Je ne parles pas Francais!

Bonjour!  I am back and alive from Paris and full of more excitement and life :)  I hope you are all doing well over there across the pond- I was able to watch BBC World News quite a bit this weekend (details to come) and I saw that there is a lot going on with your side of the world.  I get home in 24 days, so hold down the fort until then!  But on to the blog, Allez Paris!
We left after our British Studies class for Paris at 12:30pm on Wednesday 07 November.  We took a coach to the Grantham train station, which we took to London King's Cross.  On my way there, I worked on homework (yeah I know, still studying).  Once arriving at King's Cross, we walked across the street to London St. Pancras Station, which has the Eurostar there.  The Eurostar is the train we took that goes through the tunnel under the water to Paris.  It was a pretty cool experience...but I took medicine to help me with motion sickness so I didn't get to see a lot of the trip.  When we arrived at Gare du Nor, or the North Train Station in Paris, I was pretty groggy.  I followed the crowd to go to the underground, or the Metropolitan as the Parisians call it, to get to our hotel.  We took the Metro to Strasbourg-St. Denis station, which was only one block away from our hotel.  Stepping out of the underground and looking around here allowed me to finally- FINALLY- see Paris!  I was so excited!!  
We got to our hotel at 7:45pm Paris time, so my roommate (Erin) and I went to dinner with some friends.  We wandered the streets looking for something to tide us over until breakfast when we found a small place that offered a variety of foods, including crepes.  The crepe that I got was poulet and fromage, which is chicken and cheese in french.  I had never had a crepe, and honestly, it was pretty good! I really enjoyed the night out with these people.

The next day, Erin, Kate, and I went around Paris.  Thankfully, Kate had been to Paris twice before and spoke fluent French, so we were in great hands.  We started our day at the Louvre, which is a huge huge HUGE museum of art and sculptures.  I found it absolutely gorgeous and overwhelming.  Before we went inside, I was able to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. It was incredible!  It looked so delicate (and really far away) from where we were.  We went into the Louvre and walked around for hours, seeing the wonderful works of Davinci and the home of Napoleon before the French revolution.  The entire building was huge- it was full of floors and wings and sections and division of art.  I don't think I will ever see anything like it again.  

When we left the Louvre, we went to lunch on our way to Notre Dame.  We ate at a small restaurant and shared pizza.  Our walk to Notre Dame was absolutely gorgeous.  We were able to experience the culture of Paris as well as save some money.  Inside Notre Dame is absolutely beautiful.  I can't believe how pretty it was.  I was amazed by the details of this cathedral.  Sometimes I feel like the cathedrals are the best parts of my trips.  Even though a lot of them look the same, they are all beautiful in their own way.  The details and the majesty of each one is just awesome.  I really enjoyed the opportunity that I got here to relax and reflect.

Outside of the Notre Dame is one of the bridges in France that is most decorated by locks.  These locks, with whatever message is scripted on the outside, resemble the love of the people who locked it on the bridge.  People "lock their love" in Paris and throw the key into the river.  There is still hope for the hopeless romantics in the world!!  My friends and I spent a fair amount of time here studying the different types of locks and the different ways people wrote on them.  It was pretty cool to look at.  After this, we walked from the Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, which took a LONG time.  Halfway because it was really far away, and halfway because we got lost.  Either way, it was a great time walking and seeing more of the Parisian culture.  By the time we made it to the Eiffel Tower, it was dark outside.

The Eiffel Tower lit up at night has to be my favorite thing to see.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Every hour, there is a light show, complete with twinkling lights on the tower.  Erin, Kate, and I all bought some cheese (not so great) and some cheap wine (pretty great).  We sat on a park bench for three hours that night just enjoying each others' company and watching the tour light up at various times of the night.  We got back to our hotel and spent the night talking with each other.  Best night in Europe, thus far <3