J'adore Paris!

I don't even know where to begin with this.... PARIS.

Unbelievable to say the least... But it didn't start out that way...

Let me begin with my story on Thursday Night...

A typical Thursday... There I sit studying my life away (no really - I actually do homework out here), when I decide that instead of getting a good nights sleep before my epic weekend in France, I should just stay up all night.

Well this was a good idea at the time. Our bus left at 6 am, so I would have to be up at 4:30 anyways and I thought I could just sleep on the bus....

I was severely mistaken...

We get to a bus stop to take a bus to our other bus stop (did you follow all that?). Well, after the bus doesn't show up on schedule we became a little worried since we didn't leave much room for error in travel time.

Thank goodness we finally see the 205 coming with 8 minutes before we are supposed to leave! So we hop on and we are off! But who would have thought the buses are so crowded at 5:52am. Honestly! There was one man who got on at another stop on the way with a pulley full of boxes, who then asked me to move, and me being confused just moved over, and the man proceeded to stand in my spot. Mind you, this left me standing in the middle of the bus with nothing to hold onto and falling all over everyone else. Awesome. I had no idea what just happened. WHO DOES THAT?!

Well, whatever... nothing can really get me down because I am going to Paris.... Or so I think.

So we finally make it to our bus and are greeted by our tour guide Billy Ray Cyrus. Well not actually Billy Ray, but his twin to say the least! It was fantastic. I was praying for the moment he would break out with "don't break my heart... my achy breaky heart..." in an english accent... no such luck.

But here we arrive. at our bus. aka our new home for the weekend. Our home without a restroom on it. Ouch, this can't be good for a ten hour ride. Honestly. Spent almost more time on the bus then in France itself; but beggars can't be choosers...

So we begin driving and we drive into the sunrise. There goes any chance of sleep. But who could sleep at a time like this! So we decided to admire the beautiful ghetto of England as we drove over to our ferry that will take us across the english channel.

2 1/2 hours later we finally arrive to the port and find ourselves enveloped by the cliffs of Dover. GORGEOUS. Huge, white hills following the shore line. So beautiful. But no time to waste - we had to run over to the food stop and grab a coffee and some breakfast and use a restroom while we had the chance.

So we get inside and find a burger king and one coffee shop. We just had sooo many choices but chose to opt for burger king breakfast. I was starving, so I went for something called a bacon butty. Turned out to be a couple shreds of bacon between a bun with roughly 6 hashbrown nuggets. Well $8 later, and still a very hungry Caitlin, we set sail.

So we drive up onto the ship and climb up the decks. Find a nice seat in front of the windows and immediately regret this decision. Ok, so coming from a background of basically living on a lake my whole life, one would think I could handle a few waves... well never have I felt more sea sick. It was unbelievable. So there goes any chance of catching some shut eye here either....

But we eventually reach France. And guess what... They drive on the right side of the road!! Amazing! Just like home again! So we continue on our journey and drive through the beautiful country side of France. Billy Ray compared it to Illinois. Ew. Who does he think he is. But it did remind me of home :)

Regardless, we drive and drive and DRIVE... and finally get into the city of Paris! So here we sit thinking... "Thank god. We made it. FINALLY. I cannot stand this bus anymore..." but this was false hope... Turns out some people missed the bus and we had to find them in the middle of France somewhere... In the middle of what would be their "rush hour." Horrendous....

Well Billy Ray randomly gets off the bus without saying anything and we begin to drive around... this is not good. But sure enough a short time later we found him! and he even had the 2 missing people! Yayyyy!

So we are off... again.... This time on the way to the hotel which we eventually get to, or so we think. So we all unload off the bus, grab our bags and head into the lobby where Billy Ray then tells us, "Oops... sorry guys we don't have rooms here. we are at the wrong hotel. No worries we only have to walk 4 blocks to get to the real hotel."

No worries? We have sat on a bus and boat for the past 9 hours and you tell us NO WORRIES?! I am standing there ready to fall over from exhaustion and now I was told to lug my bags 4 blocks to our "real" hotel? Oh goodness....

But we made it, and not a moment to soon at 6pm. 12 hours after our departure time...
But thankfully our hotel was amazing! It was huge and had 2 big beds and 2 bathrooms and a jacuzzi tub and the most amazing sink, and a blowdryer, and a TV!!! TV! TV! TV! And boy did we ever watch it with our surround sound. Scrubs has never sounded so good, except for the fact it was in French... Oh well.

