Bonjour! I’m back and ready to light up your newsfeed again. I went to Paris with my core class, European Memory and Identity, for four days and then preceded to Reims-Champagne and Verdun for two more. Going to Paris has been a dream of mine since I watched Mary-Kate and Ashley’s Passport to Paris. On the first day of school in 1st grade I wore a beret, my room at home has more Eiffle Tower items than any room should have, and I had a Moped that I would drive around pretending I was in the streets of Paris (Mary-Kate and Ashley style) until I crashed it. I was so ready for Paris. And it was truly everything I ever dreamed. Let me break it down for you.
Carbs. Carbs were a very prominent part of my trip. I honestly don’t think France has heard of vegetables or fruit (unless you count the banana in a nutella banana crepe). We stayed in this adorable old hotel about two blocks from the Eiffle Tower and every morning for breakfast they gave us a basket of fresh baked crossiants and baguettes. White carbs, such as these, don’t fill you up. So our teacher would buy us more crossiants (this time with chocolate) as we walked the streets of Paris. We would go for lunch with our class and have three full courses and everything, once again, was carbs. I’m not complaining, but I did rip a pair of jeans on the trip (fact). My favorite part of the French meal is the espresso after dessert. I’m used to having my coffee with caramel, whipped cream, shaved chocolate, vanilla—anything to mask the taste of coffee. The French don’t do that. Their espresso is the best, so you should drink it plain. By the end of the week, I only needed a little sugar (not 4 or 5 cubes like before) and I was fine. I already miss the taste of French coffee and the price ($5 compared to $9 in Copenhagen). My favorite carb I ate while in Paris was a macaroon. Macaroons are shaped like tiny hamburgers with the buns being puffy cookies and the burger being filling. Ladurée is the world’s top macaroon shop, so of course, I had to see what the hype was all about. I bought six with the honest intention of savoring them throughout my day wandering through Paris, but they were gone by the time I got to the end of the street. Now I’ve pretty much eaten my way through the continental United States, and I would say that these macaroons are the single greatest thing my mouth has ever touched. Ever. Your life is incomplete if you do not try one. They also have the most precious website. http://www.laduree.fr/
The goods
The inside of Ladurée
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Next word: Breathtaking. I would be walking on a street in Paris, turn the corner, see something, and have my breath instantly taken away. The Eiffle Tower beat the hype that I had heard about it. I never knew that on the hour, the entire Tower lights up and shimmers as if a million twinkle lights had been attached. My friend and I even climbed the Eiffle Tower and the view was spectacular. Luxembourg Garden was another one of my favorite breathtaking places in the Paris. The temperature was 85 degrees and the garden was filled with people reading books, old men playing bocce ball and children riding on the carousel. I think the overall most breathtaking thing I saw on the trip was the ceiling of the Paris Opera house. The Opera house was built in 1860, but the painting on the ceiling was done by Mark Chagall in 1964. I think the mix of old and modern is what did it for me. I probably could have stood and stared at the ceiling all day long if the 90-year-old tourists didn’t keep pushing me.
My first trip to the Tower
My class in Luxembourg Garden
The Paris Opera House
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Last word: History. I love history and, boy, did I get to experience it. Paris is filled with famous landmarks and statues and monuments, and I saw as much as humanly possible in four days. My favorite historical spot was the Palace of Versailles. King Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI lived at this palace but the most famous inhabitant of all was definitely Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI (they both got their heads chopped off). The Queen’s Hamlet is a tiny area in the gardens of Versailles (2,000 acres) where she would dress up in farm girl clothing and run around with her ladies-in-waiting while the people of France were starving. In addition to experiencing the history of Versailles, my class went to the Battlefield of Verdun. The Battle of Verdun is one of the most notorious and deadliest battles of WWI. Everywhere you drive in Verdun, you can see the impact of the war. Entire villages were destroyed and only shell holes remain. We toured a French fort that was the key place during the battle. The conditions inside the fort (which is now a museum) were horrible, so I can only image what they would have been like in 1916.
The biggest palace in the world
My room at my Danish family’s house
Most of the flowers were gone in the gardens but I like autumn best.
A little part of Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet village
The Fort at Verdun
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A few more things:
Got sang to on our dinner cruise on the Seinne River, visited Notre Dame, toured Reims Cathedral, gave a presentation at St. Remy Basillica, can-canned at the Moulin Rouge, ate 15 crossiants, contemplated Mona Lisa’s smile, stood in awe of Monet’s Waterlillies, explored the Marsais district, shopped on the Champ de Élysées, bought a gelato with 9 different flavors and visited the Sacre couer!!
Oh, and visited a champagne cave in Champagne and had a tour and a tasting!! Fun Fact: Champagne can not legally be called champagne if it is not from the actual champagne region of France. So don’t be fooled by imposters!!
Au Revoir,
Hannah