Last weekend was spent in the beautiful city of Paris. A city of grandeur, of history, of fashion, and of passion. The weekend was a bit more stressful than I would have desired it to be, but looking past that, it was a weekend of memories and bathing in the pulsing energy France offers.The trip was originally optional, but who's not going to go to Paris?? So the whole group piled onto the Eurostar, an extremely fast train, and went into the English Channel into the land called France. I keep getting excited whenever I go to a new country here, because that means another stamp in my passport:) Anyways, when we arrived, each mini group broke off to go to their separate hostels, that were unfortunately spread out all over the city. Sarah, Leslie, the Katies and I all headed over to the Rive Gauche side of Paris and dropped our stuff off at the 3 Ducks Hostel. Sounds kinda lame, but the hostel was in great location and was really cheap. The bathrooms were HORRIBLE though. I've never had the feeling of being more gross after I shower than before...the beds were really squeaky, which was more funny than annoying, and the security was a bit sketch. But everything worked out. Even Sam, who was in a hostel alone, got the extra bed in our room. We had a quick, but great lunch at the Cafe near the hostel, and I spoke my first conversation in French. No one else in my group knew any, so it was so much fun actually getting to speak french, in France. It was cool how much I remembered, sad how much I forgot.
The Friday was planned out already for us, since
Jay and Rachel, two professors, came with us and wanted to show us around. So our first stop was the Musee D'Orsay, which we were a bit late for. This museum was beautiful, and breathed Paris elegance both inside and out. We looked at the Impressionist exhibit, where I got to see Claude Monet, Seurat, Renoir, and my childhood favorite, Edward Degas. I also saw the saddest statue I think I've ever seen, called L'esclave by Ernest Christophe. I don't know why, but it just struck me with grief when I saw it, and I've never been overwhelmed with emotion
like that before, since I've never really been
much into art. Other people might not see anything, but for some reason I do. Before leaving the museum,I picked up a bottle of my favorite drink, Orangina!! I swear, I could live on that stuff.We then walked along the Seine (so pretty!) to get to the world's most famous cathedral: Notre Dame. I found Notre Dame to be big,
beautiful, and emotional. It has been around for hundreds of years, and is still standing. It's a reminder of the devotional that people had all that time ago to built something that could be possibly worthy enough to worship the Lord in. Inside the cathedral, you can still feel that passion, devotion and love. I feel like we're losing that raw emotion nowadays, and it was breathtaking and awing to be in that feeling.
Also, so many of us girls were wearing stripes that day:) Trying to blend in much?
Also, so many of us girls were wearing stripes that day:) Trying to blend in much?
Visiting the Louvre next was just as amazing! It is such a unique building, and is somewhat the definition of French innovativeness and beauty. I was also having multiple Da Vinci Code flashbacks...like the Madonna on the Rocks painting on the right. After taking a bunch of photos, we went inside and saw a Michelangelo
sculpture, a Cupid and Psyche sculpture Ireally liked, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa of course, and others. For dinner, we took the Met over to the Clichy area and had a WONDERFUL dinner (some of the best salmon I've ever had) and wine rose and blanc in these mini pitchers:) L'addition was a bit high but it was worth it. We were also just a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, so we walked over right after. It would have been nice if there hadn't 
been vendors shoving Eiffel Tower keychains in my face. Seriously in my face. Rude.But anyways, JMU payed for us to go to the top of the Tower, so we got into line and took the elevator to the second floor. Leslie and I had to go to the bathroom bad. Really bad. So we waited in line for FOREVER and almost didn't make it, because they temporarily closed it for service. But after that debacle, we got to go to the very top and by that time it was dark, but still beautiful. And the lights went off as we were up
been vendors shoving Eiffel Tower keychains in my face. Seriously in my face. Rude.But anyways, JMU payed for us to go to the top of the Tower, so we got into line and took the elevator to the second floor. Leslie and I had to go to the bathroom bad. Really bad. So we waited in line for FOREVER and almost didn't make it, because they temporarily closed it for service. But after that debacle, we got to go to the very top and by that time it was dark, but still beautiful. And the lights went off as we were upthere, the perfect ending to night 1.
