While studying at the University of Reading, I got every university student’s dream: a three week spring break. For the first week of this break, I hopped on a nine hour bus ride from London to Paris with my friends Julia, another Rebel, and Gabby, a Canadian Juli and I met at Reading, to see the city of lights in person.
In the span of four days, we managed to see The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Musée d’Orsay, Palais de Versailles, and Montmartre. This seems like a busy four days, and I will admit that it was jam packed with us running all over the city, but I had the best time of my life. I tried Escargot, macaroons, and actual French crepes, which are all delicious in my personal opinion (some people can’t get past the idea of it being snails, but I’m from Louisiana, and if I can eat alligator, I can’t be bothered by snail.)
We embraced the art of Paris by spending nearly our entire first day in The Louvre, which resulted in me nearly having an out of body experience upon seeing “Winged Victory” and “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss”, my two favorite statues, in person.
Our hostel, Les Piaules, located about a 10 minute metro ride to any major site, was absolutely incredible with state of the art rooms, and a lovely staff. A rooftop patio with what is hands down the most beautiful view of Paris in the city was where we decided to have an evening picnic, accompanied by the voice of Ella Fitzgerald and a few other crooners to fit the soft mood for the evening.
Perhaps my favorite day on our trip though was our day trip to Palais de Versailles, home of my fashion icon, Louis XIV.
We decided to do the self guided tour with the audio guide, allowing us to wander around as we pleased, and we weren’t stuck trying to listen to a tour guide. When we were finished with the inside tour (and I’d gotten some more macaroons from the Ladurée on the ground floor), we wandered into the gardens to have a mini photoshoot so I could show off what I like to call my ABBA sleeves, a fashion choice I know the Sun King could appreciate just for the boldness alone.
Versailles is huge, by the way, and we didn’t realize just how huge it was until we walked across the street to tour the royal stables (a tour I suggest everyone take because the carriages used by French Royalty at Versailles are on display, and you can view the National Equestrian Academy at practice) that we realized there was an entire wing we didn’t see. We didn’t get too upset about it though because we decided that the unknown wing is our reason to go an visit again in the future.
Our last day in Paris, we saw Montmartre, which has another fantastic view of the city, making the ungodly amount of stairs that lead up to it worth it.
Our very last thing we saw in Paris before we headed off to Venice to visit a friend was Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera Ballet, and one of the most exquisite facades to any building I have ever seen.
Paris was an absolutely stunning city, with a rich history, and delicious food, and I’m so lucky I was able to experience it with some of my close friends.
Au Revoir for now!
Ellen