Christina-en France!: A weekend in Paris!

Salut!

I started to fall behind on my blog as my math course was demanding a lot of time last week, but finally I have some time to talk about my weekend in Paris with Breanne at the end of Jan! This blog is going to be full of pictures.

Friday morning, I walked down the mountain at 6am to catch my 3 hour train to Paris, to the Gare de Lyon. Anyone seen that movie where Mr. Bean goes to Paris?

Well in his honour, I ordered tea on the TGV train too.

There are over 20 metro lines in Paris, but by some miracle, Breanne and I were able to find each other. Both of us are known for our (lack of) directional sense. By the end of the weekend, we discovered how to get where we wanted to go. Listen to our instincts, then turn 180˚ around and start walking.

And where’d we walk to first? The Galerie Lafayette for some SHOPPING! It’s this beautiful enormous gallery with a bunch of beautiful shoes and bags and clothes from the biggest brands that we definitely couldn’t afford, even with the major sales on right now in France. But it was cool just to be in there!

We headed back to Monmartre, the region where our hostel was located, and stopped at Sacre Coeur Bascillica. It's the highest point in Paris.

A lovely view of Paris!

At that point, we were able to check into our hostel. It was actually really cute and clean. We were in a little room with 6 beds.

After locking up our bags, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower! First, we stopped for dinner at “Pizza Tina” (you have no idea how much this thrilled me).

Eating with one of my best friends in PARIS!

Then came the hunt for the Eiffel Tower. It's embarrassing to ask where the tallest building in Paris is, especially when you know it's close, so we attempted to find it on our own and (eventually) managed! When we found it, our first instinct was to book it towards it (as if it was going to run away?). It was the coolest moment ever!

At 9, 10, and 11 PM, the Eiffel Tower lights up and looks so pretty! This clip is blurry and doesn’t do it justice, but I decided to post it because the background conversation was funny. It was me trying to kindly tell a man that I didn’t want to buy any souvenirs, I just wanted to look at the Eiffel Tower.

I wasn’t very effective.

Back to the hostel, I realized we didn't know who we'd be sharing a room with that night. "Do you think there'll be guys in our room...?" And Breanne responded, "Christina, it's not like he's gonna jump on you in the middle of the night, calm down." Well. While I was fast asleep, a guy dumped his stuff on me and then said, "That's my bed." Startled and still half asleep, I responded, "Uhh...would you like me to move?" He responded, "No, that's okay."

Well then, WHY did you dump your stuff on me! hahaha

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The street outside of our hostel had some very bold pigeons and anyone who knows Breanne should know of her insane fear of birds. She attemped to conquer this fear this weekend. (You’ll have to tilt your head).

Get ready for lots of pictures!

On Sat morning, we got up early to see the Louvre!

It is HUGE! I don’t really know much about art, so my descriptions will be vague. We looked at old French and Holland paintings, older sculptures, and then we went to an exhibit on ancient Egypt.

And of course, we stopped for a visit with the Mona Lisa.

Breanne showed her great art appreciation through imitation. (Note the facial expressions.)

(I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to let us into this museum.)

What was actually amazing to me was how huge some of the paintings and tapestries were. We were able to walk though a couple of these sections practically alone, which was surreal.

For lunch, Breanne had her first French crepe. You should have seen her face.

A trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete without going up the Eifle Tower, so we began the climb (in heals, of course)!

La Seine

View from the top

View of the Arc de Triomphe from the Eiffel Tower

We were only allowed to climb to the second level, so we took the elevator the rest of the way.

Next was L’arc de Triomphe

It's big.

Breanne and I cooked at the hostel that night. Took 2 hours to make a stirfry with one weak hotplate. We visited with a couple of American girls studying in Lyon.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Mornings are hard on Breanne.

But we made it to Sacre Coeur Bascillica for Mass! The readings and parts of the Mass were all written in French, English, Italian, and I think Spanish. After Mass, we walked though some of Monmartre. I love the pedestrian streets!