Paris- La ville d'amour (Part 1)

Okay it's finally time to begin the task of explaining how amazing, wonderful, fantastic, loveable.. did i say..amazing and amazing Paris is. From here, I'll start from the beginning...
On September 26th Michelle flew into Paris from Israel (where she is studying for the year) and made her way down to Bordeaux to spend the week with Molly and I, before we all left for Paris on Friday October 1st. It would have been amazing if we could have spent the whole week together, potentially in Paris, but Michelle had to spend a lot of time alone because Molly and I were stuck going to our classes which are, unfortunately, practically 5 days a week for pretty long hours. Luckily, I have Wednesdays off and we are done by about 5 pm everyday so we got to see a lot of Michelle after she had been exploring the city all day.

It was so great to see Michelle, i am 100% myself around her and it was just comforting to have her around. We all made dinner on Wednesday (2 types of pasta, a fresh baguette, and some vegetable stir fry + wine of course, this is France, after all) and had a great night chatting and eating! I would almost always prefer a meal in with good friends over going out to a fancy restaurant just to say I did. Thursday and Friday went by pretty quickly 9for both us and Michelle) and before we knew it we were jetting of to Paris for 3 days! Normally, one would take the train from Bordeaux to Paris for about 33 euros one way but when it came time to book our tickets they had shot up to over 60 euros a ticket so the plane, which was only 52 euros, was cheaper and more efficient so we did that instead! Leaving Bordeaux at 1:10 pm, with only an hour flight, we were at our hostel and settled in (ready to explore) by 4pm. We stayed at a cute hostel in Northern Paris called "The CaulainCourt Square Hostel", located close to both The Sacre-Coeur and the Moulin Rouge! Before I get started on exactly what we did and where we went I should add that we were literally running around Paris, trying to give Michelle the full experience in two and a half days! Usually Paris is a 5-7 day trip, but we got almost everything in (except a few museums) our short period of time! It was exhausting and, at times, hectic, but all in all a great weekend full of french culture!

After checking in and getting settled we headed for our first site- The Sacre Coeur. Of course, we got lost trying to get there.  We had a map and I could have sworn it was right down the street (according to the map!). Little did we know that  a map of Paris is only so helpful considering half of the streets don't have names and the other half turn and twist in such odd ways that it's hard to tell which one you're on after walking for 1 minute (because you'll start on a street and the next time you look at a street sign, that you are expecting to say the same name that you started out on, it says something different! And then that streets not even on the map, etc, etc...) As we wandered around the streets of Paris in search of our tourist destination, it began to rain, and get windy, and get cold. Luckily, right as the rain really started coming down we found The Sacre Coeur! We were in an alley way of souvenir shops and I was trying to pick out an umbrella (naturally, I had forgotten mine in Bordeaux) while Michelle chose a bright red, plastic poncho-which ended up being a live saver because we probably would have lost her numerous times had it no been for that extremely identifying article! At this point, we had our new rain gear and we headed for the church. Little did we know, The Sacre Coeur is the highest point in Paris (no wonder all those streets were uphill!), which in turn made it the coldest, windiest and rainiest point in Paris. As we tried to snap photos, umbrellas were turning inside out, hair was going everywhere and cameras were getting wet. Luckily we got a few outside before entering...

View of Paris from steps of The Sacre Coeur

While taking our photos we were accosted by a crazy (probably drunk) man who wouldn't leave Michelle alone! Obviously she had no idea what was going on, as he was speaking in rapid french trying to hit on her. As I tried to get rid of him he ended up yelling at me and causing a huge scene yelling "Caisse-toi!" as he stumbled away. Funny thing is, "caisse-toi" is the equivalent to "piss-off" in English, which is exactly what I had wanted him to do! Crazy frenchies! Moving on from that we decided to go inside the church and see why this place was so famous (besides the fact that it's beautiful and can be seen from almost anywhere in Paris). 

As we walked inside it became very obvious that this was a place of worship.  There were no photos aloud so unfortunately, I can not share the beautiful architecture and belongings with you but believe me, it was magnificent! The place was almost silent, even though there were hundreds of people wandering around! It was really nice to see so many people mutually agreeing to be respectful. It was a very emotional and sacred feeling place, for Molly Michelle and myself.  We all found ourselves crying at one point or another- for really no reason in particular. While we were inside the church, it came time for a service to commence and the nuns came out and began to sing a song (I couldn't understand it- it may have been in Latin).  You didn't have to understand the words to know that these women had magnificent voices and they filled the church with beauty. This was truly one of the most moving experiences of my life and I'm so glad I got to go here.  I'm sure I'll be going back in December when Mom and Liz come out to Paris so I'm excited to go back! 

