Spring Break: PARIS

hanging out in the Tuilerie Garden in PARIS

We arrived in Paris in the early evening after a surprisingly quick and uneventful train ride. This was the first city that I had been to before and I was excited to be back-- and to see how far my french skills have fallen since high school. Our dinner plans were to meet one of Emily's high school friends (aka story of my abroad experience) so we took the Metro straight to our hotel to change. That part we navigated pretty easily-- I am now a pro at public transportation. Unfortunately, our walking directional skills weren't so amazing and it took us a good 45 minutes to find the Chinese restaurant which was supposed to be 15 minutes away. Oops.

After a delicious meal we headed to meet up with more Colgate people; this time it was my two friends Emily M. and Lily who were on spring break from Colgate. We got a little lost again on the way to the bar they were at and literally out of sheer luck we happened to stumble across the piazza where they happened to be sitting outside.  I stayed with them for a little while but Emily and I were pretty exhausted from traveling and headed back to catch some sleep before our next intense day of sightseeing.

The next morning we had plans to meet up with Lily and Emily (sorry, this is confusing) at their hotel around 9am but alas there was no response to our messages for them. Looks like somebody slept through their alarms (tsk tsk). Luckily their hotel was right near Notre Dame so we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed over to see the Cathedral. 

Notre Dame

After doing a quick tour of the church we went towards Sainte Chapelle, something I hadn't gotten to do last time I was in Paris. The line was a little bit long but once we got inside it was definitely more than worth it. Saint-Chapelle is a chapel that is primarily made of stained glass windows and is literally one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. *The pictures don't really do it justice. 

stained glass windows!

Our sleeping beauties finally woke up after this and contacted us so we decided to meet at the Louvre.  We didn't have too much time inside but I had been before and the others really just wanted to see the big things (aka the Mona Lisa) so it was fine. Bonus: some English couple gave Emily and me their tickets so we didn't have to pay the 10 euro charge. Of course we had time to take some super-touristy pictures in front of the glass pyramid (we have our priorities)

The Louvre

hello, we are American

Afterward we got a quick lunch and headed to the Champs Elysee and Arc de Triomphe. We had to walk through the Tuilerie gardens for this which were beautiful, even in the semi-dreary weather. We went down the Champs Elysee and then decided that we wanted to climb the Arc de Triomphe (another thing I hadn't done last time!).

View from the Arc de Triomphe

 I really enjoyed the view from the top, you could see all the avenues radiating outward and it was a beautiful view of the the Paris skyline that included the Eiffel tower. Because we clearly hadn't climbed enough things that day we head toward the tower next. I had done this before but senior year we climbed at night so this was a little bit different. The climb was pretty intense and it was rather windy and chilly but obviously worth it when we reached the top after countless stairs and an elevator ride. The clouds and fog actually made the view pretty interesting so the weather didn't kill the experience.  We didn't last too long on the top level (it was freeeeezing) and went to get a little snack of crepes and fries (yummm) before heading back to our respective hotels..

Le tour Eiffel!

Me and the 2 Emilys at the top!

Emily had plans with her high school friend but my friend Loretta (the same one I was in Amsterdam with) was coming into Paris with her boyfriend so Emily M., Lily, and I were meeting her for a 10 pm dinner... hence the crepes earlier (like we needed an excuse). After nixing our initial plan to eat Indian food at what turned out to be an actual mosque we found a nice looking casual little French restaurant. Here we got some nice french hospitality... and by that I mean we got kicked out for absolutely NO reason. Granted it was 10:30 when we sat down but we asked if we could have a table for 5 for dinner (IN FRENCH I might add so we weren't even being ugly Americans) and they said that'd be fine. They took our drink order and brought them out with no problem, then they took our dinner order- again with no comments. Then out of nowhere the waiter comes out and says "the kitchen is closed, sorry. you have to go". We were perplexed but were also starving so we paid the drink bill (because obviously they wouldn't comp our drinks--ruuude) and got up to leave. As we're walking out, not only are they serving food which was clearly just made in the OPEN and completely operational kitchen but they were also taking dinner orders from another group!! I literally could not get over it.... WHO DOES THAT?!? We were too hungry to dwell on it though and literally ran to the closest restaurant which was....an Italian restaurant. Clearly I don't eat enough Italian food in Italy so I go all the way to Paris to have more. Luckily these guys were super friendly and made us feel more than welcome--plus they gave us actual food so I guess I can't complain. 

It was St. Patrick's day so after our (delicious) dinner we head back to the square with all the bars from the night before. It was packed with college-age kids all hopping from bar to bar and hanging out in the open square. We got some beers and sat down at a table to watch all the festivities. We were still pretty exhausted from all of our climbing from the day so we didn't stay out too late but we had a great time.

On Friday Emily and I were on our own so we got up and went to the MOST AMAZING BAKER EVER for breakfast. Yes, the caps are necessary. It was THAT good.

Almond Croissant = Heaven

We want everything

After that we got in contact with some girls from Lehigh that study in Florence with us so we met them in Montmartre, the artist neighborhood on a hill above Paris. I hadn't gotten here last time either and I absolutely loved it. There were so many cute shops and restaurants and the open piazza had a bunch of artists working on and selling paintings.

Artists at Work

Sacre-Coeur

Montmartre also had the Sacre-Coeur Basilica which has the most amazing view of all of Paris.

View from Sacre Coeur - again, the picture doesn't do it justice

Overall it was probably one of my favorite neighborhoods I had been in. After separating from the Lehigh girls Emily and I did a quick run by Moulin Rouge (kind of a let down to be honset) and then I tried to go to the Musee d'Orsay which has the best impressionist art in Paris. However, while we were waiting in line the guards randomly ran out and evacuated all the lines and eventually the whole building. Nobody could figure out what was going on so we decided not to waste our time waiting for them to re-open. I was a little disappointed, but I had seen the museum my senior year so it wasn't the end of the world. Our backup plan was to walk all the way back to the Champs Elysee to get the most delicious little macaroons from a super fancy bakery called Lauderie. By this time we were pretty exhausted, especially since we had done soo much walking in the past two days. Emily went back to take a nap at the hotel but I wanted to go see the Centre Pompidou- a museum with modern and contemporary art. I studied modern art last semester at Colgate and hadn't gotten the chance to see any in Italy, which is definitely more Medieval/Renaissance focused, and it was nice to see some different stuff (you can only look at so many pictures of Jesus before it gets a little repetitive).

Brancusi's studio reconstructed at the Centre Pompidou

At this point I thought my legs were actually going to give out from underneath me so I joined Emily as the hotel. We couldn't even imagine going out that night- we also had to get up at 5:45 for our morning flight to Milan- so we went to a quick little crepe place which was beyond amazing (we each got both a dinner and dessert crepe and they were incredible... I already crave them again). Lights out by 10:45-- I know what you're thinking: we know how to party. 

SO, that was our whirlwind tour of Paris. I had been hesitant about going back to Paris... I kind of wanted to go to a new city that I hadn't been before. However I was completely wrong (which is obviously a rare occurrence) and I am so glad we went- I loved it even more this time. Our two day trip was packed full of activities but I never felt too too rushed and I got to see the things I liked the most from my last visit plus a lot of stuff I hadn't gotten the chance to do. J'adore Paris!