Adventures in Paris

Two weeks after my long study tour I had 9 days off to travel anywhere I wanted. I started off my free travel week by reuniting with my best friends in Paris and it was nothing short of magical! If you've been following along since the start of this blog you know that I visited Paris back in 2016 when I was studying abroad in London (click here for a little #tbt action). I loved my trip to Paris the first time around so I was super excited to go back to the city and see and do some things I hadn't done the first time around.

Maddie and I arrived in the city on Friday afternoon and headed straight to our rental apartment to meet our best friend from home, Jess, her friend from school Ashlee, and friend from her study abroad program Bobbi. We hadn't seen Jess since we all left home back in August so it was a happy reunion (and a few tears may or may not have been shed). After getting freshened up we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower! Bobbi and I had both been to Paris before but none of the other girls had, so seeing their reaction to such an iconic monument was so sweet. We took some photos in front of the tower before gathering some picnic supplies and eating dinner on the lawn in front of the tower. We stuck around to see the light show twice and even witnessed a couple get engaged!! I honestly don't think watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night could ever get old. After packing up our picnic, we finished the night with some crepes before heading back to the apartment.

the view from our apartment - so Parisian

it doesn't get better than this!!

the weekend crew

dinner of champions

my ideal picnic location

my mom said this belongs in the shanny alumni magazine ;)

We started out the next morning with croissants and a visit to the Arc de Triomphe. I had seen this monument the first time around but this time we actually climbed to the top! This actually ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip - the view was absolutely beautiful and we got up before it got too crowded. The arch is situated in the center of a traffic circle where there's basically no rules, there's no lines in the pavement and everyone just gives each other room to merge in. It was crazy to see the cars and tour buses and even a few brave bikers zipping around without incident. After coming back down, we headed to the Ladurée on Champs-Élysées for macarons. To continue on our French food tour, we followed up dessert with croque-monsieurs for lunch. 

the best part about Paris is seeing the Eiffel Tower in the skyline almost everywhere you go

pretty sure they made this traffic median for the perfect photo op...

shoutout to Jess for playing photographer all weekend!!

we may or may not have eaten all of our macarons before the day was over

After lunch, Jess, Ashlee, and Maddie headed to the Louvre (spoiler alert: they thought the Mona Lisa was a let down) and Bobbi and I made our way over to the Musee L'Orangerie. This museum houses Monet's famous water lily paintings. These paintings span across two huge rooms and were so stunning to see in person. They way the museum is set up makes it feel like you're immersed in the paintings. I'm so glad we got to see it! We all met up at the D'Orsay afterwards to see Degas' ballerina paintings and Van Gogh's self portrait along with the iconic D'Orsay clock. The best part about all of this is that we got into the museums for free using our residence cards, since EU citizens under 26 get free admission (#studyabroadperks). After the museums, we walked along the love lock bridge, which had been moved to a new location since the last time I'd been there. 

I couldn't get over the sheer size of these paintings

the detail was incredible

one of my favorite museums in Paris!

Next stop was up to Montmartre, a huge hill and the location of Sacré-Cœur, The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. To get up to the top of the hill we had to climb so many steps (we ended up walking over 23,000 steps that day). We brought another picnic dinner and watched the sun set over the city. Everything was glowing pink and orange and it was so so beautiful. Coming back down the mountain was certainly easier than coming up! 

sunset over Paris

The next day, we grabbed breakfast at a cute cafe (croissants, of course) before heading to Angelina for their world famous hot chocolate. We had 'second breakfast' in the Tuileries Garden before heading to do some shopping at Galeries Lafayette. This huge department store was already all decorated for Christmas!! There was a huge Christmas tree set up in the middle of the store which seemed a little pre-mature but we were all super excited to see it. After a little retail therapy which I surprisingly did not purchase anything at :) we went to Palais Royal. This palace houses an outdoor art installation of black and white striped pillars. There were some daredevils attempting some interesting stunts on the taller pillars but we stuck to the ones closer to the ground for a few pictures. 

'tis (almost) the season

loved this shot!

We ended the weekend with baguette sandwiches before all parting ways back to our respective host countries (except I headed back to Maastricht with Jess and Bobbi). It was a weekend jam-packed with good food, lots of walking, and too many "I can't believe we're here together" best friend moments. Cheers to a wonderful weekend in the city of love with my loves! 

P.S. You can check out the video I made of our trip here: