I went to Paris for the weekend!

Inside Sainte-Chapelle
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Hi! This past weekend I went to Paris, which was absolutely amazing. But what was even more amazing was the number of people that could speak English….it was quite surprising, but good for us Spanish/English-speaking tourists. I decided to go 2 days before I got on the plane – it was very last minute, but I found cheap tickets online, and booked it right away. A large group from the Fundacion happened to be going as well, so I thought Andy and I could hook up with them when we got there, but I soon realized how unrealistic that idea was. Yes, we had cell phones, but with the amount of stuff to cram into a couple days, and the number of people in that group and how difficult and costly (cell phone bills are HUGE out of Spain) it would have been to meet up, I quickly omitted that option, and Andy and I crammed about 100 things into the 3 days that we had to explore. So here it goes….

the Louvre.
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On Wed night (yes, I did skip school on Thursday, don’t worry mom and dad, we are allowed 2 absences from each class throughout the semester, and they expect us to travel!) we took the latest bus from Toledo to Madrid at 10:30, and got there at about 12, hopped on the metro and went to the airport, where we slept until 3…on a hard floor using a rock hard backpack as a pillow. Our flight left at 5:45 am, and we were in Paris by 8. We landed at a small airport outside of Paris, and took a shuttle bus into the city, so I got to see what the actual countryside of France is like in that area….much like that of Wisconsin, if you ask me. We got off the bus, and I had my first taste of French food, and it blew Spain’s right out of the water. I had a sandwich with delicious cheese and tomato and spices, and the most delectable pastries I’ve ever had. Welp, might as well put “the food” section right here, so….throughout the 3 days, I had many crepes that were sold off the street, SANDWICHES, lots of pastries, lots of cheese, snails (yup, that’s right, snails) the best steak I’ve ever had, chicken, more crepes, and quiche, and lots of bread….and more crepes. When I came back to Spain, I ate … paella, something I used to thoroughly enjoy, which at that moment tasted like McDonald’s compared to a $50 steak. Oh, well.

a view of the seine river.
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So, the first day we just walked around with our backpacks on to save time. We were already exhausted from the lack of sleep, but I got a huge burst of energy after that pastry, and was immediately in “serious tourist mode.” In other words, time to jam pack all 500 of the amazing things to do in Paris, which I read in my handy-dandy “The best of Europe” book, into 36 hours. So, first we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was absolutely incredible, took about 1000 pictures, and onto the next. Right next to the Cathedral is the Deportation Memorial which is a memorial to the 200, 000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps. Also near the Cathedral is Ile St. Louis, which is indeed an island surrounded by the Seine river which splits Paris in half. It doesn’t seem like an island at all, it seems as though you cross a bridge and your on the other side, no biggy. But, we did cross the bridge and shopped around a bit on the other side. Next we went to Sainte-Chapelle, a church with Gothic architecture, but were not able to figure out how to enter after going through security. We ended up in the wrong building, a building next door which seemed to be some sort of court house. So, picture 2 kids with huge backpacks who quite obviously needed a nap, wandering aimlessly in a huge building, staring at random maps and walking in the midst of many people dressed up and in courtroom attire. We felt a little out of place….but eventually we found our way. We had to exit the building and buy tickets elsewhere to actually ENTER the church; security was only the first of two steps. Those tricksters! We saw that you could buy joint tickets for this church and the conciergerie for a cheaper price, but they were soon to close, so we decided to wait until the next day to do them both. We headed to the hostel, checked in and got ready to go out again. That night we went to the Eiffel tower. Pictures do not give this structure any justice; it is gorgeous at night. As we were taking photos, the huge…thing….started blinking, which was unexpected but looked very beautiful. We then took a night boat tour on the Seine River, from which you can see many major buildings at night lit up. Then we went back to the Eiffel tower and went to the top. Yup, it’s high up, it’s expensive to do, and we took pictures … not much more to say about that. Then we grabbed some food and rode the metro back just before midnight. What a day.

