J'aime Paris

WARNING: It's going to be a long one!! :) Hope you enjoy it.


What an adventure France was! Last week I was in Paris and Northern France and it was a crazy week. Pretty much everything crazy thing that could have happened, did happen. 

Monday morning we left on our coach (our driver is Tony and he is awesome. Pretty sure he knows everything about everything) and we drove to Dover to catch our ferry to Calais(the port in Northern France.) A group of us ran around the decks of the ferry, running up and down the stairs, which of course made me sick! Not fun.

 After landing in France we drove on towards Paris. We stopped at two WWI sights along the way. Vimy was the first stop. Here we saw a bunch of WWI trenches that the soldiers fought in. 

Me in the trenches.

We also went to were the Armistice that ended WWI was signed.

10 hours later we were in Paris. Yes, it really did take us 10 hours on a coach to get from London to Paris!
Our hotel was....interesting........ It looked like a 70's style rocket ship or submarine.......But Lisa was my roommate, so that was fun. I quickly dropped off my bags in the room and a group of us were off to get some dinner and explore Paris. The metro............... What an experience that is. For starters, I HATE THE METRO IN PARIS!!!!! It's disgusting, smelly, no seating and just all around gross. Our first time on the metro didn't go so well either..... actually it was awful.

Story time:

A group of us (5 girls) thought it would be fun to go see some sights and grab dinner before heading to do the boat tour on the Seine River. We got off out metro stop only to find that to you had to take the elevator to the top in order to exit. Right as we were about to exit the elevator, a boy started talking to one of the girls I was with in French. Of course we all ignored him but then his friend joined in and staring talking in French also. They soon asked if we spoke French or English. After they realized we couldn't speech French, they began yelling profanities and other really inappropriate things at us. We rushed to get out of the metro station only to come out to a dark and deserted street with no idea where to go. We all ignored them and tried to hurry to the busiest and most lit area but the boys followed us and continued to yell. They continued to follow us for a good 5-10 minutes before we lost them. Needless to say it was the scariest night of my life. After this we were all a little terrified of the metro and the French guys riding the metro. 

Since we were all freaked out after that experience we decided to go to a nice sit down restaurant. We found the closest restaurant and ate some yummy sandwiches. 

 
After that we stuck to our original plan and went to go the boat tour on the Seine. That ended up being a lot of fun. There was about 25 of us from the program on the boat. And thanks to Liz we became close friends with the awesome tour guides, who we ended up taking pictures with! They also taught us some useful French phrases. :)

Our awesome tour guides are in the black coats.

Tuesday:
It was a gorgeous day and PERFECT for Chartes Cathedral! This cathedral is amazing with it's 179 stained glass windows. Dr. Seeley formed a "Windows club." We were assigned to learn about a certain window then when we got to the cathedral we had to explain the window to the rest of the group.

Me, Anne and Lisa in front of Chartes

Versailles was next on the list. The coach dropped us off and we were free to explore Marie Antoinette's glorious palace. To be honest...Versailles was awful! There is currently a modern Japanese cartoon art exhibit in all the rooms of Versailles. You go to Versailles to see the beautiful Baroque art not cartoon Japanese crap! It ruined the palace for me.

In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
This is where the peace treaty that ended WWII was signed.

Since Versailles was a bust we headed for some fun at the Eiffel Tower. Andrea, Anne and I waited in line and headed up the Eiffel Tower. Along the way we meet a bunch of awesome Australians girls (about 10 of them) and meet back up with our Russian friends we meet at Versailles.

On top of the Eiffel Tower. Andrea, me, Anne and our two new Australian friends.

 It was an overall very culturally enriching day.
By the time we got down from the Eiffel Tower (after literally running down the stairs) we realized the only thing we had eaten since lunch was ice cream and it was already 10:30 pm. We figured we should get something nutritious for dinner.................. so we got nutella crepes!!!!!!


Wednesday:
We literally hit the ground running!!! Before we left for Paris our humanities teacher gave us a HUGE list of assignments of things to see while in Paris. Here is a highlight of everything we did that day: 

• Notre Dame (yes, I did climb up and see the bell tower),
•  Saint Chapelle (perfect day, the stained glass was spectacular)
•  Pomidou (modern art museum, I was not a fan)
• Musee Orsay
• Musee L'Orangerie (Monet's water lillies and weeping willows)
• delicious dinner which included steak and creme brulee, which is my all time favorite dessert
• Lourve (Mona Lisa and lots of other really famous art)
• Arc de Triumph 
• Champ de Elysees

Thursday:

A bunch of us were unable to finish our assignments at the Lourve before it closed so we headed back to finish the  assignment, only to find that all the exhibits we needed were closed! Just perfect! When the going gets tough....the tough go shopping. At Fragonard Perfumerie that is!!! I bought some delicious smelling perfume! 

My goodies!

Carolyn, Anne and I headed to Sacre Coeur. This is a beautiful basilica on top of a hill that over looks Paris. 

STRIKE!!!!

By this time it was lunch time. The three of us thought it would be great to head to the Bastille for lunch since there are a bunch of great restaurants over there. What a huge mistake this was!!!!! There was a big strike going on this day (The French just love their strikes). We headed out of the metro station only to find we were right in the middle of the strike. Surrounded by people and unable to return back to the metro since it was an exit only, we had no idea what to do. This went against everything our professors had ever told us to do. We are instructed to turn and run in the opposite direction if we see a political demonstration going on. We were lost in a sea of people yelling and screaming, unable to find the metro entrance. Finally we found someone that spoke English and was able to point us to the metro entrance! Wow, what an experience that was. I've never been anywhere anything quite like that. 

The strike was the last thing we did in Paris. After that we headed back to the coach and we all left Paris and headed to Amiens, France! I've never been so excited about a hotel before in my life. Our hotel was paradise compared to the dump we stayed in in Paris. Lisa and I had an awesome balcony that looked over the Amiens Cathedral. 

That night Dr. Seeley and Sister Seeley took us all over to the cathedral. They explained who all the sculptures were of and all the symbolism behind the cathedral. Sadly, the sound and lights show was cancelled.This was the main reason we came to Amiens! Oh well, guess I will just have to come back another day :)

The Amiens Cathedral. Andrea, Lisa and I

Friday:

We got to go see the interior of the Cathedral. It was magnificent. 
Back to the coach we went. Everyone was SO excited to get out of France and back to lovely London. Along the way we stopped at 5 WWI sites. The more I learn about WWI, the more I realize how awful it was. It seems like such a stupid war that could have been avoided. Instead millions lost there life and it lead to WWII.

One of the WWI cemeteries we saw.

It felt good to return home to London! Yes, London is my home now! :) I love this city so much! 

Cheers!