But we only had a few minutes to clean up before we headed out to a river cruise on La Seine. Breathtaking. It started right outside the Eiffel Tower where we departed on the hour; at the same time the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkled! On the hour, Every Hour. Such an amazing sight. The horrible day of travel immediately flew out of my mind, and I fell in love with the city.

I just stood there trying to take everything in. My life is like a dream. I am standing on a boat drinking the best hot chocolate of my life, while being surrounded by the Eiffel Tower, L'arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame, and so much more! It was so beautiful... Nothing could bring me down, not even the freezing cold... The music, the lights, the surroundings... there is no way that this was all really happening...

But the cruise comes to an end where we quickly run off to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower! After a short que, we grab our tickets and go! This is when I remember my fear of heights. But who could pass this up, a once in a lifetime adventure! So we head up the elevator packed to the brim with people so everyone is roughly touching 13 other people at once, and eventually make it to the top.

The first steps onto the top honestly took my breath away. Not sure if it was from the cold or the view; but regardless. I was standing on top of the Eiffel Tower. Wow. You could see for miles! It was beyond words. Everything was lit up and the streets and the monuments and the structures and everything! Paris was at my fingertips: literally. Amazing. And through all of this we met some girls also on the trip from California and Massachusetts. So after a couple HUNDRED pictures and some fooling around, we decide we should to leave and grab a bite to eat....

Well we forgot we are not French, nor speak French outside of my 2 years of highschool classes, and do not know how to travel France. So we go on an adventure of trying to find our way home while trying to find somewhere we can afford to eat. We flag down a few cabs; but quickly realize 5 is a bad number for cabs. So we try the metro. Surprisingly enough, it was actually quite easy to use!

So we head home and grab a bite and fall asleep to the soothing sounds of french Tv...

We are up bright and early the next morning where we are greeted by a FREE breakfast buffet! I know. Amazing. and they say there is no such thing as a free meal... But being the poor, starving college students we are... we begin to hoard our food. We stole croissants, jam jars, nutella packets... anything and everything that could last... delicious!

So after we stuff our faces and our bags, we head out for Montmartre to see the Sacre Coeur. We get there and I am stunned once again by the beauty. It may have helped that it was a gorgeous sunny day, but this basillica sits atop a hill looking over all of France. How could one not fall in love?!

And to make things better, there was s little town square with a handful of artists selling the most beautiful paintings and sketches. Gorgeous! Along with that, French sketch artists were everywhere trying to draw everyones pictures.... oh no.

Well, I am bad at saying "No" when approached by people to buy something because I hate letting them down, and before I could say anything, a gentlemen started drawing my picture. awkward. No turning back now I guess? And sure he enough he just "happened" to have a "friend" ready to draw TK.

So we awkwardly stood there as these gentlemen drew pictures of us, and once they were done, well... then it was uncomfortable. I looked at the drawing, then looked at the artist and without thinking, blurt out, "I have a lazy eye?!" Oops.... But regardless, I had to buy it. Oh well. But atleast mine somewhat looks like me. TK on the other hand was not so lucky.

TK kind of came out looking like a young Nun; veil and all. Hahahaha. Fail. And what do you do with a picture of yourself?! I mean it's creepy enough to randomly hang a picture of yourself... I think I know what I look like. and I am pretty sure my family is sick of seeing my face everywhere as is, they don't need a poorly drawn picture of me with a lazy eye to be reminded of my times in France... but no worries... TK is hanging on my wall so I can wake up to her every morning, even when she isn't here.

Well after spending way too much money on some paintings and what not, we head off to walk around Paris. We discovered something similiar to a red light district, Moulin Rouge, a couple windmills, and so much more! Eventually we ended up at Notre Dame where we set off apart from our Tour Group. And Notre Dame has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Honestly.

The church is on a seperate little island and has a massive courtyard setting in the front just bustling with people and pigeons and peddlers and anything else you could imagine. It's an experience in itself.

So we walk around in the most beautiful weather since arrival, and just take it all in. Then we decided to try and find the Catacombs... Well an hour later we finally stumble upon it after a couple of poorly translated french directions, and find the line to be around the block. Sad. We didn't have time for this since we still wanted to see L'arc de triomphe, Champs Elysees, a couple other places, and still had to get to dinner... We definately packed in a full day.

