We survived! My first completely independent vacation was a success. Paris was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a hostel near the Sacre Coeur cathedral, and it turned out to be pretty nice. It wasn't exactly the best part of town, but considering that basically all we did was sleep there, and the subway station was about 1/2 a block away, it worked out great. Our train left Oxford at 5:20 in the morning, so our trip there was early and long. Once we braved our first subway experience, which was an adventure in itself because we had no idea what we were doing, we took a nap for a couple hours before we decided to venture out again. That evening we wandered around our neighborhood for awhile, went to the Sacre Coeur, and got dinner, which was a somewhat unpleasant experience just because we had no idea about the language or customs or anything. Once we got back, we went to bed early, but not before we took some time to learn our essential French phrases, which absolutely saved us for the rest of the trip.
Friday we went to Versailles and the Louvre. Versailles was incredibly beautiful and extravagant, and we spent a lot of time wandering around the acres and acres of gardens on the property. The Louvre really does require an entire day or more if you really want to experience the whole thing. I think we got through maybe half of it before we went outside for a break, and then decided we were too tired to go back in and keep going. It was still definitely worth what we saw, though. Before heading home, we walked from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower...which was a longer walk than we thought...and spent a little bit of time there. Saturday morning, our plan was to meet some other girls at the Eiffel Tower...but we never actually found them. It was a more realxed day that we spent mostly shopping, and we went back to the tower after it got dark. It's beautiful when the tower is lit up at night...we used nearly an entire roll of film just on pictures of the tower, so hopefully I got some pretty good ones. Sunday, our trip was already coming to an end, but we still had most of the day in Paris. There was a great little street market right outside our hotel, so we shopped there for awhile and made some great purchases. Then it was on to Notre Dame where we fed the birds outside and then went inside during Mass. Our last big stop for the day was the Musee D'Orsay, where most of the impressionist art is displayed. I think it was one of my favorite experiences because I absolutely love Renoir, Degas, Monet, VanGogh and the rest. I could spend hours examining every piece of their artwork.
Gotta go for now...we're headed to Stratford upon Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace)...that's the meat of the trip...minus all of the many interesting exeriences that we encounterd...hopefully I'll get to those later.
Friday we went to Versailles and the Louvre. Versailles was incredibly beautiful and extravagant, and we spent a lot of time wandering around the acres and acres of gardens on the property. The Louvre really does require an entire day or more if you really want to experience the whole thing. I think we got through maybe half of it before we went outside for a break, and then decided we were too tired to go back in and keep going. It was still definitely worth what we saw, though. Before heading home, we walked from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower...which was a longer walk than we thought...and spent a little bit of time there. Saturday morning, our plan was to meet some other girls at the Eiffel Tower...but we never actually found them. It was a more realxed day that we spent mostly shopping, and we went back to the tower after it got dark. It's beautiful when the tower is lit up at night...we used nearly an entire roll of film just on pictures of the tower, so hopefully I got some pretty good ones. Sunday, our trip was already coming to an end, but we still had most of the day in Paris. There was a great little street market right outside our hotel, so we shopped there for awhile and made some great purchases. Then it was on to Notre Dame where we fed the birds outside and then went inside during Mass. Our last big stop for the day was the Musee D'Orsay, where most of the impressionist art is displayed. I think it was one of my favorite experiences because I absolutely love Renoir, Degas, Monet, VanGogh and the rest. I could spend hours examining every piece of their artwork.
Gotta go for now...we're headed to Stratford upon Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace)...that's the meat of the trip...minus all of the many interesting exeriences that we encounterd...hopefully I'll get to those later.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home