Paris, France

It has dawned on me that I never made a blog for my fall break trip to Paris. Lo siento, I have not always been great at writing these on time. I guess I have been too busy enjoying my time here and keeping up with my classes…besides, if you had to pick between sight seeing, hanging out with your friends in Spain, or writing a blog, what would you pick:) Anyways, do forgive me…better late than never. So on to Paris…Notre Damn, Eiffel Tower, Luxemburg Gardens, Sacre Cure, boat rides on the river, and playing “Where’s Waldo” in the gardens of Versailles.

     During fall break, Jennifer, a friend of mine, and I went to Paris France for a week.  Paris was beautiful, of course.  It has a different feel to it than Madrid even though it is a big city like Madrid.  We arrived late Saturday and spent our first night on the landing outside of Sacre Cure overlooking the city.  That night was one of my fondest memories; the view was amazing, the music and entertainment were good, and the people from out hostel, who showed us the spot, were a lot of fun. 

     As beautiful and exciting as Paris was it’s the people who I meet that always make the biggest impact on me and make the experience really worth it.  Anyways...so what did I like most about Paris?  Well, the crêpes were awesome...there's no denying that.  The famous shopping street, Champs-Élysées, was quite nice, but I preferred it much better on a Sunday when everything was closed and there weren’t a lot of people.  Likewise, the Eiffel tower was nice but was a lot cooler at night when it was all lit up.  Notre Damn was awe inspiring especially the view from the tower, though the walk up the bell tower was a killer.  Between that and the 119 steps of our metro stop by our hostel I was starting to get into shape by the end of our trip.

     One of my favorite times in Paris was meeting up with another AHA student Sarah and going to the Château de Versailles.  While the palace was cool it was the gardens where we had the most fun.  During the day, the weather was typical of Paris, sprinkling, muggy, cloudy, with just a bit of a chill.  Because of this and time of day there were very few there and we were able to goof off in the gardens and take silly pictures.  Another of my favorite times in Paris was taking a boat ride from Pont Neuf on our last night in Paris with four other people from our hostel.  The view, company, and ambience were the perfect goodbye to Paris.  You can check out a folder of pictures in my web page to see some of the other places we went to in Paris.   All in all Paris is a must see city of Europe and definitely one of the cities I wouldn’t mind seeing again in the future.