HA! What a joke, if I could ever get Spanish down I'd be content with the rest of my life. But, I did go to Paris and I loved the language, almost as much as I loved the city, but not nearly as much as I loved visiting Heather! (an old roommate and good friend of mine). As much as I love everyone here in Sevilla, especially my closest friends, I must say it was a great breather getting away from everything for a weekend and seeing a familiar face from home. I left Friday morning as the plane ticket was cheaper and I didn't want to be traveling the night of St. Paddy's Day! (more about that night later). Anyway, so it was a VERY early morning after a very late night unfortunately. When I got to the bus stop I waited around for about 45minutes. People started taking taxi's because they were worried they were going to miss their flight, but I decided to stick it out for another 10 minutes or so. At that point I had started talking to people around me and met a guy, Lucas, who was on the same flight as me to Paris so, he became my travel buddy. The bus eventually came, basically the one we were supposed to catch just decided not to show up. Once we got to the airport we had to skip the line to get our boarding pass stamped and skip the entire security line. Yes, I was very embarrassed, but desperate calls for desperate measures. We made the flight, but if we hadn't skipped those lines we definitely wouldn't have. We got to Paris and took the bus in. Lucas had a friend there he was meeting up with and they were going to get food first so I decided to join them before I made my way to the embassy to meet Heather. Turned out we walked to get food in the direction I needed to go so instead of taking the metro to the embassy I decided to walk the rest of the way. (Living over here has made walking far distances much more doable... 20-30 minute walk? no big deal). Anyway, I got to the embassy and had a huge process of getting in. Heather had put me on the list to go in so they had to check that with my passport, do some other business that took a good 5-10 minutes, check my bag, take all of my electronics (including headphones), take my bag, give me a visitors tag, and who knows what else. It was insane! But, good to know they’re taking several precautions at the US embassy in France. Heather showed me around the embassy and took me to the ease where they have American food products you can’t get over here. I wanted so many things, but I wasn’t going to be able to bring them home so I only got some reece cups for my house mom and brownie mix to make later that night. Heather got off of work shortly after I arrived so I waited for her to go to her place. That night two of her friends came over and we made pancakes and potatoes for dinner along with the brownies (very healthy right? Haha). It was yummy though! For the rest of the night we just hung out with her friends and went to bed. The next day we slept in a bit then got up to go around the city! Our first stop was right around the corner from her street to see my first view of the Eiffel Tower, or full view because you could see the top of it from her street. After that we headed to Notre Dame.
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| In front of Notre Dame |
The church was so nice! We went inside and walked around. I hate to say this, but at this point I can’t really remember what all we saw inside. After the church we went to a little bookstore nearby called Shakespeare and Company. All of its books were in English. It reminded me of a little bookstore you would see in a movie (I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been used for a movie before honestly). Anyway, we ended up spending almost 2 hours in there I believe? It was packed with books! The stairs going to the second floor had books stacked a good 10 books high on each step. Upstairs there was a little hole with a typewriter open to anyone who wanted to write something. The back room is where we spent most of our time. It was a great setting for photos and we ended up going crazy! It was so much fun though, and I ended up using one of the pictures for one of my photography projects. After we made our way out of the bookstore we went in search of a restaurant for lunch. As most people say and have heard, the French people are not friendly people, especially to Americans. But, I must say I was able to avoid all of these unfriendly Parisians. The waiter we had at this restaurant was very friendly and talked to Heather in French. After lunch we did some shopping then headed to the church of the Miraculous Medal. It was pretty amazing going to this church. We got there when one of the daily prayers were going on and were able to sit through it. The body of St. Catherine Laboure, who Mary appeared to, to make the Miraculous Medal is incorruptable. It was insane being able to see her body! Unfortunately the shop was closed when we got there so we had to go back the next day so I could buy one of the medals. After the church we walked down one of the main stretches in Paris, Avenue des Champs-Elysees. We did some shopping and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. We ate dinner on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, and again had a very friendly waiter. When he asked what I wanted to eat I just looked at Heather so she could order for me. He asked her if I did not talk and she laughed and said not French, but English and Spanish. The rest of the night he talked Spanish to me, which was so cute! After dinner we went to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle at Trocadero which was amazing! I got some pretty pictures of this, but couldn’t figure out where or if I have a video on my camera so I wasn’t able to get a video of it. The next day we slept in later than planned and weren’t able to go to Versailles (which was the original plan), but instead went to Parc du Champ de Mars, which is the park that leads up to the Eiffel Tower.
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| Heather and I in Parc du Champ de Mars |
Of course, I got some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower and was able to see it close up this time. After this Heather had to go tutor so I went to the Louve on my own. The museum was pretty cool. I’m not one much for museums or art, but I went through Rick Steve’s walking tour and felt I got a good overview of all of the important pieces in the Louve, including the Mona Lisa. Unfortunately, the Mona Lisa was rather underwhelming. The piece itself is very small and to emphasize this, the museum decided to put a massive piece of art on the opposite side of the Mona Lisa, ha. Heather and I met up afterwards where I got Angelina’s hot chocolate (so good!) and headed back to the church of the Miraculous Medal so I could get myself one. We then headed to the Artists Square in Paris. We went to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur church then walked around the Artist’s District. This area was so cute! Probably one of my favorite areas I saw in Paris. Because it was close by we went and saw Moulin Rouge then headed back to the Eiffel Tower to go up it. Going up was really fun! The line took 5 years, but we eventually made it up. It also was freeeezing at the top, but I got some cool pictures while I was up there. After this we called it a night. The next day we got breakfast at Laduree and I headed to the airport to go back to Sevilla. The trip was so much fun. I loved Paris and will most definitely make it back at some point in my life!
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