Falling in Love with the "City of Lights"

Is this not breathtaking?

As I mentioned previously in a post about Rome, I visited that city with huge expectations.  When I visited Paris this past summer with a group of my good friends I came with the complete opposite mindset, I had very little (if any) expectations.

Two of my best friends had previously visited the city with high hopes but ended up not enjoying their time.  While their opinions did make me think that maybe the city wasn't up to all the hype around it, the real reason I came without a view on Paris was because my true dream destination lay about an hour away in Giverny, France and for me there was no comparison.  So when my friends decided on Paris for their summer vacation so I could visit my dream destination I agreed: "Sure, why not.  I mean if I have to see Paris."

The Seine at night

And let me be quite clear, I had nothing against the city.  As I history major I had studied much of the architecture, art, and history that had been created in Paris, called Paris home, and/or has occurred in this beautiful city.  More than studied it, I both appreciated and loved it all.  But Paris, for me, was no dream destination.  It was Giverny and Monet's Garden that brought me to France.  It was my love for the artist and his work, the childhood promise my grandma made that we would visit together one day, and the crushing loss of her before that promise could be fulfilled that drove me to visit the gardens for the both of us.  So no offense Paris, you really weren't my priority.







But as our flight landed in Beauvais, I found that I enjoyed the bus ride through the French countryside on our way to Paris.  And as we stepped off the metro and hurried through the streets of Paris on the way to our apartment to get the key in time for the waiting owner I didn't even look around me.  We ran past the Notre Dame without even giving it a second glance in our haste.  As we made our way to our apartment in the Latin Quarter, and hiked up the four levels with our luggage in tow I hadn't even had the chance to look around at Paris.  For all I knew it could be completely unattractive, just like the apartment we were just about to step into... ... ...and as that apartment door swung open we all stood stunned in the doorway.  It was by no means large, fancy, or magnificent, but thas apartment was the coziest, quaintest, most bohemian apartment I could ever have hoped to have the luck of staying in while in Paris; complete with a breakfast balcony, various book shelves, and bedding for all six of us (winning).

And that was when I started to fall in love the "City of Lights."

Les Invalides

Because truth be told I loved Paris.  I loved the museums, the gardens, the monuments, the streets, the buildings; once when we were grocery shopping I wandered out into the street just to gaze up at the buildings...forgot to tell my friends and they had a heart attack thinking I had been lost/kidnapped...but that's what Paris does to you I suppose.  I've always been more an 'art' person, I respected architecture, but art was my love.  In Paris however, I found myself very drawn to the architecture and found myself snapping images of buildings and bridges all throughout the city and our day trips.

As for the museums, there was such an abundance that it was impossible for us to see everything that we all wanted to do.  Of course the Louvre is spectacular, and I highly recommend it to anyone who even remotely enjoys art or history; my personal favorite was Musée d'Orsay for its renowned collection of Impressionist artwork while my boyfriend loved Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides (also the site of Napolean's Tomb).  As I wrote in a previous post, we were all a little disappointed by Versailles unfortunately, but the gardens were well worth the trip.  Especially the quaint area behind the Petit Trianon of Marie Antoinette's Hamlet.

Monet's Garden

Over the course of our week in Paris I learned some vital new French words, just as I did in Rome: fromage and chèvre.  Because we all know I need my fix of cheese, and what better way then in some delicious crêpes!  And so we happily tramped from monument to monument, museum to museum, and before I knew it, it was time for me to make that long awaited trip to Monet's Garden.  I had fallen in love with Paris with minimal expectations and I was terrified that my high expectations for Giverny would leave me loving/hating my experience, as I had months before in Italy.  I kept my fingers crossed throughout the train, bus, and walk to the gardens; what if I didn't like?  What if it wasn't what I expected?

I hesitated to walk out the gift shop into the gardens, but when I finally threw myself out the door I stood in awe.  It was more beautiful than I had imagined.   I turned around and snapped the picture on the left for proof that I had made it (the boy's face in the picture essentially mirrored my expression, or so my boyfriend tells me...).  We meandered through the gardens as we made our way to the famous lily pond.  The moment of truth.  I was about to walk out to the place of my childhood dreams, walk across the Japanese Bridge just as my most favorite childhood literary figure had, and live my dream.  And while I shed my tears of happiness on that bridge, I realized in that moment that I didn't just love Paris.  I loved France.  I loved traveling.  I loved life.

