Weekend in Paris

I went to Paris this weekend with Diana and Katie. Diana and I met Katie at St. Pancras Station on Friday evening to catch the 8pm Eurostar train and we arrived in Paris around 11:30pm.

St. Pancras Station. It opened about 3 weeks ago, on November 14, 2007. It's a beautiful station.

"The Meeting Place" Statue. St. Pancras' slogan is "Meet me at St. Pancras" and this statue is under the station's giant clock. (I took the St. Pancras pictures from websites.)

It was raining (and late and dark) when we arrived, so we took a cab to our hotel and went to bed. The next morning, we walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. Along our walk, it started raining lightly. We went inside Notre Dame and looked around.

Notre Dame. There was a big Christmas tree in front.

Inside Notre Dame. (There was also a large Nativity scene with about 6 giant flat screen TVs playing a picture of a beach in the background. lol)

When we left the cathedral, it was torrentially pouring; so, we found a creperie across the street from Notre Dame and indulged in some Parisian crepes.

Me and my caramel crepe. Yum!

The rain had not let up at all, so we decided to spend the rest of the day in the Louvre. On the map, the walk did not look too long; however, the map was deceiving. A half hour later, we arrived at the Louvre, drenched to our cores and dripping wet. My jeans and my coat were entirely soaked through. Even the sweatshirt I was wearing underneath my coat was damp. We wandered around the Louvre and found the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

Picture of the Louvre entrance. (Taken from the dry inside of the museum.)

The Mona Lisa. She's definitely smiling.

Venus de Milo.

We left at 6, when the museum closed. We decided to take the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The only problem was that the Metro stops were not accurately labeled on the map, so we walked forever looking for the stop, and then eventually decided to take a cab to the Eiffel Tower. We flagged one down, but he refused to drive us because we were too close -- he said it was a five minute walk. So we walked for 5 more minutes (by the way, it was pouring this whole time and we had walked for 40 minutes already) and got to the Eiffel Tower. It was huge and really impressive. And, about every half hour, it's lights flashed silver so it looked like it was glittering. It was really pretty.

The Eiffel Tower (from a few streets over)

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower. (The fog behind it gives the photo a cool effect.)

After that, we ate dinner and then went back to our hotel for the evening. It was nice to take a hot shower and put on some dry clothes.

On Sunday, we started out at the Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was on top of a hill and so we had a nice view of the city.

Sacre Coeur from the bottom of the hill.

From the midway point.

View of Paris from the Sacre Coeur Cathedral

Then it started raining again (although not as hard as the day before), so we asked at an information booth where the best shopping area was and took the metro there. We wandered around a little bit, but didn't find anything too exciting. So we decided to go to the Arc de Triomphe.

The Arc de Triomphe. (I stood in the middle of the street to take this picture. There was a small block for tourists to stand to take a picture of the Arc. The cars were quite close, though. At least they drive on the right side of the road in France.)

Me and Diana in front of the Arc.

After taking some pictures with the Arc, we headed to the Luxembourg Gardens. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was around 5:00pm, and they were closed. (They close at sunset.) So we had a dinner of escargot and cheese. Then we were looking for something else to do, but it was raining and our waiter said that most things were closed on Sunday evenings. So we just went back to our hotel and rested. We took the Eurostar back this morning at 9:07am and arrived in London at 10:38am and I had class from 1:30 - 5:30. It's funny to think that this morning I was in another country, but this afternoon I was in class, like any typical Monday.

Paris was a lot of fun, and I would definitely like to go back someday in the spring or summer and walk around the city.

Today was my last class of the semester. I just have to finish the last half of my 3,000 word paper and take a final on Thursday, and then I will be finished with the Fall 2008 semester. I fly home on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also realizing that I will miss London. I didn't think I would, because I miss so much about the U.S., but London definitely has it charms and benefits. I'm excited for Christmas in Boston, though. And I can't wait to see my family and friends! Four months is a long time, and with some people it's been even longer than that.

Now I'm going to go work on my paper. I hope to get 1 more page written tonight, and then 3 or 4 more tomorrow so that I can be done with it.