After leaving the church we began our mission to find the closest metro station stop Abysses ) and head towards the Seine (the river that runs through Paris) and Eiffel Tower. Of course, once, again, the map was not the easiest thing to follow so we made a few wrong turns here and there but eventually we found it! But not before snapping a few shots of the Sacre Coeur from the bottom of it's hill!

We made our way (via Metro line 12) from stop Abysses to stop Assembly National (located in central Paris). We figured this was the best way to get close to the Eiffel Tower, but still allowed us to have a nice walk along the Seine river, which was beautiful because it was now night time and the lights of the boats were amazing. It was still raining but by this point we had pretty much gotten over it and were willing to trek our way around Paris, rain or shine! The only problem was it was now dark, raining and COLD-but we survived! We walked along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower as we snapped photos and did a little exploring.

French revolutionary Simon Boulivar

Winston Churchill near Grand Palais

The Grand Palais

The bridge of The Invalides

After finally making our way close to the Eiffel Tower, we turned down a small road (which seemed like it would lead to the right place because we really had no idea!) and there it was!

We finally found the base of the tower and stayed there admiring the beautifully lit up tower and all of the people trying to get a good angled photo and what not. We had also gone there to meet up with one of Molly's friends from home (Lauren) who is studying abroad in Paris. We found Lauren, took a few more photos (of course) and then headed to find a metro station that could get us to the restaurant we planned on going to dinner at.  While we walked through Paris this time we were confronted with numerous groups of French army men. Apparently they're always patrolling around major tourist destinations, which is good to know but a little bit creepy when they walk by holding rifles!

Army men (a little dark but you get the idea!)

From the Eiffel Tower we headed to the restaurant we had had planned on going to- Refuge de Fondue. Amazingly, this ended up being one of the funnest meals I've had in my entire life! We finally found the restaurant (after wandering around for awhile, of course) and when we walked up there were groups of people waiting outside and as I looked inside I saw that it was a tiny place, PACKED with people! A grumpy looking french man came out and asked how many people we had in our group, we told him 4 and he simply went back inside without another word. Were we on a list? How long was the wait? How much was the dinner? who knew. After about 20 minutes of waiting in the rain were pulled inside by another grumpy looking man and the fun began. We were told to put our coats and bags on the hangers in this tiny hallway because we couldn't have them at our table...We did it but didn't really understand until we went to sit. Grumpy man #1 came up and pointed to a side of a long wooden picnic style table and told 2 of us to climb over and sit. climb over? Yes, as in, step on the table and sit on the bench. Michelle and Lauren stepped up and took a seat whiel Molly and I sat in 2 chairs across from there (which required no climbing stunts). Then the man left again. People were yelling, speaking different languages and it was hot. A few seconds later some really nice American girls, who were studying in England, got squished in next to us and were really excited to learn that we spoke English. Grumpy man #2 returns- but this time with cocktails! 4 cute little classes with sugared rims, of what we are almost 100% sure was sangria.  No complaints, it tasted great!

Next, grumpy man #1 came and asked if we wanted cheese or meat. We didn't really know what that meant so we said cheese, and he walked away.  But then, we saw the people next to us get a pot of cheese and a pot of oil for meat (and they had 4 people) so apparently, you could do both! I grabbed grumpy man #1 and asked him if we could do both, he gave me an angry look and walked away- i assumed that meant yes? A couple seconds later he came back and was asking "red or white?!" as in , wine of course! Molly, Michelle and I all said red while Lauren (who doesn't like wine-I don't even think she's tried it) ordered a coke, faux-pas for sure because grumpy man #1 was not pleased. Now I should clarify that when I say grumpy man, I really mean, french man with lots of sarcasm and no bullshit, he was really a fun guy to be served by just not very "polite" as an American might expect a server to be. Anyway, back to the wine! The reason we had wanted to come to this restaurant is because one of Michelle's friends had told her the wine was served in baby bottles- and she wasn't lying! A few minutes later we were drinking our wine (and coke) out of glass wine bottles! And so was everyone else...which really made for a hilarious atmosphere!

Notice the fact that me and the girl next to me are literally touching, tight squeeze!

 Next, it was time for the cheese and oil! Grumpy man #2 came out with 2 extremely hot pots and placed ever not so gently in front of us on the table that was probably about a foot and a half wide, a little scary to have bubbling oil that close to your face, if you ask me! A couple seconds later we had a bowl of raw met, a basket of bread, a bowl of potatoes, and a plate of olives, cheese cubes and meat cubes in front of us- and then c'etait l'heure de manger! (time to eat!). and eat we did, fondue is such a fun thing to do in a restaurant because it takes awhile so you're forced to be social and enjoy the meal. That is one thing I have learned from the french- how to enjoy a meal.  They don't see eating as a task or a 15 minute "thing" you do in between classes or before work. It is a ritual, you sit at a table, you talk to the people you're with and you go slowly. It was a little bit hard to get used to at first, but now I only like eating at the table and I love when I have people to talk to (especially french people, like my landlord or his friends that come over for dinner a lot). They also take lunch very seriously in this country. Everything, and I mean everything closes down from 12:30-1:30. There is no work, and no classes during this house.  It's nice to know, no matter what, you will have an hour for lunch.  This is opposed to the US where I sometimes had 15 minutes of time out of class from 11 am -3 pm. That will be a little hard to get used to again, I imagine. Anyway, back to the food.

