A Weekend in Paris

For me, the concept of hopping on a train to Paris for a quick look at the Eiffel Tower seems pretty far fetched. For most Brits though, a visit to "Gay Paree" is so simple that it's viewed as your average weekend trip. My weekend journey was certainly far from average. I apologize for the delay in reporting on my excursion, but hopefully you will enjoy reading up on some of the highlights I experienced while in Paris.

I was woken up at 6:30 AM friday morning by the sound of my alarm, and a reminder note that read "GET UP AND GET MOVING TO PARIS!". My travel crew and I (a group of 10 of us) met downstairs in our building lobby, and headed to the Eurostar station to catch a 7:55 train. The two- hour ride itself was painless (with the time difference we only lost an hour), and to be honest I slept through most of it. I knew once we got to Paris, our two days were going to be packed with exploring and sightseeing, and I wanted to make sure I had enough energy as possible.

Once we arrived in freezing Paris, we headed straight to our hostel to drop off our stuff and get the ball rolling. We booked three rooms in the ever-classy resort known as the "Peace and Love Hostel", and I spent the entirety of our 20 minute walk over conjuring up all types of images of my home for the next two nights. In all honesty, it really wasn't that bad. Though it wasn't the Ritz Paris, the people who ran the place were full of "peace and love", and as long as I had my giant winter coat to sleep in, all I needed was a bed, blanket, and pillow. Mom, if you are reading this, I wore my winter coat because it was cold...not because I had any concern over bed bugs.

After we got settled, we grabbed our first of many ham and cheese baguettes, and headed out to conquer the city. To quickly sum it up, here's a list of Friday's activities

1. Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées: Here we captured the token kodak moments in front of the Arc, and gawked at all the designer shops and lavish car dealerships along the avenue that we could not afford. 
2. LaDuree. Yes, NYC has LaDuree. No, it doesn't even compare. The french macaroon connoisseurs could not have gotten it more right. The flavors I picked? Salted Caramel, Coconut, and Chocolate Pure Origin from Santo-Domingo. They were exactly as delectable as they sound in case you were wondering.
3. A walk from the Champs to the Eiffel Tower. We decided to fight the frigid weather despite my concern that my toes were going to fall off, and make our way down to the one MUST SEE sight in Paris. Though we couldn't hang out for that long due to our fear of freezing to death, we got the pictures we wanted in front of one of the most beautiful sights in the world

After an exhausting day packed with traveling, sightseeing and walking, we were able to end our night meeting up with two of my close friends from Michigan who are studying abroad in Barcelona. It was the perfect way to end day one in Paris. Even though I was beat, I was ready to take on Paris day two.

Here are some pictures from Friday:

Michigan in Paris!

My "Pajamas"

The next morning, we were up pretty early, and already laid out a general plan for the day. You only Paris once (except I'm for sure coming back again at some point in my life), and we were determined to fit in as much as possible. Here's a little summary of how Saturday went down.

1. Sacre-Coeur and Montmartre. Our friend Meredith insisted that this was a place we needed to check off our lists, so we headed to this hill in the North of Paris. The Sacre-Coeur (the Sacred Heart) is a breathtaking church that sits atop the hill. The incredible view of the city was certainly worth the hike. For those of you that have seen Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris", the Montmartre is where this movie takes place. We stopped for breakfast in this adorable little town that is known to have hosted studios of famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Monet and Picasso. The omelet and croissant that I enjoyed was just the tip of the iceberg for what made this my favorite part of our trip.
2. Casual run in with my man Kevin Costner. During our stroll through Montmarte, I asked everyone if it would be okay if we went down this really obscure cobblestone street so I could say a quick hello to my friend Kevin. He had told me a few weeks back he would be there filming his new movie, "Three Days to Kill", and I really wanted to make sure we caught up while I was in town. (Note: This is brooding sarcasm. Kevin and I did not know each other at the time, but we quickly became best friends in the two minutes that we spent together as we watched him film the movie.) 
3. Incredible chocolates and another baguette to keep us going. Before leaving Montmarte, we made sure to grab some truffles on the way out. Once we got to the Louvre, we grabbed lunch on the go and enjoyed perhaps the best tasting ham and cheese baguette to ever exist. I kid you not.
4. The inevitable trip to the Louvre. For those of you who have been, you know it is physically impossible to conquer the entirety of this Museum in one day. We decided to narrow down our choices by walking through the various exhibits on the path to the Mona Lisa, and end with a look through Napoleons "apartments". I put this in quotes because my conception of what an apartment entails does not come close to what Napoleon seemed to have thought. One difference between London and Paris, is that the museums in the UK are free. Though the Louvre is free for students of residence in Europe, our City University student cards were not cutting it for the stubborn woman at the entrance. After a few minutes of pleading with a museum manager, we were able to convince him to escort us inside free of charge. I also asked him to take us in past the woman who had initially rejected us, mainly so I could give her a little smirk as I walked in for free! 
5. Ending the night in the Jewish Quarter with some yummy falafel. If there was one thing I knew was high on my list, it was getting to see the historic Jewish quarter of Paris. Home to famous people like Picasso, the area was simply a delight to walk through at night. Lots of great clothing stores, and of course delicious food. 

Here are some pictures from Saturday:

KEVIN COSTNER!

 

If it seems from my recap that 90% of my trip consisted of eating, you are indeed correct. All in all, I'm giving Paris two big thumbs up, and I highly recommend it as either a weekend trip, or place to go for an extended stay. We may have overextended ourselves with all that we set out to do, but I'm pretty impressed with everything we got done.

What's next? Tomorrow I'm headed out to Bath and Stonehenge where I'll get to see one of the seven wonders of the world. Then next thursday I'm off to Budapest for three days. Look forward to some recaps from me about both of those weekends.

Au Revoir to the lovely Paris, but it is certainly good to be back in London town.

Cheerio Mates!

Sam in Buckingham

Some of the travel group!