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Paris- The City of Lights

So this past week has been an interesting week to say the very least. I started my third week of classes and again, I’m very blessed to have such wonderful teachers who are patient teaching classes that I want to take (minus grammar but that comes with the territory I suppose). One thing that was a little bit different from past weeks was that I started my service learning at a non-profit organisation. It’s very different from anything that we have in the United States, but I think it’s closest to an after-school program, that does a lot more. It was a different experience and I look forward to contributing more in the future.

Thursday night was an experience to say the least. We went to the Opera Bastille for my first ever professional opera experience! To see the Opera Aida by Verdi performed in one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world, is something that I’ll never forget. It was largely unforgettable because of the reaction of the audience.

Aida takes place in Ancient Egypt. One of the main arguments a director must make is about the costumes and the setting. Should they be dressed like in the story, the time period in which it was written, or in today’s time? The director chose the latter of these options… and was very political. I won’t go into much detail, but the worst of it was when one of the main characters was singing the KKK walked on stage. People were not happy. At curtain call, the audience couldn’t have cheered louder for the the performers. However they booed louder than the refs making a call in favor of the Packers at Soldier Field. It was bad. Good experience though.

Friday and Saturday I was blessed with some visitors from Valpo who are studying on the Cambridge program: Grant, Lisa, Rachel, and Cat. We had a wonderful time and I finally was able to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower! It was amazing to me that we were so high up, I could barely recognize Notre Dame from the top, yet from the ground in front of it, Notre Dame towers over you. It was indescribable. One reason I find the tourist attractions very easy to spot and beautiful is because at night, everything that is important to the French are lit up at night; even The Eiffel Tower sparkles at the top of the hour on top of being lit up after dark. I suppose that’s why they call Paris The City of Lights!

On Saturday night we went to the Fete des Vendages. Found at Montmarte, this is a wine festival and a festival of love. Every year they have a brilliant firework show on the steps leading up to the famous basilica, Sacre Coeur, and although crowded (it was so crowded at one point, I moved ten yards and my feet didn’t touch the ground. I was carried by everyone around me because it was so densely packed!) we (accidentally) got some of the best seats in the house. Unfortunately, my computer is being stupid, so I can’t upload a little video of the fireworks, so here’s the crowd behind me. Mind you, this is a small portion of the actual crowd and it took us 40 minutes to get from about 20 yards from the stairs to the bottom of the stairs.

All-in-all it was a wonderful weekend, full of new adventures with some familiar Americans!

The Honeymoon is Over

October 9, 2013 / Phil Schroeder / 0 Comments

The honeymoon is over. For that reason, I have found it difficult to write as often as I would’ve liked to since my courses have started. Although I am busy, I am truly enjoying my classes here! I’m of course taking six credits of French language and a phonetics class. My electives though, they’re pretty awesome. I’m taking a course on the History of France from the French Revolution to WWI. The other class that I’m taking is Tourism and Gastronomy; aka we eat food, talk about food, eat it, and discuss the implications of said food on culture and tourism (did I mention we eat food too?). So I am really enjoying these classes largely because the professors are extremely awesome. I like every one of them.
As for what I’ve been doing outside of classes, just adjusting to style of living… and doing some pretty awesome things as well!
First off, last time I posted I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in my free time. What I decided to do on that particular day was to climb Notre Dame! It was very cool to see the city from a gargoyle’s eye view (see photo #1). The stone stairs actually have an indentation from all the footsteps of people walking up them over the last few centuries. It’s really cool to think that the church recently celebrated its 850th anniversary, or just under four times the number of years the United States has been a country. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue… and the church was older than the United States currently is (by almost 100 years!) So it was extremely humbling to be at a place with such a rich history. Also, feel free to “like” the second photo, it is in a photo contest and the most “likes” win. Click here http://www.central.edu/abroad/photoContest/photoDetail.cfm?ID=3975 to vote (I could use all the help I can get!)

Gargoyle’s-eye view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower

Another place that I visited was the Catacombs. Now THAT was super cool. I went with a few friends and it was extremely fascinating. However, that is not a place that I would want to be stuck at by myself on Halloween. Six million dead people, no thank you.

This is me and the dead peeps.