Notre dame
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Day 2: We went back to Sainte Chapelle and the conciergerie. Sainte Chapelle is a cathedral of glass, and as my handy-dandy book says, it only took 6 years to build, whereas Notre dame took 200 years. Pretty amazing. All of the stained glass windows in the church have scenes from the bible on them, but many of the paintings under the windows are worn, and you can’t make out what the painting is of, which is a shame. The Conciergerie is a former prison where King’s executed prisoners. Marie-Antoinette was a prisoner here, so we saw her old cell, which still has some of her belongings, and her chapel. Next, we hopped on the metro for the ½ hour ride to the Palace of Versailles, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. This palace was where the French Kings lived for 100 years until the Revolution of 1789. I read in the “book” that this place would be crowded, but it wasn’t because of the time of year. As a matter of fact, nothing was too crowded; we rarely had a line anywhere, which was very nice. The gardens outside the palace were magnificent, and I’m sure if it was a more colorful time of year, they would have been even more incredible. There are fountains and statues everywhere in the garden. I read in the book that Louis was the only man in Paris that could grow oranges, and he had a mobile orange grove that could be wheeled in and out of his greenhouses depending on the weather; wow. The gardens stretch very far, and are enclosed by a 25 mile long fence. Inside Versailles was amazing. Every room was painted, but each was different, and there were many different statues and sculptures built into the walls, etc. It was like an art museum, and absolutely incredible. After this experience, we booked it to the Louvre, which was free on Friday night. We walked through the Tuileries Garden which led up to the Louvre, but they were a bit dead during this season. There is a lot of art in them, statues, fountains and such. At the Louvre, we saw the mona lisa of course, and a lot of other artwork, including, greek sculptures, other paintings by da Vinci, Venus de Milo, etc. The Louvre was unique because unlike many other museums I’ve been to, the rooms are all painted and it really gives a different feel to the place. This museum, however, is just too big. So much to see and so little time, so we chose different highlights that we wanted to see. After this, with my feet about ready to fall off, we walked to a restaurant and I ate my first snails…..I really liked them, believe it or not.

from the top of the tower
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Day 3: We started the day out by going to Rue Cler, a road that has a daily market. We ate, and stared in awe at all the foods that we didn’t get to eat. Then we went to Invalides, which is where Napolean’s Tomb is, a church, and a museum with artifacts from WW2 are located. There was also a wing of the museum with armor from the 13^th century, and jousting gear. There was a lot to see here, so we spent a few hours, and then at 3:30, we booked it to the D’Orsay, a very famous museum that I had looked forward to going to since day 1, which normally closes at 6. We arrived just before 4….and were turned away. For some reason, the museum closed at 4 on this particular day, and I don’t know why because I don’t understand French (obviously), but there was a paper sign up that said “the museum closes at 4 today” and a guard was standing there saying “come back tomorrow, come back tomorrow” which of course, for me, was entirely impossible; our flight was leaving at 8 am. So, that was a huge let-down, and for those of you out there that also love impressionist art, I know you are feeling my pain. As the hard-core tourist that I was on this trip, I didn’t let this bring me down. Instead, I flipped through the pages of the BOOK, and found a Monet museum. We hopped on the metro, and made it to this museum 1 ½ hours before closing at 6. So, I got to see some Monet after all. I missed out on Renoir, Manet, and Van Gogh, but at least I saw Monet. This museum was very small, and the entire lower level was dedicated to Monet artwork. I saw probably about 25 pieces by Monet, mostly waterlillies, as you can imagine. A famous work I saw was Sunrise (my favorite, and the piece that gave impressionism its name). Next, we booked it to Champs-Elysees, the famous road that we all see in the movies, and we shopped and ate crepes. This road even has car dealerships showing off Mercedes, etc. This road was very busy with people and tourists, and a lot of fun! At the end of the road is the famous Arc de Triomphe, which Napolean built after his victory at the battle of Austerlitz. This arch is 165 feet high and 130 feet wide; pretty big, and the traffic beneath it is very busy.

Eiffel tower! while blinking!
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Paris doesn’t have much of a night life like Madrid, but the trusty book said that the most “happening” place to go at night is the Montmartre neighborhood, which is right by the basilica of Sacre-coeur. So, we got to see that from a distance, and it was beautifully lit up on top of a hill, which I assume overlooked the city well. We ate in this neighborhood, and I had that great steak I talked about earlier. Well, we were hoping to drop by some jazz bar or something, but that didn’t happen (we didn’t exactly know where to look or where we were, and we didn’t want to drift to far from the metro stop, not knowing the city and all). Then we walked down what they call “Pigalle,” aka the red light district. That was quite a trip. I walked past the Moulin Rouge, which looked like nothing more than an ordinary strip club. Anyways, this area is obviously the area to be in if you want some serious night life action; it was loud, it was bright, there were tons of people, and it was thoroughly disgusting. After witnessing this, we hopped back on the metro to grab about 2 hours of sleep before getting up at 4 to take that shuttle back to the airport.

do I look like a tourist or what...check out that big backpack!
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So, if I ever get to go back, I’m def. going to the D’ Orsay, and I’m going to a jazz club. And moral of the story; if there is something you really want to do in a foreign city, do it right away. All in all though, this trip was incredible; we literally crammed as much as humanly possible into 3 days, thanks to Rick Steve’s book. What a successful trip! Take care everyone!