So we hop on the metro and end up at the Eiffel Tower again. It's a whole new perspective during the day. My recommendation for anyone who may visit France: visit the tower at night. So much better. I mean it was still amazing, but just lost some of its luster.

From there we pushed through the hundreds of people trying to sell stupid eiffel tower trinkets and eventually stumble upon L'arc De Triomphe! Much bigger then I ever imagined. It honestly was huge and just sits in the middle of an enormous roundabout! Well this posed a problem... How do we get there??? Are we going to have to play a little Frogger?? Well, this would have been bad.... But thankfully we found an underground passage and made our way over.

It was neat to just be there and look in every direction and see another road, another site, another face... just so much to look at. I could only imagine what the view is at night or from the top! But we decided it was time to head back to give ourselves some time for an epic dinner...

So we were told to visit a restaurant called Des Refuge Des Fondus. If you ever go to France - Do this. Such an experience! It is a tiny little restaurant hidden off on a side street, but so worth the search!! You get there and look into the giant glass window with a poorly painted clown on it, and see a room that you wouldn't imagine could fit more then 2 tables. And that literally was just it. 2 Tables that stretched all the way down on both sides of the place. Each table could probably seat 15 on both sides and then there was one tiny alley inbetween the tables that the 2 servers navigated between.

When we first arrived we apparently were "late" and ended up having to wait because it was beyond crowded. But no worries, we made friends at the bar next door where the server said he would come and find us 45 minutes later.... well sure enough time flies by and we are summoned over.

When we walk over, we are just engulfed by an enormous line waiting to get in. Good thing we got there when we did! Needless to say, the people still waiting were not happy we got seated first, but oh well! C'est La Vie ... or something like that.

So we get there where TK is then forced to climb over the table to her spot where we make friends seeing everyone is almost sitting on top of one another in this graffiti covered cell of a restaurant. Yes. Tonight will be a good night because from there we are greeted with an appetizer sampler and an opening drink. Similar to a sangria, and so delicious! And once that was gone you are served wine... but glasses are too classy for this place, so our wine came to us in Baby Bottles. Yes. Baby Bottles. I think this was for safety and spill proof reasons seeing towards the end of the dinner it can get kind of sloppy!

Well soon we get served our fondue - a cheese sauce where you are given a huge bowl of bread to dip. Probably one of the most amazing things I have ever had! And through all of this you meet/make so many friends! The french group next to us was celebating their friend, Patrice's, 40 Birthday and it became a celebration for all eventually! So much fun!

But then to top it all off, we had this chocolate mousse dessert served in a vanilla creme sauce. Yum!!!! Oh my goodness... I don't know if it was the 3 baby bottles that helped make this one of the best experiences yet, or just the atmosphere itself... Regardless - amazing. Go Out Of Your Way and Do This! Just be careful because those baby bottles pack a strong punch, and can definately catch up with you!(Sorry mom and dad... just living the dream!)

Well after dinner we headed back to the bar where we proceeded to annoy the bartender by asking to hold his "veche," aka a glass cow, he had mounted on his bar. Well we succeeded, and then everything kind of runs together... To sum it up - we continued the birthday celebration with Patrice and his brother Alex and the rest of their family, made new friends, fell down the stairs in the metro, got a couple new bruises, and had one of the craziest nights since arrival overseas! Yes.

Since we had such an "interesting" night, we clearly had to pay for it the next day... So we stumble out of bed in the morning, not feeling the greatest for some reason... and head down to breakfast. Well, after hoarding 10 more jars of jelly, 3 croissants, and 8 nutella packets, we check out and head for the louvre!

HUGE. That is basically the only word that comes to mind to describe this place. So large and so much! Everywhere you go it's different. It ranged in art from egyptian relics, to post european royalty, to greek architecture. So much to look at, but we only had a limited time so we hit up the big things: Napoleon's "apartments," the Mona Lisa, Venus Di Milo, etc etc... And then to top it off, we headed to the glass pyramid structure outside. Well even though it was another beautiful sunny day, it didn't help that it was freezing temperatures (literally), and we didn't have coats. Bad call.

So we quickly take a couple pictures and head back for the bus... Ugh. Well this sucked. Here we are stuck on a bus, overtired, over-exhausted, and soooo over the bus itself. Well no worries, after another sea sick boat ride and 10 hours later, we finally arrive home at 10:30pm. Wow.

So France: J'adore. Everything about it was breathtaking. I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

Can't wait for my next adventure with my sister in Ireland. Things just keep getting better and better!