Paris

My sister traveled a long way to visit me for the week. Because of that, we planned ahead and decided to pick a city outside of Italy to travel to. For one, she was only here for a week and wanted to see some more Europe and two, I had yet to leave the country and I have been here for more than 2 months! I knew my sister would choose Paris because it has always been a dream of hers, so we booked our flight a month ago and anxiously awaited our adventure!

The truth is, Paris is exactly everything everyone says it is. We spent 3 days there (1 full day without traveling to/from Bologna) and had an incredible experience. We saw just about everything there is to see and fell in love with the City of Lights.

Day 1: We flew Ryan Air out of Bologna at around 3 pm on Wednesday and arrived to the Paris Beauvis airport before 5pm. This airport is about 1.5 hours from the city, so we bought a 30 euros round-trip ticket for a bus that would get us to the city and then return us to this airport for our flight on Friday.

We arrived to Porte Maillot and took a metro to Montmarte (stop: Anvers) to check into our hostel Le Regent and finally eat some food. Our hostel was 35 euros/night, which is pretty great for an expensive city like Paris and was right in front of the metro stop. The room was tiny with a bunk-bed and only had one outlet and a sink inside the room. To shower, we had to use a common one that was a few feet from our room. It was definitely different, but with some shower shoes, we were fine. The hostel was clean, in a great location and had complimentary breakfast.

Day 2: We woke up and headed to Musée du Louvre where the incredibly famous La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) lives. I honestly recommend reserving/buying your tickets ahead of time if you want to visit this museum. The lines were ridiculously long and since we had our tickets already, we just walked right in.

Seeing the Mona Lisa was the highlight of the museum for me. But a happy accident was seeing Nike of Samothrace. She was truly spectacular.

The Louvre itself is in an old castle, like many museums in Italy, and it was incredible to experience how large and extravagant it really is. I am amazed by all of the history found in Europe.

Another happy accident was finding the Saint-Germain church while we were looking for Sainte-Chapelle. It was, according to our map, a tiny building, but standing in front of it, I felt tiny. We did not go inside because it was already mid-afternoon and we knew a line would be waiting for us at Sainte-Chapelle, but we stood in awe in front of it for some time before we went on our way.

To reach Sainte-Chapelle, we had to cross the River Seine, which had numerous bridges that were nothing but beautiful. Once we were on the other side, it did not take long for us to find Sainte-Chapelle. We waited in line for maybe 30 minutes and paid 8,50 euros to see the church famous for it's detailed stained-glass windows.

After Sainte-Chapelle, we ate lunch at a little bistro across the street. The menu was full of interesting options, but we went with something safe and what we knew would be delicious in this city, a baguette with ham and cheese. Ham and cheese meals in Europe are not at all like the ones in the U.S., cheese is an art in France and so, it tasted gourmet.

The afternoon quickly turned into night as we walked through the city and finally found ourselves on the Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe. It was a long walk and I already felt exhausted, but like the rest of Paris, there was a conveniently-placed metro right under the monument. It was an incredible sight to be seen and the Champs is famous for a reason. There were numerous shops with all kinds of price tags and theaters that played movies in French and English. 

The weather was lovely on this day, with only a few moments of drizzle, and no church, museum or monument disappointed. So far, the city was living up to its reputation.

Day 3: We woke up early because we knew we had to be at Porte Maillot by 3pm to catch the bus and make it to our 6:15pm flight. We had, once again, planned ahead and bought tickets to Musée D'Orsay, a museum full of breathtakingly beautiful impressionist art. I saw some famous Van Gogh, Monet, Sisley and Toulouse-Lautrec. It was quite an experience.

I was in awe with every single painting I saw. Plus, it was incredible to see how many Monet painting there were. Paris is proud of its French painter and has every right to be! 

There were not as many Van Gogh paintings, I'll have to visit The Netherlands for that, but I did see two self-potraits and Starry Night Over the Rhone, which happens to be my sister's favorite painting. 

Like most museums, pictures were strictly prohibited, but I wish I could have taken a picture of the museum itself, it was beautiful. It's clocks allowed us to see a beautiful view of the city and its staircases, chandeliers... everything felt couture. 

Before we did reach the D'Orsay that morning, we searched (and found!) Notre Dame. Wow, it was yet another spectacular eye-full and I was so glad we decided to go find it, even if it meant lots of walking.

The Paris adventure came to a conclusion when took a metro to the Eiffel Tower. We did not have enough time to walk around and see it from the front, but we did walk along its side and took plenty of pictures there. My dream is to someday have a picnic in front it. Maybe next time! <3

Our French adventure was a dream come true for both of us and I am so happy to say that not one moment was a waste and every sight was memorable. I even loved finding Pont de Arts, a bridge completely covered by love padlocks. This is the third city where I have seen this, but the first one to have so many!

Also, it was pretty cool that our hostel was in Montmarte because on a night of innocent strolling, we stumbled upon the Moulin Rouge!

Pont de Arts' love padlocks

I hope that everyone gets the opportunity to visit Paris someday. Also, I never met a Parisien that wasn't exceptionally nice to us. I guess that it really is just a stereotype.

Au revoir, amis! <3

P.S. I suppose I do have one complaint, where were all of the French bakeries? We never saw any and had to get our macaroon fix at the airport!