Luxuries of Paris

Day 3

After a fun night on the town, Stef, Marta and I woke up ready to start another day in one of the world´s most famous cities. We knew that we wanted to visit Versailles in the afternoon and after having not woken up at the crack of dawn, we only had a few short hours before going there. We decided to hit the Champs-Elysees, the most famous street in all of Paris. First, we came upon the Arc de Triomph--a beautiful structure standing out over the western end of the Champs-Elysees. This famous arc was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor his Grande Armee. Although we have seen pictures of this amazing monument for years, pictures can never capture the actual size of it! The arc is absolutely huge.

It was almost eerie to see where Marie Antoinette had once slept and also where she had escaped the rioting of the French people.

Afterwards, we walked down the Champs-Elysees to find, of course, cafe after cafe. We also loved seeing all the high-end designers, mainly Louis Vuitton. We saw the store from across the street and there would be no way we could miss the five story block-long store! We realized this landmark store seemed to be a tourist attraction in itself--with a line waiting outside before going in! We joined the queue and were led in in a few short minutes. The store was unbelieveable. We almost got lost in it because it was so huge. Looking at the price tags of everything was of course shocking, with purses ranging anywhere from 500 euros to 10,000 euros. With all of the beautiful purses and the luxurious atmosphere, my head was up in the clouds. I came very close to splurging on one of these purses, but opted not to spend the money. (I´m happy with that decision!!) We finished our stroll by walking down Rue Montaigne--a famous street lined with designer couture houses, such as Valentino, Dior, Chanel, Gucci, Versace, and Burberry. All of their window displays were extravagant, to say the least!

After a very quick lunch of (of course) pasta, we made our way to the metro station to catch a train to Versailles. Although we had been welcomed into Paris with chilly weather, it was the exact opposite the day we visited this amazing palace. The sun´s rays were beating down on us while we waited in the line to go in. It was one of the longer lines of the trip, waiting about an hour just to get through security. Although tired from the heat, finally arriving in the palace was well worth the wait! The gorgeous purses in Louis Vuitton and the amazing window displays in couture houses seemed like nothing compared to the high life of this royal family that once lived here.

Versailles was built by Louis XIV and is about 12 km outside of Paris. We saw all of the luxury in this amazing chateau, including the Hall of Mirrors, the Queen´s bedchamber and the King´s bedchamber. It was almost eerie to see where Marie Antoinette had once slept and also where she had escaped the rioting of the French people. It´s really incredible to think that we stood in the very room where she slept... We saw other parts of the palace and also took a stroll outside to see all of the gardens layed out for kilometers. The entire visit, we were amazed to believe that this had been one royal family´s palace. Truly mind-boggling to think about.

On the way back from Versailles, we were all so exhausted from the trip and we sank into our seats on the crowded train. As I was dozing off, I heard a family telling someone where they were from. I heard "yeah, Michigan. It looks like a mitten and we have all the great lakes.." I was so surprised and asked them where they were from and we chatted with them for a few minutes. They were actually from Lansing and were also Spartan fans. The wife was joking because she said that her husband wears only MSU stuff, but she wouldnt let him wear it on the trip!! As they were getting off the train, the dad turned back and said GO GREEN! to us and it just made my day! We said go white back to him and it was perfect! I had been waiting to hear that the entire trip. I kept telling Stefanie that someone would say it, and finally, they did!

After we got back from the Versailles trip, it was really nice to relax in the appartment for a while. We had a nice dinner of...you guessed it--pasta and rice. It was yummy and we spent the remainder of the night getting ready to go out and drinking some very cheap wine. We kept joking that it was vinegar and sugar...yuck! Sitting at the dining room table playing zoomy zoomy with just the three of us was one of the funnest times of the trip. Laughing and laughing all the way til the last drop of wine. We decided to head out for a while and try to find this bar that Stefanie had read about, it was called the Buddha Bar. We found the bar pretty easily and hung out for a while, but after seeing that one beer cost about 13 euros, we just did a lap around the place and left. No wonder Madonna stops in there when she´s in Paris! It was such a cool bar.

Trying to get back home was another adventure...we knew that the metro closed at 2am,so we started heading there around 1am. Little did we know that they started shutting them down wayyy before 2am. We were down there around 120 and there was absolutely no one...besides a few rats! It was really creepy and we almost got locked in because the doors were starting to shut as we were trying to get out!! YIKES! Luckily, a worker was going through to make sure no one was down there and we got let out. We ended up taking a cab home..it was worth the money, especially after thinking we were going to spend the night with ratatouille! ;)

Day 4

After another fun night, we spent the most of the morning sleeping in and relaxing. We didn´t feel too guilty about it anyways, because we awoke to the sound of rain. We had been very lucky though, it was the first drops of rain Stef and I had seen the entire trip! Stef, Marta and I wanted to do something inside so we wouldn´t be soaked and miserable for the rest of the day, so we decided to hit the mall! Galaries Lafayettes is one of the hugest malls in all of Paris. It is three different buildings and they all have seven different stories...yeah, I told you it was huge. Although most of the shops were couture, it was still very fun to look and people watch for a couple hours of the afternoon.

Luckily, the rain had let up and we took the metro to do some sightseeing. We saw the Pantheon, the college in Paris--Universite Sorbonne and then we spent a good part of the afternoon walking the streets of the Quartier Latin. The streets were lined with cute shops and boutiques, cafes and creperies. We had to stop and get a crepe and we ended up stopping at the most adorable creperie. As we were chatting with the woman who made our crepes, Marta found out that she was spanish, and that the entire creperie was actually a local spanish hangout. How ironic  that we would find that in Paris! It was the perfect place to sit and enjoy our delicious crepes.

Afterwards, we walked a ways to find the largest Mosque in all of Paris. It was absolutely beautiful. Stef was especially happy to have found this amazing Mosquee in Paris. Her and I went inside to find gorgeous architecture around every turn. We walked quietly by the prayer room and were awed by the size of it. With a few pais of shoes placed outside, we knew there were muslims inside praying. We strolled around for a while and admired the fountains and gardens.

After returning to the apartment, we were all in agreement to go in the Eiffel Tower. We got there around 8.30pm and were greeted by a very long line. We were almost to the front of the line when a notice appeared on the sign that said the sommet of the tower was temporarily closed. We were all really confused and obviously bummed. We found out that the only reason it says this from time to time is because there are too many people up there at one time. We took the elevator up to the second floor. We were all a lot more scared than we had originally thought. The view on the second floor was amazing...although it was blocked by yet another line to go to the third and very top floor. We waited in line and were awed by the views on all sides of the tower. Finally getting to the top was unbelieveable. We were so high up and could see for miles. It was amazing to see the city at night with the millions of lights we could see all around us. It was also really amazing to be on the tower when the lights were twinkling. Definitely something I´ll never forget! After taking our time and seeing all around the tower, we got in yet ANOTHER line to go back down the second floor. We opted not to wait in another line to get back to the ground level so we did it Chris Ridenour style and took the stairs down. It really was a lot longer than we thought, and we were thankful that we hadn´t taken the stairs up! We crashed hard that night, ready for our last full day in the city of lights...