This past weekend I took a trip to Paris with my friend Laura from school here and it was tons of fun! My 21st birthday is also on November 17 so I considered it my birthday present to myself and from my parents. Our flight left at 8:15 am, but the metro doesn't open until 6 am here and it takes an hour to get to the airport on the metro from my house. Taking the metro would have been cutting the timing a little too close but fortunately I found a train from the station near my house that gets to a metro station closer to the airport at 6:04 getting me there early enough. It took me a little longer in the morning to get ready than I thought it would and I ended up running to the station and getting to the platform exactly at the same time as the train. What luck.
After we got to Paris we took the metro to a station near our hostel and walked there. It was located right in the center very close to Notre Dame. We dropped off out bags in the room and then started doing the Rick Steves walking tour and got through about half of it until we just stared exploring more on our own. It started at Notre Dame and then wandered around the Latin Quarter and old part of the city. I think the old parts of cities are my favorite for the small pedestrian roads and all the fun stuff that can be found there.
At Notre Dame I remembered being there when I was 10 on our first big family trip but it was still really cool to see it again. Especially since I've started taking my art history class I feel like I can understand it and appreciate it a lot more along with knowing a lot better what I'm looking at. The inside seemed new to me though, not remembering it, and really big old churches just impress me so much. There were lots of arches and art and stained glass. I would love to go to a service there, and I think that is something I want to do in Spain while I am here- go to a church service in a big cathedral.
The tour brought us to places like the Deportation Memorial, which was closed, the Latin quarter which had a bunch of book stores and cute little shops, Sainte-Chapelle, a cathedral of glass that is said to be amazing but had a long line and an 8 euro entrance fee, and then an old metro entrance that looks very spooky and a flower market. From there we just wandered around in the streets and explored on our own also seeing the very interesting exterior of the modern art museum only finding out later what it was.
Laura and I definitely have different styles of traveling. I'm a lot more into the museums and sights and learning all about what I'm seeing and the history of the city while she was more interested in going shopping after checking off the 3 big things she felt like she had to see. After exploring the old area of the city we did some shopping on a street near the hostel. She had a goal of at least needing to get something from Paris, but I was the one who ended up finding and buying a dress in H&M. It is a store in the US too and Madrid, so I'm just hoping that they have different clothes for different countries so it can feel a little more special having a dress from Paris. I was a lot less excited about going shopping there too because all of the stores around there they also have in Madrid.
Then we headed back to the hostel and were able to check into our room. It was a simple little room with 2 twin beds, a shower and sink, a window that looked out onto a road below and the back of a church, and the toilet just across the hall. They didn't however have towels to use for a deposit like every other hostel I've stayed in so showering was a bit more difficult, wet and cold after. We looked at maps and guide books to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our time there and then took a nap since both of us had gotten up so early and then dressed up a little bit to go our for our nice birthday dinner in Paris.
We asked the receptionist for a recommendation nearby and she pointed us to a place a short walk away. I was surprised by how much more difficult it is here not being able to speak French especially being used to communicating so easily in Spain. I had no idea what most of the stuff on the menu was and so chose the option for the two course dinner with limited selections and then just went with what the waiter recommended. Definitely a good choice. The first plate was a tomato tart that had a bunch of rosemary and other vegetables, herbs and flavors that all went together so well.
The second plate was steak au poivre which was equally as delicious. It was a cute little restaurant and we were sitting next to a big window looking out on the street so it was almost equivalent to sitting outside and being able to watch life on the street go by, just without the cold. Dinner was a lot of fun and definitely a great place to go for my 21st birthday.
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