It's been sort of a crazy two days, after class on Monday, we were free to leave for travel week. First, I just want to point out that this is all I brought for 5 days in Paris:
Me and three other girls took the Chunnel from London to Paris. It was only about a two hour train ride that took us under the English channel. the idea of going under water freaked me out a little, but I had no idea we even went under the water. We left London, traveled through some English countryside and then went into a tunnel but it didn't feel like we went under ground at all, so it wasn't until about an hour and a half into our journey that we realized the few signs we saw were in French and that we made it across the channel after all. But we finally made it to Paris, got some dinner, and with the help of a nice French lady, figured out what sort of tickets we needed for the metro and got those as well. One thing I will say about the metro in Paris is that it isn't nearly as easy to navigate as the tube in London, the signs don't make nearly as much sense and I'm not just saying that because they are in French.
Me and three other girls took the Chunnel from London to Paris. It was only about a two hour train ride that took us under the English channel. the idea of going under water freaked me out a little, but I had no idea we even went under the water. We left London, traveled through some English countryside and then went into a tunnel but it didn't feel like we went under ground at all, so it wasn't until about an hour and a half into our journey that we realized the few signs we saw were in French and that we made it across the channel after all. But we finally made it to Paris, got some dinner, and with the help of a nice French lady, figured out what sort of tickets we needed for the metro and got those as well. One thing I will say about the metro in Paris is that it isn't nearly as easy to navigate as the tube in London, the signs don't make nearly as much sense and I'm not just saying that because they are in French.
We finally made it to our hotel, which is guess what?? Literally right across the street from the moulin rouge. I discovered this that morning before we left, and it was so ironic because when we were booking a hotel we were trying our best not to book one in the area. So the street we are on isn't the greatest, and I think is sort of known for prostitution, but we are literally right next to the metro stop and since it's a really touristy area, it's totally safe during the day, its really only sketchy at night, and ALL of Paris is sketchy at night, plus it's like a block or so away from a really nice area, so all together, not too bad.
So anyway, we get to the hotel, and try to check in, but have sort of a problem with that since there are four of us trying to stay in a 3 person room. The website we booked through said that they can bring in a cot and I emailed them a few weeks ago asking but never heard back. Honestly, I was worried they just flat out were not going to let us stay there, but luckily the nice man at the front desk called his boss and let us stay, and didn't even charge us for the 4th person like we expected. Now this morning when we got up a woman gave us a little trouble for this but the two men who normally work at the front desk know our story, and they are really nice. So we are basically just hoping we don't get told we all cant stay between now and when we leave saturnday morning.
So on Tuesday, we got up and headed to Starbucks for breakfast and free wifi. After the we took the metro over to Avenue de champs élysées which is a famous street and walked up it to the arc de Triomphe, where we climbed about a million stairs to the top and got a beautiful a view of Paris.
From there we walked back down the street trying to get to a palace, when it started raining, pretty hard. We got to the palace which is actually a museum. It's a beautiful building, but we didn't want to go in so walked down, over the Seine river to what we thought was another palace, but turned out to be another museum. By that time we were all wet and cold so we decided to go in. It was a war museum, so went through the exhibits about world war one and two, then went to, dome church, which is connected to the museum and is where Napoleon is buried.
At that point the rain had started to let up and we were starving so we decided to find a place to eat on our way to the Eiffel Tower. We found a bagel, hotdog and crepe place which was sort of an interesting combo, but the man working there was really kind. After we ate we walked to the Eiffel tower. The park surrounding the tower is so pretty, and we we're planning to go to the top until it started pouring rain.after a few minutes of that we were all pretty miserable, and I had decided that I hate Paris so we decided to head back towards our hotel and check out the surrounding area.
From there we walked back down the street trying to get to a palace, when it started raining, pretty hard. We got to the palace which is actually a museum. It's a beautiful building, but we didn't want to go in so walked down, over the Seine river to what we thought was another palace, but turned out to be another museum. By that time we were all wet and cold so we decided to go in. It was a war museum, so went through the exhibits about world war one and two, then went to, dome church, which is connected to the museum and is where Napoleon is buried.
At that point the rain had started to let up and we were starving so we decided to find a place to eat on our way to the Eiffel Tower. We found a bagel, hotdog and crepe place which was sort of an interesting combo, but the man working there was really kind. After we ate we walked to the Eiffel tower. The park surrounding the tower is so pretty, and we we're planning to go to the top until it started pouring rain.after a few minutes of that we were all pretty miserable, and I had decided that I hate Paris so we decided to head back towards our hotel and check out the surrounding area.
Up until this point I had actually been pretty homesick for London. I was wet, uncomfortable, worried that we were going to be kicked out of our hotel, and the areas of Paris that we had been to, although full of some really gorgeous, big buildings, didn't interest me a ton, that all changed when we started to explore the area of town behind the Moulin Rouge. By then, the rain had stopped which was such a blessing, and we knew that there were some cool old churches in that area of town so we decided to just start walking and see what we found.
What we found was SUCH a beautiful area of the city. Its a big hill that as far as I can tell is called Montmartre. There were lots of cool shops, and restaurants, and bakeries. We went to a French bakery where I got a macaron and baguette which totally made my day, as we continued to explore we found cool parks, windy streets, adorable houses and a park full of portrait artists until we got to the Sacre-Coeure, a beautiful catholic church on top of this hill that looks over Paris. We went inside, and just happened to be I there when it was time for prayers so we listened to the Nuns sing for a while before heading back, as we explored our way back home we ran into all sorts of other awesome things, like one of the only remaining vineyards in Paris, and some really cool residential areas, I also had a crepe and some gilado which was great! Honestly, the things I eat when I travel are right up there with what I see, so it was definitely a good day for that!
So my first day in Paris may not have started out too great, and it looks as though it will be raining for the rest of the week which isn't too good, but it ended up being great, and I'm excited to explore the rest of Paris!
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