Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart

Last week we went to Paris. I've wanted to go there for as long as I can remember - I took French for seven years just so I could go there and know the language!! Luckily it turned out to be everything I had hoped for!!

We left Saturday morning from Shannon airport and flew via Ryan Air to Beauvais, France, and then took about an hour long bus to Paris. Pulling into the city you can see the Eiffel Tower so believe me, I got tres excited. The bus pulled into a place called Port Maillot, and then Katie and I were in the middle of Paris with my basic knowledge of the language and no map. But the hotel concierge nearby directed us to a subway stop, we asked around and eventually made it to our budget hotel on the exact opposite side of the city. The hotel was pretty decent and about the same cost as our terrible hostel in London so it worked out well, and the location turned out to be perfect. Katie got in touch with a childhood friend of hers studying in Paris, so we headed over to meet her by Sacre Coeur. The best part about being abroad is you become best friends with everyone else studying, simply because we're all in the same boat and everyone wants places to stay or to be shown around. Katie hadn't talked to this girl in about four years but she was gung-ho to show us around! So we headed that way and tried to find food but Katie is the pickiest eater of all time and French food is tricky, so I just grabbed a four-cheese pizza tart thing at a boulangerie (bakery), and it was surprisingly good. I'm not a cheese person but I ate more cheese this weekend than in my whole life. We wandered around and stumbled into the Red Light district and saw the Moulin Rouge which is pretty cool to see at night because of the lights, and then we walked down the street - it was hilarious, I'll just leave it at that. We met up with Lisa the friend and her friends, and then we met up with more people and got fondue! It was so delicious! We had meat and cheese fondue, and they serve you 2euro wine out of baby bottles! It was such a cute gimmick! We also made some Canadien friends backpacking across Europe that night, so it was successful.

The next day Katie and I got up early and hit the tourism route. We started at Notre-Dame on the Ile de la Cite and went to mass, which I found to be amazing. The music was in Latin and very eerie, which fit such an historic building. We then walked along the Seine and saw the Hotel de Ville and got lunch - I got un croque-monsieur, which is basically a glorified grilled ham and cheese, but I had to pretend order them all through highschool French classes, so I finally wanted a real one. Pretty good. We also checked out the Centre Georges-Pompidou which is the one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. Next the Louvre, which was great because it's free the first Sunday of every month! We walked around for 2 hours and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo - which I found cooler than Mona Lisa, and lots of great art. The Egyptian exhibits were the best, and they let you walk down along where the old moat used to be. It got way too crowded so we had to leave, and then hit the Touleries Gardens, Place de la Concorde where all the executions took place during La Revolution, and then walked along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. That was one heck of a hike. From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower, which is honestly so much bigger than I thought!! We didn't go up but if you go the building behind it - the Trocadero, you get a great view of the city. Why stop there? We then walked down the Eiffel's lawn - the Champs de Mars and checked out the military school - it's beautiful, and then headed towards Les Invalides, where Napolean is buried. It was probably 5 or 6 at this point, so we headed back to the hotel to relax. At night we met up with Lisa again and got dessert - a crepe with nutella and bananas...I don't think anything better exists. Then we went to an Australian pub where it was American night of all things and met up with our new friends.

On Monday we went to Sacre-Coeur which is so so so beautiful and breathtaking. The view is to die for, but the people harrassing you for money were out of control. We went inside and it was so impressive. We walked around Montmatre after that which is very cute and it wasn't too packed but artists ask to draw you every five feet. The art was so great and the buildings are charming. One particular square had a restaurant called Chez Eugene, and right near it was another cafe called La Mere Catherine, which I found to be just perfect. We walked all over that hill and then headed towards the St. Michel area to meet a friend of mine for lunch, but the Metro stop we planned to meet at had multiple exits and entrances so we missed each other! Instead I got a baguette with chicken and cheese and headed towards the Jardin du Luxembourg which was beautiful, then the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, and back to Notre Dame to see St. Chapelle - but you had to pay to get in so we didn't see the stained glass which is its draw. We walked along the Seine again to the Palais Royale, stumbled into St. Gervais church which was so haunting - really mysterious and creepy but beautiful. At night we met up with some Fordham kids and got dinner and then hit an Irish pub called The Galway - ridiculous! But I got a glass of red wine to appease my sister.

Tuesday, our last day was awful weather. The other days were mild and sunny and I walked around in a tee-shirt, but this was cold, rainy and windy and we had to lug our bags everywhere. We went to the Catacombs, which I thought were just unreal. So humbling and frightening but a necessary experience. I'll just say that Katie is claustrophobic, which I thought was just a term she threw around to mean she didn't like crowds, but I learned she really really is. We then walked to the Montparnasse area and met Lisa for lunch and I got a great little tart and une baguette sandwich. Honestly, the French understand good food better than anyplace I've ever been. We then pretty much walked to the Eiffel Tower again and then to Port Maillot, to the Arc de Triomphe and back to Port Maillot to kill time in the pouring rain. Basically it was time to go home, so after security threw out half of Katie's stuff and a bumpy plane ride, we just wanted to go home. But of course it's Ireland and Bus Eirrean would stop running at 8 at night at an international airport, so our return ticket was useless - rip off!!! But we took a different bus back to Galway and finally, finally went to bed.

The French really do walk around with baguettes sticking out of their purses, the croissants are delicious, they are actually nicer than people give them credit for and will ask if you prefer English or French at some restaurants. No one talked politics unlike the Irish, and I just had an amazing time. The Canadiens we met put the American-thing into perspective, one of them said he'd never met an American he didn't like and in fact thought we're great overall, our government just ruins it. Paris has a lot of trees and without being in bloom it gave the city a very brown, dead look, but I imagine in spring and summer it's just gorgeous. I have to go back because we didn't see the city lit up at night, except the Eiffel Tower which sparkles every so often. J'adore Paris, c'etait magnifique!!