Paris!

So, this past weekend I made my first trip out of Italy for this semester when some friends and I went to Paris for the weekend! We don't have class on Fridays, so we booked an early morning flight (super early... like leave the apartment at 3 AM early) through Ryanair, which is one of the budget carriers for cheap flights between European countries. That was definitely an experience in and of itself... the flight was cheap so I can't complain, but the boarding process was way different than what I'm used to! I would say you definitely get what you pay for, but it's worth it to be able to find such cheap airfare. Ryanair is really strict about carry-on bags so I was proud of how little I brought with me for the weekend... my family would have been shocked if they had seen my tiny suitcase because I'm always the one on family vacations who feels like she needs to pack everything.

We were lucky and got to stay in the apartment of a friend of one of the girls we went with, so once we got to Paris we got on a shuttle that drove us the hour and a half it took to get from the discount airport to the center of Paris, then dove right into the metro system and took a couple of metros to get to the apartment. It was way colder in Paris than it has been in Rome! Luckily, the person who owned the apartment was kind enough to offer us full use of her coat closet for the weekend, so we all bundled up in our borrowed winter parkas to explore the city.

Paris has the only Chipotle in this part of Europe (there's at least one in London, I think), and I am not ashamed at all to admit that the first place we went after we got settled into the apartment was to get lunch there! It was more expensive than it is at home, obviously, but it was absolutely positively worth it. Definitely satisfied my craving for cheesy Mexican food. 

YUM. 

Since it was Friday and we knew the museums would be less crowded, we decided to hit the Louvre right away. The Louvre is completely overwhelming but absolutely 120% worth the 11 euro ticket. There's so much we didn't get to see, but the things that we did get to see made up for that. Since I'm studying Roman art history as one of my classes, it was really exciting to be able to talk about some of the things we were seeing... and it kind of sort of helped me study for my art history midterm that I took today (my rationale for taking a trip the weekend before midterms... oops. No regrets.).

The famous pyramids! We entered through the main one in the middle.

Excited that we found a statue of Antinous that looked like one we had studied in class...

Mona Lisa!

The Mona Lisa was interesting (obviously first of all because it's the Mona Lisa) because it was so small! The way they have it arranged is interesting too because they have it directly across from a gigantic painting that takes up almost an entire wall. Of course everybody crowded around this one though.

We decided to go out to dinner that night, but we were not prepared for the difference between eating out in Rome and eating out in Paris. In Rome, if you want to go out to dinner, you shouldn't expect to get in anywhere before 8, and even 8 is a little early for dinner; sometimes we eat as late as 9. People in Rome usually go out right after they eat dinner, so it's one big night for them. Imagine our surprise when we decided to leave the apartment for dinner around 7:30 and struggled to find somewhere to eat dinner... apparently people in Paris eat a lot earlier than we are used to. We finally decided to take the metro to a stop that sounded promising and we still ended up walking around for a while before we found a cute little restaurant that was still open.

French onion soup! 

All of us at dinner the first night. 

The next day we got up and started with the Musee d'Orsay. I absolutely loved this museum. It's built in what used to be a train station and is full of famous paintings, like some by Van Gogh and Monet. There was one section we went to that was basically a room full of Monet paintings... I was in heaven. Definitely worth the trip to that museum!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a sandwich shop on the Champs d'Elysees, where we saw the infamous Abercrombie and Fitch that opened pretty recently with bouncers outside handling the line of people waiting to get inside.

We had planned on cooking for ourselves that night back at the apartment, but the friend who hooked us up with the apartment also has family in Paris and we split up in the afternoon so she could see her family. We all forgot that she still had the key to the apartment until she had left, so we couldn't get in to the apartment! It threw a wrench in our plans but looking back, it's kind of funny and it gave us a chance to find somewhere else to eat dinner that night until we met back up again. After dinner, we went to see the Eiffel Tower at night (now that I've done it, I'll say it's the only way to do it). It was also snowing which made it even more beautiful.

So beautiful at night!

In terms of going up into the tower, you can either go to the first level, the second level or all the way to the top. At first, I wanted to go all the way up, but because of the snow, they advised us that the view from the top would be foggy and probably obstructed, so we decided it wasn't worth it and went to the second level, which was still an AMAZING view of the city at night. 

The next day, we got up and went to Montmartre, where Sacre Couer is located. We stopped in a few shops along the way up the hill to the church, like this chocolate shop that had labeled itself as a mini chocolate museum:

Seriously, the French know their pastries and their chocolates. Delicious.

Sacre Couer!

The view from Sacre Couer was a beautiful panorama of Paris. It was pretty foggy, but we could still point out Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.

I was also trying to work on this week's photography assignment while I was in Paris, which is street photography. It's a little weird to take pictures of complete strangers, but that's that this picture of the guy playing his harp at the top of Montmartre is for: 

We couldn't go to Montmartre without going to the famous Moulin Rouge. It was a bit more of a walk than we had anticipated and there were definitely some interesting sights along the way, but hey, it's an experience. 

The last thing that we knew we had to see before we caught our shuttle back to the airport was Notre Dame. Notre Dame is probably one of my favorite churches that I have ever seen. Obviously it's impressive from the outside, but the inside is just as breathtaking. We didn't try to climb the bell tower steps, but I found out later that they were closed all weekend for the cold anyway, so we didn't miss out on anything. We were actually there in the middle of a mass, which was an amazing experience. The cathedrals and churches here are really good at balancing a respect for tourists and a respect for worshippers from what I've noticed... this wasn't the first time that I've stumbled into a church during the middle of a service. 

Pictures don't even do it justice... this place is beautiful.

Before we went back to the airport, we stopped for lunch, where I ordered a croque-monsieur, a traditional Parisian ham and cheese toasted sandwich. Yum! We also stumbled across a vintage store where you bought clothes and things based on how much they weighed; different categories had different prices per kilogram. I wish we could have had more time to spend looking around there because it was so cool! And of course we took advantage of the chance to have one last crepe before leaving the city.

It was stressful coming back and having to study for midterms this week (and I took my hardest one today, so I feel a lot better now!), but spending the weekend in Paris was definitely worth it. It felt good to come home to Rome, but I know that I need to go back to Paris eventually because I loved it! I have an oral and written Italian midterm left to take, and then I'm done with class for the week and off to spring break! I'm really excited because I have a trip planned to Ireland and the UK. I've never been there before, but I get to see some of my friends who are studying there right now which is making me unbelievably excited to go. Also, tomorrow morning I'm going to the final public audience with Pope Benedict, so the next few days are going to be full of adventure... oh the study abroad life.

One more thing... I finally watched this video EU vs Italy on YouTube this weekend and I'm obsessed. If you want a little taste of what it's like to live in Italy, just watch it. Maybe it's not as funny if you haven't been here before but I die laughing every time I see it...