Paris Is Always a Good Idea

Winter break 2012, my family and I took a trip to Paris, a city that had always been on my bucket list to visit. Because it's been a year and half since I went there, I decided I might as well blog about it now. (Which is why in the pictures of me I look a little bit younger).

Where we stayed (in one of the apartments)

We only stayed in Paris for 3 days because it is crazy expensive there! As a result, my family's mission was to see as much of Paris in 3 days that most people see in a week. The first day, while battling an extreme case of jet-lag, we walked over to our apartment building, which was truly beautiful-in a square with a park in the middle. (I even saw in Allure magazine that an up-and-coming shoe designer lives there...pretty cool) The best part of it hands down was that there were so many bakeries right by us that would open up early in the morning, and the smell of fresh crescents would waft into our window...it felt like a dream. After getting settled into our apartment, we walked to Notre Dame which was not far from where we were staying. Notre Dame was as stunning from the front as it was from the back, and underneath the bright blue sky, the feeling that this was all surreal certainly did not go away.

On the second day we did more walking than I've ever done in my life, but it was definitely more than worth it. We took a subway into the center of the city, and as soon as I got off I saw the Eiffel Tower in the background. For some reason, my heart dropped. There is just something about seeing the Eiffel Tower in person that makes you realize that you're in Paris... weird how a monument can make you feel like that. First we decided to head over to the Arc De Triomph, and on the way we admired all of the shops. One thing that stood out was definitely the Abercrombie and Fitch! It had a line that stretched on outside the building as people waited to be let inside massive golden gates. I learned that this was the only Abercrombie in all of France, and people were willing to stand outside just to take a peek inside. After a little bit more walking, we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, which was impressive to say the least. Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower...which I just don't even have words for. On the way back, we stopped in front of this old-fashioned car where a man was making all kinds of crepes on top of it. I had banana+nutella...MMM.

On the third day, we decided to take the museum route-first we went to the Louvre where my sister and I went on a hunt to find the Mona Lisa. (It wasn't too hard to find, because there was literally an army of people in front of it all shoving past each other to take pictures of it.) After that, we went to a different museum...the Musee d'Orsay, which used to be a train station back in the day. It has a huge clock outside, and you can stand behind the clock on one of the floors, where there is an amazing view of the city. The last place we visited could I guess be classified as a museum...of clothes ;) We went to the Galleries Lafayette, one of the biggest "malls" in France. It had designer clothes, regular clothes, everything you can imagine..it was kind of insane, and of course I loved it. To close off the night, we went out to dinner at a restaurant right by our apartment. We split a plate of escargot as an appetizer (to all of you who just shuddered, it's actually really good!) This was followed by lamb chops, ratatouille, and that teeny salad. It was deeeelicious. I hope I can go back to Paris in the future....it was seriously the best 3 days!