I Love Paris in the Springtime

At Night
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Went to Paris last weekend. Met my best friend from home, Melissa, at the airport at 7:30 in the morning. I can't begin to describe how estatic I was to see her. We took the RER into central Paris to go to our hostel. (Note: Never book the BVJ) We arrived at BVJ after searching a little bit. It was on some insanely small side street. Had some trouble checking in because they LOST our reservation. I then preceded to get into an arguement with the receptionist, in french( i am very proud of that) about how it wasn't possible for them to have lost my reservation because i had just reconfirmed it three days prior. Desole, she said, there was no room for us there and we needed to go find another place to stay. After a little searching we found another hostel relatively close by, still in the latin quarter, 5th arrodissement. Luckily, there was room for us to stay for a couple of nights. After dropping our things off we went to explore Paris.

Notre Dame
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We walked up to the seine and were met by a breathtaking view of the notre dame! We explored the inside, took lots of pictures. After leaving the notre dame we wandered along the seine some more, stopping at the pont neuf, making our way up to the louvre and through the gardens next to it. We ended up stopping for lunch there and ate outside next to a fountain. We were blessed with two beautiful sun shining days in Paris. After lunch we went to the place de vendome, the opera, aand then finally made our way up to Montmarte. Keep in mind that we have walked all of this. We could see the sacre coeur at the top of the hill, so we figured if we could see it we could definitely walk to it. I can honestly say I have never walked up so many steps in my entire life. The view from the top was amazing. We were able to look down and see all of Paris. The church was beautiful too, and of course we HAD to go to the top of the dome, 20 million stairs later, the view was even more breath-taking. you could see all sides of Paris. The Eiffel Tower stood out against the cityscap, it was great!

Rose Window
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By this time we were exhasted and so we made our way back to the hostel to take a little nap before going to dinner.  Dinner was fun, we wandered down the rue moufftard, the street our hostel was on, looking at menus posted in the restaurant windows trying to decide were we want to go. At one such stop the owner came out and talked us into coming in, basically because Melissa speaks no french and they offered a menu in english. It was great we were given aperitifs and digestifs as signs of gentillesse. That night we went to a little pub to catch up and have a drink, Melissa received a rose from some French man, who she couldn't and didn't want to talk to, sometimes the language barrier comes in really handy. haha

Notre Dame
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On sunday we went to the Catacombs, which were a litte scary. We were given a little pamplet and sent on our way in. No guide and 60 meters below paris, the bones of a million dead people can get a little freaky. Afterwards, we went to jardin du luxembourg and hung out for a little bit in the park watching the little french children play with their boats in the fountain. Next we walked over to the Pantheon. Inside was great, my friend who had been there before said to go to the top . ( I am feeling like this is a trend in Europe, along with really scary steep steps) However, we couldn't find the stairs to go up anywhere, and after searching for awhile, I finally asked one of the guides where exactly they were. He said they were closed and then asked if we could come back in April when they would be open. "Non! Nous ne pouvons pas retourner en avril!" I said and then we left. After, we went to the  Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe before finally going to see the Eiffel Tower. We took some pictures but we didn't go up to the top (again the top) because we were coming back that night and wanted to do it then.

Pont Neuf
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That night we went back to the Eiffel Tower and went straight to the Top. Paris at night is beautiful and the Eiffel Tower lit up is gorgeous. And every hour it sparkles! It was a great way for us to end our weekend in Paris before coming back to Rennes Monday morning. Hopefully, I will have more chances to explore the city. We packed as much as we possibly could into 2 days, but there is still more I want to see.

Right now I am getting ready for my very large spring vacation where I will be backpacking across Europe with some friends from Iowa State. On the itnerary is Munich, Prague, Geneva, Zurmatt, Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, Athens and  Nafplion in two and a half weeks. I cant imagine how tired I am going to be after it, but everything is book and I am ready!