My Parisian adventure started at 12:30 am on October 26th when Sam, Melon, Ashleen, and I headed off to the bus station to catch a 1:15 am bus to the Dublin Airport. It took us a 2.5 hour bus ride, a 2 hour wait in the airport, a 1 hour flight (into the tiniest airport ever- 3 'gates' if you could even call them that), a 1.5 hour bus ride... and we were finally in Paris. Immediately we pulled out the directions given to us by our tour guide Kevi (through the program Weekend Student Adventures) on how to take the metro to the hostel. However, once we got into the metro station... the line was back up down the tunnels to buy tickets. After such a long trip all we wanted to do was get to the hostel, so we went back outside and went to find a cab. The first cab we came upon I asked the lady how much it would cost. She answered in French telling me that it would be 15 euro. After making sure that was for all four of us combined we jumped in the cab. All of us handed out money to Sam to give to the driver, but the second she saw 15 euro she started getting angry. She told us that now it was 50 euro and we needed to pay her 50 because that was a flat rate. We made her pull over and offered to give her a few euro (we'd gone less than a block). She threw our money back at us so we got out and found a new cab- who brought us to the BVJ hostel for 14 euro. Not off to a good start I guess.
We were checking in at the same time as a few other girls who were going to be on our program. After dropping off our belongings in a hostel that, might I add, was gorgeous, we headed off to find Kevi and the rest of the group.
(Entrance of our hostel!)
Our adventures of Day 1:
Lunch with the group at a little restaurant near Notre Dame. 5 euro for a quiche, a crepe, and a drink!
(First crepe in Paris)
Off to the Eiffel Tower where Kevi had tickets to get us to the second level. It was a windy, cloudy, yucky day so we didn't go up any higher. We were given two hours to explore so we took lots of pictures on the Eiffel Tower and then went down to the Champs de Mars to take pictures with the United Buddy Bears. Each country in the UN has a bear decorated for them on the Champs de Mars. They were so cute! We also walked across the street to a carousel and a souvenir shop. We sat by the river for a little while before going back to the tower to meet Kevi.
(The girls in front of the Eiffel Tower)
(American Buddy Bear)
(French Buddy Bear)
(Friendship Buddy Bear)
Dinner at La Verangue. The cutest little French restaurant a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. We had baked goat cheese on bread and escargot for hors d'oeuvres. Yes, I had escargot... and I liked it! For the main course I had beef bourguignon and for dessert we had chocolate cake. It was an incredible dinner.
(Toast at dinner)
(Before eating escargot for the first time!)
(Eiffel Tower at night)
We were given an hour to ourselves back at the hostel after dinner before heading over to the Moulin Rouge and then walking up the Montmartre. The city was beautiful all lit up and the views were spectacular from the Sacre Coeur. There was a mass going on in the Sacre Coeur, but we were still able to go inside and look around, but no pictures, so you'll have to see it for yourselves someday.
(Moulin Rouge)
On our walk back we stopped at a chocolate shop where everyone went crazy. There were so many delicious looking chocolates and macaroons that nobody knew what to get. I bought a little bag of mixed chocolates.
(Inside the chocolate shop)
When we made it back to the Moulin Rouge, everyone went their separate ways, but the four of us and a few other girls on the trip went out for a drink with Kevi at his favorite bar that was just down the street. It was a nice chance for us to talk to Kevi about life in Paris and what things we should do with our extra day we had on Sunday after the tour was over.
Our adventures of Day 2:
We woke up the next morning to get ready for our next day. Sam wanted to go to Starbucks before we had to meet Kevi so she and I set out to find the closest one. We got a little lost at first, but managed to find one after about 15 minutes. And there I bought the most expensive tea of my life: 2,95 euro (about $4). Craziness.
Our first stop on Saturday was to the Lourve. We were given free reign of the museum and only made it through about half of it in the two hours that we had. (And even then we didn't look at everything). I did get to see the Mona Lisa- which I might add, is not as cool as I thought it would be... but nevertheless interesting to see. My favorite part was the Egyptian section. All of the artifacts that they had were beautiful and well-worth another visit.
(Mimicking the statues in the Louvre)
(Outside the Louvre)
We met Kevi under the pyramid to make our way to the Champs Elysees. All of us were very hungry at this point so we stopped at the first restaurant that we saw. It was a little bistro for a reasonable price so we went in. There, I had french fries... in France... pretty cool, right?
We wandered around in the rain after lunch to try to find the Longchamp store so Ashleen could get her purse. Unfortunately we had no luck, but we did get to go into a few other stores along the way to look around.
That night, Kevi met us at the hostel and took us over to Fat Tire Bike Tours company near the Eiffel Tower. We split into two groups for our sunset bike tours. Our tour guide was name Costigan and was from New Zealand. He took us all over the city and told us the history of a lot of the landmarks that we saw. We didn't miss anything: Eiffel Tower, Napolean's tomb, Champs Elysees, Military School, Lourve, Luxor Obelisk, and so much more. It was amazing seeing the whole city lit up at night.
Our bike tour ended at the river bank where we hopped on a boat for a night time cruise along the Seine. The tour group had wine for us and we had brought sandwiches for ourselves from earlier that day. It was a beautiful (and freezing while outside) ride along the river. Melon, Sam, and I took pictures on top of the boat when we were passing the Eiffel Tower (in our super cool neon reflecting vests from the bike tour).
(Eiffel Tower from the top of our boat ride!)
We rode our bikes back to the tour company after the boat cruise where many of us bought Fat Tire Bike Tour t-shirts as souvenirs.
Our adventures of Day 3:
Sunday morning was a later start than the other days. The group took the metro to some markets to meet up with Kevi. He let us explore the markets for a little while before taking us to a bakery that he liked. There I got a chocolate eclair and Melon got a croissant so we could each try a piece of each other's.
(Girls at the market)
(Girls with Kevi!)
We said goodbye to the group and Sam, Melon, and I went over to Notre Dame for mass while Ashleen went with a few people from our tour to try to find the Longchamp store. Mass was beautiful. It was all said in French, so I didn't understand most of it having only taken one year of the language, but nevertheless it was quite an experience.
(Me and Melon outside Notre Dame)
After mass we met up with an unsuccessful Ashleen for lunch next to Notre Dame. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed to Versailles for the rest of the day.
Versailles was unreal. Words can't even begin to describe how stunned I was by the size and detail of the buildings. Because we are students in the EU, we were able to get into the buildings for free. We spent about two hours wandering through the open rooms with jaws dropped at the beautiful decor.
(Outside the palace)
(My new bed)
The gardens were equally as beautiful, but a slight disappointment. There was an announcement that there would be a water and light show at 5:30 pm, so we walked around the gardens until then... but they shut off the fountains and no show ever happened.
(Jumping in the gardens)
(By the main fountain... that isn't turned on...)
Later that night we got ready for dinner. We wanted to go to a fondue restaurant that someone had recommended to us. Apparently you drink your wine out of baby bottles. Slightly weird, but we wanted to see what it was all about. Again... we got lost trying to find the restaurant. The map we were given didn't have a few streets on it, so we had to maneuver our way down side streets until we found it. The whole restaurant was full and there was a line outside to get in... so naturally, we went to the restaurant across the street where we had a delicious last meal together.
Paris was an amazing experience. There was so much that we wanted to see and do and we definitely covered it all.
"May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
And happiness be with you now,
And bless you evermore."