There I am, standing out in red

The week I spent in Paris with my friends turned out unexpected.  I had prepared myself not to love the "City of Lights," I had prepared to keep my expectations low so not to feel as I had leaving Rome.  And to be fair Paris was not always kind to us; it was by no means a perfect trip.  I had previously injured my hips a few weeks ago running and had crippling hip pain the whole week in Paris; I limped from monument to monument.  My friends had terrible blisters on their feet, one got lost in crowds in Versailles, my boyfriend was sick for a few days, we all had beautiful sunburns in Versailles, and of course there was the arguing that ensues when six people are sharing a studio apartment for a week.

All those Art History classes being put to
good use!

But I wouldn't trade that week in Paris for anything in the world.
Together with my friends we jumped for joy at the Eiffel Tower, laughed over bottles of wine and blocks of cheese enjoyed on our apartment balcony, and ate Éclairs along the Seine.  We danced on the steps of Sacré-Cœur as we watched the sun set over the city, explored the streets of Paris, tried as many tiny, crowded cafes as we could, and together we all fell in love with Paris.

After my love-hate Rome trip, I realized that those 'bad' things happen.  No traveling experience will be perfect and I couldn't control everything that would happen.  And more importantly, I shouldn't let those things I can't control ruin my time, or taint my perspective of a place.

Just being tourists with one of my besties

Have you visited Paris?  What was your experience like?  Have you ever fallen in love with a place, even if you didn't think you would?

Summertime Adventures July, Part 2

PARIS!!!

For the third week of July we went to Paris with a group of friends so get prepared for the mother of all posts!  We all stayed in this adorable apartment in the Latin Quarter.  From the balcony you could just barely see the Eiffel Tower, we were literally next to the Church of Saint-Séverin (as you can see in the picture on the left), and were about three minutes walking from the Notre Dame.  Amazing!  The very first night we got there we walked around for a while to see a little of Paris at night.

 

On our first full day in Paris we did a lot of walking, no metro for us!  First we saw the d'Orsay Museum, which I personally loved because it has one of the most extensive collections of Impressionist paintings, my favorite style of painting.  After the museum we walked up the seine to see the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, a famous bridge that my boyfriend and his other civil engineering friends studied in class.  It was really cool how you could walk from the lower level to the upper to cross the river.  

After that we had lunch in the Tuileries Gardens and continued on to see the Luxor Obelisk, La Madeleine, the Vendôme Column of Napoleon, the Arc d'Triomphe, and finally the Eiffel Tower!  So much walking in one day! Even though I have studied the art and architecture of Paris in my history classes I was still surprised by everything and how quickly I fell in love with Paris. As for the Eiffel Tower, the line to take the elevator was very long--and more expensive--so we decided to walk up as far as we could; which is about half way before taking the elevator.  After we made it to the top we rested in the park below for a bit before our long walk home.  I'm glad we got the experience walking because you got to see great views of Paris.  We were exhausted but did manage to get some wine and delicious cheese, cheese being of course my absolute favorite food, for dinner!

  

Our second full day in Paris we spent the morning at the Louvre.  It was wonderful because I studied many of the artwork and sculptures in my art history classes so I was almost overly excited to see it in real life, especially the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.  It was all spectacular, though a bit overwhelming fighting all the photo taking tourists to even look at the pieces!  After the Louvre we walked some more around Paris and got to see the Opera before we headed to Les Invalides.  It was once a hospital but is now where the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte is and is also a arms museum.  The tomb of Napoleon was huge!!    My boyfriend and I went back a little earlier than everyone else because like clockwork my hip was hurting again, and we went to a cafe near the Notre Dame to have a snack and some Paris.  If it wasn't such a cliché, I would have felt almost Parisian sitting in a cafe in Paris, let alone with a view of Notre Dame!

