Paris Day 1: Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower at Night

Paris Day 1, Thursday February 21
         For Winter Break, I spent 2 days in Paris, and 2 days in London with my roommate Claire. We tried to fit as much sight-seeing and activities into 4 days as possible! At times it was stressful, but also a lot of fun. The weather was cold both in Paris and London, and we saw some snow in both places. 
         Thursday we left really early from our apartment to go the airport. Once we got to Paris, we took a bus to the city, because the airport was far away. It took us over an hour to get to Paris because of the traffic...who knew there would be traffic in the middle of the day! We tried to find a metro stop, which took a while, and figured out how to buy tickets for the metro and how to get to our metro stop. It was pretty similar to the Madrid metro, but it was a lot dirtier, and smaller. It felt like you were in a dungeon or something. The first metro we got on was packed, and it was difficult to maneuver my suitcase onto it. We eventually got to our stop, found our hotel/hostel, and checked in. Our senora made us sandwiches to take with us, so we ate those and had a free lunch!

       The first thing we went to was the Arc de Triomphe, and it was free with our Spanish visa to go up in. After climbing a lot of steps, we reached the top and the view was great. You could see the Champs-Elysees going in both directions and the Eiffel Tower. Well worth it! Triumphal arches, like this one, orginated during ancient Rome and were used to celebrate military victories, or build in conquered areas. A lot of the arches in France were built by Napoleon to celebrate his war victories. 

Arc de Triomph

Champs-Elysees from Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower from Arc de Triomphe

 

 

           We then walked down the Champs-Elysees, and saw all the expensive and fancy shops. All the brands I wish I could buy, but don't have enough money for! There were also some entertaining street performers, that weren't trying to scare you like in Madrid. A lot of them were singing songs from the US or playing instruments. We started walking towards to the Louvre, and saw some really cool buildings. I tried to see what they were for or what they were called, but I think they were either museums or venues for concerts or whatnot.

Cool building

          When we finally made it to the Louvre, we found out it was closing in like 30 minutes, so we decided to come back the next day....So we went to the Musee d'Orsay instead. Musee d'Orsay has mostly French art from the 1800's and 1900's and is known for its collection of impressionist paintings from artists like Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and Renoir. I couldn't take any pictures, but all the paintings were beautiful! I love Monet's works, and I find it so intriguing how impressionists can use all sorts of colors and different brush strokes to make a masterpiece. Here is my favorite piece, and the other is one I found funny (images from Musee d'Orsay online index of works). 

Champs de tulipes en Hollande by Claude Monet. This one is absolutely beautiful. I tried to find a print or postcard of it in the museum shop, but they didn't have any.

Les dindons by Claude Monet...yes he painted turkeys

      By the time we left the Musee d'Orsay, it was around 7 or 8. We tried to find something to eat, but a lot of the restuarants were closed or too expensive to eat at. We stopped at this bakery which also had sandwiches (there are a lot of these in Paris), and I got a sandwich, which was really good, ham, cheese, lettuce on a baguette. We then walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. We found the signs were not really helpful, so we just walked towards it. And there it was! How pretty! I almost think it is prettier at night. When we were walking back to the metro, it was sparkling! It took us a while to find the metro, and we took it back to our hostel/hotel.

Eiffel Tower at night

We turned around when we were walking to the metro and it was sparkling with lights!

 Things I learned in Paris:

• Parisians don't use their metro as efficient as people in Madrid. You are not supposed to crowd by the door!
• The Paris metro is quite dirty and feels like a dungeon
• Paris is cold...bring layers
• Eating at a bakery/cafe is cheaper than eating at an actual restaurant
• A lot of people in Paris spoke some English...I was just never sure how to start talking to them. 
• When I realized I didn't even know how to say numbers or common words or phrases in French I realized I know more Spanish than I thought
• A lot of French words look like Spanish words but are pronounced in a totally different 

Au revoir!