When in Paris, eat like the French. At the beginning of our trip, this consisted of McDonald's, grocery store pizza, a bag of chips, a baguette, and a train station salmon sandwich (unintentionally). Our end of the trip consisted of Chipotle and bread. Remi would be so proud.
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| Everyone Mistook us for Parisians |
We caught a train out Thursday night and were too tired to do much. We checked into our hostel and walked around, eventually stumbling on a McDonald's. Lauren’s first time in Paris started with being told “bon appetite,” as we got handed our McDonald's meal. Because I had already been to Paris, and Lauren was seeing the main sights with her mom and sister, we made no plans. We walked over 14 miles, wandering around in the cold and rain. We started with the Tuileries Garden, which is located right next to the Louvre. We then walked down Champs-Elysees and went into the stores, as an attempt to get out of the rain. The strip has lots of designer and popular brands. There was a building in the shape of a Louis Vuitton suitcase, but we never went into it. We had to order macarons from the McDonalds on the strip. Not gonna lie, they were delicious. The strip ends with the Arc de Triomphe. We then went to the National Library of France because it was one of the only free things inside. By the time we got out, it stopped raining and was sunny! We got a grocery store lunch and were off again. We walked along the river and saw Notre Dame. It’s still under construction from the fire, so we couldn’t see the front up close or the inside.
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| Trees to the Right Blocked the Crane |
We finished the night with a 1975 concert! Originally we were going to fly out on Friday, but Lauren loves the band and saw that they were performing, so we decided to leave on Saturday. She said tickets are really hard to get in the US, and we were able to get floor tickets the week of for Paris. The concert was a whole theatrical performance. The stage was like a '70s house with couches, TVs, rugs etc. The lamps would all be flickering in sync at times, the TVs would show live footage of the band or videos, and at one point Matty Healy, the singer of the band, was on the roof. MK heard me going off about it in detail on FaceTime, but I’ll spare you all the details. Just know it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen!
When we booked our flight it said Paris (Beauvais). That is the equivalent of saying Houston and having the airport in College Station. Make sure to check where you're flying out of in advance kids! It took us 2 hours to walk to the train station, take a train, then a bus to get there. Because of the train times, we left for our 4:00 flight at 10:00.
We arrived back in Paris on Wednesday morning. I went to Musee d’Orsay. The museum is free if you are an EU student, so I just flashed my student visa and got in. They had an impressionist floor which had art by Monet, Van Gogh, and Renoir. We took a nap because we hadn’t slept since Monday night (read about our Dublin adventures to know why). Our night ended at a jazz club. Shoutout to my Aledo neighbor Jenna for the recommendation. The music was great, but the people watching was a 12/10. It's a super famous club. The old people owned the dance floor. If I could add videos to this blog it'd be full. I caught a six-hour bus the next morning because it was super cheap. With a water bottle and bag of bread, I got on and headed back to Strasy!
Au revoir!
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| When the College Kids Showed Up |
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