(Originally posted on 2nd March 2014. The trip ran from 18th February to 21st February 2014).
Day 1 Highlights: The Eiffel Tower
With a 5am start, it was always going to be a long, and tiring day, but I was still bursting with energy and excitement on my first EVER trip out of England (I know, I know, what have I been doing with my life for the past 16 years?) We arrived in Paris at about 11am on the 18th February, and headed straight for the hostel which we would call home for the next 4 days. Before we could even check into our rooms, we were up and out again and heading to the very cliche tourist attraction-the Eiffel tower!
My expectations were exceeded as we walked around the corner from the metro and the Eiffel tower was right in-front of us, much bigger and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined! We spent the next hour grabbing a bite to eat and enjoying the gorgeous scenery on the crisp, winters day.
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| Edited using www.ipiccy.com |
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| One of my favorite pictures |
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| The views from the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower |
Day 2 Highlights: Sacré Cœur
Sacre Coeur is now officially my favorite place, it's so beautiful and relaxing, the evening we spent there was like a summers evening at a festival. It overlooks all of paris, and we sat on some steps in front of the cathedral as the sunset alongside hundreads of other tourists. A busker was playing, and happily took many english song request from me and my friends, otherwise now known by him as 'the spice girls'. My friend, Phoebe, even got up to do her own performance of Jessie J's 'Pricetag' and Adele's 'Someone like You', and she owned it! We took a walk around and I came across a beautiful, vintage like market with cafes and artists everywhere who would stop to draw people. It was truly an amazing and unforgettable evening.
Day 3 Highlights: The Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Notre Dame, European Photography Gallery and River Seine Boat Trip
I was incredibly excited to go to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery (as strange as that sounds) as so many people had told me how beautiful it is and as it's not your typical tourist attraction, I was very intrigued. I have to say that is is genuinely the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen, it is literally a village made of house sized graves, one being the size of a town hall! I highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance, especially any 'The Doors' fans, as the legendary Jim Morrison is buried there. Afterwards we jumped on the metro and headed for the notre dame, and it is magnificent. The amount of detail on the Notre Dame cathedral is breathtaking, and i've always been a big fan of the movie so it was all very exciting. We had some free time to shop and eat, so after visiting a dozen gift shops which were all selling the same thing, we headed to a french cafe to indulge in Frenches finest-french fries and crepes (which was absolutely delicious). Then we got to go to the famous Lock Bridge, which was fantastic! My friend Emily and I brought a lock together and attached it to the bridge before throwing our keys into the river below, I know, how cute are we! After taking some mega fast photos we headed to the European Photography Gallery which was very interesting, some of the work there was very peculiar but I was fascinated. Unfortunately, we wasn't aloud to take any photographs but I would recommend going there if you get the chance and are an art and photography fan. We eventually got onto our last adventure of the day; a cruise along the river seine. It was really nice to be able to sit down and still enjoy the scenery of Paris after doing so much walking, especially since it had started to pour with rain-typical!
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| Comparing the size of a GRAVE to my friend Emily |
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| Bridge of Love |
Day 4 Highlights: The Louvre, French Police, Shopping and Back to Reality
We started the day with a trip to the most magnificent art museum, The Louvre, where the famous Mona Lisa is kept alongside hundreds of other incredible pieces of art. The Louvre is part of a royal building where previous French Royalties would stay, and you can walk through and see all of the different rooms, and it is breath taking. The amount of detail blew me away, I was literally speechless (which is very big for me, I never shut up). We spent the rest of our time there frantically hunting for the Mona Lisa, working up a sweat whilst trying to admire the other pieces of art which surrounded us, but when we finally reached it, it was a bit of an anti climax to say the least. The painting is very small to what you would expect and is cordoned off unlike the rest of the work in the museum. Although it was an honor to get to see it, if you get the chance to go, I would only recommend going to see it if you have enough time to see all the other pieces of work too, instead of spending your time searching for one painting like I did (oops). We then headed to Opera to do some well deserved shopping where I brought a beautiful lace crop top and some tan sandal heels from Zara as well as some new sunnies from H&M. With 20 minutes before we had to leave to catch the Eurostar home, a bunch of us decided to stop and get a McDonalds (I know, we go all the way to France just to eat what we always eat at home). This is when all of the drama started. A young lad came over to us with a girl and they both started waving paper at me. I thought they wanted a donation of money but I only had about 20 cents left. A security guard came over to escort them out, and about 5 minutes later, I realised that my phone, which was sitting on the table infornt of me, had dissapeared. I immediatley burst into tears and went to find the man who sent the people away from me. He said that this sort of thing happens alot in France and directed me to the apple store around the corner to shut my phone off. My friends came with me, whilst I was an absolute mess in the middle of Paris, and just as we went to the Apple Store, an undercover French Police officer came over to me to tell me that he had caught the people who had stolen my phone and they had been arrested. I have never been so happy in my life! My friends had already contacted my teacher, who was on his way as I had to go to the police station to make a statement to get my phone back, bearing in mind we had to leave to go home in about 5 minutes. My friends went back to meet the rest of the group and they headed for the eurostar whilst my teacher and I were in the back of a police car, sirens on and driving through Paris. I eventually got my phone back and we got to the Eurostar just in time. I can't believe how lucky I was in such an eventful way to end an over all amazing trip!
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| Selfie with MONA |
I apologize for the mammoth essay, but I had a lot to say! I could have went on for hours! There will be a photo essay to follow later on, but I hope you enjoy my first post of many for now, and for anyone going to Paris, please be aware of the pick pockets! Thanks for reading if you managed to get this far!
P.S. Check out Phoebes amazing cover of Price Tag below, it will blow you away!
Have you ever been to Paris?
What were the highlights of your trip?
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