Paris!!

What an incredible weekend! When I signed up to study abroad, the program that I was apart of was offering a weekend trip to Paris for all of it's members.  Going to Paris has always been something that I've wanted to do, so I made sure I signed up for that!  On Friday we left around 12 to take the EuroStar to Paris.  Everyone was so excited, it was hard not to be happy that we were leaving and going to Paris, some of us on our first weekend trip!  The getting there was quite stressful and unfortunately totally out of our hands.  The EuroStar was a half hour late getting to Paris, so the buses that we had ordered weren't there any more.  When we finally arrived in Paris, it was raining.  That definitely put a damper on our moods.  We then had to wait, in the rain for about an hour or so until our buses finally came and picked us up!  After a bus ride to the hotel we finally were able to settle in and see a little bit of Paris at night.  We decided to head out to dinner first.  After a long day of traveling we were all starving!  I was actually so hungry that I got steak.  If you know anything about me, you know that I don't like red meat and I especially don't like steak, but believe it or not, I LOVED this steak.  Whether it was because I was so hungry or because it was actually really good, I just don't know, either way I definitely enjoyed my first meal in Paris.  For dessert we decided it was only right to have a crepe!  We got nutella and banana and it was amazing!!  After that we had a nice night in our hotel hanging out with everyone and getting some good sleep for our day of touring the next day.

My yummy dinner!

Amazing!

On Saturday we all woke up very early and hopped on a double decker bus to take a tour of Paris.  The weather had done a 360 and it was sunny and nice out the whole day!  On the bus tour we got to see the building where Napoleon was buried, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and many other well known places in Paris.  I loved that we were able to have such a tour and be able to see everything all at once.  If I had been there by myself there is no way that I would have been able to navigate and get to all these places!

:)

<3

Eiffel Tower!

We ended the bus tour at the Lourve and were given free tickets to enter for as long as we wanted.  Inside we got to see so many art pieces which was really incredible.  It was fun to recognize some of them from my Art History class that I took last year.  We were able to see the Mona Lisa which was quite the highlight for some of us!  After the Lourve we went and got some sandwiches and did some souvenir shopping.  After a couple of hours we met back up with our group and went on a boat which brought us around Paris as well.  That was really relaxing because we walked around so much in the Lourve, shopping and to even get to the boat itself.

The Mona Lisa!

That night we went back out for dinner at a really nice restaurant that had great Italian food.  It sounds silly that we got Italian food in Paris, but it was actually really good!  We were really excited at dinner because we were going back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night and to watch the light show that they put on every hour at night.  After dinner we left and made it to the Eiffel Tower just in time to see a show.  It was amazing.  Even with it just lit up at night it looked beautiful!  We were so happy and excited when it finally started twinkling.  The show happens every hour so after the first one that we saw, we decided to spend some time right next to the tower and wait for the next one.  We really had a lot of fun just hanging out, drinking some wine in the grass and looking at the tower.  I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to see it because it really was as amazing as you think it would have been.

Lit up at night!

& twinkling!

The next day we got up and were planning on going shopping.  Ever since we left America, I had planned on getting a Longchamp bag in Paris.  They're a French brand bag, so what better place to buy them than in France?! (not to mention after the money conversion they're much cheaper in France than in America!)  Unfortunately when we finally got to the store, we found out that everything is closed on Sundays in Paris.  I was not quite the happy camper when I found this out.  Instead we decided to wander around a bit and then make our way back to the hotel to meet up with the group and head back to London.

Since we came into Paris with a bit of stress, we ended up leaving Paris with a bit of stress as well.  Bus mishaps happened again and some of us ended up having to take the metro to the EuroStar.  By the end of the weekend we were all very ready to head "home" to London.  We really did have a great weekend though.  I loved Paris, it was so much fun to see the Eiffel Tower and everything else that was in Paris.  It was fun for me to put my French speaking skills, or should I just say my French reading skills, to use! Overall it was a fantastic trip and I'm endlessly grateful for all the opportunities I'm receiving!