Bonjour Paris

About 2 weeks ago (on the 3rd - 5th of April) I went to Paris for the weekend with Megan.  Paris was one of the places that I was determined to get to while studying in Italy, so I was incredibly excited that it was actually happening.  Friday morning I took a bus from Perugia to the Rome airport (I've taken this trip too many times to count at this point!), jumped on the plane, and before I knew it we landed in France!

Getting to Paris wasn't quite as easy however.  From the airport we took a shuttle to the train, a train to the metro, and a metro to our hotel.  Upon arriving I was thrilled, tired and slightly surprised.  While I know that Paris is obviously a huge metropolis, I didn't realize how large the city actually was.  For some reason I felt like I should have been able to see the Eiffel Tower immediately, but clearly those were some unrealistic expectations!

We did have a fantastic dinner our first night though.  I am in NO WAY embarrassed to admit that we bee-lined it for Hard Rock Cafe!  We got nachos, wings, a chicken sandwich, a salad, and brownie sundae!!!!  Ah to have wonderful unhealthy typical American food again.  It makes me smile just thinking about it now.  Anyways it was a wonderful way to start our weekend!  That night went to bed early, ready to get up and get our weekend in Paris started.

Our first stop was to Starbucks.  Again, I'm not embarrassed to admit this.  I do love a delicious caramel macchiato!  From there we took the metro to the Louvre.  It was phenomenal, and so surreal to be there.  One of the strangest parts however, was that they allowed pictures to be taken anywhere inside the Louvre, there were absolutely not restrictions when it came to photography.  Personally, I was shocked.  I've been to dozens of museums and churches in the past four months, and this was the first time that there were zero restrictions in place.  And in the worlds most famous museum nonetheless!  Seeing the Mona Lisa in person was very surreal as well.  I knew it wasn't very large, so that wasn't surprising.  It was in a room, on a wall by it's self.  It was blocked by glass, rope, and other barriers, with two guards watching it.  Also, it apparently goes into a safe a night.  Pretty cool, huh?

After exploring the Louvre for a few hours and having lunch, we decided it was time to make our way over to the Eiffel Tower!  Very, very cool to see in person, incredibly impressive.  Of course we hopped right in line to take the elevator to the top!  While it took about an hour, it was absolutely worth it.  Make sure to check out my pictures on shutterfly to see how insanely high up we were!  The view from the top was simply gorgeous, seeing the city laid out in front of us like that.  I'm glad it's something I got to experience because I doubt I'll repeat it in my life.

After coming back down we got ourselves some delicious cotton candy ... when in Paris, right?!  We then made our way back to our hotel after our first full, long day in Paris.  The next day was Palm Sunday so we decided it would be appropriate to go to the Notre Dame.  On the way there we walked down many side streets with outdoor markets occurring on them!  Fresh breads, cheeses, produce, seafood, etc ... anything you could think of, someone was selling it!  It was very unique to be able to see this happening, watching Parisians do their Sunday shopping at a local outdoor market.  It was essentially as if we forgot we were in the huge city of Paris, and instead were in a smaller French town.  We some how ended up walking down a street wit prositutes on it.  At first we didn't realize because it was a Sunday, it was the morning, it was a nice street in a good area, and ... well ... it wasn't like we were LOOKING for prositutes!  We made our way down that street pretty fast and moved on.  Although we did get a good laugh out of the fact that we saw French hookers.  As our walk continued we also saw a French marathon going on!  Of course we stopped and cheered for a while.  It almost made up for missing this Boston marathon this year.

Our walk ended at the Notre Dame, and it was perfect.  The cathedral was so breathtakingly beautiful.  It was also packed with people.  While on one hand it might have taken away from the experience a bit, it also added to it.  Many of the people were there to attend mass, so we got to be there during a service.  The sounds of the choir combined with the beautiful architecture, statues and frescoes was amazing.  I could have stayed their all day.  French churches are also very different from Italian churches.  I've seen my share of Italian churches, all of them beautiful.  But this one was beautiful in a different way.  It's hard to explain, but I understand why it is a must see for tourists in Paris.

After the cathedral we got lunch at a recommended crepe place.  I couldn't leave France without having delicious crepes first!  I had one with chocolate and apples and Megan had one with chocolate and ice cream.  Soooo good!!  I really don't understand how French people aren't fat because I would eat them all the time if I lived in Paris!  Haha!  Our adorable French waiters also gave us free glasses of champagne as a "souvenir."  I know that the stereotype is that French people are rude and hate American's, but I had some really positive experiences.  Aside from out waiters, Megan and I were stopped twice on the street by locals who could tell we were lost and attempted to help us.  While we couldn't understand them, it was still very sweet.  Also, this was the first time I was in a city where I knew NONE of the language and it was interesting.  While many of the tourist-y things had English, it was still a challenge in general getting around if you don't even know how to ask where something is!  We managed though.

I would love to go back to Paris someday.  But it was wonderful to be able to go just for a weekend and experience as much as possible.