PARIS!

Our train ride to Paris was LONG, and in our cart there were the LOUDEST group of French people I've ever heard. We couldn't sleep because every 2 seconds they would start laughing at something. I'm pretty sure they thought they were the funniest people on the planet. Oh, and they went through 3 bottles of wine by 10 AM lol.
Day One:
We got to Paris, and went to drop our bags off at our apartments. This is probably the moment that I realized just how happy I was that I had packed a carry on bag for this trip. We decided to buy an all day subway pass (which we later realized we got scammed for) and then walk to our apartments from the Subway stop. Well, it was A LOT further than we realized lol. So rolling HUGE bags along the cobblestone streets would have been a nightmare :)

Anyways... We were all starving, so decided to head down to the river and find somewhere to eat and possibly look at the Notre Dame before heading off to the Eiffel Tower! We found an adorable little French Restaurant. Now, for some reason, I was under the impression that French food was terrible... Man was I wrong! Give me French food everyday please!
It took us FOREVER to find the subway station from there to the Eiffel Tower. We decided that Paris is the city of inconvenience. They like to make their subway stops blend in with the city. :)
We found it, hopped on a train, and got off. That's when we couldn't get OUT of the subway station. We were literally stuck inside. Our tickets wouldn't work. We figured it was a mishap at the station because others were having a problem too, and figured out how to jump over the gates and went on our way.

I was SO excited for the Eiffel Tower. It's always been the number one thing I've wanted to see on my bucket list! It did NOT disappoint! We went up the elevator to the 2nd floor, looked around, then got to go to the VERY top! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 Can you see my excitement?! ^

Also, sadly, I didn't carry the camera around much in Paris, so don't have great pictures.\

After our awesomely amazing Eiffel Tower visit, we decided to take the subway to the Arc de Triomphe. This monument stands 50 meters tall, in the center of where like 12 roads all meet at it. I actually didn't know much about it before we went!

 ^View from the top!

^The stairs you go up are round and round and round and may or may not have made me a little dizzy!

We loved the view from up there, we decided we wanted to come back after dark to see the sparkling lights on the Eiffel Tower. It was like 8 already, so we decided to go walk down the Champs Elysées street, eat some dinner, then head back.
Most of the stores were already closed, so that was kind of a bummer! But we had some dinner outside on the street, then went back and trucked up those stairs again. It was 10:30 by the time we were up there and it was BARELY dark. Here's my nighttime picture:

Isn't that so bizarre!?! It doesn't get dark until almost 11 pm in Paris! I guess we didn't realize how North Paris actually is!

Day 2:
The next morning we woke up, and decided to head the 1.2 miles down to the Notre Dame. Of course we stopped for some chocolate crossiants, (and did EVERY morning in Paris). It was a Sunday, so we actually went through the Notre Dame during a service! It was SO weird... I would hate going to church with tourists walking through the entire time!

 From here, we hopped on a hop on hop off tour bus, so we could see the city more quickly since we really only had 2 days in Paris.

I love hop on/off tour busses! Seriously, it's the best. We rode around and saw parts of Paris we never would have seen. We drove by the Opera House, and learned that a chandelier fell and killed a guest, inspiring that scene in The Phantom of the Opera! So cool. We also went down this street with the REALLY expensive shops and hotels. We saw the Ritz Carlton and decided we wanted to come back there someday!

We got off at The Louvre Museum, because when you're in Paris, you have to. But, I was very unimpressed. Sure, I saw the Mona Lisa, and lots of Michelangelo's sculptures, but it was hot, the Mona Lisa was SO small and had hundreds of people around it, and it was crowded. I guess it's still cool that I've been though!

Then, we got back on the bus, and we saw the lock bridge! My mom and I REALLY wanted to see it, so jumped off the bus (no, not literally). Then, we walked to the Museum D'Orsay. I liked this museum a lot better! It was an impressionism museum, which I am a huge fan of! (Monet, Manet, Renoir, VanGogh, etc.)

(So, the locks across the bridge were actually all cut off the week before we went there, but they kept all the locks on the land part of the bridge.)

After this, it was late, and we were hungry, so of course we got a Crepe and Cokes. We met the Calls back at the Notre Dame to climb the stairs, but unfortunately it closed 20 minutest prior! :(

At this point I think a lot of us were beat. I really had my heart set to go to the Pompidou Center. It's a cool building with a Modern Art Museum inside. It did not disappoint! My dad and I loved this museum! Definitely my favorite art museum we went to! :)

^That was my favorite piece that I saw. I want it in my house.

That was Paris!

I am going to write a new post for Normandy and Versailles. :)