Paris
Even though it was my last weekend before exams I was not ready to hold back and study. This was my last chance to go to Paris and I was going to take it. Thank God I did, because Paris is not a city to miss. I went with a Spanish girl I knew who is also on exchange. I was glad to go with her because she has been to Paris before, is a very fun girl and she knows how to speak French. We overnighted on the train and bus and I actually managed to get enough sleep. So I was ready to check out all the sites when we arrived in the morning.
We started with non-other than the Eiffel Tower. This guy is huge and menacing. Definitely easy to see from a distance. After the Eiffel Tower my personal tour guide took me to check out the Military school and the Napoleon museum. We decided to not go into the museum because we didn’t have enough time to check everything out before it closed. Instead we went to beautiful bridge with the giant golden monuments. This was built during Napoleon’s rule when they were filthy rich.
We then made our way to Le Louvre aka. Labyrinth of art and history. This place is huge! We checked out the Egyptian exhibits, Greek exhibits and medieval exhibits. We were there for a good three hours and only covered like a fifth of the museum. Ridiculously big but very nice none the less. Some exhibits you might be familiar with that I saw were the Venice de Milo, the Mona Lisa, the painting when Jesus turned water into wine and those cool pyramids you saw in Da Vinci’s Code.
We were beat after Le Louvre so we decided to have some good French food. For some reason those French like to put their eggs on top of the steaks and douse it with sauce. Crazy French! Very tasty though…
The next day we woke up to rain and cold weather. So much for going up to the Eiffel Tower. We had a lot of other places to see anyways. We went up the one huge skyscraper that is even taller than the Eiffel tower. 220 meters plus and thankfully indoors. You really get an idea of how big Paris really is from up there. You can pretty much see all the big monuments and building up there.
Later that day we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. This park has a nice fountain and statues throughout. It is supposed to be really nice during the spring when everything is blooming. We then ventured to the Sucre Coeur. This is one of the nicest churches I have seen in Europe. The outside looks like a mini version of the Taj Mahal and the inside has this giant mural of Jesus Christ. It is layered with monuments and paintings as well.
After looking through some souvenir shops we went down to Moulin Rouge. I’m sure you guys know all about that place. I managed to find a present for my roommate in one of the sex shops along that street. I knew he’d love it… :D
We headed over to the isolated island within Paris that held the Notre Dame. I particularly liked this cathedral just because of its medieval twist. We walked over to the Hotel de Ville which is this giant building which is supposed to be there town hall. They had a giant igloo and skating rink which stood in front of the building. Definitely a nice touch…
After that we went to one of the nicest places in Paris. The Champs de Lyse which has the Arc de Triumph on one side and Le Louvre on the other. This street was fully lit with Christmas decorations and was lined by expensive clothing stores, restaurants and Car shows. The Arc de Triumph is actually a monument for the previous French Wars. You can even climb to the top from the stairs inside of one of the legs.
We managed to check out the flame of the statue of liberty which is right beside the tunnel where Princess Di died from that Paparazzi accident. From there we got a great view of the Eiffel Tower in its hourly flashing. During the night they light up the Eiffel Tower and every hour they spark up blue lights which make the Eiffel Tower look like its sparkling. Cheesy, perhaps…but it still looks nice.
After, we headed to the canal for one of the bridge tours. We got a lot of cool history of Paris and saw all the bridges that line the Seine River. From the boats get to see a lot of things on the bridges that you would not see from on top of them. I definitely recommend going on one of these tours just not when it’s frigging super cold!
We decided we pretty seen all we wanted to see in Paris and we went for some Chinese food. There was this Chinese Wedding Party going on that night and surprise, surprise they couldn’t hold there alcohol. We had a nice dinner entertainment of a guy dry heaving on the bench close to us. It really added a nice touch to the meal…
That night we celebrated our last night in Paris with a bottle of Spanish Rum Lucia recommended. I have to say, pretty potent stuff, haha.
