Paris, je t'aime

Paris, je t'aime.. Paris, I love you. Yes I do!!

Guys,

I just spent the most wonderful weekend in Paris. Seriously. SO wonderful! I've never been before, and I think I'm in love.. Sorry to report. I'm never coming back. In August I'm moving to Paris to live forever :o) Ok. Kidding. But I can wish right? lol. 4 of my friends and I decided that a year in Europe wouldn't be complete without a trip to Paris. And thanks to an awesome birthday present that included 2 nights in a hotel in Paris we were able to for

sure go. We left Den Hauge Central Station at 5:51am Friday morning and we w

ere in Paris at 9:30 (we had about a 45 min layover in Rotterdam so it was only about 3 hrs). I've never been in an actual train. I mean, I take the normal, public transportation train all over.. But this one.. This was a train train! Nice seats, carpet, clean. It was lovely. The 4 of us (the 5th one met up a couple hrs later) were so giddy (maybe because we were tired, but mostly because we were excited) on the train. When we got off we wondered around, found a cute little cafe and ate outside in the glorious sunshine. We had a yummy croissant and a glass of wine.. (don't judge me for drinking wine so early.. you would do it to if you were in Paris!) :o) Then we found a park and layed in the grass and soaked up as much sun as possible

while playing cards. When it was time to pick Jaclyn up at the station we headed over, got her and then headed to the hotel to ditch our bags and then to the Louvre we went.

my morning treat

The Louvre

does a person describe the Louvre? Other than MASSIVE and so cool. I'm not an art person so I didn't fully appreciate the 15 acres of art.. But I did appreciate the highlights. We spent 2 hrs in there and I saw my friend Mona Lisa, my old friend Michelangelo's statues along with some other famous pieces. We even saw Napoleon's apartments from when he lived in the Louvre. Did you know it use to be a palace?! Can you imagine living in a place that big?! No wonder it took 600 years to build!! Sheeish! It was seriously so beautiful inside though. Lots and lots of intricate details all over the place. It was amazing. My favorite room was Napoleons dining room. It was so beautiful! Rich gold and maroon colors all over the place. Beautiful paintings on the walls and ceiling, incredible chandeliers.. it was stunning. Outside they have mini pyramids (compared to actual ones..) and a lovely garden that you can walk through. And you can even see the Eiffel Tower from there.

The Pyramids

My friend Mona and I.. she doesn't talk much...

A somewhat famous icon in Paris...

After we were done in the Louvre we headed to see the Arc de Triumph. And along the way we were forced to walk along the Champs Elysees. Darn it anyway. I was forced to look at Dior, Channel, Mercedes, etc.. it was rough, but someone has to do it. :o) We didn't go into any really fancy famous stores, but we did pop into H&M :o) Then we grabbed some bread from a local bakery (so yummy!) and continued our walk. When we finally got to the Arc it was amazing. So big. And so cool looking. I mean really? There are about 6 lanes of traffic driving around this gigantic Arc that is incredibly detailed. Along the top there are details, on the front there are details (I'm guessing on the other side too but we didn't see that side). It really was awesome. By this time is was about 11:00 and we were all exhausted! So we headed to the metro, almost got pick pocketed, but luckily we were paying attention. (HA! Take that sleaze bag!) and then back to our nice, little, hotel room.

Arc de Triumph

Our hotel room. Oh boy. Well we stayed at the Golden Tulip and the hotel was fabulous! The staff was SO nice, and I'm sure they knew we had way to many people staying in 1 room but they didn't say a word to us. The breakfast was really yummy, and they gave us quite the spread of food. Croissants, meat, cheese, yogurt, fruit cups and the strongest. yummiest coffee I've ever had. But man. That room was TINY! lol. I was warned that the French sleep in small spaces, but geeze. I think this room was about the size of my freshman dorm room. Lol. We slept 3 to a bed and 2 on the floor. It was like a big slumber party. We had a lot of fun though I think. We even had a nice view of the hotel garden and everything. It was great. I really would recommend that hotel to anyone. Just not for 5 people to a room :o)

Our room.. I'm standing in the corner. Rachel is pretty much against the wall

Room.. I'm in the corner again...

