Hey all-
This is going to be a really long post that is actually split into three posts, and I’m writing this backwards, so just keep reading on once this post is done- it will tell the story of spring break in order, rather than posting everything in the wrong order.
We (Kelly and I) left on Friday to go to Paris for a few days to start off the break. Midterms were absolute hell, so we didn’t do all that much on Friday, we just met a friend who we were staying with, then went to dinner with an AU girl studying in Paris. Dinner was traditional French food- that’s going to be a theme of this trip. I personally, am getting rather sick of pizza and pasta, the two main foods that are available in Rome, so eating other food that did not involve tomato sauce was really nice for a week. :P After (and also before) dinner, we headed over to the Champs aux Marches to see the Eiffel tower all light up- it was really spectacular, see the picture for proof. (I must say, I think I outdid myself with some of the pictures I took this trip- more on that later!) We then headed back to the hotel to crash.
Day 2 started bright and early with breakfast at a small bakery (yummy pain du chocolat!), Starbucks for Kelly and Sarah (since there are basically none in Italy) and a walking tour of parts of Paris. We started at the Opera, the largest metro stop to where we were staying, then headed up to Sacre Coeur, one of the two largest Basilicas in Paris, but the one with the better view. It’s situated on the highest hill in the north of Paris (butte Montmartre), and although you can’t climb the spires, the hill has an amazing view. You can see almost the entire city from one place.
There is a perpetual prayer inside, and pictures are forbidden. Well, has that stopped me before? (reference the last supper for anyone who does not know that answer!) However, it was really dark, so most of them are blurred. Sometimes using a manual camera sucks.
Having spent the last 8 weeks living in Rome and seeing the different churches in Roma, although I am almost Churched-out, it was interesting to see the differences in French and Italian basilicas. I could go in depth, but I don’t think anyone will really care. If you want to know, ask me.
We left Sacre Coeur and headed down the hill to the Moulin Rouge. But since I haven’t seen the movie, it wasn’t all that impressive to me. Let’s add that to the list of movies I need to see. We left there, caught the metro and headed down near the River to a pastry shop we heard about that was amazing!
We walked along the river for a while, and saw the entrance to the Louvre, talked to a few street vendors, and decided to head to the Eiffel Tour to see it during the day. It’s brown, just for future reference. From a distance, it looks black, but it’s really not. You can actually walk directly under the tower and stare up at it, which is an interesting perspective. There were a few performers and a brass band playing down there. The band was having a lot of fun playing a joking around, they were obviously there because they loved the music, not because they wanted money.
We walked over to the best view of the Tour, and it really is a good view. We ended up there later on in the week too, to see it at night.
We metro’ed over to L’arc de Triumphe, and after trying to figure out how to get over to it, walked around it for a while. It’s impressive, but I couldn’t translate most of the plaques, so I only understood the dates and the significance behind them, not what they French thought of those who died on those dates. The Arc holds the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, as well.
We walked down the Champs Elysees, and since we had not eaten much all day- it was about 4 at this point, we stopped for lunch/dinner(ish). At McDonalds. And it was really good. :P (French happy meals are healthier than American ones- they only offer healthy sides like yogurt and apple sauce, rather than the junk they offer in America.) For dessert, we split the pastry we bought earlier. Omg it was incredible. They need to open one of those shops in the States, and I’d make a pilgrimage to it yearly just for those pastries.
We walked down most of the Champs Elysees and headed back to Opera for drinks and actual dinner, crepes.
I did two main things on day 2- Notre Dame and the Louvre. Both of which I could have spent the day at and not minded. You can climb the spires at Notre Dame to see where the hunchback hung out, and although the line barely moved, it was worth it. They also have one of the bells open for visitors, so you actually see how large it was. The view is cool, but the gargoyles are even cooler. (insert picture here!)
We headed right over to the Louvre, and proceeded to basically get lost inside. There was so much to see it was mostly overwhelming, but we saw a lot. On one and a half floors. They have Napoleon I’s coronation crown, as well as a French sword of state. Those signs I could translate better than the ones at the Arc. (A quick note on my language skills: I can read and understand French mostly well, enough to get around, but I cannot, for the life of me, speak anything. I’ve gotten way to use to speaking Italian, and French and Italian are so similar I can’t keep them straight. Ireland and England were easy, but more on that later!)
We left the Louvre, and tried to get to the Catacombs, but they closed about 3 minutes before we got there. ARG!
So, we headed back to Notre Dame and took pictures with the sun shining and blue sky, then headed over to the Tuilleries after a quick break at the Shakespeare and Co bookstore, the best English Language bookstore in Paris. I bought the Three Musketeers, a new translation of it, figuring that if I was buying an English book in Paris, it should be classic French literature. So, I bought a French book, translated into English, at an English language bookstore in the heart of Paris. Got all of that? I’ve made it through the first chapter or so, because I seem to have conditioned myself to sleep on anything that moves, train or plane, because I don’t know when the next time I’ll sleep will be.
The Tuilleries were closed when we got there (noticing the theme? It gets better!), so we walked down to the Place de Concorde, a monument to the French Revolution. It stares straight up the Champs Elysees, and it’s a really cool view. You can also see the Eiffel Tower from there, and it light up right when we got to the square.
Later that night, we actually headed over to the Tower to see it sparkle. The tower at night is stunning.
We spend day three wandering the gardens at Versailles, which is closed on Mondays. (again, see the theme?) The gardens are, in my mind, much more impressive than the house was, but I think I’ve been jaded by all of the beauty I’ve seen on my travels through Europe. I spent a long time walking the gardens on my own, finding all of the nooks and crannies that might have otherwise been forgotten. I really liked two of the areas I found- Le Jardin du Roi and L’Orangerie.
Kel and I left Versailles and, after a disagreement, I wandered around the city at night, on my own. Some of the pictures I got were spectacular. (insert them here!) I went to the Louvre, down the river to Notre Dame, and walked back to the Opera, before heading back to the hotel, and crashing for the night.
On Tuesday, Kel and I headed to Versailles to actually go into the Palace. We were able to get in for free because we are European students, which was really nice, although we had to fight with the woman to get in because she didn’t want to accept ids from an American university. We walked the Palace- more on that in a sec, then rented bikes and headed to find Marie Antoinette’s cottage, and we biked her estate for a bit. We headed back to Paris, and after calling it wayyyy to close with our train, got onto the train to London, and met Pam, Kelly’s aunt, at King’s Cross Station. We took the Tube and Overground to get out to her, and she fed us Sri Lankan food at this really good place a stop down from her. I also got what might have been the best night of sleep on the entire trip.
The palace was impressive, no doubt about it. But overall, it was really difficult to appreciate the beauty because there were so many people there. It was mobbed with people, and honestly, Kelly and I didn’t have all that much time to go through the entire place, so we walked at a decent pace, and we did see everything, but we went faster than most people. But each room had so many people that you had to elbow your way to the front, while listening to a jumble of languages because there were tours going on everywhere, and each tour guide was screaming over the others. I’m very happy I went, but I really liked the gardens better. It’s totally worth it for any history student to see Versailles, that much is clear to me.
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