Bon jour!! I am back from my 11-day, crazy Semana Santa (Spring Break) adventures. Because so much happened, I am splitting my break up into three blog posts, so keep checking back the next one!
(Just a heads up: I am typing this on one of the school computers and for some reason the keys are super mixed up and I cannot find the apostrophe, so this post will be written without any contractions of possessives. Should be fun!)
Three of my friends from my program here in Granada and I decided to travel to Paris, Florence, and Rome together during Spring Break. We left for Paris on Friday morning, March 30th, on a direct flight from Granada. We were supposed to leave on Thursday night, but the entire country decided to go on a 24-hour strike on March 29th, so our flight was moved to Friday. We had pretty much spent the entire two weeks between the announcement of the general strike and our actual flight stressing over not being able to get to Paris, so finding out that our flight was just moved and not cancelled was really good news.
I managed to fit everything for our 11-day journey into my backpack! It was a super exciting moment for an expert packer and I was very proud. It also made traveling with my luggage way easier than it would have been with a duffel bag or suitcase.
We landed in Paris around noon and I immediately realized that not knowing French was going to be pretty confusing. Just looking at the signs at the airport was overwhelming! I have definitely been taking my Spanish abilities for granted. Anyway, we took a taxi from the airport to the Sacre Coeur, which is a huge awesome church in the Montmarte neighborhood. Our hostel was near the Sacre Coeur, but we could not check in until 4pm, so we hung out near the church in a cute plaza and then in an awesome, sunny park. I got my first Parisian sunburn!!
At 4:00, we found our hostel and checked in. We had booked a 6-person, shared bathroom dorm and we got a 4-person, private bathroom room!! That was a supre pleasant surprise. The room was pretty small and had bunk beds, but we definitely did not complain. After dropping off our stuff ,we headed back to the Sacre Coeur to climb up to the church! There were a ton of steps, but the view from the top was incredible. We could see practically all of Paris! We also went into the church, which was super awesome. There was a service going on, and a choir was singing for almost our entire visit. It definitely made the whole experience more beautiful.
After visiting the Sacre Coeur, we grabbed some snacks and took the metro to the center of the city. We walked along the Seine as it was getting dark and then took a night river cruise along the river!! We got to see so many famous French buildings and landmarks all lit up. It was beautiful, but felt very unreal.
Saturday we got up early and headed to Versailles. We had to take the metro and then a regional trian, so it took a while to get there, but it was really fun seeing some of the towns outside of Paris. Versailles was gorgeous! We got in for free with our student visas, which was fantastic, and got to tour the whole palace. The rooms were seriously gorgeous, especially the Hall of Mirrors. After the palace, we headed out to the gardens. They were seriously incredible and HUGE. We spent more time wandering around the grounds of Versailles than we did the palace! We did not have the best day weather-wise, but we made the best of it. We ate lunch sitting on the banks of a lake, and I ate my first French crepe!
Next we went back to Paris and visited the Musee d
'Orsay, home to works by Monet, Manet, Degas, and more! I loved seeing all the paintings. It made me want to try painting again! Maybe that will become one of my summer projects...
After the museum, we took the metro to the Latin Quarter, walked around for a bit, then had dinner at a restaurant right next to the Luxembourg Gardens.
On Sunday morning we got up and headed to the Louvre. Once we got there, however, we were greeted by a seriously giant line of people waiting to get in, so we decided to visit the Louvre Monday instead. We decided to go to the Notre Dame instead, which I think I can safely say was one of my favorite churches ever. There was a Palm Sunday service going on inside, so we got to walk through the church to more music! The famous stained-glass windows were super breathtaking. It was honestly like nothing I had ever seen before. The outside of the church was just as incredible. I loved seeing all the gargoyles! I kept an eye out for Quasimodo, but did not see him.
Next we walked over to the Paris Opera House, where Phantom of the Opera is supposed to take place. It was really gorgeous, but we did not go inside. Instead we sat on the steps in the sun and ate some French lollipops we had picked up at a candy shop. Next we walked through the Louvre Gardens and got some delicious street crepes, which we ate on the banks of the Seine. After sunbathing for a while, we started the trek down Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which is sort of like the 5th Avenue of Paris. It was PACKED, but still a cool experience. So many American stores! At the end of the street is the Arc de Triomphe. I was happy to see such a famous landmark of Paris! After taking the necessary photos, we made our way toward the Eiffel Tower. It was a bit like following the star of Bethlehem, since you can see it from almost anywhere in central Paris. By following the tower, we ended up right in front of it! We spent a lot of time just hanging out in front of the tower, then grabbed dinner from the carts near the river and ate (more crepes!) as it got darker and colder.
Monday we had to check out of the hotel, but luckily we could leave our stuff in their storage room while we went to the Louvre! It was way less crowded on Monday and we got in free with our student visas! We spent several hours wandering around the HUGE museum, but we made sure to stop by works such as the Mona Lisa and Nike of Victory. The museum was honestly completely overwhelming and huge. My favorite part was the basement, actually, where there are the remains of the moat that the museum was build on top of.
We decided to have a picnic lunch in the park where we had lunch the first day, so we bought some fruit, cheese, and a bagette and ate/relaxed in the sun. At 4:00 we picked up our luggage and headed toward the airport. The metro was having issues, so we had to unexpectedly transfer lines, then could not get a taxi. Once we got one, we got to the airport pretty quickly, but I was still freaking out about missing the flight. Little did I know, however, that I definitely did not need to worry. Because of an airport worker strike in Orly Airport, our flight to Florence was cancelled.
We waiting in line for FOUR HOURS to talk to the Vueling Airline people who, it turns out, were absolutely no help. By the time we got out of the line, it was almost 10pm. We had no place to stay and no way to get to Florence. Nothing like being stranded in Paris.
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