The One With The Best Friend

Bonjour toute le monde!

A couple weeks ago it was spring break for my best friend who goes to school in Florida, so she decided to come and visit. It was her first time in France, let alone Europe in general. Which means that this had to be a good week. Her arrival day was very packed. We started at a mall near the Notre Dame, then walked across the Seine to the Shakespeare & Co bookshop, got a crepe next door, and continued walking towards the Luxembourg garden (sadly we got there right as it was closing), we finished off at the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro. We walked about 9 miles that day. We saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle, which was super cool because neither of us have seen it like that before. We watched it sparkle on the steps of the Trocadéro, and while we were there, this guy starts dancing behind us and he manages to get some others to join it. There was so much activity late on a Sunday night and it was really cool. I've never really lived in a big city before, and so I've never really experienced such an active night, and on a Sunday, nonetheless.

View of the Notre Dame from the bridge over the Seine.

The Eiffel Tower at sunset.

The next day I had my student orientation which went until mid-afternoon, so we decided to just stay in Cergy and have an early night. Tuesday was another busy day. This time we started at the Arc de Triumph and walked our way to the Grande Palais. Which was another 8 miles of walking. But it was a really sunny and warm day and so it was really nice to just walk around. This day we went to the Galleries de Lafyette that had the accessible rooftop. So, we went up there to watch the sunset over Paris, it was beautiful. And then we did some shopping. There was a whole floor just filled with different souvenirs, we probably spent an hour just figuring out what to get.

My friend and I inside the Petite Palais.

Wednesday we ventured out to Montmartre to find some more souvenirs and visit the Sacré-Coeur. While walking, we saw this windmill atop a hill by some houses, we really wanted to get closer to see it, but it was on private property, so sadly we couldn't. There were actually several windmills that we came across. I had no idea that Montmartre had so many. I knew that it was an artist district, but I didn't know about the windmills. The Sacré-Coeur was very beautiful. There were some really amazing stain glass windows inside that would reflect the bright colors onto the wall. The view from outside was also breathtaking. Because it was on a hill, you got a really good view of all of Paris.

Thursday, we visited the Palace of Versailles. Walking through it was very interesting, because it's this huge palace with so many statues and pieces of artwork, but then you remembered that people used to actually live here. There were so many beautiful archways and gold framing. The whole palace was just this beautiful piece of architecture. The gardens was a whole other thing. There were people renting rowboats to take out on the pond. There were so many picturesque spots. The garden was huge. Some people would visit just to go for a run or read a book. I was jealous of those people.

One of the beautiful hallways in the Palace of Versailles.

Friday was the last day, so we had to make the best of it. This day was our museum tour day. We went to the Musee D'Orsay and the Louvre. The Louvre was actually free after 6 which was really nice. Sadly, Napolean's apartment was closed down but we still got to see the Mona Lisa. I honestly prefer the Musee D'Orsay. It's smaller and less overwhelming, and there was a section for Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Renoir. The Louvre was so big that I didn't even know what to look at. There so much artwork there as well, and I'm not an art fanatic so I can't fully appreciate it all the way it's supposed to be. The structure of the Louvre in general is amazing in itself, but after having been there twice now, I don't really find a reason to need to go again in the near future.

Well, that was pretty much all that we did that week. It was so much fun showing my friend around, and she said she had a really great time. It was sad to see her go, but spring break was over and we both had classes the following week.