Paris 02/22 - 02/24

This was one of the busiest weeks I've ever had - it was wonderful to visit all of these famous cities, but it took a lot of energy to keep going.  We arrived in Paris after an hour and a half train ride from Brussels - the weather was beautiful and we were lucky enough to have a hotel right by the Eiffel Tower.  Check-in was only at 1pm, so we left our luggage in the hotel and walked to the Eiffel Tower.

Julia, Me and Katie

We're so glamorous

After checking-in a little after 1pm we had the entire afternoon to explore before our group dinner at 6pm.  We bought metro tickets and visited the area known as Montmartre - the highest point in the city and location of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica.  The church was beautiful and the view from the top of the hill was amazing - we were able to see the city of Paris spread out in front of us.  Also, there was a group of break-dancers performing by the church - the atmosphere was definitely something!

Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Panoramic view of the city

What actually ended up being great was that our visit to Sacré-Cœur Basilica was on Ash Wednesday, so there was a service going on.  We headed back to the hotel to make it back in time for our group dinner - real "French Cuisine."

My meal of steak & fries - they eat fries with everything!

I had some wonderful salad followed by steak & fries - topped off with an amazing Creme Brulee.  Our Academic Directors actually abandoned us at the end of the dinner - expecting us to find our own way back home (this apparently never gets old with them - they left us to find our own way back after the EU Commission in Brussels too).  Paris was beautiful at night with the lights of the Eiffel Tower and other buildings all lit up.

Eiffel Tower at night

Les Invalides (location of Napoleon's Tomb)

I was completely exhausted after the day of exploring and traveling on the train.  So, I called it a night - having to be up at about 7 the next morning.  We attended a series of presentations at OPEC along with a couple of other American university delegations in the morning.  It was highly interesting since we heard from both Swiss and American Delegates of OPEC.  A group of us headed back towards the Eiffel Tower area to find a place to eat lunch.  We came upon a restaurant that sold typical French cuisine like the night before but since the price was only about $12Euros or so we ended up having a substantial meal with a large entree and dessert.  The waiter really liked us - he told us to speak English with him so he could learn (however, he really didn't understand much of what we were saying), and before we left he gave us free espressos!  After lunch we went to a briefing and UNESCO - a rather dissappointing organization in my opinion, I didn't realize that they mainly dealt only with policy-making support and really didn't have many on-the-ground operations.






Anyway, after the UNESCO talk we ran home to change and then headed to the center of Paris to get some dinner and walk along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  Before we went to the Avenue, we walked around the city and saw some famous buildings and museums and grabbed dinner at a little restaurant by the Centre Pompidou (art museum).

Fountain by the Pompidou

Hotel de Ville

Centre Pompidou

We hopped on the metro to go to Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  It actually ended up being a short metro ride - the station we wanted to go to had some problem or something so we had to get out early and walk a long way.  It was interesting walking along the street and seeing all different shops (probably none of which I could afford going in).  There was a Mercedes store, a Haagen Daz club, Louis Vuitton as expected..just to name a few.

Arc de Triomphe

walking along the street

light show on the Eiffel Tower - every night at 10pm

original Louis Vuitton

famous Macaroon place

Torch for the Unknown soldier under the Arc

It was a long night and we were able to cover a lot of ground!  Of course we all visited the Macaroon place on our way back past it for a little treat.

The next morning I got up at 6:45 to do some quick sight seeing before heading home on the 3pm train.  It was a struggle but there was so much to see in the city!
The morning began with another visit to Sacré-Cœur Basilica since my friends Carolyn and Erika hadn't been able to get up there yet.  It was beautiful in the morning fog:

There are all these people from Africa that hang around by the bottom of the park in front of the church and try to tie bracelets on your wrist and then make you pay for them - Carolyn and I got stuck and had to pay them.  It was extremely sketchy and I really didn't want the bracelet - he told me he was from Kenya, "Obama's country" when I said I was from the US.  When we were finally able to run away, the three of us headed to the center of the city again to see Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and Shakespear and Co.  Oh, we also wanted to have Crepes since they do originate from France.

Inside Sainte-Chapelle - the church was built by the royal family (though Notre Dame did exist at the time) and it is famous for it's glass windows - they are beautiful to see when the morning sun is coming through

Notre Dame - right next to the Seine River

In front of Notre Dame

I have to say - it was amazing to see the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame.  It was amazing - the architecture was impressive and it was just so breathtaking, a structure that has stood in this spot since it was finished in 1345.
Right across from the Cathedral was a little English bookstore called "Shakespear and Co."  We ended our sight-seeing in Paris by going into this little bookstore - I bought 3 books haha!  It was so quaint and all the second-hand books were being sold for an excellent price.

The train back to Geneva left at 3pm, sadly we were unable to find any cheap Crepe places so I have yet to eat one since I've come to Europe.  It was just so unreal being in this famed "city of love" - I never would have imagined that I would be visiting the city at this point in my life.  If you asked me if I liked Paris or Brussels more, I really couldn't say - Paris had a lot of wonderful old architecture and monuments to see.  Brussels, on the other hand, was less crowded with tourists and had a more genuine feel to it.