Paris!

Paris was destination number one on our very own Eurotrip! Our goal was to see as much of Europe as possible - five cities, in five different countries in ten days.. lofty, but successfully accomplished without any major setbacks! 

Why Paris you ask, what girl doesn't want to visit one of the fashion capitals of the world?  We arrived in Paris around 6pm and hopped on the metro to meet Christine's friend from home (who is studying in Paris, allowed us to stay with her AND was a personal tour guide for the 2 days we were there- THANK YOU Rachel!) She greeted us at our stop and fortunately we only had to lug our backpacks across the street to Cite Universitaire - which was a beautiful compound of buildings, housing the majority of international students studying in France. We dropped our bags then hopped back on the metro (there's a lot of metro riding in Paris, if you want to get anywhere at a reasonable price) and did some grocery shopping to cook some dinner. Fast forward to 10pm and it was time to start getting ready - yes that's not a typo, people in France go out late and stay out even later! We had plans to go with a few of Rachel's friends to a club on Champs Elysees called Queen which was hosting LMFAO's after party

Rachel & Christine on the Metro

Champs Elysees - Queen club, Paris

LMFAO arriving at Queen

INSIDE - after literally hours of waiting

party rock anthem - all night long

 Night one in Paris was a success- danced to party rock anthem all night long. Saturday, morning we grabbed my Rick Steves - Best of Europe book and were off to explore the historic core of Paris where we wandered through the Latin Quarter and got crepes for breakfast then saw the 700 year-old Notre-Dame Cathedral. 

We then walked to the Deportation Memorial to the 200,000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps - the memorial draws you into their experience.  As you walk down the steps the sights and sounds of Paris disappear, surrounded by walls you can only see the sky and a glimpse of the river.  Inside there is  a hallway lined with 200,000 lighted crystals, one for each French citizen who died.

entering the memorial

hall of lighted crystals

"forgive, but never forget"

We continued our walk through the streets of Paris, passing by the Sainte-Chapelle a Gothic chapel that they were able to build in only five years, whereas it took 200 to build Notre-Dame. Next door to this famous chapel is the Palais de Justice that houses the French Supreme Court. We continued our walk through the historic center stopping at Cite Metropolitain stop - one of the original subway entrances and now home to a flower market. 

With some major touristy sight seeing completed it was time for some shopping, more realistically- window shopping. We ventured over to Champs-Elysees, a famous boulevard as Paris' backbone with the greatest concentration of traffic - it is also home to some of the most elite stores, cafes, restaurants bars and clubs in Paris. We emerged from the metro and started our walk down Champs-Elysees toward the Arc de Tropmphe. 
The must see store for three, I'd like to say fashion forward girls (Rachel is a fashion major at Cornell - making up for my lack of it) the flagship store of leather-bag maker Louis Vuiton.  It is considered one of the largest single-brand luxury stores in the world, with a line out the door and down the street to enter!

Champs-Elysees

Louis Vuiton

The line at LV was ridiculous... as seen above, so we did not get an opportunity to go in - which was probably the safest thing, window shopping doesn't do any damage to a bank account!  We walked up Champ-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, which Napoleon had commissioned to commemorate his victory at the battle of Austerlitz.  There is no triumphal arch bigger, and is surrounded by a rotary that has 12 converging boulevards.  The Arc de Tiomphe is supposed to have some of the best views of Paris, unfortunately we did not get an opportunity to climb the 284 steps to the top - but we did get some sweet pictures from below.

Arc de Triomphe

tomb of the unknown soldier

Our second night in Paris wasn't spend dancing to party rock anthem and hanging out with LMFAO but started with a picnic of wine, cheese and a baguette at the Eiffel Tower.  We admired the beauty of the Eiffel Tower illuminated at night and were able to witness the sparkling light show that occurs every hour. From there we hopped on the metro (which Christine and I were getting pretty good at by now) and went over to a part of town that was full of bars - a few of them being rugby bars! We went to the Frog & the Princess which is a French bar and brewery.  

in awe at how massive the Eiffel Tower is

Christine on the metro

.... and that was only day 1 I'll be back as soon as I finish my Mafia paper to fill everyone in on Paris day 2, so much more to come from Paris, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Florence and Venice! hope all is well in the states! te amo di Firenze, kels