Bonjour, Bonjour, Bonjour!

Learning Italiano!

I Louuuuvre Paris! Last weekend I went on a school trip to Paris! After a very long day of travel with Erika, we arrived on Thursday evening into Paris. We spent our train ride, airplane time, and metro and bus travels practicing our Italian flashcards! There were about 75 other students traveling with my school during our weekend there. The first night Erika and I were too tired to do anything, so we got a chicken mushroom cheese crepe, snuggled in our big beds at the hotel and watched French tv while trying to pick up on as much French as we could. Merci!

Bike tour with Amanda and Kristie

On Friday we started our day off with a 3 and a half hour bike tour. It was absolutely amazing and the perfect way to see the huge city. We saw everything from Notre Dame, to the Eiffel Tower, to the famous restaurant from Ratatouille. We even got to ride our bikes through the Louvre. Our tour guide was amazing and shared lots of random fun facts about Paris. He took us to hidden spots in the city and gave us lots of recommendations of things to do and see in the city.

Boat Tour with Erika

That afternoon we went to Musee d’Orsay which was incredible. We saw a lot of impressionist and post-impressionist art, and things like Van Gogh's self portrait and Seurat's The Circus. We also briefly went into the Louvre and saw the Monalisa. Fun Fact: The Louvre is so big that if you were to spend 30 seconds at each painting it would take you over 3 months to finish. That night we went on a boat tour through the city. It was freezing, but beautiful to see all the buildings lit up and the Eiffel tour sparkling. We ended the night with Nutella and banana crepes, my favorite :)

Photo shoot at the Eiffel Tour

Saturday was another busy day with a themed tour in the morning about the French Revolution. The tour guide was only a few years older than me and made everything really relatable and fun. Now I can recite the history of all of the French Revolution! The tour lasted about 3 hours and then we had some free time to ourselves to explore. I went with Erika, Kristie, and Amanda to see Notre Dame up close and to the Opera house. The Opera house was stunning and one of my favorite things to see in Paris. Erika and I danced in the ballroom and we were also able to see the crew setting up the stage for a performance the following night. Our afternoon was spent shopping and eating pastries. By Saturday night we finally made our way to the Eiffel tour and had a mini photo shoot before going to the top to see a view of Paris at night. The city was beautiful to see and we ended up enjoying some fireworks off in the distance. We spent about 2 hours at the top, mainly because of the long lines, but I had a great time. After the Eiffel tower we had a true French meal of Escargot and cheese fondue! (The escargot was covered in garlic and butter, not my favorite food but definitely not bad).

Relaxing and eating with Erika

Sunday Erika and I spent the day in a local open-air market. We ate a baguette and sat by the fountain watching locals dance in the street to live music. Sunday was relaxing and perfect before our long travels home that evening.

Although Paris was big and overwhelming I really enjoyed my weekend there! I’m excited to be home though and have some down time in Florence.

Ciao for now!