Paris

Let me just start out by saying that I think French is one of the most beautiful languages, and I could just listen to it all day. Luckily I have been listening to it for the past three or four days. After Brussels we had some complications with out train tickets. I have a Eurail pass, which is a train pass for traveling in Europe. We had planned on going from Brussels to Luxembourg, a sweet fairy-tale country below Belgium and next to France. But we missed our first train to Luxembourg, which turned out to be a really good thing because they were sold out on tickets from Luxembourg to Paris. So we would have been stuck in sweet fairy-tale town with nothing to do. Instead, we went to Lille, which was also seen as Lille Europe (yep, little Europe). We were actually pretty excited about our trip to Lille, even if we were only spending an hour there. We repeatedly said Lille over and over in a French accent. You really just say a bunch of Ls. So it sounds more like “lull” with a lot more L than U.

Lille was nice, but you only needed about an hour to see everything. They had a really pretty town square with pretty churches. They were having come kind of display or contest of some sort with the theme XXL Europe. I thought that was a little ironic since it was being hosted in Lille. One of the first things we saw as we walked out of the train station was a bunch of giant babies that were half dinosaur… interesting right? It was actually really funny to see a beautiful older street lined with 10-12 feet baby human dinosaurs.

Finally we arrived in Paris, the city of love and lights. Paris was amazing. We only spent three days, but I wish I had do much more time to just soak everything in. Because we were a little rushed we went from one thing to the next a lot, not really having time to digest Paris.

The first day we had lunch on the lawn of the Louvre. We had French style hot dogs and some fries, which were both amazingly good! Then afterwards we walked to the Eiffel Tower. The walk was actually pretty long and the whole time I was nervous! We were trying to make the sunset, so I just felt like I was racing the sun the whole time. Finally, we got there. Wow. That is all I could say. It is so beautiful and large and amazing and… okay you get the point. So we sat on the lawn in front of it and watched the sun go down. It was so pretty in the day and even really pretty at sunset, but nothing beats the night time. It was all lit up with a perfect dark blue sky. Yes we had a baguette too as we watched the sun go down. Some people on the lawn had guitars, which gave it this really peaceful feeling. Right as we were leaving the whole thing began to sparkle! It happens on the hour every 5-10 minutes they say. It was so pretty!!! Then, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen happened. The full moon had been hidden behind some clouds. But when it came out, I was speechless. It was a perfect moment. I love the moon, especially the full moon. So to see it lit up all bright behind the lit up Eiffel Tower was perfect. We all just stood there speechless for a bit. It was simply surreal.

The next day we did a free walking tour with same company that we used in Amsterdam. Since Paris is so different and a lot bigger than Amsterdam, this tour was not as informative. It was nice once again to see another part of the city that is not as famous or cliché, but we did not get up close to a lot of the famous sites. After the tour we went to the Louvre where we saw the famous Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. To be honest, I was not as impressed with the Mona Lisa. It was behind this think glass surrounded by guards and a huge crowd. I personally enjoyed the Van Gogh museum much more, but that is just me. It was neat to see the Mona Lisa, don’t get me wrong. We walked around the Louvre for a couple hours and of course still only saw a blip of all the amazing art it holds.

After being worn out from the Louvre, we went up to the Montmarte, a famous church in Paris that has an incredible view of the city. Then we ventured over to Moulin Rouge. The street it was on was all about sex! It was way worse than Amsterdam. However, the actually Moulin Rouge was pretty cool. I actually met some Tennesseans who went to UT! That was pretty random and really cool. We ate out to treat ourselves while in Paris. We even were brave and ordered escargot. I really liked it, except when I realized I was eating snail! I think my favorite part was my Brie for dessert, yep, Brie was on the desert menu. So I ate straight up Brie… delicious!

The third day, our last day, we had to fit everything else in. We didn’t mean to wait until the last day to do everything, but by the end of the day we were just so exhausted we didn’t want to do anything else. Paris has so much! We first went to the Eiffel Tower so we could go up it. It only took about 45 minutes or so from the line to reach the top. It was pretty crowded, but I expected worse. The view from the Tower was incredible. This was also one of those surreal moments where I could not believe I was actually on the Eiffel freakin Tower! Amazing. Naturally we had a baguette on the tower as well.

We quickly rushed off to see the Statue of Liberty, which was tiny compared to New York’s. It was also unguarded and completely open for anyone to walk up. Next we went to the Arc de Triomphe, was also beautiful and amazing. I seem to be saying that about everything, but it seems to apply to everything. We wanted to see the Arc at night, but we ran out of time. I guess that just gives me another reason to come back. Finally we went to the Notre-Dam. This was the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen, and I have been to a lot in Europe. Usually all churches are more or less the same on the inside. But the Notre-Dam was breathe taking on the outside and the inside, as well as huge!

Paris was wonderful and I would even say magical. I really enjoyed it. We ate croissants, baguettes, crepes, escargot, brie, fries, quiche, French hot dogs, and more croissants.

I took so many pictures of the Eiffel Tower, so there are just a couple above.