Spring Break: Paris

Because I have so much to say about Spring Break, I'm going to split it up into 3 parts for the 3 place we visited. First off was Paris! Our plane tickets to get there from Pisa, which is only an hour away from Florence, was around 10 euro. Score! Our flight was delayed 2 hours, it took an hour on a bus to get to into the city, and then more time to figure out how to get a metro ticket and get to our hostel. Once arriving to our hostel, they informed us that a large group of students recently trashed numerous rooms and there was no room for us. They sent us to a different hostel and told us to come back the next morning and we would be only charged for the next two nights. So we hiked over to our new hostel, got settled in and headed out. After 6 pm, the Louvre is free for students, and it was raining so we thought that would be best. The building is ginormous and no way that a whole day would give someone enough time to see everything. So we got picky and went to see things that we really wanted to see, including Mona! After all of the traveling and walking around, we decided to head back towards the hostel and find something to eat. We ate at a cute restaurant that a girl sitting outside promised to us was good. She came in and helped translate the menu for us. I tried duck and loved it! Tasted really similair to turkey! After that we hit the sack. The next day we ventured out to the Arc de Triumph. Once arriving there, we observed the 6 lanes of traffic that circles the arc and had no idea how to get across. So we ran!! We soon found out that there is an underground passage that you can take, which we walked right by thinking it was for the metro. Whoops! Chealyn took a video of us running across which turned out to be quite humorous!! After the arc we went to the Eiffel Tower. Definately one of my favorite things we did in Paris! We rode the elevator to the top and looked over the city. We didn't realize how large Paris was until we got to the top. We spent a lot of time there enjoying the view and drooling over how awesome and amazing the tower is.

We met up with an au pair that Charlotte had as a child who lives in Paris. They were so excited to meet with eachother again, as they haven't seen eachother since Charlotte was a child. It was great talking to him and learning more about their culture. He even paid for all of our dinner! I tried veil and liked it also, but not as much as the duck. After dinner we walked and talked some more and tested out the dessert, crepes! I got nutella and banana, so good!!

Sunday we we went to Versailles, which is where Louis XV built his estate and those who ruled after him lived in for some time. We study a lot about Versailles in our history of interiors classes, so we thought it was pretty essential to visit. This building was about twice the size of the Louvre! I couldn't get a picture that fit the entire structure in it! It was absolutely breathtaking and amazing. Being a student studying abroad in Italy and having my visa for a country part of the EU, I got in for free. Even better! We only toured part of the building, because we wanted to see the gardens and Petit Trianon and Marie Antoinette's estate which were located 20 minutes through the gardens. I've included a picture of the Hall of Mirrors which is one of the more famous rooms in Verailles.

After Versialles we headed back towards central Paris and visited Notre Dame. We luckily got there at a perfect time and got to experience one of their services. It was really neat to see plus the interior of the church is absolutely stunning. We don't get ot see a lot of gothic churches in Italy, so it was a nice change. The program had the scripture readings in English to follow along as well. At this point we were so tired and gave up on the food and ate at Subway. It was good though! Our final thing we wanted to see was the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, which was even better looking than the day time! Every 15 minutes or so, sparkly lights would flicker on and off. It was beautiful!