Paris

Ciao Tutti,

Today is the last day of my spring break tour with Bus2Alps.  We've been in Paris for two days now and it is an absolutely beautiful city.  I came to Paris with low expectations as I expected it to be overrated like most cities in Western Europe, all big cities like New York City, but was pleasantly surprised.  Our hostel is on the outskirts of the city, but is only a short subway ride into the heart of all the action.

We arrived in Paris on Thursday at around 4:00 PM and immediately checked into our hostel - Saint Christopher's Inn.  Our room was huge and each bed had a curtain on it so you can close it at night and people can turn the light on without waking you.  It was a really cool concept and came in handy both nights.  Also, each bed had two power outlets near it - a huge plus.  It also had a nice bar downstairs with pretty good food.

On Thursday night, our group leader, Savage, took us to see the Eiffel Tower light up.  We arrived as the light show was going on and only saw the show from a distance, but it was absolutely beautiful.  We all decided afterwards to walk towards to Eiffel Tower and watch the next light show from up close.  We stopped at a supermarket and bought some wine and baguettes for the show and parked ourselves about 50 meters from the base of the tower.  That was a great "Welcome to Paris" gift.

The view as we arrived

On Friday morning we had a pre-arranged walking tour of Paris.  It was a phenomenal tour that lasted four hours.  We saw almost everything in Paris.  We started with the Cathedral of Notre Dame which was beautiful.  I had a flashback to my childhood and remembered the movie, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and we learned that that story was written in 1902 to save the church from being torn down or modernized - it worked!  Then, we went into the courtyard of The Louvre and saw the famous "invisible" pyramid.  After this, we stopped for lunch.  I went and got a baguette with ham and cheese and a cheese pastry.  It was great!  Afterwards, we went to a very pretty garden called the Tuileries Garden and walked down to the Arc de Triomphe and saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe

After our tour, I walked to the Eiffel Tower to try and get to the top.  The employees would only let me to the second level, not the top, because they decided for me that I cannot do stairs in case of an emergency.  When I told them I could, they told me that it was their policy.  This was a bit of a bummer, but the view from the second level was still pretty good.

Then, I went to the Louvre and saw the Inverted Pyramid, Mona Lisa and other works of art.  The Mona Lisa was very small, as expected, but it was still pretty cool to be able to see it.  I was in the Louvre for about 3 hours.

Then, I went and saw the Moulin Rouge come alive as darkness began to take over the city.  It was so cool to see it - next time I am here I want to go to a show there.

That night, I met up with a few people from my tour group to watch the Eiffel Tower light up one final time.  It was still an amazing sight.

Today, we went to the Palace of Versailles.  It was huge!  I was a bit disappointed, though, as I was expecting a gorgeous, pristine palace.  Instead, I walked out of there thinking that the palaces in Rome are nicer.  The garden looked amazing, but I did not have enough time to go into that.

Hall of Mirrors

Well, I'm off to the train station now to catch my train to London.

Ciao,
Michael