Paris!

I went to Paris March 8-11, the weekend right before my midterms! And even though I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to study for my exams, it was worth it because Paris is one of my favorite cities so far!

I traveled to Paris with Lauren and we met Liz there in the hostel! We stayed in a hostel a little bit out of the city but it was right by a Metro station so it was a great location! In Paris, you take the Metro everywhere and it was really easy to use! It reminded me a lot of the subway system in NY. As soon as we got checked in, we went to this cute Crepes place by our hostel. It may have been a little bit overpriced but everything in Paris was so much more expensive than what we are used to here in Sevilla and the crepes were really good! Then we met up with one of Lauren's friends who is studying abroad in Paris, Bailey, and she took us to the Louve, where we saw the Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast, the Napoleon Apartments, Venus de Milo and much more! Everyone said that when they saw the Mona Lisa they were really disappointed because it was really small, but I was not disappointed at all...I thought it was absolutely incredible!

Then we went to a cute cafe called Angelina for their famous hot chocolate. It was extremely rich and was 7 Euros for one cup! I couldn't even finish the whole cup but it was really good! For dinner, we went to a very French restaurant by Bailey's apartment and I ate a Madame, which was bread, cheese, eggs, and ham with french fries and a salad. It was delicious!

The next day, we signed up for a 4 hour free walking tour through the city! Before this long adventure, we got sandwiches and took them down by the river and had a little picnic. They were very good and it was a good change to have meat on the sandwich, unlike here where it's basically all bread and maybe one slice of turkey or ham. The tour was awesome! We saw so many sites, including the Locks Bridge, Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, Pont Neuf, Palais Royal, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, Napoleon's Tomb, Arc de Triomphe, and a couple more stops along the way. I loved the Locks Bridge because it was something I had always wanted to see and it was so cool being there! Here is a picture of me on the bridge.  On the tour, we found out that there were orange stickers on some of the windows of the Louvre and these were the windows that could be broken into if there every was a fire. This was definitely my favorite random fact of the day :)

Later in the day we went to Galeries Lafayette and did some shopping and Lauren's friend Carly who is studying abroad in London but was also in Paris at the time came and met up with us! We ate at a cute pizzeria for dinner. The waiters loved us and made us pizza in the shape of a heart! They also brought out a life size pepper shaker! After dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it when it was lit up (it sparkles for the first 5 minutes of every hour after 6PM)...and little did we know, we were on the same train as the LaBrasca's! They were also going to the Eiffel Tower and we were able to go there and experience it with them, loving life! This was such a blessing :)

The next day, our final day in Paris, we went to the Eiffel Tower again (to see it in daylight) and climbed and took the elevator to the top! It was gorgeous to see the city and be on top of the Eiffel Tower, which is the #1 most visited tourist destination! I got goosebumps every time I saw it, just feeling so blessed to be there and experiencing it!

Then we took the Metro to St. Michael’s Fountain and got sandwiches again from a different restaurant and went to a bakery and I got an apple dessert. We also got chocolate crepes…so many sweets in one day but France is known for their bakery items and crepes! We then went to Paul’s (Liz’s favorite café in London) and Liz got coffee and we waited for Bailey and Carly to meet up with us. Once they met up with us, we went into Notre Dame and saw some of our friends from our program in Sevilla. We talked with them outside for a little bit and then we went uptown and saw Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill) and that was really cool! Then we went to the top of this hill that overlooked the entire city and there was live music and this guy doing crazy soccer tricks on a platform. On the right is a picture of Liz and I with the soccer guy! Everyone was just chilling and hanging out with their friends! This reminded me of Summerfest and got me really excited for the summer! We then went back to Bailey’s apartment and made dinner there…cheaper and healthier J Then we headed back to the hostel and got to bed because we had to be up at 6:30AM the next day to catch our flight home to Sevilla! It was definitely a successful trip to Paris and I am so blessed to have friends like Lauren and Liz to share that with!