The City of Lights

PARIS

Overall, Paris was nothing short of amazing. It's going to be hard to do it justice with words and pictures... it's one of those things that you have to see to believe! Nevertheless, here's my attempt at describing it :)

DAY 1
Kristen and I left Pamplona at 1:45 p.m. on a bus and arrived in San Sebastian around 3:00. We then took a train to Hendaya (in France) and left on the TVG train to Paris at 5:22, arriving in Paris itself at around 11:15. Next, we took the metro to our hostel, which was about 10 miles outside of Paris, arriving at about 12:30. We had amazing luck, with no troubles at all and overall a very smooth journey! Paris is about 560 miles from Pamplona, but surprisingly, it went fairly quickly. Peñi (my host mom) packed Kristen and I a huge bag of food (2 sandwiches, 8 pieces of fruit, juice boxes, water, and extra meat and cheese) so that we wouldn't have to buy so much, so that was nice too! We pretty much went to bed after arriving at the hostel so that we'd be ready to go in the morning!

(a French town I saw from the train)

DAY 2
We left the hostel at about 9:45 in order to get to our walking tour that started at 11:00. Our tour guide was English and really cool. On our tour, we saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (from a distance), the Arc de Triumphe, la Concorde (an obelisk taken from the Egyptians- and they ask for it back every year but France keeps refusing!), among many other things. The tour was about three and a half hours long, (minus a 45 minute lunch break at Starbuck's) and was really fun :) That specific tour company gives free city tours in many major European cities and asks for tips at the end... I would highly recommend it! After the tour, Kristen, me, and two other Concordia girls that were visiting at the same time went down Champs-Élysées (huge shopping street that ends with the Arc de Triumphe). It was really cool... there were all kinds of shops, from Gap, Toyota, McDonald's and other common European shops, to expensive shops such as Louis Vuitton (selling items such as a 40,000 Euro watch!). Very cool. After, we walked around a bit and ended up at the Musée d'Orsay, which is a really neat art museum in a building that used to be a huge train station. By the time we got through the museum it was time to go back to the hostel. We walked about 10 hours the first day, and Paris was unusually cold during our visit, so we were quite tired. Overall though, an amazing day :) 

(a chocolate-filled croissant)

DAY 3
Kristen and I started out the day at the Louvre. (after finding an amazing little pastry shop for breakfast!) We spent about 2 hours there and got in free, since we're students of the European Union! The Louvre is ... beyond words. It's massive, and the palace itself is a gigantic work of art... I guess it was built about 800 years ago and would take 64 days to see all of the art inside. We saw the Mona Lisa, a small sphinx, mummies, many statues, paintings that were 20 feet high, ballrooms, remnants of the medieval Louvre... it was incredible. And of course, we got to enter the museum through the famed glass pyramid! After the Louvre, we grabbed lunch at the same shop that we bought breakfast at, then made our way to Montmartre, in the northern area of Paris to see the Sacré Coeur basicila and to take a Montmartre tour. I loved the Montmartre area, because it was more reminiscent of traditional French towns than the center of Paris, where all of the big things are... there were Crepe stands, artists, small shops, and restaurants everywhere. It was really neat. The Sacré Coeur was beautiful, and stands on the highest hill of Paris with a beautiful view of the city. At six, Kristen and I started our tour of Montmartre, which included seeing Moulin Rouge, a bit of the Red Light District, Van Gogh's house, Paris's last authentic vineyard, Picasso's studio, and lots of other cool things. The tour ended at around 8 with a glass of red French wine! After the tour, Kristen and I battled the cold and made our way to the Eiffel tower. It's SO huge in person... I had no idea until I got there exactly how big it really is. We could only go halfway up since the elevator to the top was broken, but it was still amazing. We even got to see the light show that happens every hour while we were on the tower itself! It's hard to believe that I actually was in the world's most recognized structure.

(the Louvre)

(inside the glass pyramid)

(a room of statues in the Louvre)

(another room in the Louvre)

(the view from Sacré Coeur)

(Moulin Rouge)

(a view from the back of Sacré Coeur, at night)

(the Eiffel Tower)

DAY 4
On Saturday, Kristen and I started out the day with Notre Dame. First we looked around the inside (which was swarming with people) and then stayed for noon mass, where we got to hear a sample of the cathedral's world-famous organ. The church is beautiful, and it baffles me how it was built... apparently it took 200 years to complete! Next, we went to the Luxembourg park and palace, which was really neat but covered in snow. I imagine that it's absolutely gorgeous in the summer and would love to come back some day to see it. After the garden, we went to a major shopping mall in the middle of Paris, looked around a bit, and got 'peopled-out' ... so we basically spent the rest of the day having a nice dinner at a small French restaurant near the train station, talking about our trip, and going to a McDonald's (a good place to rest for free) to relax and journal about our experiences! My dinner was really good... I had roasted chicken with rice and ratatouille, amazing French baguette bread, and a 'floating island' for dessert! (basically a dish of vanilla cream with merengue 'floating' in the center with a dark vanilla syrup on top!) It was a fun and delicious way to end our journey to Paris. Our train left a little after 11 p.m., and we ended up in a cabin with beds! There were 2 3-level bunk beds in each cabin, and Kristen and I were on top. I actually slept most of the night and woke up around 6:30 a.m. near the French border... it was a quick trip! A small walk and a bus ride later, we were back home in Pamplona around 11. 

(Notre Dame)

(Notre Dame on the inside)

3 days in Paris seemed about perfect. It went slow and fast at the same time, and I will definitely have to visit the City of Lights again sometime in my life... like another guy on my walking tour who's now visited three times said, Paris just never gets old. Everywhere you turn, there's some amazing structure or piece of art... an incredible city and an amazing way to spend a weekend :)