Bon Voyage: Paris! Je t'aime

Paris! one of my favorite cities in the whole world. This was my second trip to Paris and so I was able to refresh my memory of some sites while getting a first look at others as well.

This trip was the first excursion I took with my whole study abroad group, my director included. I loved having her take us here cause she has so many connections and has been doing this for so long that she knows absolutely everything about the city and shows us the best places.

We left early on a Thursday morning and took the train from Grenoble to Paris. I planned on sleeping, but with a group of 13 rambunctious Americans, that didn't end up happening. Instead, I spent my time playing and teaching card games. Once we got there we headed straight to the hotel to drop off our stuff and headed over to Notre Dame which was only a couple minutes away. Miranda, my director gave us a little history lesson of the Cathedral and then we toured the inside. We then roamed around central Paris, winding in and out of the streets. Miranda led us to the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures. Along the Seine River next to the Eiffel Tower, was the dinner cruise we were taking. We hopped on board and realized that the AIFS Cannes group was joining us as well. In their group they had 35+ girls and 4 guys : / wooowza!! After seeing them and talking to a couple of them, I became so thankful for my little, intimate group of 13. We all know each other incredibly well, we are close, we always hang out together and there are no cliques. Whereas in the Cannes group, not everyone knows each other and there are tons of little cliques. We had a nice little cruise along the Seine, going past the Bastille, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame etc. while eating dinner and watching the sunset. Once we got through our 3 course meal we headed out onto the deck to take some pictures.

Once we got back to the hotel, we decided it was time for the whole group to go out together, so we got all dressed, researched some places and headed out. We stopped by the market to grab some beers and bottles of wine and began roaming around the Latin quarter. We stumbled across an old pub that had a jazz concert going on for free but we soon realized it was free because they expected you to buy drinks which were 10 euros EACH! Needless to say we rushed out very quickly. Then we headed down more streets following the noise of crowded bars. We came across a jammed packed bar that had cheap drinks so we went in and found a table to hold us all. We spent the next few hours laughing and joking around, sharing stories and people watching until the wee hours of the morning.

The following day, Miranda took us around to Place de la Concorde where you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Champs Elysees, and Arc de Triomphe all in one square. She told us the history of Place de la Concorde and then headed to Vendome where some of the most expensive jewelry shops and cafes are in Paris and where there is a famous monument for Napoleon Bonaparte. As we kept walking she led us to the Opera Garnier for a tour. The inside of the opera is one the most highly decorated, most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. You could just imagine in the 1800s how everyone would get dressed up in ball gowns and tuxedoes, showing off their wealth walking elegantly around, eyeing each other and gossiping about. Miranda showed us one of the box seats, the sitting room and the different social rooms people of money would go before and after the shows. The rest of the day was our own to do with what we wanted, so a group of us girls headed over to Versailles. I had been here once before but it was nice to refresh my memory and appreciate the history I've learned since then. In Versailles you can see the hundreds of acres that Louis XIV owned and that Marie Antoinette paraded around when she and her husband reigned before the French Revolution. You can see her room, the kings room, the secret passageway she escaped through when the commoners stormed the palace and the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed after WWII. Unfortunately some of the fountains and gardens were undergoing construction when we were there so we didn't get to ride bikes through any of them :(
That night we found out that the Louvre was free for all students, all of us were thrilled and hustled down there to spend a good 4-5 hours wandering about the exhibits. The first time I came to the Louvre I was bored and had no appreciation for the art and history the place held, but after 5 years of further education and experience, I had a whole new perspective. After we left, we were starving and so 4 of us found a little pizza place right along the Seine. The restaurant owner, a very old italian man didn't know a lick of english and knew very little french so he spoke to us in italian and broken french. It was really amusing trying to hold a conversation with him. What was even more amusing was that even though he knew we didn't know Italian he decided to blab away as we just sat and stared at him.

The next day Miranda planned a tour around Montmartre which is the little suburb outside of Paris where Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet lived and painted for a majority of their life. The tour guide showed us Van Gogh's apartment and famous places he painted. We made our way to the top of the hill where Sacre Coeur. I've also been to this Cathedral before and it is by far the most awe inspiring cathedral I have ever been to and has always been my favorite. It is so majestic and the feeling you get when you walk into the place is unreal. Once we toured, the rest of the day was ours and so me and a small group of girls made our way to Moulin Rouge...because you can't NOT see Moulin Rouge while you are in Paris. It was a little amusing to see some of the girls faces who have been a little sheltered their whole lives but they enjoyed it nonetheless. We took pictures of the iconic windmill and then headed back towards our hotel. At this point we ended up splitting up to do different activities. Some of us wanted to check out this new oyster restaurant nearby that was having a special, so Gabrielle, Megan, Peter and I headed over for dinner and split 40 oysters and a bottle of champagne. We had such a fun time that we ended up spending 3 1/2 hours there. We decided to head back to see what everyone else was doing for the evening and as we walked over the Seine we came across the "lock bridge" which is a chain linked fence bridge where lovers right their names and dates on a pad lock and lock it to the bridge. The ENTIRE bridge is filled with locks and every couple of months someone has to come around and cut all the locks off for more people to be able to put theirs on because it is so popular. It's sad that they have to cut them off but it is so cute and romantic to see how many couples there are that come through Paris.

The following day was our last day and so we woke up early and headed out to tour the Latin Quarter which holds the Sorbonne (burial sites of famous philosophers, historians, musicians, authors etc.) Fontaine St. Michel, and les Jardins de Luxembourg (Luxembourg gardens). Afterwards some girls and I quickly headed to the Shakespeare & Company to pick up some books and gifts for families back home. It is actually the only store in Paris where only native english speakers work, so it was refreshing to be able to speak english and ask questions without having to second guess myself and prepare my question in my head before asking :)
Once we were done shopping we went straight to the train station to head back to Grenoble.

Some people say Paris is overrated but I still regard Paris as one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and is still one of my favorites that I've been to in Europe. I hope that I get the chance to go back as often as I can because it always offers more and more each time I come.