-the weekend before I went to Trier, Germany and just stayed in Lux. It was a good way to save a little bit of money and it also gave us time to rest before we had such a crazy week.
Background: Okay so this week in Paris wasn’t simply a sabbatical (although I wish it had been). It’s actually for my HST 364 Sprint Study Tour Course which is about Social Media and it’s evolution in Europe. So because Paris was the center of a lot of social media during the 17th through 19th and even 20th century this was the perfect place to go. Pretty much we have a certain number of things that we have to do with our class and then we have time to ourselves to pretty much do whatever. We also got 5 day metro passes so during our free time we were able to travel quickly and efficiently.
Monday: We left around 10 AM and got on a train that went directly to Paris. Most of us just slept through that whole trip. Our first step onto the lands of Paris was – well… anticlimactic – but still we were in Paris. It took 2 hours to get there and then we had to go find our hotel. Of course the train ride went well so finding our hotel wasn’t going to. We wandered around and literally walked in circles for a good half hour. Finally, we located our hotel – a small little unassuming building tucked into a row of other similar looking buildings. It wasn’t a bad hotel – definitely not great but decent. So we got to the hotel and most of us just wanted to crash but we only had an hour before we started our first tour -_-. Realizing our stomachs overruled our need for food we set of toward our tour location in search of food. We found a little sandwich cart and did that purely because it was easy and quick.
At this point the real school portion of the tour began. Our first tour was of the Louvre. (not the whole thing apparently it’s impossible to actually see everything in one day). Anyway – we were split up into groups and we walked through a bunch of different areas and learned the history of something things and just saw others. Honestly, it was a really interesting tour. We were all exhausted but I truly did enjoy it and learn a lot from this one. My favorite thing was actually the painting of the Wedding at Cana which is positioned right behind the Mona Lisa, It’s the largest painting in the Louvre and honestly it’s just a beautiful unique painting. Also, when you first walk into the actual Louvre museum you are in what was the moat of the original castle. On one of my pictures there are hearts that are carved in stone – those are real and were found when architects began to demolish the building.
After 2 hours at the Louvre we were allowed to venture off on our own before we had dinner our a group. We decided to go and see Notre Dame. We walked a lot further from the metro than we needed to so we decided to just find our restaurant rather than go into the Louvre at that time.
Dinner at the restaurant was good but nothing phenomenal. I had a steak with fries (we only had two options) and the steak was kind of cold and barely cooked. So that was a little sad but it meant I had more room for crepes :D. After dinner we ventured to the Eiffel Tower, got crepes, took a ton of pictures, and sat on the grass and watched the light show. It was a relax beautiful evening and I’m really glad that was how we decided to spend our first evening.
Tuesday: We got to sleep in this morning and it was glorious we all seriously needed it. Even still we were up by 9 to get breakfast and visit the Eglise St. Germain l’Auzerrois. A.K.A – a church. Granted it was a pretty church but nothing phenomenal. We went because it houses the largest number of stained glass pieces in France after the French Revolution. We spent about 30-45 minutes there before we were free on our own until 1:30.
The church was close to Notre Damn so we decided to go back and walk through that. Now that is a gorgeous church. We visited during mass which was actually kind of cool because they still go through the whole mass and it’s one of the few churches with tourists that does a full mass. So we went through that and just looked around before deciding we wanted lunch. Honestly, this was one of my sadder moments I’ll admit because we all unanimously decided to go to Chipotle. And I will admit in complete seriousness that it was an amazingly wonderful decision. It seriously tasted like home and I swear I nearly cried at the wonderfulness of guacamole.
After lunch was over we had to head to our second event of the day. This was a tour of the Carnavalet Museum. This is the main museum for French history. Needless to say there is a lot of stuff in throughout the museum.
– 2 hours later and I can tell you just about nothing about what occurred –
Seriously the most painful experience I have ever had and it was just painful to get through. After it was over we were all sitting waiting to be dismissed and my professor came over to me and said, “That was brutal. You know the wing that was closed? Yeah – that’s the only reason we came here.” So pretty much I wandered around suffering my tour guides voice for 2 hours for no reason. I was so ecstatic to get out of there.
We had time for dinner on our own before our final event of the day. Megan and I decided to go do some shopping. We headed to the Champs-Elysees and just wander through there. So many stores some expensive some not. I bought 2 sweaters… from H&M but ya know. It was a good experience. We went to a few little shops on our way to the jazz place and then found a small cafe. Finally, our last event of the day was actually a visit to a Jazz Club called Caveau de la Huchette. I’ll be completely honest, I did not have high expectations for this place. I expected us to be the only ones there (it was in a basement with historical significance as a jail that housed quite a few famous people) and I expected like a bunch of really old guys playing for a few minutes before turning on the radio. I was so wrong. We got there early so the place was empty and we all found seats. Then, the band came down followed by a ton of people. Within 5 minutes the whole place was packed and people were starting to pair up and waiting on the band. The band started to play and everything was set into motion. People were gliding across the floor and swinging each other around. It was gorgeous and crazy. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it and I was so glad that we had the opportunity to visit there. We actually ended up staying and watching until around midnight before deciding we needed to head back to our hotel. The second we got to the hotel our heads hit the pillow and we were out.