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to see the Eiffel Tower. WHOA baby! That thing is TALL! And I don't know how a tower can be beautiful, but this one is. I mean, how is steel and brown paint pretty? But man. That tower was so pretty! We decided not to wait in the line with 300+ people just to ride the elevator up.. instead we waited in the line that took about 10 min to get through and walked up all 702 steps to the 2nd level. (yes, I was about just dying by the time we got there) But the view was incredible. The visibility wasn't so good, which is why the pictures look foggy.. but it was still nice for what I saw. We took the elevator the rest of the way up, since you can't walk and lets be honest.. I think even if I could have walked I would have ridden up anyway. Haha. When we got clear up to the very top.. wow. Thats all I can say. The view was... incredible for lack of a better word. You could see so much, and it was just.. awesome. I'll leave it at that. If you've ever been to the top you know what I mean.. if you haven't.. you should go! :o) When we got back to the bottom we took about 50 pictures of the tower and then headed to Notre Dame.

From the Top

How can 1 city have so many beautiful things? It just doesn't seem fair. Notre Dame is an extremely old and beautiful cathedral. It has a giant rose, stained glass window, flying buttresses, and more detail on 1 building than I have ever seen anywhere else. It was astounding! I just sat and stared at it for.. I don't even know how long. I was so in awe by the beauty of it. And then I walked inside and was shocked again. The ceilings were SO tall, the stained glass is so beautiful. The organ.. was.. wow. Just wow. And the garden behind it is so pretty and peaceful as well. I understand why that church needs to hold 6,000 people in it. I bet it's quite full throughout the year on Sundays.. maybe not 6,000 full.. but I bet there are loads of people who go there. Even if it isn't for church, there are gobs of people who go there just to see it! When we had our fill of the church and after taking lots of pictures of it we headed to see Montmartre/ Sacre Coeur.

Notre Dame

So big. So beautiful

The area that holds the largest hill in the city is a very artsy area. It honestly looked more Greek than French to me, but what do I know. Rachel, Jaclyn and I headed up to Montmartre (which means hill of Martyrs). It is believed to be near the execution site of early Christians at the hands of the Romans.. This hill hosts a beautiful old church called Sacre Coeur. We had to climb up a semi steep hill to get to the top, but the view was worth it. Even on the cloudy day that it was you could see Notre Dame and the Arc de Triumph. Apparently you can also see the Louvre but I didn't see it because it started to pour down rain so we ran to seek shelter in a cafe. The church was beautiful though. We didn't go inside, but the outside was pretty. Once it finally quit raining we headed down to see the Moulin Rouge.

The view from Montmartre..

Sacre Coeur

I don't have much to say about the Moulin Rouge other than, I saw it. It was cool. I got my picture taken in front of it and then we left. Haha. I'm sure it would have been more interesting if we would have paid to see a show, but we just saw the building and took some pictures and headed to find something to eat! All that waking makes you so hungry! Good thing we were staying in a city with the best bread and pastries around :o) After dinner 2 of the girls went out to meet up with another friend and the other 3 of us went back to do some shopping.. Well..more like looking... after about 2 hrs of not buying anything we headed back and called it a night. All that walking around really wears you out!

(left to right) Jaclyn, Me, Rachel

Artsy Moulin Rouge Mural

Sunday morning we checked out dropped our luggage off at the train station went back to Notre Dame to take a couple more pictures and get some souvenirs and then we took a little boat ride down the Seine river. I highly recommend doing that as well! It was so nice to see the city from a different view and we were able to learn something about all the major buildings along the river. It was a lot of fun. Then it was time to go...

At the end our of little cruise. Rachel P, Rachel G, me, Jaclyn (Niki went off on her own)

So. The boat tour was done at 1:30.. our train left at 2:25... we were about 30 min from the train station by metro. So we walked quickly to the metro hopped on the metro and got to the station at about 2:10... we ran like the wind to get our bags, and then ran clear down the tracks to get into our car on the train.. They don't let you just hop into car 10 if you are in car 15.. no no no they make you walk alllll the way down to car 15 to get in.. We made it from the metro to our train in about 12 min.. that may not sound like much to you.. but if you've ever been in that train station.. you know that we should have received some sort of medal for that accomplishment :o)

So. Here I sit. Back in the Netherlands. Back to reality. The weekend was absolutely amazing. I loved it. It was such a fun thing to do and I am so glad that I got to go and experience it!!