After arriving at Charles de Gaulle from Oslo, I boarded the trusty RER from the airport and headed straight to my hostel, where I've stayed two times previously, on the vibrant Rue Mouffetard. After dropping off my belongings, I hopped on the metro to Palais Royale-Musée du Louvre. I brought my Pass Navigo, the Parisian metro card for residents, from when I studied here in Paris, which gives me unlimited rides for a week for under 20€. Unfortunately, the week begins on Mondays, so I had to make due for my first day on Sunday. Therefore, armed with just two metro tickets, I decided to do Paris by walking. After arriving at the Louvre, I realized to my surprise that the first Sunday of every month is free museum day! I also realized, to my horror, that the line to enter to Louvre was thousands of people long on free Sunday. So, I snapped a few photos and kept walking.
After leaving the Louvre, I walked through the streets of Paris past the Opéra Garnier, Madeleine, and Place de la Concorde on my way to the Champs-Elysées. I grabbed a quick lunch (a baguette with ham and butter) and walked to the Arc de Triomphe. After completing the quick picture snapping at Étoile, I walked over to the Tour Eiffel. I really never gets old. The crowds in Paris are probably at their height in July, with so many tourists one can barely make it down the sidewalks. After the Eiffel Tower, I walked down the Seine past Invalides to my favorite museum, the Musée d'Orsay, a former train station that holds mostly impressionist art. To my surprise, it too was free on Sundays for all and the line was only 20 minutes. I did a quick go around the museum (my third visit) and stopped for my favorite painting, Renoir's Bal au moulin de la Galette. There's also an awesome view of the city from the roof, which I discovered for the first time.
After a LONG day of walking, I returned to the hostel to rest and clean up. Being back in France has been awesome, but I must admit it took me day to get back in the swing of things. My French came back to me pretty quickly, yet my reading abilities far exceed my speaking skills. I wandered the Rue Mouffetard all the way to St-Michel and the Quartier Latin searching for a good place to eat. It's intimidating to eat dinner alone here (lunch isn't a problem), and I was nervous using my French. Still, I would rather use broken French than English here in Paris. Depending on the person, some Frenchmen respond to me in French and others in English. Either way, the actually haven't been too rude this time. One lady at a ticket office was especially nice to me for using French after a group of Italians in front of me royally pissed her off. Finally, I stopped for dinner at a place near where I am staying with plenty of young university students dining. I treated myself to a fondue du fromage dinner with a half a bottle of white wine before calling it a night.
My second day in Paris had a lot less walking with the unlimited metro pass; however, I still did an exhausting amount of traveling the city. I began by taking the train up to my favorite place in all of Paris, Montmartre. There in the 18e arrondissement, I spent much of my time the summer I lived here since my host mother's apartment was there. If I ever moved to Paris (ha!), I would probably live in this part of the city. It's quiet and calm, yet full of interesting people and places. From the Abbesses metro (100 stairs up), I walked to the Funiculaire (elevator) that takes you up the hill to Sacré-Coeur. This basilica with its famous white domes overlooks the entire city. The 6€ ticket to the top of the church gives an even better view of Paris. After snapping a few quick selfies with the low crowds in the early morning (less judgmental), I climbed down to wander through Montmartre over to the Moulin Rouge.
From Montmartre, I traveled up the familiar 13e line of the metro (where I lived in Paris) up to the suburb of St-Denis. Although it has a sketchy reputation at night, St-Denis is also home to a giant cathedral that holds the remains of many of the great royals and leaders of France, including Charles Martel, Marie Antoinette, and too many Henri/Charles/Louis to count. From there, I headed way south to the Marais for lunch. I must tell you that I had the best falafel I've ever tasted. L'As du Falafel, in the Jewish quarter, is said to be a favorite of stars like Lenny Kravitz. From there, onto viewing Hotel de Ville and Centre Pompidou before stopping by the Louvre. Although it probably wasn't worth the 12€ ticket to see for the fourth time in massive crowds, I felt like any trip to Paris is incomplete without it. A hustle around the museum led me to La Jaconde (Mona Lisa), Venus de Milo, and an Egyptian sphinx.
Whew! I am exhausted just reliving this day through blog, but its not over yet. Next, I went for a walk through Notré-Dame and Île de St-Louis, which isn't complete without a scoop of Berthillion ice cream. Next up, I went through more of the Quartier Latin to see the oldest standing church in Paris, St-Germain-des-Près, and the Jardin du Luxembourg. Finally, I headed back to the hostel to rest and buy dinner, which included bread, French cheese (Camembert et Roquefort), and beer (Leffe et Kronenburg). While we're on the topic of food, my hostel has individual servings of Nutella to use for breakfasts! I think we should get those in the US to prevent us from eating too much of the good hazelnut spread. Back to Paris, I took my dinner over to St-Michel and picnicked on the banks of the Seine as the bateaux-mouches (boats) and people passed by me. After listening to students play music and being run over by an old drunk French guy, I took the metro over to the Tour Eiffel for a night viewing. The TE is lit up at night, sparkling for 5 minutes on the hour every hour. Of course, for 3.50€ (amen for student/youth discounts in Europe) I took the stairs to the top of the second level. A little afraid of heights, I climbed carefully to the viewpoint over Paris before calling it a second night.
Merci beaucoup to those of you made it to the end of this endless blog post! I will update soon on my day trip to Orléans, about an hour or two southwest of Paris, the namesake of my hometown of New Orleans. I figured I should try something new while I was here in France. One of my biggest regrets from my first big trips to Europe was not seeing more of France, so I am doing my best now but still have a LOT of land to cover (next time!). Tomorrow I'll be taking the Thalys luxury train up to Brussels, Belgium, where I will be meeting my friend, Christina, who is coming over from Switzerland. Pumped for the beer, waffles, chocolate, and French (Belgian?) fries. A bientôt!
I (your mom) love to read your endless blog because I feel as if I am traveling right along with you.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to know you are having so much fun while I worry endlessly about you traveling alone.