Saturday we woke up early (I washed my hair in the sink, ugh) and had a quick breakfast, a croissant and oj, then I had hot chocolate a little later. Then we walked
Saturday we woke up early (I washed my hair in the sink, ugh) and had a quick breakfast, a croissant and oj, then I had hot chocolate a little later. Then we walked
over to the Centre Pompidou. Rachel and Jay talked about this modern art building for a bit. It looked like a giant cruise ship/ant farm. We didn't go in because it was a bit expensive and we're all kind of museumed out. We headed back over to the Eiffel Tower and sat on the lawn on the North side of it and talked about how symbolic it was. I like it, even though it doesn't have much meaning to it. For lunch I had a wonderful omelette; I will miss French cheese at home. Katie, Sam, and I then took a mini nap on the lawn, so nice. When we met up, we got on a boat nearby and went on a boat cruise on the Seine!
It was nice and relaxing on the boat, and we got to see a lot of French buildings, the Notre Dame again, and listen to French music. We all got amazing ice cream when we debarked as well:) (Sorry I use so many smiles...I think use them a bit too much..oh well:)) The picture on the left is of us walking again along the Seine, this time to the Met to get to Montemarte. There we saw the Moulin Rouge, the giant red windmill about the cabaret designed by Toulouse!!! There was also a giant vent outside of the Moulin, probably in dedication to Marilyn Monroe, so we had a lot of fun taking pictures on that.
Saying goodbye to the Moulin, we walked over to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur,
a gorgeous white temple overlooking the whole city of Paris. We had an incredible panoramic view of the city. The stairs to get up there were a hike, but it was all worth it when we went inside. It was just as moving as Notre Dame; I might have even liked this one better. It was simpler than Dame, and quieter. After being inside for a while, we watched this crazy amazing soccer guy outside, who could kick around a soccer ball while hanging from a lightpost...
We left Montemarte, staying on the Rive Droite side, to go to Champs-Elysees (like the American Rodeo Drive). We stopped to take pictures at the Arc de Triomphe, before Katie and I ran to try to get a reservation for dinner, since it was already 8. We ate at Veslac, this Italian restaurant on the Champs-Elysees at sundown, SO NICE. The food was awesome, (I had this amazing shrimp/avocado starter, then tortellini) and Sarah and
I shared some wine rouge, Saumur Champigny.
Another expensive dinner, which means thank goodness I have a mini job this summer or that wouldn't be happening. After dinner we walked to the Eiffel Tower again (then ran around for 15 minutes desperately searching for a bathroom, kind of the theme for the trip). We sat on the lawn to enjoy a night simply in front of the Tower with friends, but things went a bit downhill...won't get into that but it wasn't pretty. It was almost a good ending to a great day.
we waited in line for 45 minutes for no reason to get tickets.....But then we bought tickets for the gardens, which were absolutely incredible!! We had a sweet, relaxing lunch of panini's on a bench in the shade. Can't life be like this everyday? When we were walking around later Sarah and I got this weird pineapple sorbet that made our mouths set on fire...it was strange.
We saw the river, the Trianon's, the Orangery, Bacchus fountain, mirror fountain, tons of groves, the Love temple, and even more fountains (Sarah saw her first fountain show!). Except all the fountains were green, and that wasn't too pretty. We walked all the way out to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet, which was unreal. Living proof of where all the money was going during the French Revolution. It looked so surreal, like it was dropped out of Disneyland. See the picture below:) We grabbed a few souvenirs on the way out of Versailles. We took the train back to Paris and grabbed dinner at another cafe near the hostel. There were 7 of us, and 5 out of the seven got cheeseburgers. Such Americans. Bennett and I got fish that was again amazing. Then some guy said I looked french as we were checking out of the hostel, woo!! And we were all dead on our feet the rest of the day, and passed out on the train home. Au Revoir et Bon Soir Paris.
Quote of the Day: Sarah H~ "What's a fountain show? A show with fountains?"
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