While this may be one of my favorite blog topics of the semester, I’ve been dreading writing about it. Mostly, because there’s so much to write and no way I’ll do my trip to Paris justice. I left on Friday afternoon right after class and came home late on Tuesday night. Spending four days in Paris was absolutely perfect, and I’m so glad I went. I learned so much about myself and the three girls I traveled with and had an all-around fabulous time. The mini-vacation sort of eliminated my motivation to do school work, but I’m glad it came when it did…it helped break up my last couple of weeks away from home and provided a break from the stress of finals.
Friday was by far the most stressful day of the trip, mostly because I was scrambling to finish up some last minute things before heading out and there was supposedly a strike at the airport in Sevilla. The secretary at school heard about the strike while we were in second hour, so we called our señoras and asked them to make us bag lunches to take with to the airport in order to get there an extra hour early. We all raced home, threw our things for the weekend into our bags and headed back to city center to catch the bus to the airport. Shanti, one of my friends who traveled with us got on the first bus out, and Corinne, Danielle and I caught the next one. Once we met up in the airport, it was clear that the extra hour of time wasn’t necessary…things at the airport were very slow, and we got right through security.
Our flight to Paris was incredibly turbulent, but we made it, and with the help of the fabulous map book John gave me we easily navigated to our hotel. We were flabbergasted by the high price (6.90 euro) of the bus from the airport to the metro and had some trouble getting tickets, which made us miss the first one, but we easily got on the next one that came 10 minutes later. Some people on the bus gave us serious warnings about pick-pocketers in Paris, and I was scared enough to carry my pepper spray in my pocket all weekend, but we never ended up needing it, and everyone made it home safely with all of their belongings.
The hostel we stayed in was recommended by some friends of ours who had stayed there over fall break, and we absolutely loved it. We had been worried about being cold during our stay, but it was nice and cozy there. We stayed in the girls’ room and met some other nice people staying there. The people who ran the hostel were helpful and nice, it was in a good location, provided a great free breakfast, and it was the cheapest hostel we could find in Paris. The metro stop was a block away from where we stayed, and I loved navigating it all weekend. Unlike the single-line metro system that Sevilla has, the Parisian metro system is something to write home about. It’s intricacy and efficiency are incredible, and I’ve decided that if I ever settle down in a city I would thoroughly enjoy being able to use the metro every day.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the part where I actually start talking about the trip. We started our first full day in Paris with a free walking tour provided by the same company that gave the one we loved in Madrid. It was wonderful, and we covered most of the city in three and a half hours, learning a little about its history and each monument’s significance. Some of the highlights of the tour were the oldest bridge in Paris, the Notre-Dame, the place where Napoleon’s remains are buried, and the Arc de Triomphe. We also passed by the Lourve and saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance. It rained during the whole tour, and I ended up having to buy rain boots, which I was hoping to avoid but that made my whole trip much more bearable. The weather in Paris wasn’t exactly as mild as the weather we’ve been spoiled with in Spain, and we all wore our winter coats and mittens the whole weekend.
After the tour, we went with a big portion of the group to a restaurant that the tour guide recommended. It was pretty cheap, but the food was pretty bad, so we weren’t too impressed. Over lunch we created a game plan for the rest of the day and ended up heading back to the Arc de Triumph for a closer look and then visiting the Christmas market that was all lit up with Christmas decorations, which was super fun. I picked up a crepe for dinner as we shopped, a very French thing to do, and then we made our way over to the Eiffel tower to see it all lit up at night. They do a special light show at night every hour on the hour, so we waited around to see that and then headed back to the hostel, wet, tired and cold but very happy.
We decided to sleep in on Sunday and had to find our own breakfast rather than enjoying the free one provided at the hostel. We made our way to a restaurant down the street, which was basically deserted and ordered croissants and coffee. The coffee turned out to be more like two shots of espresso with no milk, and we were likely the most high-maintenance customers our waiter had ever had for breakfast. I quite liked it, and the situation brought lots of laughs, although we agreed to never do it again.
After breakfast, we made our way to a market, which my travel book labeled as one of the most popular in Paris. On the way there we passed a pretty sketchy stretch of vendors selling what looked like stolen goods and were slightly worried that my book was way wrong and had directed us to what was actually the worst market in the city. Luckily, the further down the street we walked the more clearly we could see the real market, which did not disappoint. We spent several hours there looking at the variety of things for sale, from carpets and fabrics to clothes and antiques. It was a great time, and we only left because we had so much left we wanted to do in the rest of the city.
