(disclaimer: some pictures are stolen from Kaylee. I can't take credit for the artsy cool ones).
Tuesday (2/28)
It was an early morning. We had to leave the centre at 6:15 A.M. to get to St. Pancras for our 7:54 train to Gare Du Nord in Paris. I actually loved the train ride, which shouldn’t be surprising because I hate planes. Rachel suggested a song to listen to called “Gravity Rides Everything” by Modest Mouse and I had barely put it on my iPod before we left London. I occupied most of my time listening to it after I read a little bit for homework. For the record, I love that song Rach, so thank you! After we got to the train station we all hopped onto the metro, which literally stinks. It was so dirty Christi said she would rather go barefoot in the tube than ride the Paris metro. We stayed near the Bastille, which is the site of a state prison during the French Revolution. Only 5 rooms were ready so Taylor and I got to host bags for about 10 girls and let them use our bathroom because we were one of the lucky ones whose room was ready. Then we headed out into Paris.
We started at the Place de la Concorde and strolled down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. The view was spectacular. I had no idea Paris was so large. At first I thought everything was so spread out but in reality most of the tourist attractions are relatively close to each other. Emma, Taylor, Sarah, and I got a workout climbing up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, which is over 600 steps. The top was closed most of the week so we settled for the view from the middle. We hung out there until we met the group for a sunset cruise down the River Seine. The tour lady was definitely blessed with the gift of tongues. She fluently spoke 5 different languages! After a long day of walking it was nice to sit back, relax, and watched as the city gradually begin to glow. On the way back to the hotel we stopped across the river from the Eiffel Tower and got to see it sparkle. It was dazzling.
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| Kaylee, Christi, Emma, me, and Aylea in front of the Bastille |
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Aylea, Emma, me, and Sarah in front of the Eiffel Tower |
Wednesday (2/29)
HAPPY LEAP DAY!
Can I just say that French continental breakfasts are 1,000 times better than American? It’s a good thing I don’t live in France or else I would gain way more weight than I already have. We attempted to walk some of the breakfast off by choosing to walk rather than ride to the Notre Dame. Going through made me want to watch Hunchback of Notre Dame because I have never seen it all the way through. From there we walked a couple blocks and visited La Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle. La Conciergerie use to be a royal palace and prison. It was where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned there but she definitely had a luxurious cell. She had two rooms and it was very nicely furnished. I guess a Queen would expect as much. The Sainte-Chapelle had stunning stain glass everywhere you looked in the chapel. I still astounds me how immaculate the all the architecture was everywhere in Paris. It definitely did not disappoint. Plus, a lot of the places we saw correspond perfectly with our schoolwork right now, seeing as we’re reading A Tale of Two Cities. It certainly helps bring that book to life because if you’ve read it you know it needs it.
We kept up our productiveness (?) and grabbed some lunch on the way to the Pantheon. This is where the first Focault Pendulum was installed and is the resting place of Louis Braille, Alexander Dumas, Marie, Curie, and Victor Hugo. From there we again walked down to the Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens would’ve been breathtaking if they were in bloom, but since it’s early March and everything is still dead we didn’t spend too much time there. We headed back over the river to the Pompidou Museum. The signs were really confusing so we took a few detours but one good thing came out of it: we saw the missionaries! It may sound dumb but we all got really excited to see them. They spoke English and were American! One was from Utah and had been out a year and a half. I know three people that served in Paris but they have all been home around a year or a little more. He not-surprisingly remembered all of them. One of them was Lucky. So if Lucky ever reads this know that you are a legend in your mission. We stayed and talked to the elders for about fifteen minutes and learned that zone conference was that day at the church, which is only about a block from the Pompidou. So after QUICKLY walking through the modern art museum (where we accidentally lost Matt) we tried to find the church and LDS visiting center but with no luck.
The Louvre was our last stop of the day. This place is humongo! There is no way to see everything in there. We had an assignment to complete for one of our classes so Jordan mapped out our route and boy am I grateful. Our feet were killing by then so we weren’t really looking forward to the museum but we pressed on anyway. We finally got to rest our feet while we ate a delicious dinner at a little café behind the Louvre. Wednesday undeniably the longest walking day of the trip but it was probably my favorite day. I realized that the students in my study abroad group are a great bunch of kids. I spent the trip hanging out with kids I haven’t hung out with a ton in London. The more I get to know them the more I love being around them.
