Adventures in Germany: Week 8

When someone asks me literally anything, I know for sure I can say "je ne sais pa". Literally 'I don't know".  Fortunately, my pathetic french skills were not needed too much during this week in PARIS!! Yes, Spring Break has officially started a week early for me as my group ventured our way through France!  This past weekend was spent getting ready for the crazy two weeks ahead including finishing up on some house cleaning duties and having a fun night out on the town in Bonn and seeing Black Panther in theaters which was amazing!  On Monday morning, we had to be up bright and early for the bus at 6:30.  Getting up was brutal, but it was worth it because we were beginning our journey to France.  Thankfully, I was able to sleep for the majority of the first part of the bus ride which took us to Colmar, France.  Once we disembarked, we were able to explore the quaint but bustling town and eat lunch.  We settled on a local Italian place and I was able to get spaghetti carbonara.  Unfortunately, my friends didn't enjoy their meals as much as me.  After lunch our group toured the Isenheim alter, a famous masterpiece in Colmar.  It depicts various religious stories such as the Crucifixion and St. Anthony's temptations.  It was so interesting to hear about the various medical aspects of the paintings from Dr. Wasser.  He really has the ability to make everything so interesting and fun.  After touring the museum for a bit longer, we trekked another 3 hours by bus to Beaune, France, a quaint little town in the Burgundy wine region.  We ate dinner at a local restaurant where we were able to try its famous Burgundy wine along with poached eggs, beef and potatoes, and chocolate mousse for dessert.  The whole meal experience was divine and the locals taught us a song that is song at dinner which was just so fun to sing along to.  After dinner, we settled in at our hotel for the next day.

The next morning we got up and visited the Hotel Dieu, a famous hospital built hundreds of years ago to help take care of the poor people of Beaune who couldn't afford better care.  I was amazed at first that it was a hospital, as the whole design of the building is like a magnificent church and convent.  Well I guess it was a convent, as the whole place was run by the nuns.  We were able to see what the different rooms looked like when the hospital was up and working and we were able to look at spectacular paintings housed at the museum.  The whole place was quite amazing to see in person.  Afterwards, we had to time to explore Beaune and get some snacks for the long bus trip to Paris.  We decided to save some money and just grab some pastries instead of getting a full blown meal.  I got some chocolate beignets which were pretty good but not as good as the famous beignets of New Orleans.  The town of Beaune was just lovely, and it definitely reminded me of what a normal French town would look like.  I would definitely be down to come back and visit.  Once back on the bus, we all settled in for the 5 hour trip to Paris.  Fortunately, the trip flew by and we arrived in Paris in no time.  It was quite a surreal moment to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time.  It looked huge even from miles away.  After getting dropped off at our hotel, we quickly rested for a bit before heading to dinner.  Our guide for the week, Julien, took us to one of the best creperies in Paris.  I got a ham, egg, and cheese crepe for dinner and a chocolate crepe for dessert.  Both crepes were to die for, and I can't wait to come back to Paris just for that.  Once back at the hotel, we settled in for the night since we had a long day ahead of us.

The next morning after breakfast Julien took us on a quick but expansive walking tour of Paris.  We had no choice but to become quickly accustomed to the local metro system.  Without a doubt Paris has had the most intense and crowded subway system that I have experience so far.  Even though Paris was lovely, the local transportation definitely soured me on ever wanting to reside there.  Our first stop was an overlook of the Eiffel Tower across the Seine river.  Seeing the tower in all its glory was magnificent.  Seeing it in real life after seeing it in pictures all my life truly gave me the chills.  We quickly moved on and visited the Arc de Triumph, which I didn't realize was so humongous!  The monument was epic and I think that was my favorite thing we visited during our time in Paris.  We then had a break to walk around and our tour guides got us some famous Macarons which were amazing!  We then visited the Grand Palais and walked along the Seine river to the Revolutionary Square.  Seeing where Marie Antionette was beheaded was also quite a surreal moment for me.  After that we visited the Opera House which inspired the story of "The Phantom of the Opera", and being such a huge fan of the musical it was amazing to see the Theatre in person.  We then took a lunch break in which we settled on a local restaurant that provided cheap 3-course meals.  I had a ham and cheese on toast, with grilled ham for the main course, and chocolate mousse for dessert.  After lunch we had a tour of the History of Medicine museum before heading to the Notre Dame!  The Notre Dame was completely epic and it was even more gorgeous on the inside!  After touring the church, we had a few hours to kill before our Eiffel tower tour so I accompanied some friends as they went shopping.  That night, we were able to tour up to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  The wait took quite a while but the views at the top were completely worth it.  Seeing Paris in all it's glory at night was truly a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.  After we climbed down the tower using the stairs, we were all beat, so we headed back to the hotel.  We were not in the mood for a sit down restaurant so we quickly found a takeout pizza place before heading to our rooms for the night.

Our last full day in Paris began with a tour of the Louvre!  I was pumped because the Louvre is probably the most famous museum in the World.  The first thing we got to see was the Sphinx, which made me really want to visit Egypt.  Following this, we got to see some famous Greek sculptures including the Venus of Milo statue.  It was crazy how many statues were present at the Louvre.  The place was truly a maze of expansive rooms and you could easily spend all day there wondering around.  Afterwards, we got to the Italian paintings room and I could tell by the increasing crowd size that we were nearing the Mona Lisa.  And sure enough, we got the most famous painting in the world.  Fortunately, the crowds surrounding the painting were not as immense as I was expecting them to be, as I quickly got a front row view of the masterpiece.  Even though the painting is quite small, it does in fact carry a large shadow.  After this we quickly finished up our tour before heading out for lunch.  We decided on a local cafe, and the roast chicken and fries I had were just incredible!  I had been sick this whole week and when my friends decided to go shopping for the rest of the day I decided to go back to the room to take a nap to get reenergized.  Once they had finished up we all went out for dinner.  We wanted fondue so badly so we trekked about 45 minutes away from the hotel for a local cheese restaurant.  Three of us got this cheese wheel that was put up to a heater in which we could scrape the melted cheese on to our assorted cold cuts, potatoes, and bread.  The experience was holy, and I can't wait to come back to Paris to experience their cheeses again!  After dinner, we made the long trip back to the hotel because we had to get up very early the next morning.

After begrudgingly getting out of bed at 6:30, we all got packed up and ready to go for our visit to the Versailles gardens.  After taking a train out to the nearby town, we quickly saw how gigantic the whole palace was.  It was breathtaking seeing the palace in person, as the bright gold gates glowed from a mile away.  After entering the palace, we got our Audio guides before touring the palace.  My favorite room by far was the Hall of Mirrors, and it definitely made want to have a party there.  The whole elaborate and rich designs of the palace definitely displayed why the French revolted against the Monarchy.  After touring the palace we went outside to see the gardens for the first time.  Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to explore the entirety of the gardens, but it gives me another reason to come back to Paris.  We then ate lunch on the palace grounds where we each had a baguette and a plethora of French cheeses and meats to go along with it.  It was amazing, and I am definitely going to miss European bread when I leave the continent.'

After the excursion, we headed back to the hotel before grabbing our stuff to head out for our Spring Break adventures.  I successfully made it to Charles De Gaulle airport and I am about to take off on my flight to London.  Hopefully I am able to navigate my way to my Airbnb before seeing my family!  I am so so excited and I can't wait to tell all of you about it.

Until then,

Tschuss!!