So 2 weekends ago, the weekend after my trip to Morocco, some friends and I visited Paris. To be honest I wasn't extremely excited about traveling again then weekend after I had just finished an 11 day exploration of Spain/Morocco, but nonetheless our flights were booked and we were going to Paris! Our flight left Thursday afternoon for Paris Beauvais airport- which is about and hour and 15 minutes outside the city. Our flight landed around 6:30 and we caught the shuttle from the airport to the city. When we got dropped off we were a little disoriented and kind of waiting for someone to direct us where to go. This trip was a plan-as-we-go thing, so when we got off the bus we were like, "So what now?" We started walking toward what we thought was the center of the city, and happened to run into the famous Arc de Triumph! It was right at sunset so the view we saw with the Arc and the Eiffel Tower in the background was so gorgeous! Arc de Triumph is at one end of the famous street Champs-Elyees- which is where there is so much shopping, but once we saw the house of Louis Vuitton we quickly decided we needed to find somewhere much cheaper to do our shopping. What we didn't know at the time was that ALL of Paris- even the "cheap" district is expensive. Once we saw the Eiffel Tower aglow in the distance we instantly headed in it's direction. When we finally made it there (Paris is a gigantic city!) we all just immediately stopped where we were and like a song all said at once, "ohhh my god!" For me, it was one of those things that I saw in movies/photographs but never really thought I would ever see, and seeing it for the first time was a crazy moment in my mind. By this point, we had been walking for about an hour and a half and were getting really hungry, the problem was that every restaurant we passed was a little bit out of our price range- and we were also in search of a place with wifi, so that we could look up a hostel for the night, since we hadn't done that before we got there, hence the plan-as-we-go! We walked all around the streets near the Eiffel Tower searching for a hostel or a place to eat. Little did we know that Paris doesn't really believe in hostels, but we found a 2 star hotel and the nice receptionist pointed out some areas where we could find a place to stay! There was hope! Now, we just had to find somewhere to eat. We searched and searched for some "french food" but ended up at McDonald's of all places. I wasn't too disappointed with this decision because since I've been here I've started a thing that I eat McDonald's in each country that I visit. Aside from my happiness, we still had to find a hostel and since all McDonald's have wifi we were able to locate one in the north of the city! So we grabbed the metro and found our stop, only to walk out into the ghetto of Paris. At this point it was almost 1am, and we had been dragging our luggage around Paris the entire night, so one would expect us to be irritable/moody, but all we could do was laugh! I think that's why I enjoyed this trip so much, is because at any point when something went wrong all we did was just find the humor in the terrible moment and laugh about it. We eventually gave up the search for this hostel, and settled for a hotel. It was a little more expensive than we had wanted, but it would do for the night!
The next day we all slept in pretty late, but we really needed the sleep. I woke up a little earlier than everyone to investigate a new place to stay, in a nicer side of town and for a littler cheaper. I was a little worried that there wasn't anything to be found, but luckily I did find a nice hostel, in the south of the city. So when everyone got packed up we made our way to the hostel- making stops to see the Moulin Rouge, grab some Starbucks, and take pictures of course! We finally made it to the hostel, and I had never felt more accomplished! Turns out, the hostel is on the side of town that we were originally at the night before- how ironic. We left our bags with the hostel and headed out toward the Eiffel Tower once more. Right when we walked up and started taking pictures, the skies opened up and it started pouring! This could've been another moment when we all broke down and got mad, but all we did was laugh and have a photoshoot in the rain- it was hilarious! We only had a few places we were really interested in seeing, so we decided to wander the city and see what we could find. We ended up at the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens, which turned out to be closing right when we walked up to the gate. From there we headed straight towards Notre Dam. That was definitely an important place to see on all of our lists. Battling the nasty weather, we finally made it to the incredible Notre Dam. This year is its 850 year anniversary- 850 YEARS! That's definitely one of the oldest places I've ever visited. We made it inside- and it was such a breathtaking view. There were stained glass windows everywhere and they were like works of art. While we were walking around there was a special service going on with a group called AED. I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but after researching it a little more I've learned that it's a religious organization in France, and that their service at Notre Dam was the 5th a final series of services called the Night of Witnesses. These services were held by 5 different "witnesses"(bishops, archbishops, sisters) of the catholic church, who had devoted their lives to God. Here is the link to their website which you will have to translate to English: http://www.aed-france.org/
After spending time taking in the beauty of the Notre Dam our group had to split up. 3 of us were staying in Paris- Jeremy, Jordan and I, while the other 3- Meghan, Juliane, and Jamie were catching a bus for London. When we split up, Jeremy, Jordan and I went to see the Louvre- the museum that holds the Mona Lisa. We actually didn't end up going in, mainly because it was almost 9 and probably closing, but also because we had walked all day and were ready to find food! So we walked through the beautiful gardens in front of the museum and grabbed the metro back to the hostel. We ended up finding some really great, homemade chinese food and pigged out for 7,50 euros, which was almost as much as I paid for McDonalds the night before! Afterward, we were exhausted from the day and went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
Saturday our flight left Paris- Beauvais at 8, so we only had 1/2 a day to spend in the city. The night before we had decided that we were going to climb the Eiffel Tower. So we woke up early, got breakfast and set out on our 3 adventure at the Eiffel Tower. We stood in line for about 20 minutes, bought a ticket and started climbing! Unfortunately, we only made it the 2nd viewing level because once you climb to that point, you have to take the elevator to the very top- and we had not purchased tickets for the elevator. We were a little disappointed we couldnt' make it to the top, but we had climbed the tower and we were proud of ourselves, not to mention the view of Paris was gorgeous. From the view, we spotted a small market right below us and decided to check it out since we had not done any shopping. I'm so glad we ended up going because I found some great presents for my mom and grandma and a few things for myself as well. Afterward, we were bound and determined to find ourselves some french food, and that we did- CREPES! We all tried a savory crepe for our meal, and then had banana and nutella crepes for desert. They were delicious! After lunch our time had come to pack up and be on our way- so we walked back to our hostel (got a french baguette on the way!) packed our things, and headed toward the bus stop.
Even though Paris was not my favorite city, I'm glad that I had the experience to travel there. And I'm so happy that I traveled with people who truly know how to make the best out of the not-so-best situations. I have learned that that is what traveling is all about. Exploring new places can sometimes be overwhelming, hectic and a bit scary, but if you are with people who know how to enjoy themselves no matter what the crazy circumstance may be- you will truly enjoy where ever you are.
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