We all really loved this place, the food was amazing, the atmosphere was one of a kind and the people were crazy, in a great way! After staying at la Refuge until almost 12:30 am, we found our way back to our hostel and headed straight to bed- it had been a long day and were getting up early the next day to go to Versailles, which was almost an hour from where we were in Paris!

The next day (Saturday,Oct. 4th) we got up at 8:15 am and headed straight to our complimentary breakfast at the hostel.  It was nice to have a breakfast right there in our building, but I will say it wasn't the best food I've ever eaten. In France, a "continental breakfast" is pretty much just a small baguette, a corn flake (sans (without) sugar), and a yogurt (naturel, aka tart flavored) and coffee.  All I really needed was coffee, which you can find anywhere in France at any time of the day, so luckily I got what I needed. Then it was off to Versailles... 2 metros, 1 train, and one hour later we were there!

We decided that we weren't going to spend the entire day there so we should decide whether or not we wanted to visit the inside of the palace or the gardens (which are just as famous).  We had all heard, from different sources, that the gardens of Versailles are a must, so the gardens it was! Plus, the line to go into the castle was already obscene, while it was possible to just walk right into the gardens with absolutely no wait and no charge (for those of us with EU VISAS and under the age of 26) :). The gardens of Versailles were absolutely magnificent and unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were hedge mazes and fountains and beautiful statues.  The funny thing is that there aren't a lot of flowers. The french and Italian gardens of the 17th century were never about flowers, they were very green and oriented around pathways and mazes. The only part of the garden that had flowers was the Marie Antionette Gardens, which were absolutely beautiful and obviously created for a woman!

Louis XIV

View of the back of Versailles from middle of gardens

Musical Fountain!

Marie Antionette's Gardens- spectacular!

The back of the Palace (from Marie Antionette Gardens)

Main front Entrance

Inside the gardens there were places for visitors to eat or have a drink and sit and relax within the trees. We all had panini's (surprisingly they are everywhere in France) and enjoyed a nice meal in the gardens-even the rain took a little break for us- c'était parfait(it was perfect)! After our raining day stroll (more like mission to try and see EVERYTHING) through the garden at Versailles we parted with the Palace and headed back into Paris to visit Notre Dame.  As were leaving Versailles we began talking about how weird and surreal it was to be in places like Versailles- this is where the royalty lived. The paths that we were walking down, the palace that we (and the rest of the world) were taking photos of and gawking over was once a place where very few people went.  Not just anyone walked in those gardens and in that house! Obviously now it's means a lot less, with all of the tourists and billions of people who have already been there, but it's hard not to imagine what it would have been like to "take a stroll through the gardens" as part of our daily activities. We hopped back on the train to get to Notre Dame which was a straight shot- no transfers, thank goodness!

Notre Dame was absolutely breath taking! It also helped that it was so hyped up in my head (thank you, Disney) that I was pretty excited just to see it! We came out of the tram station and the church was right in front of us, along with thousands of people! I'd have to say that The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame were the most crowded sites we visited. It looked exactly as I imagined, beautiful gothic architecture and the two giant towers!

While we were exploring the outside of the church, before going inside, we saw that there were some stairs you could go down, so we went down and it ended up being access to some old ruins from below the church! Apparently the area beneath the church used to be accessible, but now there was only a small part open, which served as a museum for the old stones. There's something alluring about old stuff- it seems so exotic and unknown that it makes you want to sit and stair at some stone all day, simply because it's old enough to be interesting! Weird how that works. Anyway, after looking at the ruins we headed back up to go inside the church. 
The inside was absolutely gorgeous (but of course!) with a very gothic feel to it. Unlike the Sace-Coeur, visitors are allowed to take photos here so we took a lot- although it felt a little weird to be taking photos of a church that was so magnificent. Inside there was a lot going on- tourists everywhere, a priest blessing people on one side of the church (which was blocked off while he did so) and a mass was beginning while we walked around.  There were beautiful stain glass windows everywhere the eye could see.  In particular, there were two opposing, giant circular stain glass windows in the middle of the church which were absolutely beautiful ( although I had seen that theme of window design before and I'm pretty sure it was a staple in catholic cathedrals of ancient times (1100-1200) ).