On the 28th of September, The Central College program went and we toured the Palace of Versailles and the absolutely beautiful gardens. I’ve been telling people that the best way to describe it is grand and immense. We spent the whole day there and we saw the majority of the castle, yet in the hours we spent in the gardens, admiring the fountains (there are several hundred I believe) and the greenery, we only saw a portion of the gardens. It’s no wonder the French government went broke! In the first picture, that is me in the world famous “Hall of Mirrors,” and my favorite part of the whole day in Versailles! The second picture is of a fountain that I really admired in the Gardens. It is not the most celebrated and is actually one of the smaller fountains. If you want to see a fountain show, go to my facebook page and go to my videos and you can watch two short clips of a wonderful show.

Palace of Versailles: Hall of Mirrors

Palace Gardens: My favorite fountain

The most recent mini excursion that I went on was to Disneyland Paris! For those of you who know me well, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go to see Buzz Lightyear (see photo). I went with two other classmates and it was a good, really fun trio. In all honestly, it was a really cool experience because the parks have pretty much the same setup, and they have almost all the same attractions (the rides themselves obviously aren’t the exact same layout), but the atmosphere was different. It truly was a world attraction. On rides (other than It’s a Small World), they switched between mainly French and English so that more people would know and understand what was happening. The closing ceremony was absolutely breathtaking! It’s one of my favorite memories so far.

Buzz Lightyear and I

So if you managed to read all the way this far, thank you. It was a short summary of two weeks, but like I’ve said, not even counting these mini-excursions, I have managed to stay busy and am working hard at improving my French, take in the culture, and adjust to the daily life in Paris. I promise you’ll hear from me in less than two weeks, I’ll be better about writing my blog!

Week #1- Tourist Week

September 16, 2013 / Phil Schroeder / 0 Comments

It’s amazing how much I’ve learned so far; I’ve only been here twelve days and I’ve done so much and seen even more. So let’s start at the beginning:

: Tour Eiffel et moi!

I arrived in Paris, completely unaware of where I was in regards to where I needed to go. Let me tell you, it is so much harder to approach a native and ask where you are for the first time, than to ask your French professor on which main themes you should focus for your rather large French literary analysis. After some time and a few wrong turns, I got to my hostel. Tired, I went to bed early.

After finding out the hard way that I wasn’t doing my homestay with the original host mom, I met the rest of the wonderful people on my program. Since then we’ve been doing practically everything together.

: Just South of the famous Luxembourg Gardens, home of the French Senate

So what have I done besides be homeless and get lost? I’ve been what I call a “residential tourist.”

Technically I am not a tourist, because I have a visa and I live in France. However, I’ve done about everything tourists do. I’ve been to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Le Louvre etc. I’ve visited several museums and other locations. However, in Paris, it is so good to be a student on a Student Visa. I say this because, if you are a resident in France under the age of twenty-six (no discrimination to race or ethnicity) you are allowed into museums for free… all of them! There is one dilemma: there are just too many museums to visit and check out in the time that I am here.

: The Moulin Rouge is a cabaret show that was known for its… classy broads. It remains very classy, with the cheapest show 180 euros which is over $200! Don’t worry Mom out of my budget.

I haven’t just been a tourist though. I have also started taking a class at Ecole Etoiles, a school for international students looking to improve French grammar. I start my classes at L’Institut Catholique next Monday, September 23rd, and that is when life will get a little more interesting.

A Place to Crash

September 5, 2013 / Phil Schroeder / 0 Comments

For my first night in Paris, I needed a place to stay. For a student like myself, a hostel is the best choice. In America, we really don’t have anything that are quite like youth hostels, but they are EXTREMELY common throughout Europe. Hostels are great choices for any young person on a budget who is looking for a place to sleep for their cheap price. Many of the people who stay in hostels are people who are backpacking across a country or across Europe.

: Peace and Love Hostel

I have posted a picture of my hostel, The Peace and Love Hostel. Sounds a little sketchy at first, but it was actually a great place to stay. Obviously, it isn’t a five-star hotel, but it isn’t a terrible place like in the movie Hostel. I stayed on the 7th floor (which in America is the 8th floor), so my legs got a workout. The room had a tiny bathroom and an even smaller shower, but it had a bed so I can’t complain.

I ended up staying in a four person room: myself, one roommate was from Austrailia, one from Holland, and the other came in rather late so we didn’t get to talk. It provided a great opportunity to meet people, and there is a possibility of traveling closer to Christmas with my new friend from Austrailia.

