Parisian Adventure

  Bonjour ma famille et mes amis,

Here's the updates from my weekend in Paris. 

A little over a week ago, Brenna and I went to Paris for the weekend...

Our excursion began when we took a bus from Galway to Dublin at 1:45 AM Thursday morning. From the Dublin airport, we caught our flight to the Beauvais airport in France (about an hour outside Paris), took the bus into Paris, and finally we had arrived! We couldn't have picked a better weekend to go, we had perfect weather all four days we were there - cold, but sunny and blue skies.

We stayed in the Montmartre area of Paris, which was beautiful. The first day, we found our hostel, dropped our bags off, and set out to explore a little bit of Montmartre. Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church, sits atop the hill overlooking all of Paris. We spent a good part of our first day exploring the church, enjoying the local music on the steps, and we even went to mass in French. They say the Montmartre district is as close to 'typical' French culture as you can get, and most movies are filmed here instead of downtown Paris when they want to show the artsy side of France. We saw lots of little artist stands, markets, restaurants, and great shops around this part of Montmartre.

The next day, we got up early, enjoyed our complimentary breakfast of cereal and croissants at the hostel, and set out to explore more of downtown Paris. We took the Metro to the Latin Quarter, shopped around a bit, and arrived at the first stop on our free walking tour around Paris - about three and a half hours with our tour guide Arnaugh (pronounced R-no...he was from Los Angeles but married a French woman and now lived in France). We saw all the sights with Arnaugh, and he told us loads of interesting facts about Paris and the French culture. We saw Notre-Dame, the Latin Quarter, Ile-de-la-Cité, Pont Neuf Bridge, the Louvre, Palais Royal, Eiffel Tower, Tuileries Gardens, Les Invalides (museum and tomb of Napoleon), the Academie Française, Opéra Garnier, Museé d'Orsay, Pont Alexandre III, Assemblé Nationale, Champs-Elysées (famous shopping street), Arc de Triomphe, Grand and Petit Palais, Place de Concorde, etc. 

After our tour, we walked down Champs-Elysées, ate a crèpe (one of many we ate on the trip), and went to see the Arc de Triomphe before we went back to the Louvre that evening. 

--Fun Fact #1: The Arc de Triomphe is in the middle of a huge round-about in France. I think it's something like 16 lanes converge at this one spot. There are no traffic signs or lights to direct traffic, there is an accident here every fifteen minutes on average, and absolutely no car insurance company in France covers accidents or any other damage occuring at this round about. 

After we had done a little more exploring, we went back to the Louvre. Admission is free after 6 PM on Friday nights, so we went and saw the Mona Lisa...

Fun Fact #2: She's not actually that impressive in real life (actually pretty small), although the theories about who Mona acutally is are slightly more entertaining...most people now think she's actually a man, some say it's a self-portrait, and some say it's Leonardo da Vinci's male lover.

We took the Metro back to Montmartre area from the Louvre. This was the only potentially dangerous thing that happened to us the entire trip...Brenna and I got separated on the Metro. I got on the train, but the door closed before Brenna could, so she didn't get on. I had a minor panic moment, but don't worry Mom, everything worked out just fine. I found her a few stops later waiting for me, and luckily both of us were perfectly fine.

We picked up dinner on the way back to the hostel (French hot dogs with cheese, croissants, brie cheese, and a bottle of wine) and ate there. We hung out with Adam (our Australian roommate) and met some girls who go to NUIG that were staying in our hostel as well. 

The next day, we checked out of our hostel and moved to our second hostel - the Peace and Love Hostel. We booked hostels late, and we were desperate. We read the reviews, and they were alright, but maybe we should have taken a hint from the name about what it would actually be like. We got super lost trying to find it, although eventually we arrived. We walked in, and the reception area is a full-on bar. We looked around for the reception desk until the bartender pops around the bar, opens up his lap-top on one of the tables, and checks us in. Classy. 

After dropping our stuff off, we set out to Versailles (where King Louis and Marie Antoinette lived). We spent half the day at Versailles, and we actually got in free since we are considered temporary EU citizens! We got paninis and walked around the gardens for a while, then toured some of the palaces. Versailles was like nothing I had ever seen before, and I really enjoyed just looking at all the gardens and palaces. Can't imagine what the gardens look like in the summer. 

Then, we took the Metro back to the Eiffle Tower, and waited in line to go up it. We walked up the first two stories, then took the elevator to the top. 

Fun Fact #3: There are a LOT of stairs in the Eiffel Tower

We had to wait in longggg lines to climb up, and then again to get the elevator to the top, and it was sooo windy we were both freezing, but I'd say it was worth it. We got there late afternoon, so by the time we waited in line and finally got up to the top, it was sunset. Then, on our way down, the light show started, so we caught part of the light show too! Besides Notre Dame, I think the Eiffel Tower is my second favorite thing we saw in France. 

After the Eiffel Tower, we headed back to our hostel in time for happy hour. I suppose if you stay at the Peace and Love, you should take full advantage, right? We picked up dinner on our way home again (microwave pasta, baguette, brie cheese and another random cheese we picked out because we saw somebody else pick that one out at the store, olives, an apple, and some chocolate). We chatted with Adam, feasted on our meal, enjoyed happy hour, and went to bed. 

The last day was museum day. The first Sunday of the month is free admission for students to all major museums in Paris, so we visited the Museé d'Orsay and Museé de l'Orangerie. Museé d'Orsay is in a building that used to be a train station, and the artwork is mostly impressionist artwork. We saw stuff by Money, Manet, Cézanne, Seurat, Degas, Sisley, Renoir, and Van Gogh. It was my favorite museum. The Museé de l'Orangerie was smaller, but had three huge circle rooms dedicated entirely to the 'Water Lilies' paintings by Monet - they were huge panoramic paintings of the water lillies, and there were signs all over that said 'please remain quite in the gardens.' 

Then, we took the Metro to the Latin Quarter and saw Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, these were free too. Notre Dame was by far my favorite building...absolutely beautiful. Every surface had sooo much detail. Saint Chappelle is a smaller church famous for it's stain glass windows, which made up the walls of almost the entire room. We did a little more shopping after visiting these two places, ate dinner at a restaurant, and then took the Metro back to watch the light show at the Eiffel Tower one last time before we left.

Then, Monday morning, we caught the metro to the bus station, took the bus to the airport, flew from Paris to Dublin, took the bus from Dublin to Galway, and walked back to our humble abodes. Au revoir Paris!

Fun Fact #4: The crèpes in France are to die for. Ditto the croissants and pastries. 

Fun Fact #5: French men are MUCH different than American men, and even Irish guys. The guys are skinnier, the hair is more luscious, the pants are tighter, the shoes are pointier, the coats are longer, the interest in style and fashion is obvious, and the murse (man purse) is a must-have accessory. I'm noticing the murse phenomenon is actually a European men thing, not just French men thing. Hopefully this fad NEVER makes it's way to America, but more to come on the man purse situation later...

Fun Fact #6: I think we saw just as many Vespas as cars, if not more. The French love their Vespas.

Fun Fact #7: Paris is beautiful. Every building a ridiculous amount of detail and character, and every building looks important. Can't wait to go back in the summer!