*drumroll please*.... PARIS!!!! (Part 1)

It has been nearly two weeks since I went to Paris and I must confess I've been intimidated about tackling this in my blog. How do I chronicle such an incredible, sensory experience in words that will surely be inadequate, with pictures that don't do ANY justice whatsoever to the sights erected through my eyes? I will do my best to attempt all of these, but I just know that simply documenting it in my pathetic little blog will never fully capture the beauty of my trip to the City of Lights.

So. Commençons (Let us begin).

Thursday, February 20

Around 9:30 PM, I left campus with my friends Dana, Katy, and Kathleen to make our way to Victoria Station, where we would board a Euroline coach that would take us down to the coast at Dover. From there, we would cross the English Channel to France, and then drive on to Paris for an expected arrival time of 7:15 in the morning at Charles de Gaulle airport.

When the bus reached Dover, we were stopped in order to present our passports to both British and French border officials.

Mind you, it was around midnight at this point. 

So how did we get across the English Channel on a bus, you ask?

I'll tell you.

Inside of this --

I got this particular picture off Google, but this is exactly what we traveled in. Our bus drove inside this cargo-looking thing, and we were sitting inside the bus, locked in like sheep inside a giant lorry (the British term for semi-trucks or tractor trailers) while this giant contraption drove over 150 km/hour underneath the English Channel. 

It was rather uncomfortable, and my claustrophobia definitely kicked in, but luckily the whole ordeal lasted around 30 minutes at most, and then off the lorry we departed and onto French soil. At around 2:00 in the morning. 

On we continued through the French countryside in the wee hours of the night, until we finally arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at around 6:30 in the morning. It had been a long night, and I found it difficult to get a decent amount of sleep on an 8-hour bus ride, but the prospect of galavanting around Paris for the day was definitely worth any of those inconveniences. 

Friday, February 21

It was a relief to get off that bus and stretch my legs, but wandering through Charles de Gaulle airport to find transportation into the city at 7:00 in the morning after an all-night trip and only a couple hours of sleep had definitely taken its toll. We took an RER (rapid transit) train from the airport to Paris, and all four of us were exhausted, hungry, and desperately in need of an energy boost. From the RER train we boarded a street tram and made our way to our hostel, Arty Paris. 

I got this picture off Google also, but this is the outside of the hostel. From the very beginning, our experience at the hostel was extremely positive. It was too early in the morning to check into a room when we arrived, but they did have a storage closet for our baggage, and the reception girl very generously let us partake in the complimentary breakfast even though we weren't registered guests yet. Mind you, the breakfast was only croissants, coffee, orange juice, and toast, but having some sustenance provided some much-needed fuel. At that point, we felt rejuvenated and ready to tackle Paris. We left the hostel, made our way to the closest ATM to get some Euros in cash, and then found the nearest Metro station to take us over to our first stop of the day, the Eiffel Tower. 

The area our hostel was located in was by no means the fanciest neighborhood in Paris, but it was nonetheless very charming, clean, and appeared to be a lived-in area of the city that made it feel delightfully less touristy. Below are a few pictures of some of the street scenes around the hostel-- 

After the brief ride on the Metro, which was a very efficient system and easy to navigate, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower. But, first things first, we had to answer the call of food. Right when we exited the Metro station, we came across a cart selling crêpes. How could we say no? And they meant business when it came to these crêpes - they were huge, they were soft, and absolutely delicious. 

And there I am, holding my first authentic French crêpe.  

With crêpes in hand, we walked around the corner of a building and, lo and behold, there was the iconic landmark we came to see, the Eiffel Tower. 

I have to say, there is nothing quite like seeing the Eiffel Tower in person. For one, it's much larger than I expected it to be. Perhaps I've become so accustomed to the fake Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, but the real Eiffel Tower is ten times larger. From where we were standing, in the courtyard of the Musée national de la Marine, looking across at it with the beautiful fountains of the Jardins du Trocadéro below us,  it was a gloriously breathtaking sight. 

The Musée national de la Marine and Jardins du Trocadéro, across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower and where I got my first glimpse of it. 

Here's a short video I took of the Eiffel Tower with the fountains from the Jardins du Trocadéro. 

We walked across the Seine to get a closer look of the Eiffel Tower, and if I was impressed by the size of it before that, standing directly beneath it left an even greater impression.

The sun had come out as we got closer to the Eiffel Tower, and as you can see from the above photographs, it provided a glorious backdrop to some marvelous photographs. 

Stay tuned for more of my Paris adventures after this...