Lauren's London Life: Days 15: Paris Day 1

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Right now I have almost 400 pictures from my three days in Paris! Since I don't have the time or energy to type 4,000 words and I'm sure you don't want to read that much, I'll just show you a few of my favorite pictures with a few remarks about what I did.

Day 1- May 9

Woke up bright and early to leave the Centre at 6:15am. We rode the Chunnel under the English Channel to get from England to France. So fun! We played cards on the way over. (Jared, Whitney, Kayley, and myself)

Checked in at our Ibis Hotel which is "very nice by European standards" but very small by American standards. Still just enough room for a couple people only staying in Paris a couple of days.

Rode the metro to our first stop: The Louvre. We didn't go inside on this day but we were still so excited to see it! (Mallory, Whitney, McKenzie, Tiffany, myself, Amanda, Natalie, Kennedy and Kayley)

In the Tuileries Gardens outside of the Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine originally was) with Paige and Kennedy.

Our first French eats! A random little Panini shop where we met a nice couple from North Carolina. Most of the people we talked to on this trip were retired couples traveling all over Europe or other younger college students. They were all so nice! (Kayley, Jaden, myself, Amanda, and Katherine)

My Croque Monsieur (pronounced croak mis-ure)- a fancy ham and cheese sandwhich. I will never eat a plain ham and cheese again because this was SO good! They also make a Croque Madame that has an egg on it. Everyone else got paninis and were disappointed with their but mine was DELICIOUS!

Our nice and funny "waiter" at lunch. He told me my French was very good and kind of made fun of us as silly little American girls but we laughed along. (Amanda and Katherine)

We walked down the entire Champs Elysees (prounced sham say le say) which is probably the most well known street for high end shopping in the world. We just window shopped and saw our favorite tennis players while we were there. (Myself and Amanda)

Outside of the Arc de Triomphe (prounounced ark dee tree-umph) with Kayley, Amanda, and Jaden.

Katherine forgot her ID card to buy a ticket to climb to the top of the Arc so I stayed at the bottom with her and we talked. We saw the large French flag under the Arc and saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I have now seen the Tomb of the Unknown soldier in three countries.

We walked up this slight hill in between the Palais de Chaillot (pronounced pal-a dee shy-o) and all of a sudden there was the Eiffel Tower! I always thought of it like the Statue of Liberty or Big Ben- a symbol of a certain city and it's nation. I was wondering, before I saw it, if it would meet my expectations or if it would be a let down. It exceeded my expectations! It literally took my breath away and each time I saw it throughout the trip, I didn't want to take my eyes off of it.

The girls I'm standing by are the girls that I spent all three days in Paris with. I've grown closer to each of them and I really enjoy being around them! They are (from the left) Kayley Brooks, Amanda Ricks, myself, Katherine Hart (soon to be Katherine Fortney), and Jaden Anderson.

We climbed up the Eiffel Tower! We took the stairs to the second landing and then took an elevator to the very top. Kind of crazy!

Katherine, Kayley, and I taking a breather at the second level of the tower.

Me on the VERY TOP of the Eiffel Tower!

Kayley, myself, Amanda, and Jaden on the top of the windy tower.

Some of the views from the first and second level of the tower.

We then went to dinner at this random little pizza place that had amazing pizza! We didn't take any pictures though. The restaurant served homemade potato chips for appetizers and then we all shared a margharita pizza and a chicken and pepper pizza.

We were supposed to meet our group back under the tower at a certain time. On our way to meet them, we found a beautiful little garden that had perfect views of the tower. It was one of my favorite spots we saw.

We were early for meeting our group so we all got crepes and ate them under the Eiffel Tower. It was wonderful! I got a Nutella crepe and I might be hooked on them... I had a Nutella crepe each day we were in Paris because they were so delicious!

Our entire group took a cruise down the Seine river. The cruise started right around sunset and took us along the river to see the outside of the Louvre, Notre Dame, bridges, and all the beautiful buildings along the river. Instead of sitting on the inside of the boat, we sat on the outside so that we could see everything as clearly as possible. There were TONS of people just sitting along the river banks hanging out and eating dinner. There were couples having romantic little dinners and watching the sun set and there were lots of groups of youth just enjoying the moment. I had so much fun seeing the sites and watching all of these people. A couple of boys blew us kisses from the side when our boat passed and we all burst up laughing. It was great. Our boat went down the river a certain ways and then turned around. At this point it was just barely dark and so everything was lit up. We got to see everything again but in a new way.

As soon as we got back to the Eiffel Tower, we saw the most beautiful sight. It was all lit up so you could see it but on the hour it SPARKLED. Literally. It is impossible to capture or describe. They flash hundreds of lights all over the tower to make it looks like it sparkles. It was a BEAUTIFUL sight! I don't know what it is about steel and lights that makes me feel this way but all I know is that it's beautiful. That was my most favorite moment in Paris. I absolutely loved it!