The City of Light

There’s nothing better than free and there is no place like Paris so when I found out that my program was paying for a trip to Paris which included a four-star hotel right in city center I could not be happier. After budgeting every other trip down to the last euro and staying in some pretty questionable hostels, it was a very welcomed change of pace. More importantly, I could not wait to see the famous city!

We unfortunately had a very short amount of time in Paris, but we made the most of it! When we checked in Friday evening, I wasn’t feeling well and unhappily had to stay in for the night. However, on Saturday, our thirty-person group divided and conquered the big city! My friends Kelley, Merrie, and I began the day at the Louvre. We headed straight for the Mono Lisa, who of course had a huge crowd of people staring at her. We snapped our pictures of Da Vinci's painting and went over to Venus. It was early in the morning, but I tried to remind myself just how incredible and historical the things I was seeing are. 

Next, after a quick stroll through an interesting fashion museum, we wandered through a gorgeous park until we ended up at the Christmas markets. It was there that I decided I would one day return to Paris at Christmas time. It was amazing! Christmas music playing and street vendors for miles with gorgeous little gifts and food! We picked up some souvenirs for ourselves and families then moved on to the world-famous shopping street, Champs Elysees. 

On Champs Elysees, we continued our shopping and tried on a few things but most of all we just admired the city and it’s out-of-this-world shopping. We stopped for a quick lunch on a sidewalk bistro. I ate one of the most amazing baguette BLT’s I have ever had. We thought we had seen it all with the shopping but we were about to stumble upon Franklin D. Roosevelt Street. This is where the highest end stores are: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Chanel. You name it, it's there! My friends and I almost felt uncomfortable on the ritzy street. But of course, we stayed and wandered into a few of the museum-like stores.

 Once we were shopped out, we made our way to the Arc Triumph. Where we met up with Merrie’s friends who are studying abroad in Paris. They were able to direct us to a great little bistro by the Eiffel Tower. After dinner, we ran over to the tower and were just in time to see it sparkle. The tower sparkles every hour on the hour for five minutes, and it is a breath-taking sight. As we got closer and closer, I realized just how massive the building actually was. I snapped more pictures than I thought was humanly possible. We got crepes by the Seine River and admired the Eiffel Tower until we were all complaining about how tired we were from our long day. 

The next morning we only had enough time to snap a few pictures of the Notre Dame church before we were back on a plane to Ireland. It was a wonderful trip and I hope to return to Paris one day.