Better Late Than Never: Paris

The rest of my time in Paris a whirlwind of fun. Versailles was gorgeous and exploring the gardens was interesting. I may have accidentally entered a part I wasn't supposed to, where I saw a statute of a giant made to look like it was climbing out of the ground. But I swear, it was an accident! The picnic was nice too, though of course it would've been better if I had actually been able to eat anything there. My favourite part of Versailles though was the Queen's Abbey. It looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale!

Sacré-Cœur was impressive in many ways, but I have to admit I didn't really care for it. On a scale from 1 to 10 of how religious I am, I'd come up as 0 for sure, but something about an old cathedral like that having a modern, flashy gift shop inside just didn't sit right with me. It seemed wrong somehow. The rest of Montmartre was quaint and beautiful though. It made me think of how Paris might have looked in the early 1900s.

I was one of the few students who decided to stay in Paris that weekend, and I'm glad I did. It was then that I finally had time to really discover some of the amazing restaurants there. I found an all gluten free Thai place! Thai food is one of my favorite kinds of food and I very rarely actually get to eat it, so I was pretty much in heaven (if heaven were made of Pad Thai). There are also a surprising number of 100% gluten free cafés and bakeries in Paris! Even in Ireland, I didn't really find any entirely gluten free places.

Exploring Paris on my own, I went to all of the super touristy places. I saw where Oscar Wilde is buried and read the thoughtful words engraved on his headstone. I walked up the Champs-Élysées, and browsed inside the biggest Sephora store I'm sure I will ever see in my life. I stood before the Arc de Triomphe and felt very small as I marveled at the enormous carvings in its stone. My brother, a mathematician, was jealous of my visit to Notre Dame (which he refers to as "a mathematician's wonder"). And my sister, an avid reader, envied my trip to the famous bookstore, Shakespeare & Co.

And though I'd had five days in Paris, they proved to go by too quickly. Before I knew it, I was back on a train to Bonn. But not before paying that Thai restaurant another visit.