Paris!!!

After my semester ended in Madrid, my friend Elena (who is studying in Cordoba, Spain) and I decided to do a little traveling. Our first destination was Paris, France. After spending three days in this magical city I feel in love and am sure that I will be returning soon. I absolutely loved Paris!

Our first day in Paris began with a bit of sleep as we had arrived at the airport that morning at 4 am for a 6 am flight and proceeded to take an hour and a half bus ride to get to our hotel in Paris. At about 2 pm we started exploring the city. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe. It was beautifully lit up at night and you got a great view of the city at night. The main street that is lit up with all the lights in the picture is Champs-Elysees.

After the Arc we walked down Champs-Elysees. There were many holiday lights and as we got closer to the river there was a carnival like strip with many different shops selling a number of products.

We then walked back along the river while having a spectacular view of city and the Eiffel tower lit up at night. (Apologies for the horrible selfie).

The reason why I loved Paris so much was mass amount of holiday decorations and night lights. All of the building were lit up with different colors and it gave you a surreal effect of walking through this magical place.

The following morning we got breakfast at this adorable bakery and then headed to the Louvre Museum.

We spent about 4 hours exploring this magnificent museum. The amount of art inside is somewhat overwhelming at first, but very impressive. Obviously we saw the Mona Lisa and towards the end of our visit we began to loose our focus and thus decided it would be a good idea to take pictures with the many statues in the museum.

After we headed to the Eiffel tower to get a view at night. It was absolutely breathtaking. I probably spent an hour standing in the rain just taking in the beauty of the magnificent landmark at night. We also waited to see it “twinkle” upon the hour. After we walked through a fair, grabbed some food and hot wine and headed back to our hotel.

The following day was beautiful. We walked along the river to the Eiffel tower and went to the top. We also decided that the first view point and 2/3 view point were not enough and that we were determined to wait the extra hour to go to the summit peak viewpoint. It was an incredible view, and although I did not get proposed to as I had been dreaming of, it was an experience that I am never going to forget.

We then made our way to the Notre Dame and happened to enter while a service was going on. The inside and outside of this church is so impressive and I loved the stain glass windows.

We went to the art "Musee d'Orsay" and I have to agree with my dad…. This museum is probably competing for the best in the world. The impressionist artwork inside was great and I was able to appreciate each piece as many were studied in my art class from this semester. 

We walked along a few different bridges, including the bridge of locks, and visited a number of different art stands.

That night we met up with Sara and Pete, two friends from Middlebury, and went to the carnival on Place de la Concorde and then grabbed some dinner. It is amazing that we were able to meet up with friends half way around the world in such a magical place.

Overall, I definitely think Paris is competing as my favorite European city that I visited during my time abroad.