Paris, France

Hola a todos!

I just made it back from Paris last night at about midnight. What a trip! I am very tired, but I really had a great time.

To begin with, my trip started off with a 4:45AM taxi ride to the bus stop to get on the bus to the airport. RISE AND SHINE! Everything went fine with that, but it was just a little too early to be awake! Our plane was right on-time leaving out of Seville and the flight was about two hours long. When we arrived at the airport, we took a bus to our hotel. We weren’t able to check in until 4PM, so we were pretty much homeless for the next four hours or so. Five of my friends and I went exploring in the area around the hotel and found a phenomenal bakery shop that had APPLE PIE, yes, APPLE PIE. Although it wasn’t heated and didn’t have ice cream/whipped cream on the top of it—it honestly made me the happiest girl alive! My lunch consisted of a delicious salad with a large piece of bread with hot goat cheese on top of it. I had never tried goat cheese before, but let me tell you, it might be one of my favorite cheeses now—aside from Swiss.

After roaming around for awhile, we went back to the hotel to check-in. We had about thirty minutes to get ourselves situated in our rooms and then we went on a walking tour of Paris that ended at the Louvre. The walking tour was beautiful and the weather actually complied with us for that evening, although it was a bit on the chilly side. Once we arrived at the Louvre, we waited for our tour guide, and then it was off to explore the ten mile gallery. The Musee du Louvre is one of the greatest art collections ever in the world and houses a collection that spans every corner of the globe and every era of human history. Two of the most famous pieces in the Louvre include the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Additionally, you can also find Winged Victory here as well—the headless statue discovered at Samothrace and dating from about 200 BC. An interesting story about the painting of Mona Lisa--it was stolen in 1913, apparently someone was able to sneak it out of the museum by draping a jacket over it. They found the painting in Italy and the painting in the Louvre is now covered by a protective glass. The collection of art was just absolutely phenomenal. We spent about two hours in the museum, and it wasn’t nearly enough time, but it was great to see some of the most famous pieces in the museum. I think you’d have to spend days in there in order to appreciate and see everything that the museum has to offer. Once we left the Louvre, we headed back towards the hotel and picked up some snacks at the grocery store on the way. None of us were in the mood for a big dinner because we were so exhausted. We watched television for awhile and then it was off to bed to get some rest for another day of touring Paris. 

Mona Lisa

A university in Paris

The Louvre

Venus de Milo

Winged Victory

I would call Saturday a confusing day. First, the whole group met in the lobby for a bus tour of Paris. It was a good thing we were in the bus because it was raining cats and dogs. We stopped periodically to get out of the bus and take a few pictures, but most of my pictures actually came from INSIDE the bus. Some of the things we passed by on this tour included Les Invalides, Champs de Mars, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Arc of Triumph, City Hall, the Louvre, and Champs Elysees Avenue. We ended our bus tour at the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was absolutely amazing to be able to see this Cathedral. Notre Dame was built in the 12^th century and is the heart of Paris and even of the country itself—distances from the city to all parts of France are calculated from a spot at the far end of the Place du Parvis, in front of the cathedral, where a circular bronze plaque marks Kilometre Zero. The cathedral is representative of the gothic style that you will see in many Cathedrals all around Europe. I could have stayed in the Cathedral all day if I could have, but there was a lot more of Paris to see and a small amount of time to do it. After visiting Notre Dame, I headed to the Musee du Cluny which is a Medieval Art Museum. Why would I go to a Medieval Art museum you ask? Well, I’m in a Medieval History of Spain class at my school and my professor told my classmates that if we visited this museum we’d get extra credit. I’m all about the extra credit, so of course I went. In this museum is a specific, well-known collection of tapestries called “The Lady and the Unicorn.”These tapestries are remarkable because of their beauty, bright colors, and their unusual iconography, and because the six pieces have always remained together. The tapestries of The Lady with the Unicorn series are unquestionably the most famous exhibit in the museum and entered its collections in 1882. 

Notre Dame Cathedral

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower

Beautiful stained-glass window in the Cathedral

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry

 After I went to the museum, I then met back up with Alicia and the two other girls in her program at Subway for lunch. YES! There was a Subway in Paris. Although it wasn’t quite the same and I had a lot of trouble ordering a 6-inch turkey grinder, I was pretty content. We then had a plan to go visit the Picasso Museum which was quite the walk from where we were, but we decided to do it anyways.. in the pouring rain. Once we got to the museum, we found out that it was closed for restoration until Spring 2011. What luck, huh? Since we were so disappointed, we decided to treat ourselves to a Starbucks hot chocolate. I got mine with caramel, and boy was it good. I would highly recommend it to any hot chocolate fans out there. We then decided that we would go to Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise—which the world’s most visited cemetery. Among the million people buried here are people like Oscar Wilde, Proust, and Jim Morrison. I felt kind of weird visiting a cemetery and taking pictures of people’s graves, but I think I was more interested in the fall foliage as you will see in my pictures. We ended up getting to the cemetery about 45 minutes before it closed, so we didn’t have much time to walk around and see everything we wanted to see. By the end of the day, we felt rather defeated between the weather, the cold, the lack of accuracy on our maps, and getting lost on the metro. We then treated ourselves to a huge three course meal at a restaurant nearby the hotel—I had salad with goat cheese (go figure), steak, and chocolate mousse. It was a delicious meal and I was so excited that I actually got to eat steak! Something else I haven’t had in months either. 

