Being in Paris was truly surreal. As someone who took French for six years throughout my younger years, I could not believe to finally be in this city I had heard and read so much about. Although I discontinued my study of French (to put it lightly) by the time high school started, I remembered a surprising amount of the language, which made my time in this city that much more enjoyable. Compared to Portugal, for example, where I did not even know how to say "thank you", France was a very pleasurable experience. For this part of my Europe trip, I had a new travel buddy, my older sister, Ronia (but I call her Roon). Roon took French as well and was much better at it than me, and she continued to study it through high school all the way up through AP. Roon and I have traveled together before, in the winter of 2015/2016 to Israel. We were so excited to link up to see Western Europe for the first time together. Accommodation Roon and I stayed in a group of hostels in the heart of Paris called MIJE. The way this group works is that you book beds, and the day before you arrive, you receive the name of one of three possible hostels all within a very close distance of each other that you will be staying at. Our hostel was built in a refurbished mansion which gave the place character, and we were a stone's throw from the River Seine which was super convenient. Aside from these positives, the hostel had a serious lack in outlets and wifi quality, which definitely added a challenge to our cell data-less trip. But we managed, and the location was just too convenient to complain any more about. The hostel was not very social, the age range was much larger than previous hostels I had been to, there were families, older adults, and even a student group of 13 year olds who were pretty annoying. Roon and I kept to ourselves mostly but that was not an issue because we were barely at the hostel except to sleep. Activities I had one free day in Paris before Roon arrived that I chose to spend at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris' botanical garden. This was my third botanical garden so far this summer (Montreal, Madrid, Paris). It was much more impressive than Madrid's, perhaps because of the cooler and wetter climate, but it was not nearly as great in size as Montreal's, perhaps because of location. Regardless, I enjoyed seeing another garden and can't wait to visit London's HUGE Kew Gardens in a few days (5th largest in the world). Once with Roon, we packed a full Paris experience into an amazing three days. First, we participated in (another) Sandeman's New Europe Free Walking Tour which was amazing and helped us get our bearings in this new city. Our next stops that same night included Paris' most iconic sights- the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower! The Arc we mainly just went to see it and snap some pics, but the Eiffel Tower was where we had dinner and spent our evening. There was a lively food market where we picked up our meal then we sat in the large grass area next to the tower. It was a wonderful scene to hang out in for an evening, we even saw someone being proposed to! We shared a Sprite and waited for the sun to go down, because we had booked a River Seine boat tour and wanted to do it at night so that we could get a good view of the Eiffel Tower light show. We boarded our boat at 10pm, when the light show started, but to be honest this was not much of a show. The tower sparkled for five minutes... and apparently it only sparkles for five minutes every hour. So we moved on and enjoyed our boat ride down the famous river, seeing many landmarks along the way. Great first day together! Our second day together came with a little bit of wandering, which was no trouble at all in such a beautiful city. First we waited in a bit of a line but went inside Notre Dame. It was underwhelming to say the least. I would say that building's glory stops pretty much at the outside. But then again I'm never one to really care that much about the inside of a church. Next we stopped at the Pantheon, which was actually an accident, but nonetheless we were excited to see it and snap more pics. After that we walked through the Jardin Luxembourg, a gorgeous garden in the city, very nicely manicured. This too was by accident, because we were on our way to the Montparnasse observation tower and our navigation took us the scenic route. Again, no trouble. The observation tower itself had an amazing view of the city, well worth the 13 euros or so we paid to go up. Our evening ended with a Sandeman's Walking Tour of the Montemartre neighborhood, which is the quaint and picturesque Paris everyone imagines. It is where the movie Amelie was filmed, and in fact during our tour we had to wait at one intersection because they were filming a movie up ahead! The tour was charming, the weather was perfect, but where it ended was the best part. Sacre Coeur (meaning sacred heart) is a massive and grand church up on the hill of Montemartre. It is an unbelievable building, and the surrounding area of restaurants, artists, and street performers made for the perfect evening for my sister and I. We had a pizza at a quaint restaurant, got caricatures done by a frenchman, then got dessert crepes and watched a street performer do sing-alongs with a lively crowd. Truly a perfect Paris evening! Our final day in Paris actually consisted of a trip outside the city, to the great palace of Versailles. We did a Sandeman's Walking Tour of this as well, but instead of going inside the palace (which would require waiting in a 4-6 hour line) the walking tour was of the surrounding gardens and their hidden rooms. The walking tour was perfect for us, because when you stand up at Versailles and look over the garden all you see are trees, but if you walk around within them you stumble across hidden "rooms" with statues, fountains, and stages. The walking tour leader obviously knew exactly where all of these were, so he guided us around to see them. The garden is very geometric, which Roon loved (she is a math major this makes sense), and it was a garden... which I loved, going along with my theme of gardens for this summer. Even though it rained when we went, Roon actually said this was her favorite part of our trip so far, which speaks to just how amazing it was. For me, perhaps the best part of this trip is being with Roon. We were born 18 months apart, and basically lived 17 years of our lives right by each others' sides. But honestly it was not until Roon went off to Harvard that we got really close, but of course by that time in our lives we are hardly together anymore. With her living in Cambridge and me living in State College we see each other at Thanksgiving, a few days over December break and Summer break, and perhaps a day or two for a visit some other time during the year. Before she arrived in Paris I had not seen her in over four months, so this time together has been really special and fun. We are already talking about potential travel plans for next summer, before she enters "the real world" of city life working.
So here we are, three days in and on our way to London. We are having a wonderful time and really enjoying the amazing sightseeing, photography opportunities, and each other's company. We are excited for what the rest of this trip will bring! Comments are closed.
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