Bonjour from Paree!

Well, I'm actually back in Barca now, but just spent the weekend in Paris! I can't believe it's over, it was the first trip I booked a while back, and now it's done...time flies. Before I get into Paris, I'm sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, I've actually been busy with school work (imagine that!), and there hasn't really been too many new or interesting things to update about.

Paris was incredible. It is such a beautiful city, and I wish I had more time there. We got there Friday morning (I met up with Mark who flew in from Scotland) and the bus dropped us off right near Arc de Triomphe. So we got to see that, although the lift to the top was closed that day for some reason. Then we walked down Champs Elysees, a beautiful street although quite expensive. We actually didn't have a place to stay yet as our Couchsurfing had kind of fallen through. Couchsurfing is a program through the internet that allows young travelers to contact people in different cities who have a couch that they can stay on for free. It's really a great program and saves people a ton of money that would be spent on hostels or hotels. And it's a perfect way to meet new people, native to the area who a lot of times will show you around the city you're staying in. Anyway, our plans hadn't quite worked out so we ended up roaming the city for awhile, which ended up being great. I enjoyed just wandering down random streets and taking in the sights.

Luckily, most people in Paris speak English, at least enough to get by in, because both Mark and my knowledge of the language doesn't go far past bonjour, bonsoir, merci, etc. But we got pointed in the right direction to go for hostels and internet cafes. We ended up finding a reasonably priced hotel, dropped our stuff off and headed out to an internet cafe to try and contact the Couchsurfer for the next night. We ended up being successful with this, and got to stay for free with him on Saturday night, his name was Olivier. Anyway, after the internet cafe we headed down to the Lourve, which is free after 6, and got to roam through Egyptian and Greek artifacts. It is such a beautiful building and area! I'm really happy I got to see both the inside and outside of it. After that, we were exhausted from traveling and walking around so we just called it a night.

Saturday morning we started out by going to Notre Dame. The cathedral was just as impressive as I thought it would be. The inside is amazing with the high ceilings and stained glass windows. We were going to go up to the top, but the belfry was closed because it is in use from 11:30-2:30; we thought we'd head back later, but ended up running out of time. Paris is not a small city, and the metro is not the easiest to navigate, so travel time definitely affected some of our plans! But we walked from Notre Dame to Sainte Chapelle. This church had a beautiful room of huge stained glass windows, I only wish we had been there on a sunny day because I'd imagine the light coming through would be incredible. After that we had a nice long lunch and then made our way over to the Eiffel Tower of course. We actually got there at a good time, the line wasn't too long and we got up when it was still light, but then changing over to dark. There was no sunset as it was too cloudy, but the views were still breathtaking. I really liked seeing the city light up from above as it got darker. (I have so many pictures of everything, I made two albums that I'll post to this site, so check them out!) When we got down, the tower was lit up blue and every once in awhile they have white glittering lights with the blue lighting underneath. The tower was twinkling when we got to the bottom of it, it was perfect.

After that we met up with Olivier who brought us to his apartment just outside of Paris. For dinner we went to a great little crepes place and then just had a relaxing night hanging out at his apartment. The next morning we had to leave at about 9:30 to catch the bus back for our flights, but it was a very satisfying trip.

I found that being in Paris was almost surreal because there are so many things there that I grew up seeing pictures of and hearing about, and then to actually be seeing them for myself was just incredible. I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to go there, and I hope I can make it back some day and spend a little more time exploring the city. (Aunt Kath and Aunt Sue, I'll go back there anytime with you!!)

Now I have just one trip left to Venice in December. I only have four weekends left in Europe! I say it every time I think, but it's mind-blowing how fast the time goes by here and how much I've seen since September. I can't wait to catch up with everyone over the holidays and tell more stories :)