Spring Break Part 2 - France

To be perfectly honest, I believe that Paris would have been a major letdown if it weren’t for one thing.

Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower.

This is my love child. It was before I had even seen it for myself, but to actually walk up the axial pathways toward a structure that you have dreamed about seeing for years?

Gah. Epic. 

And it was so much more amazing than I ever thought it would be. The Eiffel Tower is *huge*. It’s elaborate and delicate while giving the Parisian skyline something to boast about. We spent hours there (although an hour or two of that wasn’t really our choice…but nonetheless!).

Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower. 

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

After waking up the three boys I was traveling with at 3:30 AM to catch a 6 AM flight on Tuesday morning (very happy people, they were), we arrived to a bustle of activity in Paris. It was nearly 9 AM by the time we got into the center of town where everyone was busy getting to work on the metro and by car. This gets me to my first point.

1. The metro in Paris is the easiest means of transportation I have ever used. It goes everywhere and connects to everything of relevance in the city. I couldn’t help but be so thankful to it because it allowed us to see far more of the city than we would have been able to on foot. One of our first stops upon arrival was to purchase a 3-Day Pass for the metro system. It was well worth it.

Our first day took us to the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Grande Arch, the modern side of Paris (*blah*), and the Eiffel Tower. We, indeed, climbed the Eiffel Tower to give ourselves a lovely view of Paris at dusk. And it was lovely (and windy) as ever. Still, we couldn’t have asked for better weather during our stay in Paris. It felt like spring!

Being exhausted from our early morning, I grabbed a quick dinner (of Subway!) before going to sleep at our hostel.

The next day, we took the metro to Versailles. It was nice to see a different part of town that wasn’t nearly as loud and busy as the majority of Paris seems to be.

2. Point Number Two! Paris is very much like Rome, in many respects, although it is still far cleaner. And while there are still many, many cars on the road, there are logical street instructions. Much like Austria, I did not feel like I was going to get run over at any moment. Very nice, Paris.

After a relatively quick self-guided tour through the palace (you really don’t get to see that much of it) including the Hall of Mirrors (best part, predictably), we took to the gardens. Now, they were phenomenal, ridiculously huge, and went on for miles, but because of the time of year that we went, none of the trees had leaves. So unfortunately, I left disappointed but having every intention of returning in the future to see the lovely gardens in full bloom.

Once we got back into town, we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was also far more incredible than I ever thought it would be. After three months of church-visiting (I should have counted how many we’ve gone to…gah), Notre Dame still managed to impress me. And that’s truly saying something.

On our final full day in Paris, we took the metro once again to Poissy, France, to visit Villa Savoye, a house designed by Le Corbusier. Most people who are not in the architecture field will have no idea who this guy is or what he designed, but Villa Savoye is a prime example of the types of structures I study in school. Case and point: Architecture students visit the villa for free (*awesome*) because we are the only ones that know it’s even there.    

3. And our final point for the evening! While Paris did not instinctually feel as welcoming as Vienna did, the people were not rude by any stretch of the imagination. The front desk lady at our hostel made our restaurant reservations for us. Our waitress at that restaurant explained the menu to us in English. The owner of the restaurant even took a picture of us upon our request. I didn’t feel looked-down-upon or belittled.

The rest of my day consisted of sketching in the park around the Eiffel Tower with one of my dearest friends, eating a wonderful, only slightly-expensive French meal with wonderful schoolmates, and seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

Friend:)

With our waitress! 

Friends:)

Perfect? I dare say it was.