At long last, I'm back in Heidelberg! Exhausted and slightly poorer, I finally have time to look back at my new favorite place in Europe. As much as I hate to admit it, Paris--the stereotypical European destination that everyone always goes to--has stolen my heart. I love it!
In evaluating your "favorite places" abroad, you always have to factor in your personal experience in a given place. My experience in Paris was almost perfect. After having suffered more than a month of gloomy, overcast, rainy days in Heidelberg, Paris was a fresh relief of warm, perfectly sunny weather. We only had a few clouds on our last day there, and frankly, they almost made the city look more beautiful.
We also had two fantastic hosts. Our first, Christine, was an old penpal from Martin Middle School that my friend, Margaret, has kept up with for many years. She lived in a fantastic location just steps from the Sacre-Coeur in Montmarte and makes a mean orange duck dish. Our second host, Olivier, was a young French student that we found through CouchSurfing. He lived only a few blocks from Christine and invited several of his friends over for a homemade dinner and great conversation.
Thus, while in Paris, we hit most of the big tourist sights: the Louvre (for free, as we're under 26!), the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Sacre-Coeur, the Catacombs, Ile de la Cite, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Musee d-Orsay, and Les Invalides. In addition we visited a few off-the-beaten-path places; some by accident and some on purpose. While it took us a few days to track down the Arc de Triomphe (despite it's massive size), we managed to haphazardly stumble upon the beautiful business district more than an hour from the city center (woops), and the best crepes in the hooker district (double woops).
I will admit, however, that the "goddess of the tight-wads" from Amsterdam massively failed in Paris. Not only is it one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but Paris is also one of the most tempting. With absolutely delicious food and stunning places to tour around every corner, I kind of wracked up a bill....nothing ridiculous, as I steered clear of the shops, but more than 60 Euros to say the least.
My favorite souvenir from this trip was definitely the photography. I apologize for the number of pictures on this blog, but it's hard to take a bad picture in Paris...
The flying buttresses on the back of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Beautiful streets (with wonderful bakeries on every corner! Hot, buttery croissants were a morning routine).
Architecture at the Louvre. Margaret and I agreed that the Louvre itself was much more beautiful than any of the art exhibits inside it.
Standing on the Ile de la Cite (the boat-shaped island in the middle of the River Seine that runs through the city).
Crossing to the Ille de la Cite.
Moulin Rouge (another difficult attraction to find).
Visiting Versailles, which is about a 30-45 minute train ride outside of Paris. That's the palace in the background, but the gardens in the front are open to the public full-time.
The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. Louis XIV was really living the good life. Rumor has it that Louis would have various game released in the palace so that he could hunt on horseback inside...
My favorite statue in the Louvre.
The Mona Lisa. The spectacle surrounding it was much more impressive than the painting itself, I believe. The painting just behind the camera was at least 15 feet high and 30 feet wide, but no one seemed to notice it.
STUNNING weather on Eiffel Tower day. The Tower itself is not the best attraction, but rather the view from each level. It was daylight when we started climbing...we watched sunset from the second level...and it was pitch black by the time we reached the top. This was my favorite afternoon in Paris.
As we walked away from the Eiffel Tower, it lit up with colorful flashing lights, as it does for 10 minutes at the start of every hour.
Nightfall at the top.
Sunset from the second level.
The catacombs. At the end of the 18th century, disease was running rampant in the les Halles neighborhood because of cemeteries located adjacent to the neighborhood. Thus, in 1785, the city decided to exhume the graves and move them all underground. These catacombs later became the principal ossuary in Paris and thousand of bones thus line the tunnels now. The round bulges you see are skulls and the others are leg or arm bones. The other bones were scattered along the top. There was an eery peace throughout this place.
Our host andMargaret's penpal, Christine, after she took us to a great Mexican restaurant! As a total stroke of luck, several of my friends from Heidelberg were in Paris at the same time as Margaret and me, so we all went out to dinner together!
And in a total stroke of amazing luck, while quietly wandering the halls of the Musee d'Orsay, I ran into Bo Davis, a good childhood friend of mine from church. Neither of us had a clue that the other was in France, but it was definitely cool finding each other!
These fantastic stories aside, however, I must also include the story of my epic failure on the way back. I left on Wednesday morning with about 3 hours of sleep to catch my 7:30am train. I boarded the correct train with the correct German travel documents and headed towards Germany with no problems. Just as we approached the French-German border, however, the French train lady approached my seat to check my ticket and her face went sour. She demanded to see "my reservation." I looked at her oddly and told her that my ticket was my reservation. She said no. I needed another ticket reservation with a specific seat assignment. My ticket was all that the German officials had given me, however. So after several minutes of being yelled at in a mixture of broken French and German, I gave in and paid a hefty fee. I hate French trains now.
This first part of my failure I blame on French-German train miscommunications, but the second, was largely my fault. Exhausted and bummed out from being yelled at, I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes. When I awoke at the correct time to arrive in Heidelberg, I looked out my window to find signs for "Stuttgart." OOPS. Though my ticket didn't specify that I had to change trains in Karlsruhe, I should have asked a train official to be sure, and consequentially, I missed my connection to Heidelberg and arrived in Stuttgart. I will say however, that Stuttgart is beautiful and you should visit. So after buying a return ticket from Stuttgart to Heidelberg, I went home. At long last. :)
Still, Paris was beautiful, and upon reflection, my return train was more funny than traumatic. I can't wait to return to this beautiful city some day in the future!!!
Love you all and can't wait to see you soon,
Lizzie
