The City of Lights

29 Marzo

Julia and I went to Paris for the weekend and it was amazing! It started off a little tiring because we left Sevilla Thursday night, flew into one barcelona airport, took a bus into Barcelona, took a taxi to the other Barcelona airport, slept in the airport for 2 hours then got on another plane and arrived in Paris at 8 in the morning on Friday. It was good because it was cheaper than most of the other options and it got us to Paris very early but we were both exhausted! We found our hotel, which was very nice and the receptionists spoke English, which was helpful since I only know a handful of French phrases and I can count to ten. We slept got breakfast and slept for a few hours at the hotel then we got up and headed out to see Paris. The area around our hotel was very cute and very authentically French with tons of cute little markets and shops on the street. First we went to the Orsay Museum, which has a lot of impressionist stuff like Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Renoir, etc. I liked it a lot because I haven’t seen much of this type of art since I’ve been here. We also casually ran into both the Louvre and the Eiffel tower on the way to the museum, which was very exciting! Paris is a HUGE city and it’s very beautiful – although it was WAY too cold! I have been spoiled with the warm Sevilla weather. After the museum, we went to the Arc du Triumphe. We climbed to the top and got a really nice view of the city and I realized just how big the city is – you can’t even see the end of it! After that, we went to Sacre Coeur (sorry if all of these things are spelled wrong, my French is horrible!). It is a beautiful church on top of a hill at the north of the city and you can see all of Paris from it. It was getting dark when we went up there and after we took a tour of the beautiful inside of the church, we got to see the Eiffel tower lit up and sparkling, it was awesome.

Saturday we had a very busy day of sightseeing! First we took a tour of the Opera House. We had actually run into it on Friday and not realized what it was! One of the security guys was very funny – he asked if we were American and said it’s his dream to live there because his brother lives there. So I was like oh really? Where? And he goes OBAMA! He is my brother, get it?! (he was a huge black guy!) It was so funny – we took a picture with him and he told us to send it to his brother when we got back to the states, haha. The opera house was beautiful, I was very glad we went to see it (I don’t know how else to describe it but you will see in the pictures if I ever get them all uploaded – I took way too many!) Next we went to the Louvre. I love the outside of the Louvre, the actual building used to be an old palace and the architecture is amazing. I also really like the glass pyramids. We went inside and it is SO big! It was very overwhelming but luckily Julia had her Rick Steve’s travel guide haha and he helped guide us. We saw the Mona Lisa, which was cool but it’s actually very small and everyone was way too crowded around it. We saw a lot of other famous paintings – I especially liked the Spanish art section because I’ve learned a lot about the Spanish artists in my classes. There was also a cool section in the Louvre that I never realized was there – Napolean’s apartments. They’re like some of the old rooms where Napolean used to live and theyre very ornately decorated and pretty.

Next we walked to Notre Dame, which was beautiful. The stained glass windows were incredible and the church seemed huge (although my teacher told me that the Notre Dame could fit 3 times into the Cathedral of Sevilla!) The carvings on the front of the cathedral were also amazing and actually had some cool stories behind them. Unfortunately we missed being able to go up to the top of the tower to see the gargoyles by about 2 minutes because it had closed, which was very disappointing. Next we headed to another church called Saint Chappelle. It was small but had the most beautiful stained glass I’ve ever seen. The entire church was all stained glass of incredible colors and it was overwhelming. It was raining very hard after this and was cold, which was not very much fun. However we went shopping for a little bit and then went and saw the Bastille Tower. That night, we went to the Eiffel Tower! It was GORGEOUS at night, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it! It was amazing. They actually shut off all of the lights at 8:30 because it was Earth hour, when everyone in the world was supposed to turn off their lights. It was pretty eerie to see the tower at night not lit up, but it was pretty cool that they did it. Then we went up the tower – it was really cold and windy but it was really cool. I was very scared going up to the top, it was very high and you’re it this tiny little elevator, it was scary! The view was incredible though.

Sunday, Julia and I went to Versailles! I was very excited to see it because it’s so famous and has a lot of historical significance. It was HUGE and impressive looking, both of the outside and inside. The rooms were very ornately decorated and the Hall of Mirrors was definitely worth seeing, it was awesome. (I need to find some new adjectives for these blogs!) I took a lot of pictures and enjoyed it a lot. The gardens were also amazing – they must be so beautiful in the summer when all the trees and flowers are blooming! We only saw the fountains and pools in the middle of the gardens and there was so much more forest and gardens that we couldn’t even see! And the amount of people that were visiting just that day was tremendous. When we got back to Paris, we walked around the Louvre again for a little while, and tried to find the inverted pyramid, like the epic ending of Da Vinci Code. However Tom Hanks is very deceiving because you can’t actually look down at the pyramid because it’s all fenced off. But we did see where the two pyramids meet, which was neat – it’s actually in the mall attached to the Louvre. Then we headed to get some dinner for our last night – I ate a lot of French fries on the trip and Julia had a lot of crepes! I also discovered one of my new favorite pastries that is naturally gluten-free: macarons. They are so good! Anyways, I think that’s everything we did!

I got back to Sevilla Monday morning and I’m leaving again on Thursday morning to go see Jackie in the Netherlands until Sunday and then I’m going to Valencia by myself for Monday and Tuesday since we don’t have classes next week for Semana Santa (Holy Week). In conclusion, Paris was awesome and I’m so glad I ended up going – Julia and I had a lot of fun. The Eiffel tower was definitely as amazing as it’s cracked up to be. I also really liked the Orsay Museum and the Sacre Coeur. And the stained glass in Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle was incredible. And the city is huge! I still can’t believe I got to go to so many famous places in Paris like the Arc du Triumph and the Louvre. It's definitely worth being tired and a little stressed!

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures! <3

Musee de Orsay, Arc du Triumphe, Sacre Coeur, Opera House

The Louvre, Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle, and Eiffel Tower

Versailles and more of the Louvre