A Weekend in Paris

What things are there to do in Paris? Here are a few ideas by looking through the eyes of one girl’s journey to Paris.

I’ve never really done much traveling during my life. I know I’m only 21, but I have friends who have already been to so many places.

Ever since I was really little, I had a dream to travel the world and while I had many dreams growing up that faded, this one didn’t.

This is why I have decided to take full advantage of any opportunities that come my while studying abroad in England.

I want to travel in and out of the country while I’m here and this past weekend was the first out of country trip I was able to take since arriving in the UK.

Paris. The city of love, as I’ve always known it as, but you might prefer to call it the city of lights.

Anyway, I was really excited to finally go to Paris, but I was a little nervous about the trip.

You see I’ve always been a little claustrophobic and have this fear of dying in the ocean with waves knocking me out and not even having the chance to fight my way to safety.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything, but our ride to Paris was not by plane, it was by train.

A train that travels underground with the English Channel raging above.

As terrifying as this sounded, and that I blew out of proportion in my head, the ride really wasn’t that bad.

It was about 20 minutes of darkness and ears popping and then you were out traveling through France toward Paris.

It was cold when we arrived in Paris, but that was not going to stop me from enjoying my weekend.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went on a walking tour of the area.

Our tour guide, Simon, showed us this cute little cafe called Shakespeare and Company where there was a bookstore attached.

Simon explained that Shakespeare wanted an intellectual spot for people to come get something to eat or drink while reading or studying.

Much of this walking tour was just to see the city and its culture, but we ended the tour at Notre Dame.

This was absolutely fabulous and if you ever find yourself in Paris, make sure you go to Notre Dame.

The inside was so beautiful and enchanting.

It was incredible to see people in there on their knees praying while others were wandering around, tourists like me, just taking in the sites.

What got me most, was the fact that I was standing on the same ground that Napoleon Bonaparte stood on himself; the very place that he took the crown from the pope and crowned himself king of France.

Don’t worry, if history isn’t your thing I still suggest going to see the beauty inside and you can even climb to the top and see the city that way, which I unfortunately didn’t have time to do.

Next on our agenda was a boat tour down the river Seine.

Another wonderful part of our trip, that I suggest doing during warmer weather, that provided us with such picturesque images.

My favorite part of this ride was seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the night sky with the water rippling in front.

After the boat tour we got to go to the famous Louvre Museum.

I thought I had been to nice museums before the Louvre.

I was wrong. Seriously, guys, the most wonderful museum I have ever been to.

However, it was kind of a maze, and again we had limited time, but I did get to see everything I wanted to see.

I took a picture by the infamous Mona Lisa, saw Nike and Venus, many paintings, and most exciting, Napoleon’s Apartments.

I believe his apartments illustrated who he was as a person quite nicely.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I had never looked forward to seeing a bed in all my life.

Unfortunately, I woke up feeling a little sluggish, but I would not surrender to the sickness, for I had a full day of fun awaiting me.

The first thing we did on Saturday was eat lunch. Then marched on to the Eiffel Tower.

We took the popular pictures in front of the tower and then proceeded to travel up the Eiffel Tower.

Unfortunately, the wind was really strong that day and the top of the tower was closed.

However, we were able to travel to the second floor, which was still really cool and pretty high up.

We also stopped on the balcony level. Did you know you can go ice skating on the Eiffel Tower?

Well, I didn’t.

I thought this was an extremely cool activity to do on the balcony of the tower.

We also tried one of France’s most famous desserts, the macaroon. Delicious.

After we had our fun on the tower we headed to the Catacombs of Paris.

This was a really neat place to see, if seeing dead people’s bones stacked up is your cup of tea.

They were organized by dates and some of them had been there for centuries.

It was getting late at this point, but we had one more stop we wanted to make, The Arc de Triomphe.

By the time we got there we felt too tired to climb to the top, but we did take pictures in front of the Arc and enjoyed the view before dragging our feet back to the hotel and crashing for the night.

The next morning we got to travel to the Palace of Versailles. Exciting, I know!

Many kings of France either visited or lived here at one point or another, but I was most excited to visit the palace because it is where the treaty of Versailles was signed ending WW1, one of my favorite topics in history.

In fact, it was signed in the Hall of Mirrors, which I was able to walk through and take in the history and the beauty of it.

We were able to walk through all the palace, which included Marie Antoinette’s quarters and the gardens.

Both were stunning.

Again, I wish it was warmer weather so we might have explored the gardens a little further, but it was still breathtaking.

We then headed back and got pictures in front of Moulin Rouge, but missed the walking tour of it, due to our time at Versailles.

All in all, the trip was fantastic and I would love to go back to Paris as well as maybe make my way to other parts of France.

The most difficult part of the trip was definitely trying to communicate to the french speaking locales.

However, I did pick up on a few things.

Au Revoir (goodbye) for now!