Paris

DAY 1
Our first night in Paris, Matt and I met up with our friend Rachel and her friend who are studying in Paris for the summer also through a USD program. We went to Place Saint-Michel and got ham/cheese and butter/sugar crêpes (freshly-made, thin pancakes that are sold by vendors on the streets). Then we walked across the Seine River and took pictures outside the Notre Dame. Rachel wasn’t feeling well so after she and her friend left Matt and I continued to explore the Notre Dame.

Later that night we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful at sunset and when it became dark the tower lit up and started to sparkle with lights. Everywhere we went in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower there were vendors rattling Eiffel Tower key chains in our faces. Apparently it’s illegal to sell them there because all of a sudden we would see a swarm of African men running in one direction with tons of key chains jingling and dangling from their arms.

Then we walked to a carousel behind the Eiffel Tower and I took some long exposure night photography shots of the carousel with the Eiffel Tower behind it for my digital color photography class. I will be posting these pictures later.

DAY 2
First we took the metro to Montmartre to see the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart Basilica). It was extremely hot and crowded with tourists. It wasn’t until we climbed to the top that we noticed the funicular (an elevator that brings people to the top). There was a nice atmosphere there though. There was a man playing the guitar and singing songs on the steps leading up to the basilica. Everyone was sitting on the steps singing along or just watching. After visiting the basilica we wandered around looking for a cheap place to eat. Finally we could only find a nice restaurant where Matt ordered a croque-madame which is a grilled sandwich with ham, cheese and a fried egg, and I ordered an omelette .

We took a nap before going out again, and we were definitely glad we did. We took the metro to the Trocadéro (an area across the river from the Eiffel Tower). We watched some really amazing street performers there and walked from there to the Arc de Triomphe via Avenue Kleber. We visited the Arc de Triomphe and then walked along the Champs Élysées (the main street that the Arc de Triomphe is on) on our way to the Tuileries Garden. On our walk we passed many dimly lit parks and bushes, and Matt got annoyed with me for not wanting to walk on the side of the bushes. I can thank my mom for that paranoia, well paranoia in general. My uncle Lu once told me, “Paranoia will destroy ya.” Truer words have never been spoken. I absolutely hate being paranoid! Sometimes I wish I could be a little more carefree (I’m sure Matt feels the same way about me).

Upon arriving to the gardens we noticed they were already closed for the night, but we continued to walk until we got to the Louvre Museum. The Louvre Pyramid was beautifully lit up.

We were extremely exhausted after walking so far in the heat that night. We decided to walk everywhere that day to save money instead of buying metro tickets to go from monument to monument. We only took the metro out into town and back to the hotel and walked everywhere in between. On the metro we saw a man with an afro and a pet rat crawling in it. Sooo disgusting! And believe me, we weren’t the only ones on the metro that thought so.

Anyway, by walking all day it took us a lot longer to get back to our hotel and by the time we got there all the nearby restaurants/eateries were closed. There was only one restaurant still serving food and it was inconveniently expensive (for us at least). Our plan failed. So instead of saving money from walking we actually ended up spending more money than we wanted to by having to eat at this very expensive and confused restaurant. Confused? Yes, it was called Taverne Karlsbrau (sounds German right?) and then we get inside and it’s a seafood restaurant with Chinese wall décor, Dutch plates, Chinese customers, and French waiters. Hmmm…

DAY 3
The next morning we got an early start to our day because we had to check out at 11 AM (which is early for us). It was pouring rain outside so we decided to see a movie at a theater we had seen when we were walking on the Champs Élysées the day before. Before the movie we stopped at McDonald’s for an American meal (with European prices) and shelter from the rain. Then we watched the original version (English) of Angels and Demons (the adaptation of the Dan Brown sequel to The Da Vinci Code) with Tom Hanks. For all of you who know me at all, I’m sure you are thinking “Did Laila actually stay awake during a movie?” and the answer is of course, no. I saw part of the beginning and part of the end with a big nap gap in between, but hey, at least I was dry from the rain so it wasn’t a complete waste of money. Once the movie was over the rain had cleared and we took the metro to the Tuileries Garden again which was open this time. We walked through the park and through the Louvre square again and then along a shopping street called Rivoli.

We found our way to the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall) which I had wanted to see so badly since my favorite photograph is Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (Kiss by Hôtel de Ville) by French photographer Robert Doisneau. I even had the poster of the photograph in my dorm freshman year.In front of the Hôtel de Ville there was a very interesting nature exhibit called Jardin éphémère parisien promoting biodiversity. It almost looked like compost but put together in an artistic way. There were sculptures made out of leaves and branches. It definitely reminded me of my auntie Lola and her organic fruits and veggie garden.

Since we had already saved a lot of metro tickets by walking everywhere all day, we decided to keep it up and walk back to our hotel. We did pretty well finding our way there with the help of a map and a detour to get butter/sugar and Nutella crêpes in Place Saint-Michel again. From out hotel we grabbed our backpacks and took the train to the airport to return to Madrid on only a 2 hour flight.

à la prochaine fois – Until next time.

-Laila