We made a few small purchases at the market and decided to head back to the hostel and drop them off before going back out for the rest of the afternoon. We also really wanted to eat lunch at a Pizza Hut near our hostel that we had been eying from the minute we got to Paris…sometimes our American instincts win out. ;) Unfortunately, the slow service that Pizza Hut is known for amongst my family rang true even in France, and we ended up spending several hours waiting for and then eating lunch.
That night we went on a tour of Montmatre, the artistic/center of nightlife part of town. The tour had been recommended by our guide on Saturday, so we gave it a shot. We wished we had done the tour earlier in the day since it was pretty dark for most of the tour and we didn’t get to see things very well, but it was a fun part of town to see. The group met outside of the Moulin Rouge and ventured up the hill to an incredible cathedral that we all really appreciated getting to see. We also got to see a few artists’ squares and ate dinner in a great bistro where I got a loaded baked potato that was to die for followed up by crème brûlée. It was a fabulous night, and we ended up staying up late talking and planning the rest of our trip.
We decided to split up into groups of two on Monday because Corinne and Shanti really wanted to appreciate the Louvre and Danielle and I knew that we would really appreciate just about any other part of the city more. So, that’s what we did for the morning. Corinne and Shanti spent a few hours marveling at the art, and Danielle and I went on an adventure, seeing Sainte Chapelle (a chapel with lots of amazing stained glass made to house Christ’s crown of thorns and remnants of the cross, which, much to our dismay, are actually no longer housed there), the outside of the Notre-Dame, browsing some shops, checking out the Pantheon (I LOVED the great big Christmas trees on display there), and walking across the lovers’ bridge, which was covered with locks and all sorts of creative symbols of everlasting commitment.
The four of us met back up for lunch and found a small family run café to eat at, which we all enjoyed. After we were filled up with sandwiches we headed to the Notre-Dame to finally see the inside, which was impressive, but we all agreed that the cathedral the night before was more to our liking. The most striking part of Notre-Dame for me was the architecture on the outside. It really is a beautiful building. We spend quite a while meandering through the streets of Paris on the way to our next destination, a museum on Jewish history in France. We were not overly impressed with the audio guide, and I think we all would have rather done something else with that time, but it was alright.
We ended up getting back to the hostel relatively early and decided to go out for hot chocolate at a café near our place before grabbing crepes for dinner. When we got back to the hostel we just spent some time hanging out and packing up. We made plans for getting to the airport the next day and got to know each other a lot better, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We also talked with one of the other girls staying at the hostel about her job in China for quite a while, which was interesting.
Tuesday was one of my favorite days, although they were all pretty great. We had a pretty relaxed start and then took the metro to the train station to grab a train headed to Versailles. The palace at Versailles was absolutely incredible, and the surrounding landscape was a wonder to behold. It was a perfect destination for our last day in France because they had a bag check, so our luggage wasn’t a problem, and we spent the whole day enjoying the palace, which we got into for free with our student visas.
We started with the day with the tour of the palace itself, which was really enjoyable albeit a bit crowded. There were several kids there on fieldtrips, but we stuck together pretty well, and everyone liked seeing at least part of the elegant building. After the tour we got lunch, followed by macaroons (yum!) and then headed out to the vast and amazing gardens. On the way out, we had to take the very slippery grand staircase. I barely finished joking about the probability of my falling when my foot slipped and I fell down the last five or so stairs. It was very ironic and slightly mortifying, but the security guard who helped me up gave me an origami crab, which of course made me feel much better, and I got over it pretty quickly.
The gardens were a marvel, but it was frigid enough outside that we passed through them fairly quickly in order to seek shelter in one of the smaller estates on the property. There we got to see more decorated rooms that seemed to represent more of the daily life of the people who lived there, which we all appreciated. Our next stop was called the estate of Marie Antoinette and was apparently decorated primarily by here, which was fun. We ended the day with another round of hot chocolate and headed back to city center for our flight back to Seville.
The train didn’t leave exactly when we were expecting it to, and it took us a bit longer than we planned to find dinner, so we ended up getting to the airport much later than I had planned. None of us were seriously worried about missing the flight, but it was too much excitement for me. We were in enough of a rush through security that Shanti and I forgot to take our liquids out of our bags, and a hilarious security guard had to search them. His jokes did a lot to deflate the situation. In the end we had a few minutes to wait before boarding the plane, so we grabbed a few last minute croissants and took a poll to see how much we liked Paris. Everyone gave the trip a 10 out of 10. A complete success.
It was pretty late when we got back to Sevilla, and we were lucky to catch the last bus going back to city center. From the bus stop we had a very enjoyable hour long walk home all together before parting ways. Rosa was up waiting for Corinne and I, and she graciously asked for the short version of our reactions and let us get some sleep before school the next day, promising to hear all about it when we were better rested. I loved Paris, and I praise God for the many lessons and enriched friendships it brought with it.
