Derek's Jolly Old Blog: Paris

So this past weekend a couple of my roommates, neighbors, and I went to Paris for about 48 hours. It was full of amazing food, sights, and just amazing times. It was my favorite weekend here so far. I only had three bad things to say about Paris. It stunk. It was dirty. Last but not least, I don't speak French. But seriously, it was one of the coolest places I have ever been to.

The day we left to go there was a nightmare. Instead of shoveling out a few extra pounds to take the train under the English channel, we decided to fly there. BIG BIG BIG mistake. We actually probably ended up spending no more than we would have to take the train anyways. We had to travel about an hour to our airport and then once we got to Paris it was about another hour train ride. So the girls that were taking the train left an hour after us and ended up getting there about 4 hours before us. Like I said, big mistake. Oh well, we were not going to let this hinder our weekend in Paris. That night we went out to a bar which was kind of a dud but it wasn't that big of a deal.

The next morning we decided to get up early and travel down to Versailles. It was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen and my pictures are not going to do it justice in the slightest. We wandered around there for a few hours and then we went out to lunch at a little creperie where I had possibly the best meal I have ever had in my life. It started off with a nice cup of French cappuccino, which was delicious. Then for the entre. My friend Jack and I both got a flat bread pizza. It had tomato, cheese, basil, and a whole bunch of amazing things. It was was essentially a giant piece of bruschetta. It may have been very well the best meal I have ever eaten in my entire life. Hands down.

After that, we went to the city and walked around. We went down to the back of the Louvre and just explored. We then walked down the river to Notre Dame. At this point it was pretty rainy so that was upsetting but not terrible. We went inside for a while and it was amazing. It was a very cool experience to be inside one of the most famous churches on the planet. I took tons of pictures of it but it did not do it very much justice. Later on that night we went out for a fancy French dinner. We decided we wanted something where we could get an appetizer, entre, and dessert. Everyone was talking about how they wanted to try escargot, but I was not having it. I decided to order a French onion soup. I regret my decision. I decided I wanted to at least try the escargot since everyone was raving about it and it was actually amazing. I am excited to get it again one day. I then had a filet mignon and a creme brulet for dessert. We all shared a couple bottles of wine. It was a perfect way to really experience the French culture.

After that, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome. I knew it was going to be cool, but it was definitely more than I expected. We took the elevator to the top, because I mean come on, you can't come all the way to Paris, and not do that. I really wanted to do it during the day, but seeing the city all lit up was probably just as amazing. After that, we got back to our hostel at about midnight so we were exhausted and went to sleep.

The next day we got up early again and headed straight to the Louvre. If you want to go to the Louvre I would definitely recommend going first thing when it opens. We went straight to see the Mona Lisa. I really wasn't that excited to see it because frankly, I think it is extremely over-rated and not even a good painting. Even so, it was still really cool just to see it. Usually there is a line, so if there is a line I wouldn't recommend it, but if not, it is pretty cool. We wandered for the next couple hours and saw some pretty amazing art. After that we headed up the street where the Champs de Elysees is, the French version of Rodeo Drive basically. At the end of the road is the Arc de Triomphe, that we realized you could walk up to the top so we were not about to pass that up. After the eight million stairs, the views were unbelievable. After that we went to another cafe and had some last minute delicious French food before we had to make our way back to the airport.

All in all, like I said, it was an amazing weekend. I would love to go back one day and really hope to do so. If you ever get the chance to make it to Paris, I would definitely recommend it.