Oui, Paris!

My flatmates and a friend who was visiting from Canada took me to Paris for my birthday in November. I was stoked. I had been meaning to go to Paris ever since I started learning French in elementary school. We took an early Eurostar train to Paris, which lasted around 3 hours, and made it into Gare du Nord at around 9:30 AM.

We basically had a crash tour of all of the tourist attractions in Paris - Louvre, l'Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame. We didn't get a chance to go into the Louvre or Musee D'Orsay. I was hoping to see some of Van Gogh's work.

When we got to l'Arc de Triomphe, my friend and I completely disregarded the fact that there was an underground passageway to get to l'Arc. We didn't realize that one actually existed! Instead, we crossed through the roundabout... all 9 lanes of it.

l'Arc de Triomphe

We went looking for the Eiffel Tower, but as the city layout of Paris is circular and is full of many roundabouts, we kept spotting the tower, but ended up going around in circles, not getting any closer. On our way there, we spotted a building that looked similar to the Parthenon in Athens. Although sporting similar architecture, this building had not received the same respect, and was covered in litter, graffiti, and skateboarders.

Finally, we reached the tower.

This tower was lovely at all hours of the day.

At some point, we decided to go conjure up some macarons from La Duree. However, there was a specific fountain that Jon wanted to take a photo of. Unfortunately, he ran off and we could not find him. We lost Jon for over an hour! Finally, and miraculously, we found Jon just as we stepped out of La Duree.

We then later ventured to the Sacre Coeur, after finding very interesting street art along the way... and of course, wine and cigarettes, the ultimate Parisian lifestyle.

The view from steps of the Sacre Coeur was breathtaking, and we were able to take in all of Paris in one glance.

Finally we made our way down to the Notre Dame again, where we were told that we couldn't bring a rolling luggage in. Jon and I took turns entering the cathedral, and when Jon came out again, I had fallen asleep on our luggage.

Jon and I decided that we just had to see the Eiffel Tower again before we left to return to London. However, in our excitement as the tower lit up and began to sparkle, we realized that we had less than half an hour to catch our train back. We took a cab, and I explained to the driver that we were in a bit of a hurry in my broken French. When we got there however, we could not find the platform and unfortunately missed the train. Luckily enough, the staff at the station let us take the following train, free of charge. However there was a huge delay as there was a dead animal on the train tracks. Finally, we made it back to London, ready to go to class the next day.