So I last left off in Geneva. Our train to Paris left at 7:45 I believe so we had to be up by 5:00 a.m. in order to get ready, get to the airport, find the train that goes from the airport to the main station, then find our final train. It was a terribly long ride because I was so giddy to finally arrive in Paris, the city I was of course looking most forward to. When we finally got to Paris, my dad's first words off the train were "hold on to your stuff." Well, I don't know what sentence would get me more worked up than that one. I was already paranoid enough about getting my stuff stolen. I'm happy to report that I must have held on tight enough because I made it home with everything! Phew.
Our first stop in Paris after we found our hotel was the Galeries Lafayette for the weekly fashion show. I was of course super excited. I had seen this mall online and couldn't wait to experience the massiveness. There are six floors of shopping, a seventh floor for the fashion show, and you can also go on the roof. The mall is like a big circle, so therefore we got lost many times. We decided to check out the roof first and I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower.
Ta-da!
I loved being on the roof...all except for the extremely passionate couple that was having a "moment." Anyway, moving on. So we went down to get in line for the fashion show. We had second row seats which was pretty cool. The show was really cute, my poor father felt a little awkward though. They had all sorts of designers and different themes. My favorite was one of the suits the male model wore. It was BRIGHT orange! Like blindingly bright. I tried to get a picture but the lighting made it absolutely impossible. I don't think I will ever forget it though. The only bad part about the show was that some of the clothes were very revealing. I don't know why it shocked me because you see pictures and celebrities wearing really revealing clothes but seeing it in person was a little different for me. After the show finished, we wandered around the mall for a bit. It didn't take long for me to realize I wouldn't be purchasing anything. I had a bit of sticker shock. It was however very cool to see famous designer's clothes, for example: Valentino, Armani, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc.
Yep, I was excited until I made that whole expensive designer connection
Wow, this is already a long post and I'm only on day one! Anyways, so we left the mall and went across the street to the opera house. We didn't go in, we just kind of decided what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. While we were sitting on the steps, this group of black kids started a little dance show. I was so happy my dad was willing to let us sit and watch. One of my secret addictions is watching break-dancing/tumbling type stuff. I was planning to post the video but I'm too lazy to wait for it to upload so if you want to see it, go to my facebook. After we watched them, we went to Notre Dame. I was blown away by this church. Most of the other churches we had been to were interesting but not my favorite. They were all pretty depressing. I was mostly blown away by Notre Dame because of its massiveness and all the carvings. I had to ask my dad a lot of questions about some of the images though because I totally did not understand a lot of them. After we hit Notre Dame, we decided we had had a long enough day and were ready to go back to the hotel and SLEEP! Well...first we had a baguette and pastry and then we went back to the room. :)
Okay so now it's Saturday and we decided to go to Versailles. Holy moly, that place is the most ginormous, extravagant, over-the-top, ridiculous thing I've ever seen. The king sounded like a big spoiled baby to me but maybe he did something useful with his life? It was cool to see the palace though, even if it was insane that someone built it for themselves to live in. I do wish we could have seen it in the summer when the gardens are all pretty. I enjoyed the queen's palace more because for one the marble was PINK and it wasn't quite so outrageous...and plus her bedroom was hot pink so it really couldn't get any better. I honestly don't have much else to say about Versailles, it was really cool to go but so exhausting.
The back of the King's Palace. Well at least part of it.
Coolest room ever.
Despite our major exhaustion from walking around Versailles, we made the decision to see a few more things before we called it a night. When we got off the train, we wanted to see what the line was like at the Eiffel Tower. Since it was Saturday it was enormous and we did not want to stand in a huge line with as sore of feet as we had. Instead we went to the Champs Elysee to do some shopping woo-hoo! Before we hit any shops, we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Oh man it was a hike up all the stairs. My poor mom looked like she was going to have a heart attack. My dad stopped with her and I went on up. I was determined to prove to myself that P90X had made my legs unstoppable. So we all made it to the top successfully and the view was incredible, as if there would have been any doubt.
I took a nice cheesy picture, I figured I had to get at least one.
Once we got our few pictures and a good look at the city, we finally got to go shopping! Most of the stores were just as expensive as the Lafayette but I found one that was perfect. I had a ball with the affordable yet adorable clothes (word cutesieness not intended :) ) We came out of the store and it was pouring so we ran to a restaurant and then hit a couple other shops then finally went back to the hotel. Little did we know that Sunday would be just as exhausting.