Lovely fall foliage in the Cemetery

Giant graves!

 The next day, Sydney and I headed to the Eiffel Tower to check it out during the day time. We had seen it from our bus tour the previous day, but we didn’t actually get to stand right up close to it. So we were able to on that day. I was just absolutely amazed by the structure of the tower—it looks a lot smaller on TV, folks. We took some pictures, and then headed back to Notre Dame to meet up with some of our friends to go to the Palace of Versailles which was about a 45 minute train ride from Paris. In French, it is known as the Chateau de Versailles and when it was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, which is some twenty kilometers southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1668, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. This palace is like a city in itself—it was HUGE. I have to say, though, that my favorite part was the gardens. The land surrounding the palace was full of beautiful fall foliage and from the gardens, you could see a wonderful view of the city surrounding the Palace. Inside the palace, we were able to see the Queen and King’s quarters, the House of Mirrors, and various other chapels within the Palace. Besides the Eiffel Tower, this was one of my most favorite places to visit in Paris. Make sure if you’re ever planning a visit to Paris to schedule a trip to Versailles—it is a site that cannot be missed! 

Eiffel Tower during the day with Sydney

The ladies outside of the Palace of Versailles--Check out that foliage :D

One of the Chapels inside the Palace

When we arrived back in Paris, Sam, Sydney, and I got some dinner at a Gyro place (greek food). It was easily the largest gyro I had ever consumed and I think it was the best gyro I had ever consumed. After that, I purchased some souvenirs and then it was off to the Eiffel Tower to take the elevator to the top. Of course this is France’s largest tourist attraction, so the line was pretty lengthy, but it moved along quickly. I think over the years I may have acquired Mom’s fear of heights because as we were going up in the elevator I was holding on for dear life onto the bar that surrounded the elevator. The elevator was also surrounded by windows, so I made sure not to look out until I was at the very top. Now let me tell you, the Eiffel Tower looks a lot smaller when you’re standing underneath it, but when you’re at the top you realize that you were wrong!!! It took me a few minutes to calm my nerves and then I peered over the edge and the cars below basically looked like ants! The visibility wasn’t that great and it was also quite cold up there, so we didn’t stay up at the very top for too long. We took the elevator down to the second platform and this was a lot better—partly because it was closer to the ground and partly because the visibility was so much better! The view from the Tower is just breath-taking and I loved every single moment of it. When we FINALLY reached the ground again, we remembered that the Eiffel Tower “sparkles” every hour on the hour, so we were able to catch that and it was so cool! I have a video of it, hopefully I can upload that on Facebook so everyone can see what I’m talking about. 

Delicious Gyro

Eiffel Tower at Night

View from the TOP

The three of us at the top

 Our last day in Paris was yet another rainy and freezing day. Alicia and I decided to go to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur—or a basilica. We didn’t realize that the basilica was basically on top of a very large hill, so our whole walk to the basilica was basically uphill from right when we got out of the metro to the entrance of the basilica. Not to mention there was basically a monsoon going through Paris at the time we were trying to walk up there. The view from the top of the hill, though, was absolutely stunning. It’s a whole different view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, obviously, but I think the views were equally as amazing. Alicia and I showed up at the basilica just in time for the 11:15AM mass. I can now say I’ve gone to mass in three different languages, which I think is pretty awesome. There were many groups of nuns present at this mass and also TONS of tourists and locals. It was a lovely mass, and I was so glad we were able to be there for it. The rest of the day consisted of eating crepes with nutella and almonds and killing time until it was time for us to depart for the airport. 

Basilica

Alicia and I with our DELICIOUS crepes

From reading this blog, I’m sure you can tell I ate well and also that some of my withdrawals from American food were satisfied during this trip with hot chocolate, Subway, and steak. The food in France was honestly some of the best food I’ve ever had and for those of you who haven’t been able to dig your teeth into a crepe—I suggest you do someday very soon. Paris is bursting at the seams with history and beautiful architecture and I was so glad I was able to see this country and witness yet another culture in action. Although maybe not as warm as Seville, I still liked Paris a lot and I would definitely consider taking another trip there someday in the future—there is just so much to see!

By going to another country that speaks a different language, I have no realized that Spanish is basically drilled into my head. I found many times that while I was ordering food, or attempting to ask someone a question, I was doing it in Spanish. As many of you know, “yes” in French is “oui” (pronounced we) and it never failed that instead of saying oui I would always say “si.” So, for those of you back in America who are anxiously awaiting my arrival back home—please bear with me when I start to speak Spanish to you without even noticing!

Since I arrived home so late last night, I haven’t even seen my family yet. They should be home soon for lunch and I am excited to tell them about my trip! I hope you all enjoyed this blog and if you have any questions about any of the history, etc.—feel free to ask. I assumed this blog would be pretty lengthy, so I tried to keep the history of the different places that I visited to a limit! I hope everyone is having a great week and I will write again soon! Love and prayers! Hasta luego!

Besos,

Lindsay