I apologize for the slight hiatus, it's exam week (BLECK) and I've sort of dropped off the map for a bit haha but all is well, one left and it's a 10 question t/f test...no joke...makes up for the fact that I spent a full 24 hours studying for my Medieval History Final...*Shudders*
ANYWAYS
Paris Day 2: more epic epicness :-)
I saw my first snow of the year in Paris France. Really, does it get any better than that? It truly hit my how lucky I've been this semester to be able to visit all of these amazing places and make lasting memories that'll I'll carry with me forever. Sigh well that was my little sentimental bit for the day haha.
The beauty of the falling snow made me forget a very important part about said snow: It's friggen cold. Simple enough I know, but when you've been living in a city with a truly beautiful climate (may I add that it's December 14th and it's still 50 degrees here? yeah. I love Barcelona weather.) you forget these simple and chilling truths. Needless to say Paris is not so lucky with it's temperatures and It was like 100 below zero...my nose fell like it was going to fall off. I hadn't been that cold in a very long time and forgot how truly awful it is....this shall be the one thing I'll not be looking forward to coming home - boston in the middle of winter is friggen ANTARCTICA. *shudders again*
Regardless of my coldness, we braved the storm and went up to Monmart which is a beautiful little artists colony (although all of the artists were hiding....in WARMTH) and saw the Basilica de Sacre Coure which was absolutely gorgeous!!! There was a service going on and it was all decorated for Christmas which was beautiful. After finally regaining the feeling in my fingers, we ventured back out into the blizzard to try to find the Moulin Rouge. This was sort of a let down unfortunately. We walked in to this restaurant called the Moulin de la Galete and were like "Hey where's the Moulin Rouge" and they were like "Hey you're inside it. It's right on top." So we walk outside and there's a lame little windmill on top and we were like wow, we would have NEVER picked that out as the Moulin Rouge....but cool! Haha It was still interesting to see, but Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman and a singing moon would have made it a lot cooler haha.
We found a metro stop (after asking like 100 people and trying to figure out their french directions) and made our way down to the Museé d'Orsay which is a smaller museum with a great collection of impressionist and other paintings. We got to see the self-portrait of Van Gogh which was really impressive along with some fantastic Manet's and Monet's. We museumed ourselves out and decided to get some lunch at a cute cafe we found (also we had to unfreeze ourselves because I'm pretty sure I turned into an icicle).
We decided that it would be a good idea to do a walking tour of the Chanselise which had an entire section full of little temporary shops set up for christmas (it was called the Christmas Village!!!). We walked all up one side, stopping to buy some christmas gifts as we went. Then we decided that we wanted bread wine and cheese for dinner, so we found a bread and cheese stand and tried to buy some. Nora and I were trying to decide whether or not to get the small or large loaf - and of course decided on the large - which ended up weighing like 10 pounds, NO JOKE. And I had to carry it in my bag because it was the only one big enough. Needless to say I got some weird looks when I went through the security at the Eiffel Tower. But more on that later.
After treking through all of the mud and people, we finally made it to the Arc d' Triomph which was also a really spectacular site, especially all lit up at night. We tried to take some cool pictures in front of it, but cars kept getting in the way haha. Oh well, it was still a must see and I'm glad we made it there!
The eternal walking tour resumed and we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, attempting to navigate our way to it by using the pretty lights as our guide. When we finally made it, we took about a billion pictures in front of it and then got in the surprisingly short line (everyone else was inside drinking hot chocolate and eating croissants I bet.) to go up. Now, I'm usually ok with relatively small heights. But the Eiffle Tower is FRIGGEN HUGE. So needless to say, the trip up to the top was a bit nervewracking for me - I think I closed my eyes most of the time. But we made it!!! It was really cool although I could swear I felt the tower moving with the incredible force of the wind outside. Nora and Em assured me I was crazy but I'm still sticking to my guns on that one....
After taking some more pictures and finding which way (according to cool little signs on the top of the tower) was home (both in the US and Barcelona which has now become a second home) we went down and made our way back to the hotel for our long awaited bread and cheese dining spectacular!!!
last but not least: DAY 3 next time :-)
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