I know my fellow blogger, CarryAnn, has blogged about a trip to Paris, but I also had my own Parisian adventure with friends. This trip was planned prior to the start of the program and my two friends and I have been looking forward to it ever since we booked the transportation. To spend the maximum amount of time in Paris we decided to do the overnight train from Thursday into Friday and fly home Sunday evening. This left us with 2 ½ days to explore the city of lights.
Getting there
We took an overnight train from Venice, San Lucia train station to Paris Bercy train station. Let me just say this was an interesting adventure in itself. We had to get on the train at 7:50pm, so we arrived early to the train station so we could settle and grab food and cool down in the immense heat. Once our train arrive we decided to get on right away and find out cabin. Apparently three intelligent law students do not know how to read a reserved seat on a train ticket and found about 20 minutes into the ride that we were on the right train, just the wrong car. When the nice ticket man told us to move down 12 cars we picked up our bags and made our way to the correct cabin whilst being thrown side to side.
Once settled we realized we had this 6 person sleeper cabin to ourselves. This excitement did not last for long. Within three stops the other three members of our cabin joined us. There was a nice young Italian couple who were starting their three week backpacking adventure. And then there was an older Italian gentleman who we dubbed ‘Sir Chatty Pants’. He was a nice older man, but he did NOT SHUT UP. From the moment he got on the train until we all went to sleep and from the moment we woke up until we got off the train this man CONSTANTLY talked.
Ohh la la Paris!
We finally arrived in Paris. After a quick metro ride we dropped our bags (but could not check in until 4pm), washed the ‘train smell’ off of us as best we could and set off to join a free three hour walking tour of Paris that the hostel staff told us about.
By the way, the hostel we stayed in was AMAZING. It was ‘Le Regent Hostel Montmarte”. It was located right across the street from the Anvers metro stop right near the Sacre Coeur (our view from the room window was the Sacre Coeur). The staff was amazing helpful and the facilities were just what we needed in a hostel. It had a great bright fun vibe and really helped make our Paris experience even more awesome. I would highly recommend this hostel if you are in Paris.
Anyways, we set on our way to what would be the most amazing walking tour I have been on. First of all it was free, but of
course we tipped our amazing tour guide, Tyler. We started at Saint Michael’s Square and wandered around by Notre Dame, the Arts Bridge, the Louvre and ended at the Grand Palace. There were history lessons and interesting stories and priceless pictures were taken along the way. After the tour there was a lovely lunch and my friend and I went back to check in to the hostel, clean up, and head out to actually see the Louvre.
On Friday nights it is student night at the Louvre, which means those under 26 get in free. While the entrance to the museum is only 10 Euro, free is much more affordable. The Louvre is AMAZING. I could spend months in there sitting in front of every painting in awwwww. We made a B line for the Mona Lisa and on the way we ran across the Winged Victory and other amazing pictures and sculptures. Next time i will devote at least an entire day to this museum. I also know the secret unknown entrance so that i do not have to wait in the huge line outside the pyramid.
The next day we just explored all of Paris and soaked up as much French culture as possible. We explores the tiny streets of Montmartre, shopped on the Champ Elysees, ate croissants, went into Notre Dame and just wandered all french like. We saw sights, we took picture and i even ate snails (which is not a surprise to those who know me because i love escargot!) We left sunday afternoon after some more Montmarrte exploration and made our way back to venice. Each of us loved paris in its own way. One friend loved that we did not have to travel on buses and rather could use slightly a more efficient transportation system. The other enjoyed the demeanor of the people better than those in venice(which i think is a little backwards, but
everyone in Paris was extremely helpful and the people in venice last week were very cranky because of the heat wave). Overall this was an extremely pleasant trip and makes me want to go back as soon as possible. I want to wander more and go to Versailles (the weather was not very good and would have made walking in the gardens miserable). While Paris was a fantastic trip i was very happy to be back in Venice and back to a “normal” schedule. It was a perfect way to start off my final week in europe.
~meg
