend from Stanford. It was great to see another familiar face, and to peruse the crazy museum that had exhibits like a row of seats covered with carpets for the public to sit in—that was “art.” Or a white room with a red car that was crashed. There was also some Warhol & Matisse, which was cool to see as well. it was a fun time & it was free, as it was the first Sunday of the month! (can’t believe it’s already October…) Lauren gave us some good pointers on places to stay for the night (as we miscommunicated with aurelie—she thought we were staying at her aunt’s friday & sat & we thought sat & sun)…so we headed over to the notre dame area, as just south of that area is sort of “university central” & she thought we’d be able to get some good deals. We got pretty nervous when the first places we went into were 130 Euro a night…but luckily we found a hotel pretty soon after for less than half of that. Not a bad deal to split. Plus it had free laundry & breakfast. Mmm. We decided that we would have a menu dinner (a dinner that comes with an appetizer & dessert) as Lauren also filled us in that we could find specials for about 10 euro! Pretty rad for an appetizer, entrée & dessert. We found a spot which wasn’t that awesome but still fun, then headed off to climb the Eiffel tower at night! I really didn’t anticipate it to be as “breathtaking” (to be melodramatic) as it actually was. It really was incredible. The air was cool & the view was so so clear. I even met a couple who said they were from California, & when I said I was from the central valley they guessed Fresno. It was a perfect way to end the trip.
The next & last morning (Monday) we enjoyed our free & surprisingly delicious breakfast at the hotel, of super fresh baguettes + jam/cheese/nutella (not all at once) & a huge cup of a mocha-latte. We walked around near spencer’s school & tried to figure out how to make it to the airport…his program’s secretary lady was awesome enough to tell us that not far from there we could catch a bus that went straight to the airport for 6euro. Not bad. we made it back to madrid in an hour and forty-five minutes. crazy.
The trip was amazing & I was sooo glad to have taken it.
Things that struck me about paris:
-It was a beautiful place to experience fall with the changing trees and the brisk air
-Parisian drivers are horrific—it was just as scary to cross the street as it was to ride in the backseat of a car!
-It was super expensive—even the metro was twice as much as madrid’s, & it was best to stick to the basics: baguette, brie, walking (although with walking you have to allot a good amount of time to get anywhere) & do some research beforehand on when museums are free/discounted!
-I am capable of eating more bread than I ever though I could…and I probably ate as much as I ordinarily eat in a yr…but it was the best bread I’d ever had.
-the metro is super complex—15 times more complex than that of Madrid.
-Parisians are SO helpful. That day we were lost on the way to spencer’s, everyone we asked tried to help us. And at one point, the person we asked didn’t know so they asked someone else walking by, who also didn’t know, so they asked somebody else walking by…and the three of them all tried to help us together. Haha.
-The view from everything we climbed was incredible.
It was all in all delightful and enjoyable :)
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