: The view from the 7th (8th) floor of the Peace and Love hostel.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (even though I went to bed early because of jet lag). Like I said before, it was inexpensive, not overly luxurious, but had the essentials that I needed, and I met some people from around the world that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

View from the house

Monet’s Gardens in Giverny

April 26, 2013 / Emily Hardesty / 0 Comments

Biking to Giverny

Just as spring finally made its way to Paris, my program and I spent a little time enjoying the sun in Giverny, France where we visited Claude Monet’s house and gardens. One thing I’ve learned to love about Paris is the short amount of time it takes to take the train anywhere. If you want to get out of the city for the day, all you need is a train ticket, and in about a short hour, you’re there! After we arrived at the train station in Vernon, we rented bicylces and took the scenic route to Giverny just a few miles away. The day was absolutely gorgeous, so we stopped and had a picnic for lunch. The town of Giverny is a typical small, French village or in other words, just adorable. I just love seeing the other side of French life outside of Paris. The green fields and complete silence reminds me of my home in the country back in the states.

Monet’s house and gardens are quite a popular place to visit in France, and we saw at least four other American study abroad groups there on the same day. The property has been open to the public since 1980, but before that, it took many years and a lot of money to restore the house and gardens back to their former glory after the bombings in World War II.

Monet's home

I had seen Monet’s water lily paintings in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, and I was very excited to see them in person. Unfortunately, the water lilies were not in bloom yet (July is when they really bloom), so we were a little disappointed. Despite this small setback, the rest of the gardens were quite beautiful. It was so refreshing to see so many colorful flowers everywhere after such a long winter. There were tulips, violets, and many other kinds of flowers that I couldn’t name offhand. By the small pond, there was a weeping willow along with a Japanese bridge, which can be seen in Monet’s paintings.

I naively assumed that Monet’s house wouldn’t be anything special next to the amazing gardens, but I proved myself wrong as soon as I stepped in the door. Monet’s house is moderate in size but makes up for this fact with what is inside. All of the furniture is old fashioned, and the walls are covered with Japanese art. One thing I really enjoyed was the brightly colored walls in the dining room and the kitchen, which were yellow and blue respectively. My favorite room was the studio, which held at least twenty paintings by Monet. I am currently learning about Monet in my art history class, so it was really nice to see some of his work and its inspirations in person. I would love to come back to Giverny someday in the summer to see the water lilies in full bloom and to see this quaint house again.

View of the pond with the Japanese bridge

View from the house

Parisian Society from the Seat of a Train

December 23, 2012 / Gregory Maher / 0 Comments

It’s rather revealing taking the RER train from Paris to its outskirts (banlieue). The RER lines, the few larger trains that service the city like the metro, allow access from Paris to its many neighborhoods and beyond. Students like me take the RER to reach tourist sites like Versailles, le chateau de Chantilly, or other Aristocratic domiciles-turned-tourist sites. And yet the RER serves another purpose – that of piercing the bubble that surrounds the city of Paris. For the habitants of suburban Paris, the RER allows direct access to the heart of the traditional city, cutting across the different layers of social stratification. It’s funny then, as I take my train to see France’s “treasures”, that the ride reveals such marked societal differences.

An intriguing aspect of society that is revealed en train is the very active graffiti culture. Graffiti marks the walls of ancient buildings, the dripping subterranea of the metro system, apartment buildings, monuments . . . anywhere really. The graffiti often serves, like below, as a a sort of transgression of the sometimes-stifling bubble of the past that France often hides under. Or at least that’s how the younger generations are likely to see it.

Graffiti can reveal a certain irreverence for traditional french art, a statement against a seemingly regressive adulation of France's cultural past

There is, in effect, a twofold stratification that marks the Paris (and France) of today. There is the economic and social stratification that reveals itself in the daily RER users (the predominance of which I can assure you are not white). The “liberated” and “modernly educated” youth may not have completely freed themselves of the traditionalism of their society. I notice, on the ride back to Paris, a young, white teenager seat himself on the RER. He waves fondly to his parents out the window as he rolls away to the “real world”, the city that is Paris. I notice his face marked with displeasure as two black men seat themselves beside him at the next stop. And I wonder how real this world is, this Paris the french youth experience? The further you get to the center of Paris “the escargot”, the lesser the diversity, and greater the affluence. Wealthy youth parade in heels, blazers, dresses seeking neon lights and alcohol on weekend nights. The Parisian nightlife is “super cool” . . . if you have the money for it.

