falling in love with Paris...

Bonjour!!

My last trip through Europe was amazing!! I loved Paris!! Contrary to belief, the french people are EXTREMELY nice and helpful!! The weather was a bit crappy with rain and very cold! But, it was still very amazing!!

Day 1:

We started walking toward the Eiffel Tower and passed Parc de Monceau, which looked pretty. Next we saw Arc de Triomphe which was cool, it was an arc dedicated to soliders i think...really cool, but not as big as I thought it would be. By the way, the French are notorious for building underground tunnels to get to things situated in the center of the street, just fyi. From there we found the Eiffel tower, which was extremely tall and magnificent! The eiffel tower was about a 4 hr ordeal with waiting in many lines for buying ticket, actually entering the tower, taking elevator to 2nd floor, to the top, back down to the second and finally out of the eiffel tower. It was worth it, but deft a one time thing. I would like to say, for anyone that knows me this is a big ordeal that I went to the top, because I am TERRIFIED of heights!! But all went well and im glad i did it! From there we got some hot cocoa at a local restraunt because we were FROZEN! It was definately the coldest place I had been. We left there and stumbled upon the Christmas market, which was my favorite place!! It consisted of numerous shops on two streets set up in booths consisting of different foods and vendors. In the middle of the street was a huge ferris wheel and there were christmas lights everywhere soo beautiful!! I tried the christmas wine which is hot wine...not that great but part of the culture :) I also tried a crepe with nutella it was pretty good. Lol and had strawberries with white chocolate yum!

Day 2:

We woke up early and ate breakfast...just fyi french milk is gross!! Then we went to the Notre Dame it was beautiful, but started powering and sidewalks flooded a bit, shoes wet=bad! Went inside and id say it was the second most beautiful church I'd ever seen, right behind San Marco's Basilica in Venice. From there we went to the Louvre, which was really cool and huge! After gazing at the Mona Lisa and other beautiful art and statues we went to a italian/french restraunt, with some cute waitors :) Tried french wine and it was good!! From there we shopped and went back to the hostel. Later that night we went to Bar San Michel and danced away to American Music and listened to the french attempt to sing different American Songs..which was hilarious and i tried french beer which is okay, belgium was still the best! Then we saw a panoramic view of paris at night it was beautiful from Rue Azais, a church. Then we got some hot cocoa at a cafe and met some more nice french people who spoke english :)

Day 3:

On our last day there, we woke up early and went to see Moulin Rouge, which was a lot smaller than I imagined. We also saw the church Rue Azais again. It was beautiful! I also tried creme brulee!

The only negative thing about france except for the weather was the airport was hugely disorganized! Other than that I loved it! I got around with my 3 french phrases: "como tale vou" how are you; bonjour and merci boucoup! Everyone was really nice, the city was beautiful and the lights were amazing! I would recommend it to anyone! :) Less than 2 weeks in Madrid left, with finals rapidly approaching! Cant wait to go home, yet dont want to leave Madrid...

Au revoir!