Bonjour! A group of eight of us, including myself, left early Friday morning to head to Paris, France for the weekend. After arriving at our hostel on Friday, we spent the afternoon exploring the Eiffel Tower, climbing to the second floor, watching and watching the sunset from the top. It was the perfect time of day to go, as we saw all angles and views from this monument. As we were walking back to the train station that night, the clock struck 11:00 p.m. as we had a wonderful view of the tower as it started to sparkle. Truly a fantastic experience, but I must warn my fellow Saints, walking to the forth floor of Tower Hall is nothing compared to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower!
Saturday morning started early as a group of us went to visit the Cattacombs. I also had the opportunity to explore a market right next to our hostel, featuring fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and much, much more! It was great to explore an area where the locals do their buying and selling on Saturday mornings, and chat with them while walking through.
We arrived at the Cattacombs, hav I ng to wait an hour and a half in line to visit this incredible piece of art. Over six million human bodies lie to rest here, and though the exhibit only walks through two kilometers, there is over 350 kilometers of tunnel lying underneath the streets of Paris (not all of these tunnels are filled with bones).
After this adventure, we met up with our group at the Arc de Triomphe to take some photos and explore, before having lunch on the famous Champs-Elysées de Elysses.
The evening continued with a visit to Notre Dame, where we got to explore the gorgeous architecture and detailing of this amazing church. To finish off the evening, we visited the Love Lock Bridge, took pictures of the Saint's Chapel, Moulin Rouge, and seeing La libertè èclairant le monde (France's 9 meter tall Statue of Liberty). This monument is a replica of the damius one given to the United States by France, and after being moved around several times, her eyes point in the direction of New York.
Today, we got up and traveled to Versailles, where we visited the palace, the gardens, and Marie Antoinette's cottage. The cottage was very beautiful and homelike, whereas the palace was beyond extravagant. Every hallway and room had arched ceilings and was filled with portraits, sculptures, paintings and elevate detailing. My favorite sculpture was of L'Hopital, a famous mathematician who I happened to see wondering through the hallways. The gardens were also beautiful, filled with sculptures, live music, fountains and a beautiful grand canal.
The only downside to France was a slight language barrier at some restaurants, and reading signs at exhibits proved extremely difficult as well. However, we had Megan Brennhoffer, who is quite fluent in the language to help us out along the way. She even taught me some French throughout the weekend! It was all good, until I told my waitress, the French Onion Soup had "sad cheese". She simply laughed at me, then called me a ham, but I guess embarrassment is all part of learning.
In the morning, we are headed to Harry Potter Studuos, so I better get some rest, as this is the trip I have been looking forward to most. Bon journee! (Have a good night!)
I think it's so amazing that we had the opportunity to travel to other countries over the weekend and learn about other countries and their histories along with London. These weekend trips really help us get a broader understanding of Europe as a whole and help us see similarities and differences between London, Paris, Santander, Dublin, or wherever someone goes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Meghan; this trip, including both in London and our excursions, really shows how different America is from the rest of the Western world, and how different each country in Europe is from the rest. As Luc said to me the other day, "No wondering where we got our 'We want to be different' attitude. Look at how different the UK is from the rest of Europe."
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome Rachel! I would've loved to have gone to Paris. I'm sure the culture shock was much different going there compared to arriving here in London. The catacombs sound amazing! It's creepy to think about how many skeletons are underneath Paris streets and how that was the only way of disposing of the corpses. I'm sure there's lots of bodies underneath London streets, but nothing to that extent. The Eiffel Tower also sounds incredible. I had no idea that it did a bit of a light show at night- I saw some pictures on another persons phone that were astounding. I'm glad you had a good time. I went to Dublin this weekend and had a very different experience, so it's cool to hear another viewpoint on a vastly different city.
ReplyDeleteI can not believe Rachel and I ran into you and the others in Paris. What are the chances it would happen at Notre Dame. That was truly a very beautiful cathedral. It was so big and majestic. I loved all the gargoyles surrounding the top of the building. I did not see Quasimodo up there. I am jealous you got to see the Eiffel Tower light show, I was just able to see it with it's lights on. I agree with the language barrier at some points in the trip was hard but I thought most of the time it was very easy to communicate. I learned from Rachel a couple words and phrases in French.
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