Bonjour!

Bonjour!

This weekend I went to Paris and had a great time. We left early Friday morning on the 6:55 a.m. Eurotrain from St. Pancras to Paris. I will start off by saying that most of the 2 hour ride is above ground and only about 20 minutes or so is it dark as we cross under the water. When we got to Paris we took about a 20 minute walk from the station to our hotel, The Carlton. The two closest metro stations were Anvers and Pigalle (Pigalle being the sex district...needless to say we had a 12 p.m. curfew). The hotel was very nice. Our beds were so comfortable and the shower was amazing. We also had a rooftop terrace that looks out over the whole city. From there you could see the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, etc. When we arrived not all our rooms were prepared so we dropped off our bags and then went out to grab a bite to eat. Around 12:30 we all got checked in and then took the metro from Anvers to Charles de Gaulle where we connected to Bir-Hakeim, near the Eiffel Tower. We snapped a few pics and then got on one of the red tour buses. We did the full loop around Paris which took between 2 and 3 hours and then we got off and wandered around Notre Dame. Then we all met up for dinner. We were allowed to select a starter, entre, and dessert. I had the French onion soup, a vegetarian dish with potatos, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese, and then chocolate mousse for dessert. It was pretty good. After dinner we went back to the hotel where we relaxed on the rooftop terrace.

Saturday morning we all met in the lobby after a breakfast of bread and cheese to go to the Eiffel Tower. We went up to the second level, snapped some pictures, and then headed out to explore the rest of Paris. Krysta, Nate, Gina, and I went to the Musee d’Orsay which was absolutly wonderful. It is a museum of mostly impressionist art, but I got to see all kinds of famous paintings by Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, etc. It was a good size museum and had really interesting architecture since it used to be a rail station. After wandering through the museum for a few hours we took the bus to the Champs Elysees where we walked around and window shopped. We got some ice cream and continued our walk. Nate and Gina split off to go to the Louvre and Krysta and I went and laid down in a park for about an hour. (Turns out it was a good decision to go rest in the park because by the time Nate and Gina got to the Louvre it was closed). After our break we went on a mission to find dinner. Everything was so expensive (15-30 euro plates). We finally found this little pub/restaurant place with reasonable prices. The food really wasn’t that good, but at least it wasn’t any more bread and cheese. (We had been stocking up on the bread and cheese we got for free for breakfast from the hotel. It tasted really good, but I think I’m all bread and cheesed out.) The guy who owned the restaurant was really nice, but very flirtatious which made us rather uncomfortable. After we gobbled down our food we went to go take the bus back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up for the night cruise but they said the bus wasn’t running anymore. So we basically ran back to the tower to meet up with the group. We took a night cruise down the Seine which was really nice. We got to see a lot of places that we’d seen during the day on the bus but it was really pretty to watch the sun set and the Eiffel Tower light up. After the boat cruise our guide, Michelle, took us on a walk past the Moulin Rouge where we stopped to take a few pictures and dance around a little. Then we walked back to the hotel and waited until midnight to wish Dr. Harf a happy birthday. We all stayed up pretty late celebrating.

Sunday morning we got up about 8:30 and went down for breakfast about 9. After breakfast we checked out, stored our bags, and then hiked up to the Sacre Coeur. We can see the church from our hotel and it is absolutely beautiful. Dr. Harf told us not to go up there at night though because the gypsies and thieves are particularly aggressive. So, we went early in the morning and were still haggled quite a bit, but nothing bad happened. The hike up was hot, but it was beautiful inside. Around 11:00 we took the metro to the Champs Elysee to get a good spot for the Tour de France. We all bought t-shirts and other souvenirs and then we found our place to watch. We were right up front and we sat there until about 4:15 when the cyclists came flying by. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The people standing near us were really nice and they had been there before so they kind of filled us in on what was going on. They had huge screens set up by the side of the road so you could watch the race as it was coming. Then there was a parade of floats from all the different sponsors. Last came the cyclists. It was really cool because the anticipation grew so much. First you would see the cars come flying down the road with the extra bikes on top, then some police motorcycles, then you hear the screams of people further down the road and then the cyclists literally go flying past. They were going SO unbelievably fast. The videos I have of it look like I sped everything up. It is literally a blur. You can’t even see them peddling. They circled around 10 times, but we left after 4 since we had to leave for the train station. It was an amazing experience and I’m so glad I went.

So, after all that excitement we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and use the toiletts one last time before heading to the train station. The ride back seemed to take forever for some reason, even though it was only 2 hours. After that, we walked back to Byng and I went right to bed.

All in all, it was a great trip. I definitely do prefer London to Paris. There is a lot more to do in London and I feel 100 times safer in London. I did enjoy Paris but I felt like I always had to be on my guard. There were always people coming up to try to trick you to pick your pocket and there were gypsies everywhere. I don’t think I’d like to spend much more than a weekend in Paris, but I would definitely like to go back to France and check out some of the other cities and the countryside a bit more.

I’ve been trying to upload my pictures from Paris, but the internet here is REALLY slow and it hasn’t been cooperating. I did, however, manage to get up an album of just some random pictures from the trip of me and my friends in various places. So, definitely check that out until I can get all my other pics up.