Au Revoir Paris

Our new hostel came with a small breakfast that included croissants and baguettes. We loaded up on our Parisian carbs with a cup of coffee and were ready to start our day at Notre Dame Cathedral. We headed straight over on the metro and met our other friend who was waiting in line for us. When we got there the line to go into Notre Dame seemed really long, but our friend had already made it to the front and had to leave the line because we hadn't gotten there yet, so it was moving fast. 

The inside of the Cathedral is really nice and somewhat different to the several cathedrals we had seen throughout the UK. It is definitely the epitome of the French Gothic architectural style with it high arches, columns and rose windows. 

 The outside was just as impressive and Cailin made sure to take a lot of photos of the flying buttresses, an architectural term we learned in high school. It became everyone's favorite and most easily memorable term because of its funny name. 

Now I'm sure most people are familiar with the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and as the title suggests, the movie primarily takes place within Cathedral and the real thing is very similar to how it's displayed in the movie. Most notably, there are the same gargoyles and saints that line the outside to keep evil spirits out. You could just imagine the Hunchback swinging from the Gargolyes on the side of the Cathedral. 

After an examination of all of the ornate details of the cathedral, we went up to a platform that was made to take photos and looks at the Cathedral from a more straight on perspective. We got someone to take a photo of all four of us, which was probably the only group photo we were able to get! 

Following this, we just strolled leisurely along the Seine, popping into various tourist shops and taking in the scenery. 

As we were crossing a bridge over the Seine, we spotted a man blowing these huge bubbles on the street and one of our friends was able to quickly run over to a bubble so we could snap a photo! 

We also grabbed a Nutella crepe on the street for lunch to add to our Parisian food fest. Next, we headed to Sacre Couer to continue our cathedral day. Sacre Couer is actually a basilica and is located in Montmartre. As we soon found out, it was only 10 minutes from our hostel! To get there you have to climb this pretty large hill and once up the hill, you have to climb up a lot of steps to get inside the basilica. As we made our way up, the views of Paris got better and better! 

Once we reached the top we took a lot of pictures looking down on the city, watched a cool street performer, and then went inside. At this point in our trip it was about the fifth or sixth church we had seen in Europe and it all started to blend together. However the outside of Sacre Couer is much different than the churches we had seen in the past. With the outside being completely white, it stands out and is clearly visible throughout many parts of Paris. 

What we learned about the basilica was that it's made of a travertine stone that has calcite. This keeps Sacre Couer white throughout time and weathering! The inside however was pretty similar to the cathedrals we had seen in the past with beautiful stained glass windows, columns, and pews. It did have a beautiful ceiling though and a gift shop... two different things from what we had seen previously. 

We also weren't allowed to take pictures inside which is why I don't have any! After we made our way through the basilica, we walked around outside of it and into the artsy area known as Place du Tertre. It is essentially a little village of artists that all fill one secluded area and sell their artwork. Many of them had gorgeous paintings of Paris's scenery and landmarks while there were also many artists that repeatedly asked to draw us. If I had room in my suitcase to bring anything home, I definitely would have snagged an abstract painting of people walking down a Parisian street! 

As we were already pretty close to our hostel, we walked back in that direction and stopped at a grocery store to grab dinner. Since we were pretty well fed during the day, we weren't super hungry and continued in the day's theme of typical Parisian food by buying huge baguettes. 

We also stopped at a patisserie to get treats for after! Tara ended up getting a strawberry tart while I got a chocolate mousse-like thing that I ended up smashing... Typical, but it still tasted delicious! As we ate, we watched a classic Parisian movie: Passport to Paris with Mary-Kate and Ashley! Well not exactly classic, but it was fun to watch the twins see the same things we had during our past days roaming around Paris. 

As it was our last night and we had a 7AM flight to Nice, France the next morning, we went to sleep early and dreamt of our amazing Parisian food day. Although we were definitely excited to continue our adventures in the French Riviera we were still sad to say au revoir (goodbye) to Paris.

Paris: Trois Jours

For our third day in Paris we on met up with our friends to spend the rest of our time in Paris with them. Since our friend Megan's parents were leaving Paris and heading back to the U.S. that afternoon, we met them for lunch before they left. We went to this cute Parisian cafe that had the typical street seating, but elected to sit upstairs since we were a large group. When looking at the menu we were pretty sure we wanted get something simple since we had plans to get macarons later that afternoon. Tara and I ultimately both decided on the Croque Monsieur which is basically a ham and cheese sandwich but grilled and then topped in cheese. We knew it was a basic French sandwich so we decided it was something we should try. We actually ended up having it three times while we were in France! 