OLD chandelier (that reminded me of Phantom of the Opera)

After visiting Notre Dame it was time for Le Place de la Bastille, or in English- The Bastille. Once again, we hopped on a metro for a straight shot to the neighborhood where la Bastille was located. When we came out of the tram station we weren't exactly sure of where we were but after asking a few people and wandering around we made it! Paris really is an adventure if you've never been and you're with people who have never been (sometimes things are not as easy to find as you might think). Anyway, we were all pretty thirsty and ready for a snack so we began searching for crepes. To clarify- Le Place de la Bastille is, in theory, a large roundabout with an edifice in the center ( the monument of the bastille) with the outside of the circle/roundabout (because cars can drive around it) surrounded by cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately it was a little difficult to get our barrings because on October 2nd in France the citizens were striking. This was the beginning of the large scaled "manifestations" part of the strike that has lasted a month now (but is lucky losing steam as I type). There were people everywhere, yelling and marching- it was pure chaos! It was the first strike I had seen and at the time I thought it was pretty cool that citizens were striking at the Bastille- pretty symbolic, if you ask me! I say "at the time" because now i have seen dozens of "manifestations" and they have lost their allure- especially because most of the happen on the roads that the tram I take to school needs to go through-making it impossible for me to get to school. I understand why the French like to strike and it's nice to see people who feel passionately and are willing to organize such large "gatherings" but now, it's gotten a little inconvenient for my day to day living and I'm ready for the french to accept their governments decisions. Anyway, back to the Bastille- We finally found some crepes and sodas, a sidewalk to sit on and a good place to watch the parade of strikers filter through the plaza. This was a good rest before we headed back into the center of Paris to see the famous pyramid at Le Louvre and head back towards our hostel to see Le Moulin Rouge at night.

Army called in because of Strike

After watching the strikers for awhile we decided to get back on the metro and head for Le Louvre. We were planning on actually going inside the next day but we didn't know if we would have time to go up and look at the pyramid so we decided to do that on Saturday night before going to Le Moulin Rouge. The metro was PACKED on our way from La Place de la Bastille to Le Louvre- apparently we decided to leave right when the strike was ending for the day so everyone packed into the metros! Unfortunately, another friend of mine who was in a different part of Paris was on the metro at this time as well and she was pick-pocketed! i'm sure those are the times it happens most in Paris, and it's necessary to be extra cautious, but sometimes even that can't stop a good thief! luckily my friend barely had any cash in her wallet and she was able to cancel her cards immediately but what an inconvenience! Big cities can be scary places sometimes! Luckily we all made it off the metro with all our belongs! We got off the metro near Le Louvre but not right in front of it so we had to walk through a beautiful garden located in the middle of Paris- Les Jardin des Tuileries. There were people sitting a large fountain, others "strolling" and even a man drawing a woman- how french! it was an amazing little garden I wish I would have had time to just go sit there for a day and enjoy the Parisien atmosphere!

After our photoshoot with the famous pyramid we headed back North towards are hostel and Le Moulin Rouge. We stopped around the corner from the metro station to eat- by this point it was nearly 8:30 and we hadn't eaten much (besides small paninis, a crepe and our continental breakfasts). We had amazing french pizza (it is so good here) and rested our fee, minds and cameras for awhile.  Then, we were off again! Le Moulin Rouge was one of the easier things to find, because it was in a small neighborhood where everyone was either going towards it or coming from it- so we just followed the path of people. The neighborhood was definitely where a lot of the clubbing partying goes on, which makes perfect sense since the Moulin Rouge is a great big party for those who opt to spend the nearly 100 euros (that's euros, NOT dollars) for the show and meal- could be worth it one day when i'm not on such a tight budget :) One funny thing about the street that Le Moulin Rouge is on is that there's a giant air vent, on top of a platform across from Le Moulin Rouge, which shoots air onto the street and blows everyone who walks on top of it around. Coincidentally it is also the best place to stand to take photos of Le Moulin Rouge! It was a funny sight to see a bunch of tourists standing on a large platform getting their hair and clothes blown around- but it was also great for fun photos!

 

After Le Moulin Rouge we grabbed some ice cream and ate it as we headed back to our hostel and fell asleep instantly- it had been a full 2 days of walking and exploring and were tired!  I need to still show what we explored on Sunday (the next day) in Paris but right now I am leaving for a week and won't have time until I get back! I figured it was time I started Paris (even if I couldn't finish) because it was such a great trip! Now i'm off to Scotland, Germany and Holland! Posts to come upon my return : The Loire Valley of France, Edinburgh, Berlin, Amsterdam, and what it's like taking midterms in France in french!  Until next time, au revoir!