Week 8: Paris and France

This week we went to France! It was so amazing. We woke up at the crack of dawn and got on a bus that drove to Colmar, France where we got lunch and went to an old monastery/art museum. It was interesting but we didn't spend much time here. We got to see a famous altar art piece that had a lot of relevance to medicine. Then we got back on the bus and drove to Beaune. We spent the night here. I shared a room with Kanci, Rachel and Claire. Our room was weirdly in a separate building across the parking lot completely seperate from the rest of the hotel, which was kind of strange.

The next day we drove to Paris. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Paris. I thought it would be overrated. But I absolutely loved it. The first night we went to a creperie for dinner and met our Parisian tour guide Julian who was a super cool and interesting guy. The next day was probably my favorite day. We started the morning with a bike tour of the city. I hadn't ridden a bike in a long time so I was a little nervous but it was so much fun! We got to see so much of the city and it was so nice outside. A couple of us fell and one of our teachers ran into a truck, but beside a few minor scrapes and bruises we were all fine and had lots of fun. Afterwards we went to see Notre Dame and a medical museum. Notre Dame was beautiful and impressive. The medical museum was a little harder because we were all hungry for lunch, but they had a table made entirely out of human body parts which was pretty cool. Afterwards we went to get lunch. The food in Paris was almost always amazing and one of the highlights of the trip.

After lunch we went to the Arc de Triomph and climbed to the top. There were a lot of stairs but the climb was worth the view. The Arc is in the middle of the roundabout so from the top you could see all of the cars driving around the circle. I'm pretty sure there are no rules to driving in Paris except don't hit anyone else. Its actually terrifying. Afterwards we went to a coffee shop by and had some espresso and desserts. I had never had espresso before but now I love it. While the food was good the meal was slightly ruined when we saw a mouse run across the corner of the restaurant. It was like a real like Ratatouille.

That night we met up with the rest of the group at the Eiffel Tower. While the Eiffel Tower is impressive during the day it is so much more amazing when it is lit up at night. I also discovered that every hour on the hour the whole tower sparkles for about 5 minutes. It was probably the prettiest thing I've ever seen. After standing in line for what felt like forever and going through security twice we got to go to the very top of the Tower. I was a little nervous because I'm pretty scared of heights, but I'm glad I went. It was beautiful at the top, but also extremely windy. Luckily the whole top is caged in or you could easily just be blown off. We also saw a proposal while we were at the top which was super sweet.

The next day I got to sleep in and then went with Kenneth and James to get lunch at a sidewalk cafe. Afterwards we found this really good macaroon store and bought one of every flavor to try together. The best flavor was the lemon. Then we went and met the rest of our group at the Louvre. We saw lots of sculptures and the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was cool but not as impressive as I was expecting and also very small. Afterwards we went to a small  English bookstore called Shakespeare and Company. We also went out to dinner at a French restaurant. We tried escargot which was so good. After dinner we decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower and sat on the grass and watched the lights for a while.

The next day was the last day with the program and we went to visit Versailles. I was super excited for this visit but wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. The palace was beautiful and impressive but it was also too crowded to fully appreciate. In the picture I took of the Hall of mirrors, one of the more famous rooms of the palace, all you can really see is the massive crowd of people and very little of the mirrors. The best part of this day was the picnic lunch we had in the gardens. Our tour guide Julien bought lots of wines and cheese and baguettes and we had a taste testing. My favorite was the Brie with a layer of truffles in the middle.

That afternoon half of the group left for spring break while Claire, Kanci and I stayed for another night in Paris. We went to check into our hostel and then took a night cruise down the Seine River. And then it was time for Spring Break!!