On that note, Sunday came and brought museums with it. We figured this was probably the most appropriate activity on our list for a Sunday. We went to the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. I'm just going to say it, I was so bored at the Louvre. I felt like I was looking at the same painting over and over again, except I did see the ever famous Mona Lisa. Also, I do not like seeing nudity in paintings, regardless of it being art. I don't care if it is considered art, I still don't like it. I tried to just accept it but I had definitely had enough after 5 hours. On a happier note, I loved the Musee d'Orsay. I was in love with Van Gogh's paintings. I finally understand what my Humanities teacher said my freshman year about seeing the raised paint on the canvas. It really is amazing. I also loved Monet and Renoir's paintings. I know it sounds cliche that I'm only mentioning the really famous artists but there is a reason why they are so famous, their work is stunning. Okay so thanks to my journal, I remembered a story from our experience at the Louvre so here goes another random tangent. My dad was dying to find the pyramid that Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) looks down at the end of The DaVinci Code. We found it underground...
...but we could not for the life of us find it on ground level. We searched and searched and walked around what felt like the entire museum and we could not find it. We finally went back underground and found it again, subconsciously making sure it really did exist, and my dad counted his steps from where it was at to the outdoors. Thanks to his counting, we located it, well sort of. Apparently it's in the middle of this big round-about surrounded by shrubs, which explains why when we were underground we couldn't see anyone walking on top of it. My dad was super relieved that he finally found it but then he got annoyed that they were deceitful in the movie because Langdon just walks right over to it, not going through any shrubbery at all. Ah movie magic.
After the Musee d'Orsay, we were once again ready to sleep. We ended our night with crepe sampling. It was beautiful. We went to 3 or 4 different creperies along the street and tried like eight different crepes. I was so sick by the end of the night but it was sooooo delicious!
Monday. Great things happened today. We started with shopping in this little shopping district. It was the best place we had shopped the whole trip. We went to this cute little baby boutique to get my niece a Parisian outfit. It's adorable, just sayin. While we were in this area, we found the Parsons Paris design school. I got a tour of the school and some information about it. I think I have finally figured out what I'm going to do with my major! Design Management. This way I could work in a creative environment but still be part of the business aspect. Apparently designers and financial people don't really understand each other but I can fill the gap and be the go-between! Unfortunately any school with this program is insanely expensive but I'm hoping my major and minor I have right now will help me. Anyway, the school was really cool. I so wish I was at a design school, the environment was just awesome, I don't know how to describe it, but I liked it. :) So we shopped some more then got some lunch and ate it at the park across from the Eiffel Tower, where I took this lovely picture haha.
Next stop after lunch was Napoleon's Tomb. I won't waste too much space with this, it was a giant tomb in a giant building: The end. Then more shopping, then more eating, then it was back to the Eiffel Tower to finally go to the top! We had to race a bunch of Italian kids that were on the metro so we didn't have to wait in line behind them. We were booking it, I was not going to let them win. Thankfully, we won, however we still had to wait a couple hours to get on the elevator. The ride to the top was honestly a little scary. I'm not really afraid of heights but watching the city get farther and farther away was a bit frightening. My dad on the other hand is terrified of heights and he had to close his eyes and get in a zone so he didn't pass out. The top was so incredible. My mom and I went all the way up to the floor that's just enclosed with a fence but my dad had to stay where it was all enclosed. I was super giddy. On our way back down it started sparkling and we stopped on the second level so we could get a better look at the sparkling and the city.
This was proof for my family that dad made it to the top
Well, we did have on more day in Paris before we flew home but all we did was shop and wander some more streets. Instead of talking about stuff that is really not all that interesting, I'll keep the blog ending with the Eiffel Tower. Basically Paris was just as amazing as I expected. I really hope I can go back someday.
Our last look at the tower before we left
I just sat here and read your blog from the very beginning. You are sooo stinkin' cute! I love that you are working out so much and loving it. I'm addicted too. I always feel so much better when I'm eating good and working out. You have just had the trip of a lifetime. What an AWESOME experience to share with your parents. I would love to do something like that. Maybe some day!
ReplyDeleteYou're so sweet! I'm glad I have someone who reads it :) Yeah working out is like my new addiction for sure! I hope someday you can have the experience, it was absolutely incredible!
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