Paris 2011

So these past 2 weeks I have done quite a bit of traveling! I went to Paris, France to see all of those sights and then I also went to Valencia, Spain to see the Las Fallas festival. Both trips were interesting and a lot of fun/stressful.

First Paris.

I absolutely loved Paris! The food, the sights, the people, the boys. Everything was absolutely wonderful and breath taking. I went with 3 other girls and we stayed 6 days in Paris. It was about a half a day too much because by the 5th day I was ready to go home and go back to a regular schedule and sleep in my own bed again. Our first night there we just walked around the city saw the Eiffel Tower at night and of course ate a crépe, which are absolutely delicious btw.

Eiffel Tower at Night 

Our second day we actually climbed all 668 steps of the Eiffel Tower which actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The view from the tower was awesome! You got to see the whole city and all of the other famous monuments. After the Eiffel Tower we made our way over to the Louvre to see all the famous artworks including the Mona Lisa and Venus. It was cool to see it but after about an hour I was arted out and tired of looking at it. We then walked around the city for a little bit more but by 6pm we had been going since 10am and were ready to be done for the day. (Paris is a HUGE city and it was a ton of walking)

The 3rd day we went to see a famous basilica called the Sacre Coeur. This church was massive and absolutely beautiful! There were actually lots of locals outside of the church asking to draw your picture for cash which was interesting. After touring this church we stopped at a park for lunch. Food in Paris was very pricey! For a sandwhich and drink you would be paying around 12-14 euro!! So we just stopped at the supermarket everyday before leaving and got sandwhiches. Probably saved ourselves a good €100. After this church we headed over to the Notre Dame. We actually got there just in time because mass was just starting and I got to see the prosession of all the priests and boys studying to become priests. There were also confession booths all along the side of the church with signs that said they spoke like 5 different languages which was really cool. Two of the girls that were with us climbed to the top of the church but my legs could not handle anymore climbing that day haha

Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur

Our 4th day was spent traveling to the Red Light District to see the famous Moulin Rouge theater. This part of town was really interesting to see and the theater was really nicely put together. Too bad tickets were like €100 :( We then went to get lunch and went home for nap time because we were all exhausted ha and wanted to go back to the Moulin Rouge at night because its even prettier then! We also went to see the Arc de Triomphe which was really pretty and had a "Lost Soldier Tomb" which was really neat.

Moulin Rouge

Arc de Triomphe

Our 5th day in Paris we went had planned to take the free tour that was available but could not find the meeting point so we ended up just going for a walk and found the famous Love Padlock bridge that I had been searching for the whole time. The thing about the bridge is that a couple gets a lock writes their name on it and then locks it to the fence and throws away the key. Well seeing as I am single I put an H with a heart on it because this past year I have been working on myself and loving myself: =) We then moved on to find the Opera which was HUGE and really pretty! We couldn't go inside though which was kind of a bummer! We still had some time to kill so we of course do what girls do best, shopped! We found this awesome perfume store that is only France called Fragonard. They had some of the best selling perfumes i've ever smelt! Then we hit up the H&M and went home for nap time ha. Later that night we met up with a friend that lives in Paris and got drinks with him which was really nice. We got to ask him all about Paris and get a native's perspective.

My Love Padlock :)

The Love Padlock Fence

Opera

All in all, I really enjoyed Paris and I am very excited to start learning French when I go back for my last year at NWU. Speaking of last year, time sure has been flying by! I cannot believe that my 10 months here are almost over and I will be going back home in 3 months. It makes me sad and happy at the same time. I am really excited to be back home and see all my family and friends but at the same time I have fallen madly in love with Europe! There is so much culture and history, a day doesn't go by that I don't find out something new about this continent. I am excited to start planning my next trip here, hopefully soon after I graduate =)