Crepes in France really do taste so much better!

This weekend was pretty normal… you know, just jetted off to Paris for a couple days! We left Dublin around 8 Friday night so didn’t arrive at our hotel in Paris until past midnight. Our hotel was right off the metro line though so it was super convenient! It was a cute little place with a lot of… character? By character I mean the floor of our room slanted so much I literally thought I was going to roll off my bed in the middle of the night. But still, I loved it! It was a quad with four single beds but since there were five of us we snuck one person in, haha. Then we pushed two of the beds together and Lindsay, Kelsie, and Ellie slept on our makeshift queen sized bed.

Saturday morning Lindsay, Kelsie, Ellie, and I headed into the city centre to grab some breakfast (Amy was doing her own thing throughout the day). We ate at this great little café where we all ordered crepes and coffee!

The cafe we had crepes at our first morning in Paris!

Luckily Ellie still remembered some French from her high school days and helped us out a lot during the trip!

The café was right by Notre Dame so that’s where we started off our day.

The doors at Notre Dame.

It was amazing- with such intricate work around the doors and all over the exterior. It was a pretty long line to get inside so we decided to just stick with seeing the outside of it since we had only a short time in Paris.

Standing in front of Notre Dame- one of our first stops of the morning.

(Now I really wish I’d taken the time to go inside though! Oh well…)

After Notre Dame we walked around a bit as we made our way over to the Louvre.

The main entrance to the Louvre... down through the glass pyramid.

It was so much bigger than I’d ever realized!! And so gorgeous too! The entrance way is the giant glass pyramid that actually seems a little odd with the old architecture of the rest of the building… yet somehow it works! Haha.

Kelsie, Lindsay, Ellie, and Me at a fountain at the Louvre.

We took some pictures of the museum and the girls then seemed satisfied to go to our next location. I couldn’t believe they didn’t want to go inside! I may have passed on Notre Dame but I wasn’t about to pass up on the Louvre- it was one of the main things I wanted to see in Paris!! So I told the girls they could do whatever they liked but I was going to spend sometime in the museum, at least a couple hours. “A couple hours?!” It was sort of funny how much shock they had at my wanting to spend time in the museum… but I am a history major, right? It was 11:45 so I said I was going to stay until about 1:30 and then grab lunch. Ellie said she wanted to see the Mona Lisa so her and I went into the museum while Kelsie and Lindsay went off on their own for a bit.

Two hours was not nearly enough time to see it all- which I knew it wouldn’t be! But I got to see the main highlights of what interested me. Ellie was great because all she really cared about was seeing the Mona Lisa so she let me direct us through the museum to the areas I was interested in.

I got to see the Venus de Milo, which was amazing of course!

Venus de Milo... at the Louvre.

And also spent some time looking at the other Roman and Greek statues. We were both amazed at all the artwork that was on the walls and ceilings of the museum.

On the ceiling in one of the rooms at the Louvre- amazing!

We kept joking that you could walk through the museum looking at only the ceiling and still see so many amazing things! One of our favorite rooms was the one that had the coronation crown of King Louis XV.

The coronation crown worn by King Louis XV.

The entire room, from floor to ceiling and including the ceiling, was covered with gold! We walked into the room and both looked at each other with the same expression of awe and both saying the same thing… Woooooow!

Probably my favorite room in the Louvre- gold was everywhere!! Literally floor to ceiling (and including the ceiling too!) so beautiful!

Of course our next stop was the Mona Lisa!!!

Lots of people in the room with the Mona Lisa.

It was so much smaller than I ever realized but so amazing to see! I stood there with this feeling of awe as I thought about the fact that I was looking at the actual painting of DaVinci’s Mona Lisa… amazing!!

The Mona Lisa!! So much smaller than I realized, hmm...

After the Louvre we met back up with Lindsay and Kelsie and made our way to the Eiffel Tower.

Notice the Eiffel Tower in the back!

From a distance we kept saying how small it was compared to what we had thought it would be like… but once we were actually underneath it I think we all changed our minds on its size! So big!

No explanation should be needed. :-P

Again it was one of those moments where I kept having to remind myself that I was standing in front of the actual Eiffel Tower.

At the base of the Eiffel Tower.

Kelsie, Lindsay, and Me... the background should need no explanation, haha

We went to a small café for dinner after that where I had some great pasta, bread, and wine… really, what more could I ask for?! Ellie ordered frog legs, something she’s always wanted to try, and so I got to have a taste. They don’t necessarily taste like chicken as everyone says, but they really weren’t too bad! Amy met up with us for dinner and we all headed back to the hotel after that to freshen up and change.

The Eiffel Tower at night (though with the flash it doesn't look like it).

We made our way back to the Eiffel Tower so we could see it lit up at night and take the elevator to the top.

It was freezing up there and so windy! And we had to wait outside on the second floor for about a half-hour before we could get to the top! Really the views from the second and top floor were pretty similar and going only to the second floor probably would have sufficed. But at least now I can say I’ve been to the TOP of the Eiffel Tower!!

Ellie, Kelsie, Lindsay, and Me at the top of the Eiffel Tower!!

The night ended rather early, around 1am; I figured I should take it a bit easy given that I’m still trying to get over this ‘pneumonia’ bug! All in all it was a pretty great weekend and I’m glad I had the chance to go to Paris. I was telling my parents though that it’s not really a place I’d be interested in visiting for a long period of time. I wouldn’t take a trip to Europe just to go there like I would to Germany or Italy. Instead if I ever head back to Europe I may take a couple days and go to Paris in between wherever else I visit so I can spend more time at the Louvre and see more of the sights. But really, I wouldn’t be interested in more than three days or so.

I’m also happy to report that the French weren’t nearly as mean to us Americans as everyone said they would be. We actually met quite a few nice Frenchmen that helped us out along the way. That had actually been something I was worried about because I didn’t want to deal with that rudeness, but luckily we didn’t have to!

It’s hard to believe this is my last week in Dublin, I’m going to be so sad to say goodbye to it on Saturday! (Even though I’m stoked to see my family and friends back home!) I’m especially excited to be able to celebrate my 21st birthday at home with my friends next week. Even though my real birthday is tomorrow I feel like it’s going to be rather anti-climactic and I’m pretty sad that I can’t spend it with my family and friends back home. I guess I’ll just have to settle for celebrating it twice: once in Ireland and once back home in Chicago!

written by

kmr788 on July 20, 2009 from Paris, France

from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland

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France is really such a wonderful place. These pictures also show its beauty.

written by Gertrude Young on July 20, 2009

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