Spring Break Stop 1: PARIS!

Friday March 17th
First day of our three country spring break excursion! End of 5 midterm tests, two papers, and many cups of coffee. We left at noon to head to the train station that took us to the Pisa Airport, hopped on a plane with my backpack holding everything I needed for 10 days, and arrived safely in Paris around 5! The travel group of 8: Ashley, Caroline, Maddie, Emma, Liz, Kelcie, Kate and I went to our hostel called Caulain Court, dropped off our stuff and went straight to find a place to eat dinner. We went to a restaurant that had EVERYTHING: among the 8 of us, we had mussels, cheeseburgers, fries, pizza, pasta, and salad. I split some pasta and a salad with Maddie, and then made our way out into the city.

We wanted to wake up early, and since we were an hours walk from the center of the city, we snooped out a Starbucks for the morning and Moulon Rouge! I never realized how hilly Paris was, and after walking up many many stairs/hills, we called it a night around 11PM. Alarm set for 7AM to hit up everything there is to see in Paris in one day! Wahoo!

Saturday, March 18th

Didn't realize how hard it was to get a group of 8 girls going in the morning, but we were out the door at 8:30 and made our way south (we were way north by Sacred Heart, the highest point in Paris). Stopped at Starbucks (Mom and Ann would have been proud) and after an hour, we made it to the Louvre, took pictures of random statues and historical things.

There is such a variety of churches and architecture in Paris, as well as plenty of history of WWII and being ruled under good and bad kings (like King Henry V and Napoleon). Even though it's rich in history, Paris is a true city with traffic, lots of people, and even Pizza Hut, which made the monuments few and far between. We saw the Square d' Estienne (HUUUGE church), the Opera House, La Madeleine church (picture) with giant pillars/statues, and many designer stores such as Marc Jacobs, Louis Vutton and Longchamp.





 Went to the Ill de la Cite, center of the city, where there is the Egyptian pinnacle and two giant fountains (that's Emma and I sitting on one). In every direction from the center, a different monument could be seen: The Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Eiffle Tower, and over a grove of trees Notre Dame.

The park in front of the Louvre was filled with runners, which was so different from the non-workout city of Florence. There were many naked statues that I'm sure Ricky would have enjoyed, as well as plenty of perfectly shaped trees and shrubs. Dead ahead was the glass pyramid of the Louvre and a smaller version of the Arc de Triumph Napoleon created before he was abdicated and exiled from France. Learned this on our walking tour, which was led by a guy from London and in our group we had people from Ireland, Australia, the US and even Belgium!

 

Notre Dame 

During our tour we saw LOTS of cool things, like the Palace of Justice, which was the Nazi headquarters for 4 years and had bullet holes still in the walls. Because of WWII, many buildings were bombed or caught fire while the city kept switching whose rule it was under.

I realize that I talk about my parents sometimes in my blog, but during the part of the tour while we were in the center of the city I could only think about my dad because our tour guide was talking about one of the greatest tours of the world: The Tour de France, biggest cycling race ever. We were standing right by the finish line where the final 20th stage takes place (called Paris Champs-Élysées if you were curious). A block away there was the hotel where the winner got to stay for 3 nights free and fly whichever flag they wanted from the huge flag pole. Called Hotel de Crillon, Lance Armstrong flew the Texas flag, and if you wanted to stay at that hotel like a normal person, it would cost you 7000 euro (which is about $9500) a night. Michael Jackson stayed there frequently, as well as other celebrities.

We also walked under one of the famous bridges in Paris called "Point Neuf, or "New Point", which isn't new at all; when they built it under King Henry the Fourth it was new, and the first stone bridge in Paris. There are also characture heads of all of the Kings friends that lined the crowning of the bridge. The story behind having all of their faces on the bridge was that, during a successful year, the King threw a massive party, and invited all of his closest friends to attend and get very rowdy. After two of his wine cellars were drank dry, he had some characature artist come over and draw everyone's faces. He then got the brilliant idea to have all their faces permanently put up on the bridge, so thats what he did and that's why all the faces look so... interesting. We also learned about the murder and conflict behind King Henry V, and how they tortured and eventually killed his murderer. If you would like to know that really graphic story, ask me in person because it was very VERY disgusting, and while our tour guide was telling us this Caroline looked like she was about to lose her lunch.

