The first night was a long one. We went from Florence to Pisa and Pisa to Paris. We took a bus to Pisa and a bus from the airport in France (that we waited out in freezing could for for an hour when it was supposed to be 30 min. So that was no fun.) Each bus ride was 1 hour or a little longer so when we finally reached our drop off point in Paris we headed straight for a taxi. Figuring out a metro at that point was out of the question, especially since I am so directionally challenged like my father. We were so happy when we got to our hotel. It was so nice and clean and comfy and the staff was every helpful. We got two double rooms that were simple with just a bathroom, double bed, and tv ( which we have not watched at all yet, so it was nice to have one even though its all in French). I was a little too happy about having two pillows in my bed. In our apartment I only have 1 and back home I have about 5...lets just say we felt pampered in a way this weekend and that I only added to our enjoyment. After settling into our hotel at 10, we went out to get dinner and found a creperie half a block away... going there was one of the best decisions we made in Paris because it was AMAZING. After dinner ( and after the staff at the restaurant told us they loved us lol) we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night.
Saturday we grabbed croissants and headed to Versilles. It took us about 30 minutes by train and we stayed for 3 hours walking everywhere around the grounds... I don't think I can use a word to describe how big it was. Just outrageously huge and we only saw part of it. Its hard to believe that it was originally bought as hunting ground. After taking the train back we went to Notre Dame Cathedral. A mass was going on while we were there, which was kind of cool. Then we walked towards the Louvre museum and stopped for sandwiches. The Lourve ended up closing early so we walked to the Arch de Triumph and stopped at a cart to get a crepe. The walk was through a big strip of the city, so we saw a lot of different stores. After seeing the arch, we took the metro back towards our hotel because we couldn't feel our feet, and on our way home we stopped for some wine and beer. Later that night we were starving again, and sadly had to resort to eating McDonalds in Paris because nothing is fast and cheap at that time of night. I am a little disappointed because I did not want to eat American food this early on, but I will say that the Paris McDonalds menu is much better than the American one. They have fresh salads and different wraps and potato wedges (which is what I got). After eating, we went back to the hotel to have some drinks and then went to sleep for one last night in our beds with multiple pillows.
After checking out Sunday we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it during the day up close ( luckily it was really close to our hotel). Then we walked to the Louvre again ( and stopped for our last chocolate crepe along the way) and ended up getting in free because we are European college students, so that was awesome. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus statue, the Egyptian Sphinx statue, and some more paintings I wish I knew more about. When we were heading back to the bus pick up point, we ended up getting in the metro on the wrong side so we had to buy another ticket ( which wasn't fun but it was the only metro mistake of the trip so I'm proud of us for that). We had to wait for 45 minuets for the bus in the snow outside. The buses were parked right in front of us but they would not let us on! After being in Paris twice, my opinion on French people is that they are very nice and helpful, but they do not wait for anyone, nor do they necessarily care about customer service. Even though we were first in line to get on the bus we still ended up getting passed up by 80 year olds who jump the line. It happened to us everywhere! But it started becoming a joke of the trip. At the airport I finally got to eat soup, which is what I have missed the most in my diet because I eat it everyday at home. I had what they called vegetable soup, but it looked more like squash soup? It was good either way and I was happy to eat something besides
carbs. Our plane was delayed because of the snow for an hour and we were going stir crazy..categories can entertain you for only so long on an airplane. Right before we took off the Italian women behind us started going crazy because the guys in front of them turned their phones back on before take off. It was kind of nuts for a second because they wouldn't stop shouting at the guys...they were embarrassed to say the least.
Because of our delayed plane, we had to run to our bus that was taking us back to Pisa. I'm honestly surprised my legs can still move that fast because of all of the walking we did over the weekend, but we luckily made the cut and got on the bus. Even though our first trip was very successful and fun, I was so happy to finally see the Duomo when we pulled into Florence. It's really starting to feel like a second home!
Picture descriptions:
1-4: This is the room Angela and I stayed in. Our hotel was called Hotel de I'Exposition-Tour Eiffel and I would recommend it to anyone traveling in small groups to Paris. For the price we paid, I was more than satisfied with our room and the hotel over all!
5-10: This is the creperie restaurant we ate at after a long day/night of traveling. It was my favorite meal in Paris this time and it was one of the most memorable meals I had when my family and I went to Paris 3 years ago. The square looking pancake is an egg with cheese, ham, and mushrooms with a crepe cooked around it (this crepe is called a salt crepe, so it doesn't taste like a normal sweet crepe)...so good. It was nice to eat "breakfast" food because its so different from what we have been eating in Italy. The other crepe was a desert crepe that we split and it had Carmel as Nutella on it and it was the best thing I have had on my trip. By the way, Nutella is like crack cocaine...it's the most addictive thing in the world and goes good on anything (Nutella croissant, Nutella on crackers, Nutella with bananas....) It's the only food that is constantly at our apartment. Anyway, the restaurant itself was wry trendy and we loved it!
11-19: Pretty obvious...but pictures don't do it justice. I'm not a "selfie" picture taker but it was really fun taking pictures of myself under the Eiffel Tower. I think all 4 of us stood there for 10 minuets doing it. At the top of every hour a light show goes off and the entire tower sparkles. During the day it's not as eye popping, but it's interesting to see it from all four sides because there are different things at each end, like one end has a small carnival and the other had an elegant spread of gads and a fountain and platform ( that's what we're standing on in our daytime pictures with the tower behind us).
20:Statue of King Louis at Versailles
21-22: The gates that lead into Versailles (they were so gold you could see them from 4 blocks away).
23: A little boy that had a backpack on with a leash. I had to take a picture because my brother and I had one back in the day
24-25: The palace
26-31: The gardens from the top view, then a view from the gardens up to the top, and a panorama shot of the entire back side of the palace
32-36: Pictures of a few of the palace rooms and doors/entry ways
37: The ceiling in this room was full of nothing but chandeliers that cascaded down the entire hallway
38: King Louis bed
39: The queens chamber
40: This is just what one of the paths looked like on the grounds. We walked these to get to Marie Antoinette's estate. It took about 25 minuets one way to walk there.
41-42: The kitchen at Marie Antoinette's and her fancy toilet
43-47: Marie Antoinette's estate.. They were so antique looking I could not believe they were still standing (#47 is a picture of our walk back)
48-54: Notre Dame outside and inside
55-56: All of us on a bridge crossing St. Christopher's canal. We were on our way to the Louvre and we stopped to eat sandwiches. I had a chicken, mozzarella, and tomatoes and some type of French mustard (tasted like a spicy dijon mustard)
57-59: The metro stop by the Lourve and some pictures by the triangle entrance
60-63: Mona, Venus, the Sphinx statue, and Alexander the Grand inside the Louvre
64-65: More pictures of the Louvre outside. It wraps around the entire plaza
66: Nicole had a blister on her heel the size of a half dollar so she couldn't stand anymore while we were waiting for the bus to let us on
67: The vegetable soup I had.. Or whatever it was
68: Angela took a picture of how huge my backpack is.. Everyone else had baby backpacks and mine takes over half of my back.. I was nervous I was going to knock something over in the museum
No comments:
Post a Comment