Paris

On the bike tour!
see all photos »

Paris is probably one of the most magical places I have ever been!  What girl doesn't dream of going to Paris!!

We arrived late Thursday night, got settled into our hotel and called it an early night for our weekend packed full of adventures!  A total of 6 of us went and we split 3 and 3, mostly because the hotel was set up by 3 bed rooms, but it also made touring the city a little easier in a smaller group! I roomed with Rachel and Angela for the weekend and the three of us stuck together throughout the weekend.

Paris at sunset
see all photos »

Friday morning we had plans to go on a bike tour.  However, we awoke to a cold (45 degrees) and rainy morning. The bike tour meets at the Eiffel Tower so we figured we would head that way and see if the weather would clear up.  First off the Eiffel Tower is SO COOL!  Since it was rainy and foggy we couldn't see the top of it, but it was still absolutely spectacular!  We then met up with our tour guide with Fat Tire Bike Tours and decided we would give it a go rain, cold and all! A little important side note, I don't think I have been on a bike since I was about 10 ... and riding a bike in a huge city proved to be a little bit of a challenge!  I almost ran over a child in a stroller and almost got hit by a bus.  Thank god neither of the two actually happened but it was still quite an exhilarating experience! We rode from the Eiffel Tower, to the Les Invalides (where Napoleon's tomb), to the Tuileries Garden where we stopped to have lunch!  I had my first crepes!  Rachel and I split one with eggs, mushrooms, and cheese and a desert crepe with nutella, bananas and coconut!  SO GOOD!  When then walked our bikes through the Gardens (not allowed to ride your bikes, even though we tried!) to see the Louvre.  We then biked back along the river and got to take in all the breathtaking views of Paris!  We got very lucky because it didn't rain at all while we were on our tour!  It was foggy and cold but no rain!  After dropping off our bikes and trying to "defrost" our fingers, we headed toward Sacre Couer!

Rachel, Angela and I in front of the Eiffel Tower - with our hot chocolate! :)
see all photos »

Sacre Couer was so cool for me to see!  It made me so proud of my Sacred Heart education!  I of course sang "Coure de Jesus" repeatedly while I was there!  All my DASH gals can understand!  On our way back to the hotel we passed a local market!  We stopped and got some cheese ( I have no idea what kind it was, but it was delicious!), baguettes, and a dessert pastry.  Our original plan was to eat on the train, however we were pretty hungry and jumped right into it!  It was so delicious!

After eating our dinner and freshening up in the hotel room we left for DISNEYLAND PARIS for the Halloween Soiree!  i was so amazed that I could be 21 years old and go to a place that could make me feel like I was 7 again!  We had SO much fun while we were there!  And it was Halloween the girls had bought headbands to wear for the night - my friend Courtney was very sweet and let me borrow her pumpkin headband!  It looked so silly, but its Disneyland!!  We rode Space Mountain, the tea-cups, Pirates of the Caribbean (where my entire butt got SOAKED because my seat was wet! lol) and the Haunted House!   We then watched the light parade and saw a bit of a performance - It was in French so it didn't keep our attention for very long!  We noticed that they put a more special emphasis of the disney movies that have some French mention - so Beauty and the Beast and 101 Dalmatians were everywhere!  We had such a fun night and were SO glad we didn't pass it up!

When we woke up the next morning we were all aching - probably from running around Disneyland like we were little kids!!  Didn't slow us down though!  We headed out for a LONG day of sightseeing in Paris!  We first went to the Louvre!  Absolutely stunning!  And SOOOO big!  We only went through about a third of the museum but left with aching feet!  We then went and had crepes for lunch!  The people from Fat Tire bike Tours suggested a place where you can get "the crepe that changed your life".  WOW, it was SO good!  It was hard to find since it was a small stand on a corner, but so good!  It had eggs, chicken, green peppers, cheese and HOT SAUCE in it!  It was the best flavor fusion of France and Texas I could have ever imagined! After our declicious crepes we went to Musee d'Orsay! I was almost brought to tears seeing real Monet, Manet, Renior and Van Gogh paintings.  The real thing is a million times more spectacular than any reprint I have seen.  They truly were absolutely BREATHTAKING!

Next stop - Notre Dame! As we walked into the church we realized there was a ceremony going on for the feast of All Saints.  It was by far the coolest experience I had in Paris.  We sat down, watched the procession of the Saints and listened to the organ play. Notre Dame would not have been as cool without the organ playing, it totally made the whole experience of being it a large, gorgeous and magnificent church.  The whole church itself is absolutely amazing and different from a lot of the church I have seen in Italy.  The grand ceilings echoing the sounds of the organ is one of the experiences I will never forget.

After watching the ceremony and touring around Notre Dame we were in desperate need of a break.  We found a local bar, grabbed a beer, some nachos and watched American football.  I know its totally not a part of the Paris experience but after a long and overwhelming day it was exactly what we needed!!  After regrouping we had some nutella and banana crepes and walked around the streets by Notre Dame.  I have a friend from elementary and middle school days at SCS who is studying abroad in Paris.  I haven't seen Laura in probably about 4 years and it was so neat to meet up in Paris!  She took us to the Eiffel Tower at night where we saw the tower sparkle!  I am so glad we had Laura because I would have been really upset to miss the Eiffel Tower at night - and sparkling!  It was great to catch up with Laura too!!

After the longest day around Paris we went back to the hotel and crashed for only a couple hours since we had a very early flight the next morning.  All in all, I am so pleased with my Paris trip!  We did as much as we could in the short time we were there and had such a great and fun trip!  But I will definitely be going back to Paris some day ... still so so much to do and see!!

Pictures - My battery died but I still managed to get a majority of the trip!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2281554&l=b6c0a&id=16718104