WEEKEND IN PARIS
August 3-4, 2024
Spend a weekend with me in the city of love!
Saturday, August 3rd
I've been having trouble sleeping lately, so I woke up at 8:30ish, running on like 5 hours of sleep. I walked to Cambridge Station, which was about a 20 min walk, and napped on the train. After arriving in London, I got an iced Americano and boarded the Eurostar.
After arriving in Paris, I ran into some...issues. I didn't speak French, and took the metro in the opposite direction from where my Airbnb was. While on the metro, I realized. So I got off, and went in the correct direction. I also had some trouble checking into the Airbnb at first, but got all that sorted out later. I realized that I had booked tickets to the Catacombs, which I didn't want to be late to, so I took the metro and met my friend there.
We met at 5:30 pm. While going down the stairs into the Catacombs, I noticed how the stairs would go on forever. As I thought they were about to end, they were like, "you know what, SIKE!" and kept on going. But eventually I did make it down, and saw a cave full of tombs and bones. It felt a little bit trypophobic to me, but I learned a lot about Parisian history. After the Catacombs tour, I was feeling thirsty, since I hadn't drank water for hours. And so I grabbed an "elixir" drink from the gift shop. It was a nice fizzy drink with edible glitter in it, making it look like a real-life potion. It felt good, being able to finally quench my thirst.
Later that evening, we went to Shakespeare and Co., a bookstore. I found some really interesting books that I wish I could have bought, but sadly my suitcase was getting too full. So I got a tote bag instead. After that, we had dinner at a French cafe, where I got a pasta and my friend got pulled beef. After dinner, we decided to see a couple more tourist attractions in Paris, such as the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. The Notre Dame was pretty close, so we just walked there. It was still being built after the fire, which happened 5 years ago. This was when it started raining, but we decided that we HAD to see the Eiffel Tower, so we took the metro there. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good view of it, since most of it was blocked off for the Olympics. After seeing all those attractions, I checked into my Airbnb, called it a night, and went to bed.
Sunday, August 4th
I woke up at 8:30, checked out of my Airbnb, and put on the "I ❤️ Paris" tank that I got at a souvenir shop last night with a pair of denim shorts as I got breakfast at a French cafe near the Louvre. I got sunny side up eggs, bacon, a side salad, and an iced Americano. After breakfast, I stayed at the Louvre for about two hours, and took a ton of pictures, but I wish I could have stayed longer, since I didn't go through all the exhibits. But that would take AT LEAST 2 days, and we're short on time.
I saw a lot of greek and roman statues, renaissance-era art, ancient pottery, inscriptions, and tablets. It was a magical experience. Of course, i had to get a pic of the Mona Lisa. The ceilings really stood out to me, since they were all high, with exquisite carvings and paintings on them. A specific exhibit that I really liked was that room where everything was gold, and the ceiling was decorated with the months of the year, the signs of the zodiac (I'm a Libra!) all in Latin, of course.
After the louvre, we went to the Victor Hugo Museum. It was nice and historical, I didn't understand much french, but I had a nice look around and learned a lot about Victor Hugo and his life.
We stayed in Paris until about 4pm, and that was when we took the Eurostar back to London, and the train back to Cambridge. So, yeah, that was a recap of my weekend in Paris. Next weekend, I'm going to Amsterdam, so stay tuned!