February 28, 2012 - Paris

Paris time

Another bright and early start at 5:00 AM!  I can’t wait till I get back to some normal hours of sleep.  We took the Chunnel (the underground train from London to France) to France and dropped off our luggage at the hotel.  Then we took a class tour of the Bastille (which included the Palce de la Concorde, where the French Revolution and guillotine took place) and were free to do what we wanted for the rest of the day.  We went over to the Arc de Triomphe, which is a huge arch that was built to bring Napoleon’s troops into the city.  We were able to hike up the hundreds of stairs to get a bird’s-eye view of the city.  

In front of the Arc de Triumph

On our way up the Arc de Triumph.  Don't believe those false smiles for a second.

Paris is fascinating in its layout.  Apparently they wanted to make Paris more modern and geometrically laid out, so they hired a man to remake the city.  He set it up as a series of huge wheels where important landmarks are at the center and large streets lead out as the spokes leading to other landmarks.  It was a fantastic view and well-worth the mountainous hike we had to make to get up to the top.

See the two big streets leading out?  Like spokes on a wheel!

View from the top of the Arc

                Next, because we apparently hadn’t had enough hiking we decided to hike up the Eiffel Tower, which is about three times as high as the Arc.  The Eiffel Tower is not exactly what I had pictured (but I feel that’s how it’s been going throughout my study abroad when I finally see things in real life), but it is pretty cool.  You have to pay to hike up the Tower, and it costs extra if you want to ride the lift up to the top.  Being poor college students, we of course chose to hike up the thousands of stairs.  Ugh.  I know for a fact that I climbed more stairs in Paris than I have at any other time in my life.  We weren’t able to hike up to the very top of the Tower; because it’s being fixed up for the Olympics and was closed (apparently all of Europe has to get nice and pretty for the Olympics even though it’ll just be in London).  We did go about two-thirds of the way up and got another terrific view of Paris.  We were about five times as high up as we had been on the Arc!  Luckily I have a very strong constitution and am completely fine with heights.  Other girls were not so thrilled by the view…

This is not the last picture you'll see of the Eiffel Tower...

If you look close you can see the stairs leading up the leg...

About 1/3 of the way up

View from the Eiffel 

View down the middle of the tower

                After having to come all the way back DOWN the thousands of stairs we met up with the whole group and took a scenic cruise ride around the Seine River (this is a river that runs through the heart of Paris).  This showed us all the major landmarks around Paris and included a good historical commentary on the spots.  One of my favorite things we passed was a lock-bridge where couples go and put padlocks on the sides of the bridge, symbolizing their love.  Dang it, Paris – you’re just too romantic!

On the cruise

    The cruise included romantic music throughout the trip, complete with accordions and commentary about all the romantic areas of Paris.  I finally understood that Paris really is the city of love.  Too bad I went to Paris with a group of 40 girls.  Not so romantic.  I appreciated the cruise because it helped me romanticize Paris a lot more than I had earlier in the day when I was traveling on the underground metro.  Paris’s underground is absolutely disgusting.  It is crowded, dirty, hot, and smells like eggs.  I grew to appreciate London’s tube system immensely throughout the trip.

                After the romantic cruise trip (that helped me feel pretty dang good about my total lack of love-life) we got to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle.  Yes, sparkle.  Every night beginning at 7 PM on the hour, for 5 minutes, the Eiffel Tower sparkles with hundreds of lights.  It is dazzling.  We sat on some steps overlooking the Tower and took in the symbol of Paris.

Eiffel at night.  It was so bright that it lit up the sky and made the entire sky look orange.

Sparkling!!!

                After walking up thousands of stairs, jaunting around the country, and suffering in the metro we were starving.  We got dinner at a pizzeria near our hotel, and the food was delicious.  French food is sooooo much better than any food in London. 

The hotel we stayed at was pretty nice.  We were so fortunate as to have a Spanish soccer team staying on the same floor as us.  “Oooohhh….how thrilling!  How romantic and fitting for Paris!”  you might say, but I’m pretty sure most of the boys on this soccer team were 13 to 15 years old.  Not fun.  And annoying when they tried to flirt with us and get us to come to their rooms.  Back off little boys.