paris 101 [paris, france]

We got up at 4:45 to leave by 5:15 to get to the airport for our flight. We had an interesting time with the check-in lady who felt the need to put our backpacks in plastic bags and then remind us that our bags "would be in plastic bags when we claimed them." Yes, thank you. I would hope so.

Our flight was fun because we're both a little afraid of flying, so we were both a little nervous. But it landed safely and slowly (unlike RyanAir which apparently "drops out of the sky"). In Paris we had quite a time figuring out the trains/metro because they all run out of the same station and it's a very complicated system.

We finally got to our hostel, Friend's Hostel, which was in fact in a "dodgy" area like the online review suggested. The entrance looked more like a strip club than a hostel, but you can't really complain for 18 Euro a night. Upon opening the door to our room we were immediately faced with the 4 beds - 2 bunk beds that squeezed perfectly in between the walls. It smelled kind of bad, but we were relieved to see Dior bags on the other beds, which we believed meant that we had female roommates. Later we found out that they were two Swedish guys who were in Paris for fashion week. Interesting, but at least I wasn't worried about them stealing my Target jeans.

We left and decided the Louvre was a good place to start the trip. It was enourmous and rather exhausting to get around but there was no line and not too many people there. Some people get week passes to see the whole thing, and I can understand why. There are so many famous paintings and statues in that building they can't even mark all of them as numbers on those little tour headphones, so people were just strolling past some of the most famous paintings in the world. It was incredible. The Mona Lisa was anti-climatic, as you've probably already heard, but at least I can say I've seen it. Plus there were so few people we could stand as close and for as long as we wanted to. My personal favorite was the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It's always been one of my favorite statues but it was really worth seeing in person. It's unreal. I mean, what you see is this figure draped in a sheer and flowing dress... something that just registers that way in your head, but then if you think about it - it's made out of stone. Stone. And you see a delicate, sheer fabric. Unreal.

After about 4 or 5 hours of some serious art history, we ventured out to the courtyard with the big glass pyramids. Good to see in person, hard to photograph. We walked a little bit and caught our first glimpse of the distant Eiffel Tower and nearly peed our pants. For some reason it was just so exciting to see. To me, usually when I see a place I've seen in a million photographs it's just kind of like "yep, that's really what it looks like," but this was completely different. It was like spotting a celebrity at a restaurant. It was just kind of there, hangin out on the Parisian skyline. Oh yeah, hey Eiffel Tower, what's up with you today? So cool. Go to Paris.

Next we walked along the Seine River and realized that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Everything looks like it was made to photograph. It is so beautiful it hurts to look at. You just can't stop. We walked to Notre Dame. Again, perfect. Not the most elaborate cathedral I've been in but it was very... gothic. Beautiful in a very simple way. All gray inside, no gold-leaf or big marble statues, but monumental. We had our first crepe nearby (with Nutella - truly changed my life) and then wondered until we found a good restaurant in what we now believe was probably the Latin Quarter (we were a little lost). We found a small restaurant/bar and experienced yet another wonder of France - the croque monsieur. It's basically ham in between two pieces of toast with cheese melted on top. There's variations of course; mine had an egg and Jen's had tomato. We were in heaven. It was the perfect way to end a perfect day in such a perfect city.