Then next day we made the long trek back to Maastricht for about studying till the end of exams. Woohoo! It was definitely worth it. It might have resulted in some long nights of studying but that’s what you have to do in Europe. No holding back!
Kean
We started with non-other than the Eiffel Tower. This guy is huge and menacing. Definitely easy to see from a distance. After the Eiffel Tower my personal tour guide took me to check out the Military school and the Napoleon museum. We decided to not go into the museum because we didn’t have enough time to check everything out before it closed. Instead we went to beautiful bridge with the giant golden monuments. This was built during Napoleon’s rule when they were filthy rich.
We then made our way to Le Louvre aka. Labyrinth of art and history. This place is huge! We checked out the Egyptian exhibits, Greek exhibits and medieval exhibits. We were there for a good three hours and only covered like a fifth of the museum. Ridiculously big but very nice none the less. Some exhibits you might be familiar with that I saw were the Venice de Milo, the Mona Lisa, the painting when Jesus turned water into wine and those cool pyramids you saw in Da Vinci’s Code.
We were beat after Le Louvre so we decided to have some good French food. For some reason those French like to put their eggs on top of the steaks and douse it with sauce. Crazy French! Very tasty though…
The next day we woke up to rain and cold weather. So much for going up to the Eiffel Tower. We had a lot of other places to see anyways. We went up the one huge skyscraper that is even taller than the Eiffel tower. 220 meters plus and thankfully indoors. You really get an idea of how big Paris really is from up there. You can pretty much see all the big monuments and building up there.
Later that day we went to the Luxembourg Gardens. This park has a nice fountain and statues throughout. It is supposed to be really nice during the spring when everything is blooming. We then ventured to the Sucre Coeur. This is one of the nicest churches I have seen in Europe. The outside looks like a mini version of the Taj Mahal and the inside has this giant mural of Jesus Christ. It is layered with monuments and paintings as well.
After looking through some souvenir shops we went down to Moulin Rouge. I’m sure you guys know all about that place. I managed to find a present for my roommate in one of the sex shops along that street. I knew he’d love it… :D
We headed over to the isolated island within Paris that held the Notre Dame. I particularly liked this cathedral just because of its medieval twist. We walked over to the Hotel de Ville which is this giant building which is supposed to be there town hall. They had a giant igloo and skating rink which stood in front of the building. Definitely a nice touch…
After that we went to one of the nicest places in Paris. The Champs de Lyse which has the Arc de Triumph on one side and Le Louvre on the other. This street was fully lit with Christmas decorations and was lined by expensive clothing stores, restaurants and Car shows. The Arc de Triumph is actually a monument for the previous French Wars. You can even climb to the top from the stairs inside of one of the legs.
We managed to check out the flame of the statue of liberty which is right beside the tunnel where Princess Di died from that Paparazzi accident. From there we got a great view of the Eiffel Tower in its hourly flashing. During the night they light up the Eiffel Tower and every hour they spark up blue lights which make the Eiffel Tower look like its sparkling. Cheesy, perhaps…but it still looks nice.
After, we headed to the canal for one of the bridge tours. We got a lot of cool history of Paris and saw all the bridges that line the Seine River. From the boats get to see a lot of things on the bridges that you would not see from on top of them. I definitely recommend going on one of these tours just not when it’s frigging super cold!
We decided we pretty seen all we wanted to see in Paris and we went for some Chinese food. There was this Chinese Wedding Party going on that night and surprise, surprise they couldn’t hold there alcohol. We had a nice dinner entertainment of a guy dry heaving on the bench close to us. It really added a nice touch to the meal…
That night we celebrated our last night in Paris with a bottle of Spanish Rum Lucia recommended. I have to say, pretty potent stuff, haha.
Then next day we made the long trek back to Maastricht for about studying till the end of exams. Woohoo! It was definitely worth it. It might have resulted in some long nights of studying but that’s what you have to do in Europe. No holding back!
Kean
posted by Kean @ 7:46 PM
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