Arrive-dara-ci: Ma visite a Paris pour le weekend, "Paris Je t'aime"

I spent this past weekend in Paris with Gabby. We stayed at FIAP Jean Monet on the Southern border of the city where I stayed with my French class in High School almost exactly 3 years ago. My experience this time was very different. Last time I had absolutely nothing to worry about except being at meeting points on time. My days were planned out for me and I didn't have to worry about paying for food when we went to eat. Instead, we were told to order whatever we wanted, and the teachers payed at the end (of course with the money we gave them before the trip). That was also my first time in another country and I was completely amazed, and it also helped being there with about 20 of my friends!

This past weekend was a little different. I had to plan out my days myself. Though this wasn't exactly bad. Gabby and I would start out in one area and then decide right afterwards where else we would go. The disappointing part was the food. Paris is extremely expensive, at least compared to Rome. Not to mention French food isn't exactly my favorite, but we did get to eat french fries! It was really bad though on Friday afternoon when we had walked all day and were dying for a cup of coffee to sip on while relaxing at a table outside. Everywhere we looked coffee was 4 euro (that's over $5 for coffee) whereas in Rome you can get a cappucino for 1 euro! We even walked into a Starbucks just hoping we could find something reasonably priced. NOPE, as usual Starbucks is the most expensive coffee shop on the street. Finally we found a place that said 2euro 80 cents for coffee and we decided to get it since it was the cheapest we saw. We had wanted to sit down with this coffee though and the guy told us it would cost 1 euro 50 cents more to sit down. So we just stood quickly drinking our grande coffee. This part of the trip was very disappointing.

I don't want it to seem like I am complaining, because HELLO, I was in Paris, and I absolutely love that city. There were a lot of great things about it too.
1) Sun everyday! This was especially nice since it had been raining in Rome all week (and even over the weekend while we were away) This meant we took some gorgeous pictures. Also when I was last in Paris it rained everyday and I didn't get to walk around and enjoy the sites like I did this past weekend.
2) Free Museums! Museums in Paris are free if you can prove EU residency (I believe this is just for people under 26 though). Luckily my Italian Visa means I'm a temporary EU citizen and we didn't have to pay 10 euro each for the Louvre or Musee D'orsay.
3) Beautiful Fashion! Surprisingly, Italian street fashion is ugly. Everyone walks around in shiny puffy coats and the clothes in the shop windows look like they'd be sold in Walmart or something. However, Parisians dress so chic. They don't wear shiny coats, but peacoats, great shoes, dark skinny jeans, and all other sorts of great accessories. It also helped that it was Paris fashion week so everyone was dressed to impress.
4) quick, easy Metro system. In Paris the metro comes every 3-4 minutes like clockwork and it speeds on the rails as quickly as possible. They also have maps everywhere that show the stops closest to monuments so we were able to get from place to place with ease.

Anyways, here is what we did. We got into Paris late Thursday night and went to straight to our hostel and fell asleep. We didn't even get dinner, but we were too tired to go looking.
Friday:
We got up early to have some free breakfast at the hostel then went to the Opera house for a free walking tour of the right bank of Paris. The tour guide took us through this rich area of Paris with all the famous jewelry shops and stores and told us the history of each. We then walked through the Jardin de Tuilleries to learn about the history of the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde, which included information about the Kings of France as well as the revolution.

The Opera, built under Napoleon III

A statue of King Edward the VII of England, who before becoming King spent time in Paris (for their brothels) and built a theater in this square

Street sign for Rue de la paix where all the most expensive jewelry shops are

Place Vendome, built by King Louis XIV for government buildings but all the high end shops kicked them out. The first Ritz hotel is also here where Princess Diana was last seen before she died

Napoleon Bonaparte's obelisk, which he put himself on top of so people wouldn't notice his height. He also dressed himself as Julius Caesar

Jardin de Tuilleries, with a view of the obelisk in Place de la Concorde where the revolutionaries killed a bunch of people supporting the monarchy.

After this tour we went to the Louvre, because you just have to see the place. We walked around pretty quickly just to see some of the highlights of the museum. The Louvre also used to be the royal palace before Louis XIV built Versailles

Me in front of the Louvre's pyramid

Just the cover of Coldplay's last album

This was a big find, last time I was at the Louvre we ran all over the place trying to find Hamurabi's Code but it wasn't there, well here it is!

Then we walked along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. This is actually a pretty long walk and we were aching after it, but it was a beautiful day and I thought it was worth it.

Bridge over the Seine

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower!

Then we went to the Champs Elysees to see all the stores and the Arc de Triomphe. This is also when we tried to find coffee. Finally, we went back to the Eiffel Tower and had dinner around there. I had steak, something I haven't had since leaving the States, it was very good. We also got dessert and I had Creme Caramel. Then we went to take a look at the Eiffel Tower lit up and once an hour it sparkles.

My Steak-Frites

The Eiffel Tower mid-sparkle

Saturday:

We started our day with another free tour, this time around the Notre Dame. This tour was awesome because we learned about its history and about the story the statues on the outside of the Notre Dame mean (basically they just told the people of the Middle Ages to be good or else they'll go to hell).

The Notre Dame

Gargoyles, used basically as gutters for the church (spit out water aka gargle water) chimers are the "gargoyles" that played Quazimoto's friends in the hunchback of Notre Dame (not actually gargoyles)

This building is a police station, BUT it was actually where a barber slit people's throats and a butcher made human meat pies. Yes, the story of Sweeney Todd is true, but it happened in Paris not in London

Back view of the Notre Dame

Inside shot of the Notre Dame

Afterwards we had lunch in the Yuppy/Hipster area of Paris (St-Germain). I had a Croque Madame. Then we walked to the Musee D'Orsay, the impressionist museum. All the famous impressionists have their works here as they were originally painted in Paris! No pictures were allowed in the Museum

Me outside the Musee d'Orsay with my friend Vincent

Then we went to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur to relax, watch the street performers and eat a crepe. It was cool to people watch and listen to the music, and have a view of all of Paris. Afterwards we ate dinner around our hostel, and this was pretty much it for our trip to Paris!