France is marked by a certain social atmosphere. Older generations prefer the rosy image of the France of their youth – that which is daily “transgressed” by the younger generations (citing graffiti, proliferation of American culture, etc.), shifting the conventional view of French identity. Traditional France – its art, culture, and markedly its social hierarchy (purism) – is guarded carefully. The government creates around Paris a bubble that idealizes the golden age of Paris. And on the surface Paris succeeds in matching itself to its postcard depictions for the economic support of tourists. The Péripherique (autoroute) cuts Paris into an awkward oval, yet very distinctly walls in Paris Proper. Outside of the Péripherique, cités (towering low-budget apartment complexes) rise amidst a dreary, decidedly unromantic landscape. And trailing from the banlieues into the countryside, the bidonvilles flash by, desperate shanty towns of which many Parisians are unaware.

A bidonville seen by train

The rosy Paris of Woody Allen’s A Midnight in Paris or countless other Hollywood films is the dream it appears to be. One can, in fact, limit himself or herself to this romantic apparition of the past. The tourism industry tries desperately to preserve the romantic Paris of bygones, because who would come to France to see American plays, movies, concerts . . . who would buy postcards of a Parisian Bidonville? The sad truth is that the prior occurs regularly (a fear of embracing the otherness of France’s own media) and the latter is photographed for its quaint “primitiveness”. It’s sad to face the realization of this ignorance, avoidance, or plain naivety, though it is the world in which we live. If we can but be aware and try to share this awareness, that is enough – for ignorance plagues the world over.

Paris

Why Let me ask you this: Why not Paris?

December 13, 2012 / studyabroad / 0 Comments

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Emily Hardesty et j’étudierai en Paris le semestre prochain. And for those of you who don’t speak French: Hello! My name is Emily Hardesty and I will be studying in Paris next semester. Oh, Paris. The city of love. Who wouldn’t want to spend four months of their life in one of the greatest cities in the world? Not this girl. I am an old fashioned romantic, and I constantly dream about sitting in a quaint little café by the Eiffel Tower sipping a café au lait.

Paris

But let me start from the beginning. How did I decide to study abroad in the first place? I grew up in a small, not-so-quaint village called Beecher, Illinois. Yes, you read that correctly. Village. It’s not even big enough to be considered a town. Because I spent twenty years surrounded by cornfields and stranded thirty minutes away from the nearest shopping center, I dream of the day when I can live in a big city filled with excitement, strangers, and opportunities. I am tired of living in a town where I know everyone by name. To put it simply, I want to see the world and understand how the rest of the world lives.

France

So why Paris? Let me ask you this: Why not Paris? I started studying French my freshman year at VU, and I fell in love with the language. After declaring a French major (and an English major), I knew that I had to visit Paris someday, and what better time than when I am learning French? I will be completely immersed in the language while I am living there. My speaking skills are not quite up to par just yet, and although I am a little anxious about communicating with native French speakers, I am ready for the challenge. It’s going to be tough at first, but who said life wasn’t going to be tough? After I knew I was going to be studying in Paris, I immediately chose the Central College Abroad program for one main reason: it’s in Paris. Since I’m going to be studying in France, I’m going to make sure that I’m living in the city where all of the action happens. It may be the number one tourist destination in the world and full of lost tourists who can’t speak French (hopefully not what I’m going to be!), I think that’s sweet. The whole world wants to visit the most romantic city in the world. If that doesn’t tug at your heart strings a little, you need to go watch The Notebook one more time.

Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy

If you haven’t realized it yet, I am so excited for my trip to Paris. I want to see and experience everything I possibly can while I am in Europe. The Nôtre Dame Cathedral, the Musée d’Orsday, the Louvre, and obviously the Eiffel Tower are a few places on my I-have-to-see-this-before-I-die list. Outside of the city, I plan to see the D-Day beaches and the Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, the palace of Versailles, and the Alps in the East. I also plan on traveling outside of the country as much as my budget allows. While I would like to travel to every major city in Europe next semester, I am sadly living on the budget of a college student. (Easy Mac is my best friend.) So, I narrowed my must-see cities in Europe to London, Rome, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Madrid. I’m pretty optimistic that I’ll get to go to all of these cities, but I know they will all be waiting for me in the future after I return home in May.

