Paris!

This weekend I went to the lovely Paris with Kylie and Xylia. After hearing from a few people how they had been disappointed with Paris, my expectations must have been set pretty low, because I absolutely loved it. Although I do not know any French (minus ballet words which did not help me at all), and yes the French are in fact not as friendly as many other peoples, It was an extremely beautiful city.

            We stayed with Kylie’s friend Côme, which is probably what made the trip. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met, and he just happens to live in the best (read most expensive) neighborhood in Paris. Needless to say, we were enjoying living the high life for a weekend instead of risking bed bugs in a hostel. Côme showed us around the city, taught us how to use the metro, and translated all the French. He was definitely a lifesaver!

This was the first thing we saw after exiting the subway: the Arc du Triumphe! This tribute to French military triumphs is the second most iconic structure in Paris and it is right by Côme's apartment.

These are macaroons with are my new favorite food! Seriously they are delicious.

This is Côme's families apartment (or should I say mansion) which is insanely large for a european city.

After dropping our things off at Côme's, we all headed over to the Louvre, one of the most popular art museums in the world. It was insanely huge; there are miles (yes, miles) of galleries, so you have to be strategic and decide ahead of time what you want to see. 

This is in the entrance to the Louvre, which many of you may recognize from the DaVinci Code.

The Mona Lisa, which always has an extremely large crowd, was actually pretty disappointing. I was not expecting it to be so small!

Yep, this is the only photo I could manage to get in front of the Mona Lisa, and no I am not drunk.

 Kylie, Xylia and Côme

Paris at night was one of the most beautiful things in the world. This is the outside of the Louvre.

After the Louvre, we headed over to the Eiffel Tour. Although it was FREEZING and we definitely were not dressed properly, the view from the top was totally worth it.

Saturday morning we decided to wake up at 7:00 (which is pretty insane for me) since we didn't have many days in Paris. We headed over to the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur which is located in the Montmartre district and has an amazing view of the city.

The love wall in Montmartre says "I love you" in almost every single language.

We then stopped at a local café to try some of Paris' famous pastries for breakfast.

Our next stop was Notre Dame! Although it was made famous by good ol Quasimodo, it was originally the site of a Roman temple to Jupiter. It was then turned into a church by the Catholics in 1163, and used by French Nobles for their weddings. On a less happy note, this is also where Joan of Arc was tried for heresy. After being the site of Napoleon's coronation in 1804, Notre Dame went through a little bit of a rough patch and was used to shelter livestock. The famous novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame turned things around and revived the cathedrals popularity (after a bunch of restorations and major changes were made).

After Notre Dame we just happened to stumble upon the famous Love lock bridge, which rumor has it, you hook a lock with your names on it onto the bridge and throw the key into the river as a symbol of your undying love. The only way to break the bond is to find the key in the river and unlock it. So naturally Kylie, Xy and I did one, so I guess we will be in love forever or something like that.

We then headed over to Saint-Chapelle. The Upper Chapel is covered in stained glass from floor to ceiling, that depicts 1113 individual biblical stories. It was pretty unbelievable!

For a little shopping, we headed over to Galeries Lafayette, which is basically Paris' version of Macy's (only prettier and more expensive). The only thing I ended up buying was some tea, but I did enjoy this pretty cool christmas tree.

To finish off the weekend, we went out for wine and cheese (which paris is famous for), and Côme taught us all this cool french ballroom dance!

And obviously I ate my body weight in crepes and other delicious French food and wine....