City of Love!
Yay Paris! We just got back today, and it was an amazing and completely enjoyable trip. I’m pretty much going to give a play by play, and hopefully update pictures soon, so you should all check everything out! Friday: After arriving late to the train station (yes, I’m retarded), we left for our 6ish hour trip to Paris! I slept. When we arrived, it was craziness and we had to leave the train station, and jump on the metro to get to our hotel. But as well-run as the Paris metro is, you pretty much have to switch trains at least once anywhere you go. So I, being a country girl through and through, was like “wow….there are a lot of people here and it’s crazy”. And all of this was done carrying our bags. A ridiculously heavy bag in my case, because I do not know how to pack lightly. I must really buy a hiking kind of backpack and be a real college backpacking through Europe girl. So we get to our hotel, which was a short, but not short enough, walk from the metro stop (I thought my whole body was going to fall apart……what in god’s name did I have in that duffel bag?) Our hotel was kind of funny, in that it was kind of like a young people conference center, so most of the guests were on high school trip type things, and there were a lot of cute young British people. I liked it. Then we went to dinner in a mosque/restaurant. It was kind of crazy: it was a real mosque on one side, and then a restaurant on the other. Then after dinner we went out Parisian style in the Latin Quarter, and had a great night. I saw Notre Dame for the first time at 2 in the morning. ;-)
Saturday: After getting not enough sleep on Friday night, we had a rendez-vous at the Pont Neuf for our cruise on the Seine! We went as a whole group, and it was totally touristy and corny, but I loved every second of it. You can really get some great views from the Seine, and I went crazy with picture taking! We saw the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Baudelaire’s house, the smallest house in Paris with two windows that some artist lived in, and the memorial right by the tunnel where Princess Di died (the memorial is an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty). And some other things, but unfortunately, I can’t remember what they were. But it was a gorgeous day for a nice cruise on the Seine, and I enjoyed it immensely. Then, in the afternoon, we were supposed to have a tour of an exposition of some sort as a group, but that ended up not happening, so Annie, Christine, and I went to Versailles, which was incredible. I slept on the train (that is kind of a theme for Paris for me; I slept on a lot of trains). Versailles is just so incredibly enormous, it boggles my mind. It cost so much to build, that the kings of France had to do some major fundraising afterwards to make up for it (like build elaborate bridges over the Seine, and then charge tolls to go over them). We had this nifty museum pass that let us bypass all the lines and get in to like, over 30 museums for free (well, Dickinson paid, so I guess I should ultimately say “thanks mom and dad!”). It’s an amazing pass, and anyone going to Paris (or most other major European cities—they all have one, I’m pretty sure) should invest, because you save so much time by not waiting in lines, and it’s a great deal! We also had unlimited metro cards for 5 days, which also made everyone’s lives sooo much better.
Anyway, Versailles was gorgeous, but very, very crowded so it was kind of hard to experience it fully. I mean, I guess seeing the ridiculous amount of crowds is kind of a part of experiencing Versailles, but you kind of felt like a herd of cows moving through various rooms in the chateau. Oh well. Oh, and the Hall of Mirrors was undergoing renovation! So I would like to go back to Versailles just to be able to see that in all its glory! Then we looked around the gardens and marveled just at the sheer size of it all. We looked in one direction, down towards this lake (see picture), and it literally stretched as far as the eye could see. The fountains were off, unfortunately, but the gardens were still very enjoyable on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we ate with Katie (yayaya! A friend from home studying in Paris, for those of you that don’t know) at a crazy combination Greek/French restaurant, and had a fine meal, then went to a party that was…interesting! And ended up being a really good and hilarious time. ;-)
Well, I’m too tired to continue writing a quality summary right now, so I will continue with the adventures of Sunday and Monday tomorrow! Bonne nuit! (P.S. I took over 600 pictures in Paris....I think I have a picture taking problem! I might need to get some help for this...) ;-)
Saturday: After getting not enough sleep on Friday night, we had a rendez-vous at the Pont Neuf for our cruise on the Seine! We went as a whole group, and it was totally touristy and corny, but I loved every second of it. You can really get some great views from the Seine, and I went crazy with picture taking! We saw the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Baudelaire’s house, the smallest house in Paris with two windows that some artist lived in, and the memorial right by the tunnel where Princess Di died (the memorial is an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty). And some other things, but unfortunately, I can’t remember what they were. But it was a gorgeous day for a nice cruise on the Seine, and I enjoyed it immensely. Then, in the afternoon, we were supposed to have a tour of an exposition of some sort as a group, but that ended up not happening, so Annie, Christine, and I went to Versailles, which was incredible. I slept on the train (that is kind of a theme for Paris for me; I slept on a lot of trains). Versailles is just so incredibly enormous, it boggles my mind. It cost so much to build, that the kings of France had to do some major fundraising afterwards to make up for it (like build elaborate bridges over the Seine, and then charge tolls to go over them). We had this nifty museum pass that let us bypass all the lines and get in to like, over 30 museums for free (well, Dickinson paid, so I guess I should ultimately say “thanks mom and dad!”). It’s an amazing pass, and anyone going to Paris (or most other major European cities—they all have one, I’m pretty sure) should invest, because you save so much time by not waiting in lines, and it’s a great deal! We also had unlimited metro cards for 5 days, which also made everyone’s lives sooo much better.
Anyway, Versailles was gorgeous, but very, very crowded so it was kind of hard to experience it fully. I mean, I guess seeing the ridiculous amount of crowds is kind of a part of experiencing Versailles, but you kind of felt like a herd of cows moving through various rooms in the chateau. Oh well. Oh, and the Hall of Mirrors was undergoing renovation! So I would like to go back to Versailles just to be able to see that in all its glory! Then we looked around the gardens and marveled just at the sheer size of it all. We looked in one direction, down towards this lake (see picture), and it literally stretched as far as the eye could see. The fountains were off, unfortunately, but the gardens were still very enjoyable on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we ate with Katie (yayaya! A friend from home studying in Paris, for those of you that don’t know) at a crazy combination Greek/French restaurant, and had a fine meal, then went to a party that was…interesting! And ended up being a really good and hilarious time. ;-)
Well, I’m too tired to continue writing a quality summary right now, so I will continue with the adventures of Sunday and Monday tomorrow! Bonne nuit! (P.S. I took over 600 pictures in Paris....I think I have a picture taking problem! I might need to get some help for this...) ;-)
posted by Caitlin @ 10:15 PM
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