Next stop was the love lock bridge. A very rickety and artist-filled bridge with locks all over it that had the names of couples written on them. This wasn't filled with love locks a few years ago, but it became one after Carrie in the Sex and the City movie created a love lock in the movie and threw the key into the river below. Now it's covered and something that can be found in many different countries. After the bridge we saw the French Accademia, or their main university. Walked along the river that was packed with street venders, and came back to the Louvre. We took some goofy optical illusion pictures, "touching" the top of the pyramid, "leaning" up against it, and things like that. It's fun to get creative with all these traveling photo opportunities!

During the last half of our tour, we saw the World's Fair show buildings from the late 1800s/ early 1900s, which during that time included building the Eiffle Tower! Interesting thing about that tower is that people originally hated it. It was an incomplete structure and was an eye sore to the rest of the city. The city agreed to have it torn down after 25 years, and the year it was supposed to come down, radio was needed during the WWI and the tower was the highest point in the city and best for radio signal. Obviously served more than the original purpose and has been doing great ever since! The designer of the tower was also the person who designed the Statue of Liberty, and there are mini Liberties all over Paris. Didn't see one but just another fun fact.

Other things on our tour included:
Napoleons Tomb
Petit Palace
Latin Quarters

I think I ended up having selective hearing during the times we were learning about these places, so I don't have much to say about them other than they were very neat to see. I think the reason for not listening because we were already planning out what we were going to do after our tour: enjoy some bubbly and eat baguettes at the base of the Eiffle Tower! At the end of the tour I saw guys playing polo on bikes inside a short-walled hockey rink. Most entertaining part and definitely wish I had time to go play!


Right away, we found a market, got our goodies and went to the Eiffle Tower! We got a little lost and ended up being on the other side where there's gardens and we could see the big green grass area on the other side. I never thought I'd actually be able to be within arms reach and walk underneath; that was something I only saw in movies but today it was so unbelievably real. Being in a big group of girls reminded me of the Madeline movies and books I read when I was little. Thanks, mom!

We sat for two hours in a grassy spot, chatting and occasionally giving back the soccer ball a 2 year old kept kicking at us. Just to be able to sit and soak it all in was amazing. Took LOTS of pictures (I was obsessed) and cut our time by the tower short because of rain. We took cover in the Palace of Chaillot, the big one at the end of the Eiffle's park. That didn't stop us from walking, so we made way to the Arc de Triumph and got to see the Eternal flame (which has been put out a couple times by Germans roasting a sausage and an angry Mexican who lost a big bet after a soccer game and wanted to "piss on" the French). If you put out the Eternal Flame under the Arc, you are exiled from France... I want to go back so I left it alone. There was a Veteran ceremony going on under the Arc, which I think was for Saint Patricks day. It was hard to tell it was even St. Patty's day because there wasn't much green or clover decorations anywhere.

By the time we left it was 7PM and time for some dinner! Only place that had enough room for us all was an Italian restaurant. How fitting since we just left Italy the day before. They had great minestone soup and garlic bread, and since it was St. Patty's day we went to an Irish bar and had a pint of Guiness. Very fitting, but 10PM hit and we were all so tired from walking all day long. A few of us stopped at Notre Dame to take pictures of it at night, and I think its more beautiful then. We walked the hour home, and since we were so close to the highest point, Sacred Heart, we had to go. Sacred Heart is a huge white church that is surrounded by huge tombs and a monastery. After walking up all 373 stairs to get to the top (there was a warning sign and an escalator you could pay to use), we made it! Best view of the entire city. I couldn't believe it and what a great way to end the night! (sorry it's sideways!)

Sunday, March 19
Not sure if anyone noticed yet, but there is one very famous lady in Paris that I still had to pay a visit to in the morning before we left. Maddie, Emma, Caroline, Ashley and I were out the door by 8 and bee-lined it to the Louvre. There she is kept behind a sheet of glass and is mostly identifiable because of her eyes, and we were in the world's largest museum in the world for 20 minutes just to snap a few photos. If you have guessed who I am talking about, congrats! And if not, I will tell you: Mona Lisa. I was kind of disappointed with how small the painting was, but still amazing to see it in real life. And there weren't as many people there since we went so early! Anyways, thats all we did in the morning besides eat breakfast and make way to the airport to catch our plane to the next destination. Paris, you were great and wore me out but so ready for some real English speakers: HELLO LONDON!!