French Café

Sometimes I can’t believe that in less than two months I will be living in Paris. How does a girl from the middle of nowhere get the chance to fulfill her dream of traveling the world? The answer is through extensive planning; a great support system at VU, Central College, and at home; and a student loan. (I’d have to say that last one may have been the key factor!) While I may be apprehensive about living in a huge city where I may not be able to communicate perfectly or I may get lost sometimes, I know that my time abroad will be well spent and will be one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope that students reading this blog will understand the value of traveling abroad and will do whatever it takes to make their dreams of traveling the world come true like I did.

By Emily Hardesty, English and French majors, from Beecher, Illinois. More posts to come!!

A Change of Seasons

November 24, 2012 / Gregory Maher / 0 Comments

If you have not seen the movie Amarcord, by Federico Fellini, I suggest it – if not for the nostalgic setting of prewar Italy – then for the vignetted coming of age of Titta, the young lead. The film opens with the arrival of the puffballs, the small white “manine” announcing the coming of spring. This simple event captures the attention of the townspeople, bringing them to the street to hurrah and parade in joyous celebration. With the arrival of spring is the spirit of renewal, the white – purity, and the sense, simply, of time passing, moving forward.

The changing of seasons is not something I can greet here, in Paris, so easily, so markedly as in the Midwest. There, cornshocks rustle in a dry wind (that same wind which brings in, year after year, the puffballs), forest gleam in passionate shades, as families decorate for those wonderful holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Here, alas, the city is self-contained, the onset of fall marked by temporary death in the rare inner-city vegetation, while October and November greet me with torrents of rain and slowly cooling temperatures.

Yet the city moves on, progresses as usual, seems even to thrive on the effrontery of the seasons. The city is business – while American hands trade lattés for their holiday counterparts, the Parisian continues to consume that potent drug (upon which the city endlessly runs) expresso. There is, I have noted, a continuity, an unparalleled movement that exists here, that feeds on the activity of Parisians, in the change of money, food, products, in the rush of the metro, the larger Grandes Lignes, and the continual activity of Charles de Gaulle International.

It is this movement that keeps the city alive. Parisians are too busy living, truly living to stop and enjoy a calmer pace. For who lives so precarious, so vivant a life as the young Parisian? Overcome with desire for an ever-changing adventure like beloved Mr. Toad of Graham’s Wind in the Willows. Each new day, new fad, new acquaintance seizes hold of the mind and holds sway until the night of that day fades into the next – the mind effaced, open now to new horizons.

So life goes, the Parisian (really, not so different from the New Yorker, the Chicagoan, you see) living life from link to link, chain stretched endlessly on the horizon, waiting to *snap* like a firecracker. And so Keroauc describes such folk, like On The Road‘s anti-hero Dean Moriarty: “. . . the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

And again, the little white puffballs, drifting into town to wash again the minds and hearts with a new season . . .

Into the Foray

September 20, 2012 / studyabroad / 0 Comments

Little questions strike me, for instance; Paisley? Knit? Polka-dot? How many of my dozens of ties will I NEED? Well, really the answer is likely one or two, but this little dilemma is representative of the wider debacle that presents itself in preparing for 4 months studying abroad.

My name is Gregory Maher, and I will soon depart for the city of lights, oui, c’est Paris! Yes, France shall be my home for a semester, and my program, Paris Internship, is coordinated through Boston University. In France I will take classes with professors from local universities for the first half of the semester to prepare me for the second half, ze internship. My placement I know not, BUT I’m interning in Paris, so how could I lose? Well, back to the present . . .

. . . I am in the midst of preparing my bags for departure, which means I’m making numerous piles of stuff that I “need,” only a portion of which I can actually take. Oh lordy, how’m I to fit my life in these few bags for a whole semester??

As I’m attempting to reserve a shuttle from the airport to my host family’s apartment, my mother tries to convince me I need a passport wallet to wear around my neck at ALL times, while I’m still pondering that eternal question . . . what could Indiana offer that my host family could ever desire as a welcoming gift? Oh well, amidst the tying up of all my loose ends in America, I’ve surely knotted a few in the chaos of preparation. Among the lessons I learned through this process is this:

Truly, it is so easy to get lost in the momentary stresses of packing and preparation- to worry over my ability to revive French vocab long-buried in the recesses of my mind, to wonder if I’ll really be glad I’ve gone when all of my friends and those I hold dear to me are miles and miles away, across the ocean and horizon. I really just have to slow myself down and truly realize the incredible opportunity I’ve been afforded. I smile as I pack away the last of my things, thinking of the new experiences and people I will encounter, and the chance to truly come face-to-face with zis place called Paris. Au Revoir les États-Unis! À Paris!

