I never thought I would love Paris this much. Before I liked it because it was a place I went for 2 days and its an international city. Now I appreciate it for all its worth: its history, its modern-ness, its landmarks, its museums, its people, the list goes on and on.
Falling in love with Paris makes you get crazy ideas. Now, I want to expand my boundaries even more. Coming into this I said I could live abroad. Now I want to! I still love America, but to me there’s no thrill greater than exploration. We took a bike tour on Saturday, Sarah, Ramasy, and I. I found out so much about Paris that I never knew! I added so much to my to-do list I want to come back with some of the girls for the weekend after our program is over. I CAN’T conquer it all in this amount of time. We did soooo much in the amount of time that we were there though. I took 2BG of pictures. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good ones of me on my camera because nobody knows how to work it really. They get this real scared look on their face when I hand it to them like “Where’s the button, I can’t drop it, she never parts with this thing.” Then they focus it wrong so you can’t see my face etc So! you’ll have to do some facebook stalking to see me in the photos, but…
Lydia with the 13 packages of cookies for all of us on the train!
It was supposed to rain all weekend, but this was the closest thing to rain we saw in Paris.
Notre Dame at night. It was right by our hotel so we were on our way to get ice cream when I took this
Napoleon’s room in Compiègne. Since my group was studying him, we made a day trip on Friday.
My favorite room in the château, the library. The door looks like books!
Friday night after some shopping we headed up to the Sacre Coeur, dinner in hand getting ready to mount beaucoup de stairs!
Sacre Coeur
When I came out it was dark because I was fascinated with the inside! Normally its very dark, but there was a service of sorts going on so the dome was all lit up! A woman was singing beautifully and then they told the story of Sarah and Abraham which I understood… probably one of my favorite moments in Paris. So beautiful.
We sat on the stairs for a bit and watched people dance to Michael Jackson and attempt to sing the wrong words. Pretty entertaining.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
“Class” at the Arc de Triomphe 
My group at the top of the Arc de Triomphe!
After sitting in the Tuileries Gardens for the rest of class, we saw the Louvre Pyramids and then went on our…
BIKE RIDE! I highly recommend the Fat Tire Bike Tour if you ever visit Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, or London.
And it was supposed to rain that day
Hanging out in our (Sarah, Taryn, and moi) hotel room
The next day, Sunday, was a reallllly long day. Lydia, Sarah, et moi attended Mass at the Notre Dame. Then for class, I would’ve never put visiting the Opera house on the list, but it was incredible!
The inside… Phantom of the Opera anyone? Ramsay was singing (as usual) the soundtrack the whole time so I felt like I was living it
From inside the Louvre, visiting the apartments de Napoleon III
just the ceiling, no big deal
During class still, we headed over to the Musée d’Orsay to see Déjuner sur l’herbe. Look familiar?
If so, maybe this does too. Van Gough’s Starry Night Over the Rhône
Or his, Noon- Rest from Work. Gotta love paintings of Arles. We’re going there soon!
Then Quiche from a stand because it’s Paris and its the only thing we could afford, but it was vachement delicious
From the right, Sarah, Rachael, et Moi in front of Les Invalides
Napolean’s Tomb! A military genius obsessed with Egyptians was buried in a Babushka doll fashion on the bottom floor of the church, making visitors bow to see his unusually large sarcophagus.
Still don’t know how to flip it, but this is me thinking… with the Thinker in the Musée Rodin!
The Gates of Hell- never meant to be opened, were never finished… for a museum that was never built, but Dante inspired Rodin, so he went with it.
An excerpt of the Gates of Hell, Ugolino crouches in prison over his kids when, driven by famine he ate their corpses. Sad story makes for an intriguing sculpture.
Courtyard of the Rodin Museum
View of the Pont de Alexandre from the Bateaux Mouche ride.
The Tour Eiffel all lit up!
We went up again! I know its supper blurry, but you just should’ve been there. If the stairs didn’t take you’re breath away, this sure would.
P.S. This is still the same day we went to the Opera. 
And I never get tired of it…
The light show happens at the top of every hour when it gets dark. I love it!
After passing out, we had class outside the Notre Dame the next day.
Then on to the Pantheon and its pendulum!
Under the center statue it reads (in french of course) “Live free or die”
Voltaire is buried in the Crypt of the Pantheon!
So is Rousseau!
On the train back to Montpellier and I felt like I was headed back home, then I fell asleep so hard my mascara rubbed off onto my arm. I’m so excited that we still have a month left! But then, we only have a month left?! I don’t think I’m going to get sick of being here. The only thing that’s going to make we want to leave is loving Athens too! Even though I’ve been speaking english the past few days, I feel like I’ve learned a lot. Not about French, but about myself. After navigating the Paris metro, planning, and accomplishing everything we wanted to do in a day, I feel like I can do anything! haha Its an awesome feeling though-loving the past, the living moment, and not knowing what the future has in store! I don’t think I’ve ever felt this fulfilled. Now I have to start speaking French again! Ahh
Final tomorrow, picnic on the beach, and seeing our friend from Switzerland sing that night.
I apologize again for overwhelming you with pictures that don’t even begin to summarize everything we saw, how much we walked, how many times we took the metro, or the fun we had. Hopefully you get the idea, and trust me that we had a blast!
Can’t forget the quote section:
My brain gets really confused in english sometimes and I was trying to talk about the shower in the hotel room, but instead i said “The bed here doesn’t look very difficult to use” … and got crap about it the rest of the trip
“The cleaning ladies moved our cookie table!”
“Aladdin!”
…. yeah that’s all I got, time for bed- hopefully its not difficult to use.
Cher París,
J’ai t’aimé, je t’aime, et je t’aimerai
À bientôt,
Moi
So those cookies must have cost a LOT. Stupid Euros. That would take my whole paycheck. See why I’m a photographer??? Travel for a living??? See where I’m coming from. I’m pretty sure my room will look like Napoleons when I grow up. Just saying….
If it does, Christmas is at your house! And Dr. Bell, the program director bought them for us, I think to keep us quiet on the train, then make us go to sleep, and make us want to walk everywhere. So basically it worked!
Oh christmas will be at my house. Trust me.
ok but i get to cook
Your photos are great. I like the night ones best especially the Eiffel tower from below. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the bicycle trip pics soon. Looks like you had a great time.