Wednesday: On Wednesday we were up and out by 8:30 in order to get to Versailles. This was the trip I was looking forward to the most so I didn’t mind being up early. We got on a 45 minute train straight there which was really nice. First we had a bike tour scheduled, then lunch, and then we could tour Versailles on our own and we were done for the day.
When we first got there we met our tour guide and she was this lovely friendly older woman. She then proceeded to tell us it was a 2 hour bike tour half through the gardens half through the city. Okay, that sounded a little rough but I figured I could handle it. We spent about 20 minutes in the garden and it was absolutely gorgeous I wish we had spent the whole time there. Then, we headed up a massive cobblestone hill into the town. That was where things figuratively went down hill and it became the bike ride from HELL. Just so summarize – this woman changed lanes going head on with a bus, she tried to squeeze between two semi-trucks, she ignored any and all pedestrian do not walk signs, she also ignored the pedestrians, and she continued to put us on tiny streets and then tell us to turn around. -_- Needless to say my butt was killing me, and we were all just so angry by the time we were done. We also didn’t learn anything because rather than talk into her microphone she would just hum. Yeah. That’s all I have for that one.
After we had a lovely lunch – we got sandwiches and sat/took a nap by the water. It was relaxing and very enjoyable. After lunch we headed up to the actually house where we had an unguided tour of Versailles. Honestly, it’s simply just a gorgeous building with so much history. I read a ton of information and then followed an audio guide and learned so much. I took some pictures but really just enjoyed wandering through everything. (I also took a selfie in the hall of mirrors – duh) lol. Overall that was probably my favorite thing that we would do on the trip..
After Versailles we thought about hanging around the town but decided we would rather just head back. We went to this amazing bookstore called Shakespeare and Company. It’s run by writers that need a place to stay for awhile. It was simply amazing and overwhelming. After that we decided to go get dinner… we went to Chipotle (again I know). It was really amazing. Then we wanted to go see Moulin Rouge – aka just the building. So we went there. It’s 180 just to see the show so we took some pictures out front. Then figured we would have a relaxing drink and head back to the hotel. We found a bar called the Lux bar (weird right?!) and decided that was our place. We hungout for a bit, had a drink and then meandered back to our hotel. I opened my card for when I miss Rachel. 🙂 -I pulled myself together shelly you’d be proud lol. It was a great night and after the bike ride I was so glad to lay down.
Thursday: We really didn’t know what to expect for Thursday because all we knew was that we were doing a walking tour. Well… the first 2 hours were really interesting. We saw things that we wouldn’t have if we had been on our own. We also learned a little more about everyday life during the 18th century. The next 2 hours however… we all wanted to shoot ourselves. We saw things we had already seen and walked all over Paris. It was painful and dull.
Honestly the second we were told we were free to go we all turned and bolted in different directions. It was simply way to much. We can only absorb so much. And any time we would look at a bench she would speed up. It was torture.
After a few people wanted to find the Longchamp store – so we hunted for that… for an hour and a half.. never found it. Finally, we decided to admit defeat and headed to the Eiffel tour (serious defeat right?). Now be proud – I went up to the 2nd level of it. Granted I didn’t walk – that’s far to many stairs for my already sore behind to handle. But I made it up there, didn’t have a panic attack, and just hungout and enjoyed the scenery. We were going to go to the top but it was closed for some reason for an hour and then when it reopened there was a 2 hour wait – so no thanks. It was still stunning and I’m glad we went.
We hungout at the Eiffel tour for awhile, had a crepe, and just sat and enjoyed resting with a gorgeous view. We were all exhausted from the walking all day and didn’t want to do any metro adventures. So we headed to the hotel, got a bottle of wine and a few of us sat in a room and hungout and talked. It was exactly what I needed after that kind of day.
Friday: Our trip was almost over. We got up early and went to the Musée d’Orsay. It was a great museum with a lot of french history. We had an hour and a half tour and honestly I wish we hadn’t. I just kind of wandered around looking at a ton of different types of art. The tour was nice but our guide really just wanted to focus on specific paintings rather than the movement and letting us form our own ideas. There was a lot more variety in this museum than in the others which was super cool. At the end of our tour – we were done. Free to go off on our own for the weekend in whatever direction we chose.
Before we left though we had to have lunch… and yep you guessed it. Chipotle. (hey, gotta hold over my homesickness)
Au-Revoir Paris!
*pictures to soon
My Lux Adventure 