The Queen's Chambers

The Hall of Mirrors

The Next Day we were at Versailles, it was just a quick train ride away and was luckily a beautiful day.  Once we got to Versailles we had to wait in a HUGE line, over an hour.  But during this time we at least got to take pictures of the front before we went in.  Once inside it was honestly a little bit of a let down for me, it was so crowded and so many rooms were closed off.  You were funneled through the rooms and because of amount roped off and the amount of people, there was not a lot of time to look at each room because everyone was essentially shoving you through!  Despite this it was very beautiful.  The best part for me though was the gardens, even though you had to pay extra because it was the summer.   And my absolute favorite part of the gardens AND Versailles was the hamlet behind the Petit Trianon that Marie Antoinette had built for herself.  It was beautiful and had a working farm complete with adorable farm animals.  My boyfriend and I visited it just the two of us, so we had some alone time walking around the different buildings and petting the farm animals--well I pet the farm animals while he shook his head at me!  When we finally returned from Versailles we visited the north of Paris to see Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge and have dinner.  

  

 The following Day Adrián and I took our own day trip to Giverny to see Monet's Garden, which is actually the main reason I really wanted to go to Paris!  Ever since I was little I loved Monet's paintings, so much that my Grandma said that for my high school graduation trip she would take me to his famous gardens.  Sadly she passed away  before I graduated and I was not able to take our trip.  This Paris trip was partly planned by our friends so I could go because they knew how important it was to me, it was very sweet.  And it was such an amazing feeling going because it was like I had my grandma with me.  Getting to Giverny is a bit Chaotic though.  You have to take the train in the North of Paris to Vernon

and from Vernon you have to take a bus to Giverny, unfortunately we missed our first train because of the long ticket line.  When we finally got to Giverny we had a picnic with some French cheese I had bought the other day along with a fresh baguette, chocolate, and jamón.  The cheese was absolutely delicious and it was probably one of my favorite meals in France!  Giverny was a tiny little village and was so absolutely beautiful, but for me it was nothing compared to Monet's Garden and the lily pond.  It was a dream come true, I was so happy I was practically in tears!  It was truly one of the most beautiful places I've seen, absolutely breathtaking and quite truthfully a dream come true!  If you're going to Paris I highly suggest this day trip, you won't be sorry.

On our final day literally before leaving we visited the Notre Dame.  In the morning we saw the inside but we had to come back later to climb to the bell towers.  The inside was beautiful; I love the Gothic styles and, thanks again to all my art history classes, I had previously learned about the symbolism in religious art and architecture and was able to explain it to my friends as well--which I proudly overheard a tour guide repeating everything I had just explained, winning!  As for going to the top of the Notre Dame we had to wait in line for about an hour and a half, but the view to me was worth it.  While waiting we got some shopping done and took a quick look at the Pompidou building.  

When we finally walked up more stairs we saw that it was worth the wait.  From the bottom looking up you couldn't see any of the gargoyles but from above you had a perfect view!  It was like a scene from the "Hunchback of Notre Dame."  You got to walk across the building to the famous bell tower from the novel to see the actual bell, then climb all the way to the top of the tower.  The views of Paris were beautiful and we were even able to see our apartment from the top!  After the Notre Dame we bought some sandwiches to eat along the Seine.  I even indulged in an éclair, not cliché right?

When we arrived in Santander it was actually the start of their annual parties celebrating the city called, Semana Grande.  All around the city bars set up 'casetas' or little wooden houses, at these houses you can try different tapas and drinks.  Usually there is a special where one tapa and a beer are 2.5 euros.  They also have some areas where tents are set up for different provinces in Spain.  I loved going to the Asturias one because I love the sidra, since we don't have anything like it at home.  

Also at the same time there is a feria or fun fair going on near the stadium.  It has a bunch of food, rides, and games where you can win prizes.  We went on a couple rides with our friends, tried a special coconut treat--where my boyfriend, not so humorously for him, chipped his tooth--, and he even won me some stuffed animals!  It was really fun and I loved trying the different tapas and foods from different parts of Spain.  

During this week it was one of our friend's birthdays and we decided to have a tapas party to celebrate where each person cooked one dish of tapas to eat for dinner.  My boyfriend and I decided to make American food, and cooked buffalo wings and then pancakes for dessert.  Everything was so delicious, I love Spanish food!