{Eiffel} In Love With France

Colmar: quaint, quick.  Worth losing a day in Paris for?  Mmmmmm…maybe not, but that's just because I loved Paris so much!  But the drive through the French countryside on the way there, with the white-blossom trees and bright yellow flowers, was gorgeous. 

Beaune: lots of my “favorites” come from Beaune!  Red wine, medical museum (Hotel Dior with its incredibly well-kept condition and interested history), one of my favorite tour guides (quite the knowledgable and fun old lady), and one of my favorite pieces of art (the gold altar piece kept in the guarded room).    

PARIS.  Man, what a place.  It’s everything people make it out to be—absolutely beautiful, spectacular, full of culture, and worthy of the title, “The City of Love.”  While I wish we had more time in our bike ride to stay at all the major monuments we say, the bike tour was a very fun and efficient way to see the city. If it was up to me, I would have reduced the amount of free time later to give more time to taking pictures and enjoying the bike tour instead of racing around.  Truth be told, I really regret not getting pictures with the main monuments of Paris, especially Notre Dame since we only saw it for about five minutes.  Additionally, I felt like the Pasteur Museum was too focused on Pasteur’s life that his medical discoveries, and the tour guide could not convey well the aspects of his scientific work she did cover.  Overall, the time in the Pasteur Museum would have been better spent elsewhere.  I also wish we, as students, were more pressured to stay in Paris over the weekend.  I realized too late, after I bought my ticket to Dublin, that I would have loved to stay in town, walk the streets, listed to the music, go back to look at art in Montmartre, and see Paris more through the eyes of a resident than a foreigner. Oh! Before I forget, day at Versailles, could it have been any better?!?!?!?  Absolutely loved it, from the palace tour to the picnic to Julien’s tour of the queen’s village in the back of the property (which I would have never thought to find on my own.  If Julien does not plan to always take groups there, it should certainly be suggested.)