Week in Paris

So I haven't written on in here for a while because we were in Paris for a week and I didn't bring my computer. But we got back last night and now I have so much to say about what we did in Paris!

Sat June 20--We took the TGV from Aix to Paris, which took about 3 hours. Then we checked into our hostel, which was surprisingly nice. It's called MIJE (Maisons Internationales de Jeunesse et Etudiantes) and it's located in the Marais area of Paris. Our metro stop was Saint Paul on line 1, for those of you who might know the metro system pretty well. Anyway, then we just spent the day walking around Paris, and went to dinner that night with the whole group. The dinner was paid for by VIF and it was really good! We tried to go out together as a group that night, but keeping track of about 22 people in Paris is pretty difficult, so we ended up splitting up into smaller groups and just bar-hopping. It was pretty fun.

Sun June 21--We got up early in the morning and walked around for about 4 hours. We walked past the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Champs Elysees, and also went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We ate lunch near the Musee d'Orsay, and then met up at Pont Neuf for the afternoon activity, a boat tour (bateau mouche) on the Seine. We saw a lot of cool places on the boat tour that we later visited throughout the week. I don't remember what we did afterwards, although my camera will probably remind me. But that night was La Fete de la Musique, and it was definitely a very crazy night...

Mon June 22--We went to the Louvre in the morning and it was the most disorganized thing I've ever done. Needless to say, I wish I had gone by myself instead of with the group because the lady acting as our tour guide was no good at all. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be back in Paris sometime soon. Afterwards, we ate lunch and then a few of us went to the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line for over an hour and then found out that the top floor had closed due to overcrowding, so we left. We ate dinner at the hostel, and then went to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were so beautiful and the best part of the day.

Tues June 23--We had the morning free, so a few of us went to Les Invalides (where Napoleon's tomb is) and then over to the National Opera, which is very beautiful inside. We ate lunch on the steps of the Opera, and then headed over to the Musee d'Orsay for our organized activity of the day. We had the same tour guide, so once again, it was incredibly disorganized. I ended up getting lost from the group during the tour, which was probably good because that meant I got to see the works of art that I really wanted to see (Degas!) instead of looking at paintings that the tour guide likes. That night, I went to dinner with my Dad and brother in the Montparnasse area, and we ate crepes! Actually, I ate a lot of crepes during the week in Paris because there are crepe stands everywhere and a nutella crepe sounds good at any time of day regardless of where you are or what you're doing.

Wed June 24--This was our full free day, so a few of us went to Versailles. We toured the palace and the gardens, and went to look at Marie Antoinette's area, where she had a house built of pink marble...of course, I loved it! I definitely want to go back because I didn't get to see her Temple of Love where she held parties, and I do want to see that! When we got back to Paris, some of us went up to the top of the Montparnasse Tower, which is supposed to be the best view of Paris because you can see the Eiffel Tower and you don't have to see the Montparnasse Tower itself (it's pretty ugly). And it was a really good view! After that, we had dinner at the hostel, and we also went out that night, as we did almost every single night in Paris since we didn't have any classes.

Thurs June 25--Our organized activity for the day was to see Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle in the morning, and I thought both were very beautiful. Overall, I liked Notre Dame better, but the second floor of Sainte Chapelle had so many beautiful stain glass windows. Of course I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven't even uploaded them to my computer yet, so they're definitely not on the internet, just as none of my pictures from this summer are. Oh well, I'll get around to it eventually. That afternoon, a few of us went to the Catacombs, which I thought were really scary! I figure it's one of those places in Paris that you go to just once, so the next time I'm there, I think I'll be skipping out on that experience. Afterwards, we did a little bit of shopping since Soldes (the giant sales in France) started on Wednesday. Then we had dinner at the hostel, and went out for a bit.

Fri June 26--A friend and I tried to go to the Edith Piaf museum on Friday morning, but when we got there, there was a sign saying that visits are by appointment only, and that appointments can only be made on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I've never been to a museum before that works that way, and I was really disappointed because I had been looking forward to going to the Edith Piaf museum all week. Well, just one more reason to go back to Paris very soon. Since we had time left over, we went to the Champs Elysees to buy gifts for people and ate lunch there at a cute little deli. Then we went to Montmartre to meet up with the group to tour the area of Montmartre and see Sacre Coeur. After doing so, a few of us split off from the group and went to Les Deux Moulins, the cafe where the film Amelie takes place. We drank coffee there and took a few pictures there--it was really fun. We then went back to the hostel to get ready for our last night in Paris. Kim, Daniela, Caroline, Lindsey, and I got dressed up and went out to dinner in the Marais, near our hostel. The five of us had been hanging out all week long and decided that we should go out to dinner on our last night instead of eating at the hostel. Our dinner was very good and pretty well priced for Paris. Then we went back to the hostel to meet up with some other kids in our program, and then we headed out to this club called Rex. It was kind of expensive to get in, but it was well worth it. Apparently, the DJ there that night is pretty well known, so there were so many people there. We danced for several hours and then went back to the hostel.

Sat June 27--For our last morning in Paris, I decided just to walk around by myself. It was nice and relaxing and then I met up with the group for lunch. We then got on the metro and went to Gare de Lyon to get on our train. Three hours later we were back in Aix!


Now I have less than 3 weeks here in Aix and so much left to do! I'm sure it's going to fly by, and I will definitely write on here again soon! A tout a l'heure!