After lunch, we said goodbye to our friend's parents and thanked them for being so nice to us and treating us to such great meals! We then headed to our new hostel to check in. Since it was only Tara and I before, we previously had a two person private room. Now, Megan was staying with us so we decided to change hostels entirely to get a three person private room in the center of Montmartre. It was cool to completely change the area of Paris we were staying in so that we got a good glimpse of two different places. Montmartre is where Moulin Rouge is located and is really close to Sacre Coeur as well. Aside from being in a convenient location near patisseries and a grocery store, it was on a cute side street that fit a small square of buildings.

After checking in, we got in the elevator which only had a capacity for three people! As there were four of us (our friend Maddy who was staying in Versailles was with us too) with all of our luggage it was funny being squeezed tightly into the smallest elevator any of us had ever seen. 

After the interesting elevator ride, we checked out our room which was really cute with three pink beds in a row, a nice white desk with an orchid on it, a television, and a sparkling clean bathroom. We were pretty lucky getting really nice hostels for low prices in great locations.

After settling in, we were ready to explore more of Paris, but first we needed to eat a Parisian staple... MACARONS! If you know me, you know macarons are my favorite dessert ever and I'll get them from wherever I can, whether it be the Culinary Institute of America near my college, Laduree in New York City, or my favorite French bakery in Saratoga. Except now we were in Paris and able to have the best macarons the world had to offer, from the city they originated in! Beyond excited we headed to Pierre Herme across from the Tuileries Garden to get the macarons we had been waiting for! 

We chose to go to Pierre Herme because besides being featured in Gossip Girl, there are no Pierre Herme shops in the US. Laduree, Paris's other famous macaron shop, is located in NYC as I mentioned, and we also frequented the Laduree in London's Covent Garden. That's why we wanted to try something different and just looking at the flavors Pierre Herme offered, we knew we were going to get it. 

We decided to be somewhat adventurous and Tara chose Olive Oil & Vanilla and Salted Caramel while I chose Venezuelan Chocolate and Gold Dusted Chocolate Ganache. As you can tell, not every place (or any place for that matter) has these flavors! If you're unfamiliar with macarons, have a closer look at them in the picture below! 

As you can tell, it's not like the coconut and chocolate "macaroon" cookie we have in the US. Instead it's made up of two crunchy outer shells with a delicious, creamy filling on the inside. The flavors are endless when it comes to macarons, so they never get boring. Plus they taste great with a spot of tea and don't make you feel guilty after eating them (except for spending the 2 euros a piece!) After all of us picked out our macarons, we found a bench overlooking the Champs Elysees, and stared at the Arc de Triomphe in the distance as we enjoyed every single bite!

After we finished our delicious macarons we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. Since the Arc de Triomphe is located in the center of a massive traffic circle, everyone is directed to an underground tunnel to get to it. It was really impressive being right up next to it and it was fun to watch all the traffic whirl around us. 

We then took a stroll down the Champs Elysees, popping into stores and keeping an eye out for possible restaurants for dinner. There are a lot of stores along the Champs Elyeese that were familiar to us in the US. However, they were a lot larger than the versions we see in American shopping malls so it was still interesting to look inside. 

We stopped in H&M for awhile and some of us even bought a few things since the Euro seemed so cheap to us after using the Pound for so long! We also window shopped at some of the more upscale retailers like Cartier. 

By that time we were all getting hungry so we stopped at a little restaurant that seemed to serve a little bit of everything. Being on a budget, we found that no matter where you go, pasta is probably the least expensive thing you'll find on the menu. So most of us got pasta with a large amount of melted cheese on top. The French really love their cheese!

After dinner, it was starting to get dark, so we thought it would be the perfect time to take another visit to the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle from a different vantage point. Trocadero has an amazing view of the entire Eiffel Tower and is a must see if you want to see the tower sparkle in its entirety. I definitely recommend standing right next to it as well, but in order to take the full tower into perspective, the viewing area at the Jardins de Trocadero is great. It was simply magical to watch and we all didn't want it to end.