Paris, the City of Light

Tuesday afternoon, Greg and I made our way over to London Luton airport to board a plane to Paris, one of my most anticipated travel destinations!

Getting from the airport in Paris to the city center was an unnecessarily difficult task for us and left an extremely sour taste in our mouths. However, once we made it to the Eiffel Tower, all of those difficulties were completely erased.

I didn't expect to be so impressed by the Eiffel Tower, but seeing it lit up in all its glory was really magnificent. Paris is the first city I've visited on this time abroad that I was actually really sad to leave by the end.

We sat on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower and bought a bottle of champagne off of a guy wandering around selling drinks to tourists admiring the tower.

We took the Metro back to our hostel over in the Bastille neighborhood.

The next morning, we woke up and began our day with a walk down to the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The stained glass windows inside the Cathedral were the most impressive I've ever seen!

We took a stroll over one of Paris's lock bridges, though it's not the original one that is located down the river by the Louvre. 

We settled into your typical Parisian cafe with tables sitting on the patio for a midmorning snack of croissants, coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Then, we strolled down the river over to the world famous Musée du Louvre.

The line was astronomically long, which was to be expected to get into the Louvre around noon. The museum is actually monstrous in size.

Truthfully, seeing the Mona Lisa was nothing short of just being pushed by mobs of impatient tourists trying to snap a picture of her sly smile from behind a glass wall. I wasn't too impressed by her, especially after seeing her over and over again in books and movies, there's really no difference seeing her in real life.

We walked down the original lock bridge before finding a metro to return to our hostel and recuperate for a bit before heading out again.

That evening, we strolled down the beautiful Avenue des Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe. The street is lined with perfectly trimmed trees and high end shopping stores, along with romantic Parisian brasseries with their tables flooding the sidewalks. We settled into a restaurant on one of the side streets for a delicious meal of Italian food (sorry, I know we were in France...).

Seeing Paris by night made me never want to leave.

I don't think I could ever get tired of strolling down the streets, all of the balcony-lined buildings covered in flowers, pretty french sweets sitting in the windows of boulangeries, and the Eiffel Tower sparkling on every hour. Do I really have to leave?