I think, for the sake of readability, I will separate the events/stories/recipes from the past couple of weeks into a couple of different posts. You're welcome.
I got back from my Paris trip a week and a day ago. It was everything I remembered from my school trip when I was 16, and, obviously, so much more. By the end of two days, our feet were ready to fall off from trekking all over Paris and Versailles and from waiting in multiple lines for a sum of four hours to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at night. It was all worth it though. Paris is definitely worth a visit if you've never been there, if for nothing more than the cheese, bread, cheese, wine, and cheese.
K and I took the Megabus overnight Thursday from Amsterdam to Paris, so, needless to say, we were pretty tired when we arrived (though the very nice gentleman checking people's tickets let us sit in the VIP seats up front behind the driver so we had our own quiet, dark cave to sleep in and talk to Peter, our lovely Scottish driver). When we got into Paris at 5:44 AM, we first had to find my beautiful French friend M's apartment. Thanks again for letting us stay! When we finally found it, we passed out for an hour, then rallied, got ready, and went on our walking/metro-ing adventure around The City of Light!
We, of course, started the first day in Paris off right with with a very French breakfast of croissants, cheeses, and coffee:
We, then, got tons of gorgeous and stereotypical pictures of and with the Eiffel Tower, despite being harassed by "Hakuna-Matata-ing" African guys and being paparazzi-forced into taking pictures with these guys who said I looked like an Egyptian celebrity?:
Saw Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides:
Saw way too many male parts (of which we were not allowed to take pictures) at a special exhibition going on at the Musée d'Orsay:
Pondered the meaning of life with the Thinker in the garden at the Musée Rodin:
Sealed our love with a lock on the Pont des Arts:
Had a glass of wine with Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo at the Louvre:
And paid our respects inside the awe-inspiring Notre Dame:
With originally good intentions of having a night out in Paris, our feet decided they just couldn't take it, so we ended the night with a meal out with M and an early night for another early start the next morning.
On the second morning, we rose early and made our way to Versailles. We spent the whole morning and part of the early afternoon roaming the halls of Louis XIV's masterpiece of a palace and gardens. We even enjoyed a bit of cake in the cafeteria, at Marie Antoinette's expense. And yes, we did in typical touristy cliché fashion, take mirror-selfies in the Hall of Mirrors... How could we resist?
We, then, made our way back into the city to finish up the last bit of sight-seeing. We went straight to the Archeological Crypt that is currently being excavated under the square across from Notre Dame (as we had been too late to visit it the previous evening). Being a history buff, particularly interested in Medieval European history, I found this extremely interesting. So much history buried under the ground, only now being unearthed... But I'll not bore those of you who find history less than intriguing.
It then decided to start raining cats and dogs outside, so we chose that moment to do some souvenir shopping and have another baguette and coffee (if we must...). The rain didn't last too long and we made our way past a beautiful Parisian sunset on the Seine back over to the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle and go all the way to the top!
Now, if you don't like waiting in lines, going to the top of the Eiffel Tower may not be for you. After waiting for two hours in line at the bottom, we had to wait in line for another hour to go to the tope from the second floor and, not surprisingly, when we were done at the top, we had to wait in line for yet another hour to get back down. We did, however, manage to get many beautiful photos both from the ground and at the top, all while waiting in line! And, of course, who could resist more mirror-selfies on top of the Eiffel Tower when you're stuck in line for an hour and there just so happens to be a series of floor-length mirrors right beside you? Well, not us, anyway.
After finally getting back to M's after our line-waiting at the Eiffel Tower, our feet were, once again understandably, in considerable pain, but we manned up and decided to go have one last glass of wine in Paris to celebrate our wonderful trip.
We then went back for a good-night's sleep before our long bus ride back the next morning.
On the way to the bus station, we made plans to go by the Arc de Triomphe to take more touristy pictures, and I'm glad we did. I'm even glad it was raining because it made for the perfect setting for my favorite photo of the trip:
Overall, our trip was perfection! One more European city down, many more to go!
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