Do your research: the Boston University website for the Paris Internship program actually contains practical day-to-day info (seems obvious after the fact) from obtaining cell phones in Paris to the location of the closest chocolate shops. And yet I did not discover this until perusing the site a week before my departure. Know that there are resources available to you for every question your (at this point, probably neurotic) mind can come up with. How else might I learn that public restrooms may in fact contain a doorman to assist me in my toileting process!

By: Greg Maher, more blogs to come soon!

Sacré Coeur

Weekend in Paris

April 23, 2012 / John McCutchan / 0 Comments

From the top of the Eiffel Tower

As with most major European cities, the airport serving Paris, France is located far outside the city. So, the first adventure in really any city is navigating the public transportation system in what is hopefully a timely and cheap manner (a single taxi ride from airport to hostel often costs at least €50 and can run upwards of €100). In Paris the metro system is the best option. For about €20 a three-day pass will let you ride the metro to anywhere within the city 24 hours a day. By the end of the weekend I had been on the metro easily 15-20 times. Buying the pass was well worth the time I would have spent walking around the city.

Eiffel Tower

It is possible to spend hours in every site in Paris. Therefore, there are some sites that you have to merely stop outside of for pictures. For example, this is what I did at the Arc de Triomphe, Invalides, Moulin Rouge, and the Pantheon. Other sites are almost mandatory for tourists, such as the Eiffel Tower, which I went to nearly every day. I took the trip to the top the first morning of the weekend. By climbing the steps to the first level I was able to avoid waiting several hours in line for the elevator. As you continue to climb, the views become more and more spectacular until at the highest level you can look over all of Paris and see the Seine stretch for miles before it disappears into the horizon. Looking at it from the ground the Eiffel Tower is more impressive after dark. The light show on the half hour and the rotating search lights from the top draw a crowd every night.

Notre Dame

The only other site I visited more than once was Notre Dame. On the way to the Latin Quarter for dinner the first night I walked by the front of it. The next day I came back and went inside. Similar to many other major European cathedrals, the inside was really best described as a tourist carnival. The sides of the church are a sea of tourists attempting to take pictures of all the altars and works of art housed by the cathedral. In the main part of the church, hundreds of Catholic believers are lined up to kiss whichever relic is on display that day. Even from the short glimpse I got of Notre Dame I could tell that it is rightfully one of the most well known churches in the world.

Mona Lisa

Although I only spent a few hours in the Louvre, it would easily be possible to spend days and days there without seeing everything. After a relatively short wait to get in (with free entry because I’m a student in the EU) I headed towards the Mona Lisa. Along the main hall there is large room to the right. I had heard that I would be under-impressed by the size of the painting, but I didn’t really think it was that small. And the crowd’s interest didn’t imply anyone else was unimpressed either. Every individual in the enormous group swarming in front of the painting was attempting to jostle past the others and take a picture. Eventually, I was successful too. Then, on the way out of the museum I walked past halls of ancient Greek sculptures and paintings as big as the wall.

While there were many aspects of Paris I liked (the crepes are fantastic), two of my favorite things were Sacré Couer and the numerous bridges spanning the Seine. Several of the bridges are works of art in themselves and are heavily adorned with carvings. Several others are lock bridges, which I spent a long time taking pictures of. Sacré Couer is rather far out of the city centre but is well worth the trip. It is on a hill, so the steps leading up to the basilica have a great view of the city. Also, several really good street performers can be found here, so many people sit on the side of the hill with friends to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. Crowing the hill is the magnificent cathedral with one of the most beautiful interiors in Europe. Pleasantly, there were less tourists than I expected inside. The acoustics are amazing too. The music from the nuns’ service could be heard perfectly in all corners of the chapel.

Lock Bridge

Unfortunately, I only had one weekend to spend in Paris. But in the space of one weekend it became one of my favorite European cities and one that I will definitely try to return to in the future!

Sacré Coeur

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