The City of Lights

So! I went to Paris. It was a while back, May 8-11, but hey, better late than never? So the trip started out with Alayne and I getting completely lost in the outskirts of town thanks to poor directions from the hostel. However, we eventually found the sought after Rue de Harpignies (best road ever to ask for directions to with an American pronunciation by the way). The hostel was pretty nice, and we immediately slept, woke up and had a wonderful French dinner, then went to sleep to prepare for an epic day. The next morning we went straight to the Eiffel Tour and it was so impressive! We were walking around looking for it and just as I suggested we get a map, Alayne pointed to the sky and said "Look!!" It was so amazing seeing it in the distance!! Once we actually found it, we had a grand time taking oodles of pictures and fighting with a mob of fellow tourists for free spots to shoot. Then we hopped on the "Hop on Hop off" bus and toured the city. It was a wonderful day and I learned tons about the city as we drove through.

Eventually, we hopped off at the Champs de Elysee, which is the main shopping street of Paris. We walked down to were it ended, at the Arc de Triomphe. We had planned to go up top and take a look around, but decided to just go on to the next site when we couldn't figure out how to cross the street =) Our next stop was to this super tall building that offered a wonderful view of the city. It was really interesting to see the city from that view, and quite relaxing to sit in the cafe and enjoy a drink. Finally, we ended the night with a riverboat tour. Although we were super exhausted, I still really liked hearing about the history of the city and seeing it from a different perspective -- the river! We saw a lot of the same sites as we did on the bus, but from a different view. I had a wonderful time, and had a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tour at sunset on the river.

The next morning we woke up early to get to the Louvre! With our Paris Passes we were able to cut the ridiculously long lines and walk straight in! This museum was huge. And it was so amazing to look up through the glass pyramid and see the beautiful outside of it. The first thing we saw was the Mona Lisa (of course), then we saw Venus, and then some neat Egyptian statues, including the Sphinx. Eventually, we made it out of that crowded, hot mess alive. Although the art was beautiful and it was all well worth it... the Louvre was very difficult to maneuver.

After that, we headed over to see Notre Dame. We walked around and enjoyed the calming atmosphere, only to follow that up with a bargain hunting spree on the neighboring street. We bought all our souvenirs and then sat down with a crossiant and coffee, watching the gypy ladies charm and trick American tourists. Fun =) Then we took a stroll around Paris, taking in the city for the last time in daylight and appreciating our trip. I had an absolutely wonderful fun and got to know my new friend Alayne better, which I am so grateful for =)