Originally published: 12/8/2015 | 10:07pm
We have finally arrived at my favorite portion of my European Vacation. Our train arrived in Paris on July 1st in the early evening. Our group went straight to dinner at Jardins Contini where we ate beef roast with potatoes, carrots, and a side salad. I am not sure what our dessert was, but it was some type of wafer with icing on top and cream between each layer. It was light and flaky, and I enjoyed it very much (see the picture in my Google Photos Collection). After dinner we went to our hotel (a Courtyard Marriott) to rest up for our busy day ahead of us.
In what became our standard routine when visiting a new city, we started the morning by taking a guided bus tour around the heart of Paris and got a quick glimpse of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower (which we made a very brief stop at for photos), as well as other notable landmarks and tourists hot spots. The guided tour also included a trip to Versailles (a.k.a. Palace of Versailles) where we spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon being mesmerized by its beauty. As I mentioned in a previous post, Europe was experiencing a heat wave at the time of my trip, but the weather was surprisingly perfect. I visited the many perfectly manicured gardens in the back before going on my guided tour inside of the the palace. The entire location was incredibly gorgeous! If I ever had enough money to build an exact replica for myself, I would absolutely love to live in a palace like Versailles. Be sure to see the pictures I took because describing the details in words would need its own post. We completed our time at Versailles and went to a park across town before going to the mall as promised. Every single store had sales of at least 40% off because there was a European discount month that I was just finding out about. (I saved quite a bit of money while shopping on my vacation.) We went to dinner a pizza restaurant and did some more shopping (I went to Monoprix) before going back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning we took the subway to the Arc de Triomphe for pictures before getting back on the subway to go to The Louvre for a few hours. I did manage to see the Mona Lisa while there. I found out what Twister Fries were, which are seasoned curly fries from McDonald's. They don't exist on U.S. menus, so took the opportunity to have some every chance I got from that point on. After enjoying our time there, we went to Notre Dame de Paris, but I did not take a tour because the line was extremely long. My friends and I chose to find a cool park bench to sit on until time to leave. I also had my first experience with what we commonly call "a pigeon lady" at Notre Dame. It made our stop unique, but I was really uncomfortable being surrounded by about 100 birds. We then went to the Eiffel Tower for the evening where we went on a boat tour. Prior to getting on the boat, my friend and I went to a cafe to get drinks and people watch. While on the boat tour, we saw people relaxing on a Friday night, concerts, and three drunk men dancing naked on their boat with only cowboy hats to cover themselves (police quickly got to them). Our boat tour finished just in time for us to watch the Eiffel Tower light up before taking an uncomfortable subway ride back to our hotel with several drunk men.
And that concludes my adventures in Paris and Versailles (for the most part; keep up with the blog to find out more). I enjoyed every single moment of this part of the and can't wait to do it all over again one day in the future! While we managed to get a lot done in about 2.5 days, there is still so much to see an do. Every person I encountered in Paris was super nice and very helpful. Although I do not speak French, I could say "hello" and "thank you" which pleased them greatly. As always, I encourage you to make every possible attempt to visit Paris and Versailles one day if you have not done so already. Here is the link to my Google Photos Collection so you can see how awesome this part of my trip was: https://bit.ly/KTTinParis.
*Also, please continue to keep France in your thoughts. They are still recovering and could use your positive thoughts and support.
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