The train to Paris was lovely. Taking
the train is a nicer way to travel than flying: less panic over your bag
because Eurostar doesn't have weight restrictions, less security, less hassle
in general. Once we got on the train and it started moving, our ears popped
from the pressure of going underground. In order to get to Paris from London,
we went under the channel!
I slept through most of the train
ride—which was actually an hour shorter than I thought it would be due to
traveling into the next time zone—and when I woke up we were in Paris!
The Paris’s metro system is quite
similar to England’s underground, which we had become quite proficient at, so
finding the correct stop was relatively easy. Once we were there, we called our
host. His brother came to meet us, walked us to our place, gave us our key, and
told us to call him if we had any problems.
Since we were ravenous at this
point, we Yelped a place to eat and headed off after a few minutes. The place
we ate at—Bistro 31—was delicious. It was also filled with almost exclusively
French people. The food was perfect. Gooligan and I split a delicious pasta dish.
After eating, we made our way to
the Eiffel tower! Sometimes famous tourist attractions don’t live up to the
expectation, but the Eiffel tower is amazing.
I can’t believe that it only took a little over two years to build; it’s so
huge and the idea of people climbing up so high in the air and building this giant
metal structure is incredible.
Anyway, we bought tickets to go all
the way to the top. For youth (under 26) it was only 13 euros a person. Not a
bad deal at all, considering there are several different observation floors and
you can walk all the way around the tower on each of them.
It took a lot of time to see the
tower, though; we waited in line for several hours collectively, probably, but
it was definitely worth it. The view of the skyline was so beautiful. The only
shame, of course, is that by viewing it from the Eiffel tower, the Eiffel tower
is missing from the view.
We wanted to go up at night
originally, but we originally got in line at four and by the time it was
getting dark (around 7:30) we were getting hungry and tired. So we stayed
through the beginnings of dusk, saw a few lights around the city from the
tower, and then came down. By the time we arrived at the bottom, the entire tower
itself was lit up. Beautiful. We
stopped to use the bathroom and when we came out, there was a rotating light
display that made the tower look like it was sparkling.
Then, happy and content, we made
our way home, stopping to pick up some wine. When we arrived home, we
discovered that the nearest grocery store was around two miles away. Gooligan
and I put our shoes back on and headed out again. Luckily being without a car
is fine in Paris: we walked a few blocks to the Metro, hopped on one line, got
off it about nine minutes later and walked a few blocks to the store! So
convenient.
At home, we dined on salami, Brie, baguette,
tomatoes, and wine, while swapping stories about how we met our respective
partners. A great end to a great day!
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