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| Notre Dame |
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| Sainte-Chapelle |
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| The Pantheon |
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| Group for the day (picture taken by Matt) Sarah, Annie, Christi, me, Jordan, Kaylee, and Aylea (not pictured: Matt) |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Christi and I outside the Louvre |
Thursday (3/1)
After yet another delicious breakfast we walked through the Thursday market in Bastille. I loved that this market wasn’t touristy. There was a mix of produce, pastries, clothes, and jewelry. I bought a couple souvenirs and then Sarah, Christi, Cami and I ventured to find La Café Carette. It’s a little café on Le Place de Vosges that the Dee’s told me about. According to them they have the BEST salted caramel macaron. After asking a random local (who spoke perfect English) we found it. It was expensive but since the cousins told me to try it I gave in. I agree with Elisabeth that it is the BEST salted caramel macaron I’ve ever had. If you ever visit Paris I suggest going there. In my opinion it was even better than Ladurée. We then found ourselves at the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. We would’ve had a great view of the city but it was overcast so we got a view with dense fog.
Christi then wanted to find the Moulin Rouge in the same neighborhood. I have never seen the movie so I didn’t care too much if we skipped it but it’s another picture, right? Word to the wise- if you have children leave them behind or look at the ground the whole time you are walking through the neighborhood. I looked straight ahead the whole time because if you know what the movie is about than I bet you can guess why. There was a metro stop right in front of the building so we jumped on that to the Grand Opera House. Not everyone wanted to go inside but looking back I wish we had paid to see the inside. By this time it was around 2 o’clock and our feet hurt and we were losing strength.
On our way to the Musée d'Orsay we picked up a Panini from a place called Eric Kayser. The line was pretty long so we figured it would be good, which it was. The Musée d'Orsay was by far my favorite part of the trip. It was filled with Impressionist paintings and I could spend all day looking at them. I’ve decided that Renoir and Degas are my favorite impressionists. If I could I would fill my home up with Renoirs.
It was around 4 o’clock and our day wasn’t done yet. We walked about a mile to L'Hôtel national des Invalides where we saw Napoleon’s tomb. After that stop our feet were killing and we spent about 20 minutes just sitting on the front steps resting. After a much needed rest Sarah, Cami, and I crossed the street to the Musée Rodin. We walked around there and then walked again over to the other side of the river to a place called Angelina’s. It reportedly has the best hot chocolate and Mont Blanc cake in Paris. Sarah and I decided to restrain ourselves so we shared. That is until Cami decided she didn’t like hers so we finished hers off too. The whole time we were made spectacles of because we plopped our American tourist selves down in front of the high-priced restaurant window to eat our goodies. Not our proudest moment of the trip that’s for sure. But hey, it’s free advertising. On our way back to the hotel we popped into the first English bookstore on the continent. It was totally a modern bookstore but now I can say I’ve been in the first English bookstore on the continent.
For dinner that night we went to a delicious pizza place just across the street from our hotel. You may call it lazy, we call it convenient. Overall it was a jam-packed day. To reward myself I showered and read some Tale of Two Cities before a good nights rest.
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| me, Christi, and Aylea at the Sacre-Coeur |
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| Moulin Rouge |
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| Sarah got fatigued |
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| The original Thinker |
Friday (3/2)
We checked out of the hotel and stored our luggage at the station before catching a train to Versailles. We were told that the palace is like French equivalent of Hampton Court. I disagree, it is way bigger than Hampton Court. No wonder the French had a revolution. The palace was grand inside. We went through it pretty fast because it was so crowded even though it’s not tourist season. I would put up with the crowds though to be there in the summer for the gardens. The gardens would’ve been beautiful but they were a little disappointing because of the season and all the statues were covered so they looked like body bags. We finished early and still had a couple of hours before we had to be back to the train station so we killed some time. It didn’t occur to us to go back to Paris and see some more stuff, which we should’ve done. We left Versailles with plenty of time to find our way back to the luggage storing place. It’s a good thing we left early because we got lost in the train station for about 20 minutes. It’s hard enough trying to navigate through a train station that has buses, a metro, and international trains but it’s even harder when all the signs are in French. We finally found the bags but had to wait for the other people who were sharing our lockers. Two hours later they finally came. So all in all we pretty much wasted a lot of Friday but we were so worn out that at the time we didn’t really care. At 8 p.m. we left Paris and headed back to London. They just attached an engine to the other side of the train so we literally headed backwards home.
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| me, Kaylee, and Christi at Versailles |
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| Gardens at Versailles |
I’ve come to the conclusion that Paris is my favorite city behind Salt Lake, San Francisco, and London. I absolutely loved it, and thanks to our 4-day museum passes I got to see a ton of stuff that I normally wouldn’t have paid for. It definitely has a permanent place in my heart. I anticipate the day when my parents get to go because they would unquestionably love it. Hopefully yesterday wasn’t the last time I’ll say Au Revoir Parí.
Wow, I'll bet you are tired. Sound like a fun and eventful trip. Glad you had a good time.
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