Spring Break pt 5: Keep It Between the Wine and the Baguettes

April 8

Walking out of Gard Du Nord in Paris, the memories of being here before started rushing back to me. Last time Brenden (my brother) and I spent about an hour in the station just trying to figure out what metro line we should take to the Eiffel Tower. This time, I confidently walked out of the station and followed my enormous map of Paris directly to the hostel, with no troubles. I was glad to be back, it felt oddly comforting to be in a place I kind of remember.

We went out for dinner at some little French restaurant where the waitresses barely spoke english. It was a game trying to see who blindly chose the best wine off the extensive wine menu. Slightly bias, but mine was the best... considering that I hate red wine and that's what the other three chose. Our dinner was probably the best I've had so far on the trip. It hit us all right there in that restaurant that we had made it to France.

After dinner, we slowly made it back to our hostel just down the street. Since we had a balcony it was only right to put it to some good use. So with a couple bottles of cheap wine and some 1 Euro fruit tart cookies, the four of us sat slightly squished on the balcony talking for a while. It was perfect and I wouldn't trade that night for the world. It's one of those nights that will leave an imprint on me.

Me on the balcony... how French :)

Morning came and we got an early start to a long day. Since we only had two full days in France, we pushed ALL the Paris sight seeing to day one, and Palace of Versailles for the last day. This all seemed a bit Déjá vu to me but I was excited to tackle Paris again and hope against all hopes that I'd like it a whole lot better than the first time.

We first went to Notre Dame, which unfortunately had a huge stadium seating thing set up right in the front garden which kind of ruined the aesthetics of it. But I got to go in it this time, which was pretty cool. Almost every window was a stained glass and there were loads of chandeliers. I never know what to do when we go into churches so i took a lap around then waited for everyone else to finish touring the place. I ended up watching the mass that was happening while we were in there... it was weird not to understand a word they were saying.

Leaving the Notre Dame behind, we stumbled upon the Love Lock Bridge... i had no idea it was just behind the Notre Dame!! So we spent a while there looking at all the cool locks and wishing our boyfriends were there so we could put a lock on for ourselves :/

Then we made our way to the Louvre walking along the Seine and enjoying the nice sunshine that decided to surprise us. Hoping to go in, we were soon disappointed to find that the Louvre was guarded by tons of police in riot gear and gates everywhere. There was a small, sad looking riot going on about gay rights or something... they didn't look like they were accomplishing anything though. I asked one of the police guys if we could go in that day and he told me it was closed... the President of France was going to be arriving or something like that. We found out later that the Louvre is apparently closed every Tuesday anyway, so it wasn't really a loss on our part.

On our way to the Eiffel Tower we got poured on by this menacing looking rain cloud headed our way. It didn't rain long but in the 10 minutes.... it poured so much we were soaked and ran into a restaurant to escape and to dry off a bit.

The Eiffel Tower was everything I remembered it to be. But a bit nicer without all the tourists and creepy guys selling what i'm convinced is to be stolen Eiffel Tower key chains. Since it was drizzling/ pouring there was hardly anyone there which meant the line waiting to go up the tower was almost non existent. Spur of the moment, we decided to go to the submit... besides, we weren't able to get in to the Louvre so we had to do something. It was weird to go up the elevators... theres a weird angled one that goes up one leg of the tower that stops at the second level. Then we had to wait a while to get on the second elevator that went up the center of the Eiffel Tower all the way to the very top. It was at this point that Rebecca decided she wasn't going to make it to the top and would wait for us to come down. It sounded grand but we didn't really make a plan to meet up.

At the top we could see for miles, even on this cloudy day. But being outside on the top landing was incredibly windy, and at this height the rain droplets actually hurt your face. We nearly got blown around the corner at the top as we were heading back inside it was so windy. Inside, we were actually able to see things without being tested by mother nature. It was a bit mind boggling to me that I was actually on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was unreal.

From the top!

Back down, we ran around the second landing trying to find Rebecca. Failing, we took the elevator back down to try and see if she was on the ground. Nope. We searched the entire area with no luck. So we got a crepe and sat and waited for a while thinking she would have to come down eventually. It was getting late and we were exhausted from walking all day in the cold rain, so we thought she had probably already left since we spent a while up at the top. With that thought in mind, we headed for the metro to head back to the hostel for a nap.

About two hours later Rebecca came back and we figured out what happened. She stayed on the second landing and only came down half an hour after we left for the metro. It was all a miss understanding but it made for a very long end to the day.

Since we had to go to bed early the next day so we can actually wake up to make our flight, I wanted to head back in to the city to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night. It was pretty much the only thing I really wanted to see in Paris actually. So we hopped on the metro and made our way back to the Eiffel tower. It was drizzling a bit and made it look even more magical. It was by far the most romantic thing I've ever seen. It was perfect.

 
 


For me, it was that moment standing there watching the lights twinkling that changed my mind on Paris. It's a beautiful city when you strip away it's crazy New-York vibe. When you get rid of all the jam packed crowds of tourists, the souvenir shops on every corner & the guys selling you stuff on the street, and the long, never ending walk from the Arc De Triumph to the Louvre my brother I did it really is truly beautiful. Seeing the Eiffel Tower peacefully shining like a beacon in the rainy night keeping watch over the city throws everything I disliked about this place out of my mind and leaves me... happy. I think after this time to Paris I'll remember not the monuments I saw but the small, insignificant things that mattered. Like eating at a little restaurant where they translated the word sword fish into "the fish with the long nose", buying way too many baguettes and cheese to go with it, cheap bottles of wine, sitting on our tiny balcony huddled in a blanket laughing with my friends that I became so close to in only a few months.

The following day, we made our way to the Palace of Versailles. I was pretty excited about the palace because I've heard how beautiful it is. long story short.... I was not impressed. The gardens were beautiful but they weren't quite ready for tourist season yet I guess. The fountains weren't on and the flowers weren't yet in bloom... only the yellow daffodils. I would have stayed in the garden the whole time had I known what the inside was like.

Now, I've never seen any pictures of the palace before so I guess I didn't really know what to expect from this place. the outside should have been a dead give away... that everything is covered in gold. But you aren't really focused on that until it's in your face, in every room, in the most hideous way possible. Theres huge gold framed paintings, gold lining the walls, gold trimmed everything. It was all a  bit too much and it actually made me start to really dislike the place. Not only were the decorations awful, but the crowds in the place was insane. We were literally trailing behind a tour bus of about 100 chinese women for a good portion of the house. It was slightly annoying to be behind these massive tours because I wasn't able to stop and enjoy a room I might have actually slightly liked. The only thing I really enjoyed about the palace was the hall of mirrors. That is genius.

The McDonald's macaroons were probably the only thing that stopped my from being utterly disappointed with my trip to Versailles. I'm sure the gardens are a lot prettier when they are actually in bloom and the fountains are out.