Week 10: Vacation!

This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my study abroad experience yet! I hardly know where to start… but I suppose I should start with my amazing trip to Paris! And then of course I'll detail my fabulous trip to London as well :) (Note: this blog post will be really long… but I promise it will be worth it!)

On Monday, Laura, Corrinne and I all got on the 5:51AM train from Lille and arrived in Paris at the Gare du Nord around 7:15AM. Laura wanted to get to her new couch surfing host’s place, so after dropping her off there and checking into our hostel (Auberge Internationale des Jeunes), Corrinne and I headed toward the Place de la Concorde on the metro. We stopped and took some pictures there, and I was especially touched – this was the first of many places in Paris that I had been hearing about for years and had been dreaming of actually going to.

Me, standing in front of one of the fountains at the Place de la Concorde. Just the first of many amazing experiences to come! 

Then, in the distance, I saw it for the first time – the Eiffel Tower.

La Tour Eiffel.

I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life… The magic was right there in that instant. It took my breath away, even though I could barely see it through the fog. What an incredible time to be alive. Not many words can do justice to that moment, how powerful it was.

Just... wow.

An unforgettable moment through the fog.

Our first planned stop of the day was at Café Angelina, right across the street from the Jardin des Tuileries. What an amazing choice this turned out to be! We had to wait a little bit for Laura to arrive (darn wifi and internet-only Viber)… but in the end we all made it, and the ambiance of the place with unbelievably good hot chocolate made for an unforgettable morning.

Lovely tea room atmosphere in Café Angelina. 

Pain au chocolat and some world-famous chocolat chaud. Best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life!

Then we stopped in the Jardin des Tuileries right across the street to chat for a while. The sun was shining, the fog from the morning disappeared, and the magic was even more evident everywhere I looked. At last, Paris! I finally made it!

Sunny fountain in the Jardin des Tuileries.

Then we decided to make our way down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées to get to the Arc de Triomphe, since we had read on a few blogs online that it’s cheaper and just about as good a view at the top there as at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Yet another place that I had been dreaming of seeing for years checked off the list!

Looking straight down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. What a gorgeous sight!

L'Arc de Triomphe up close.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc.

Looking up all the stairs to get to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was quite a climb!

When we finally made it up all the stairs, I was treated to a view of Paris that enchanted me almost as much as my first view of the Eiffel Tower. I can’t even describe how amazing it was to again see the Eiffel Tower but with more clarity, to see all the way out to Sacré Coeur, and all around the city. Another dreamlike moment in a wonderful day!

The Eiffel Tower in context

Sacré Coeur in context (way out on the horizon)

Paris la belle!

After marveling at the sights from the top of the Arc de Triomphe for a while, Laura and I decided to change shoes, because I had unfortunately decided to wear cute little booties to walk through Paris… with heels. Oops! After we were all laced and buckled up, we headed back down to the city.

Shoe swap :)

We then decided to try to randomly happen upon a nice place to eat. We wandered around for a while, until we figured out that we had headed too far in the wrong direction. Thankfully we didn’t make it all the way past the city limits to the dangerous banlieues (suburbs), but we needed to find a place to eat, as we were all getting hungry. Not too long before we found such a place, we happened across the Spanish Consulate, where I will be going soon to get my visa to study in Spain next semester!

A little piece of Spain in the middle of Paris.

Then we finally made it to a nice place to eat, where I had some pretty decent (and not terribly expensive) food, such as can be seen in the following lovely pictures. We chatted about our day and what we planned to do for the night, and of travel plans for the future. It was a nice late lunch at 4pm.

Delicious cappuccino for starters...

...Then some nice hearty salad...

...and a grand finale of Oreo Tiramisu!

After finishing (and becoming very full), we headed to Laura’s couchsurfing host’s place (which was very nice, and not too far at all from the city center!), where we sat and talked for a while, and enjoyed some apéritifs (wine and champagne). The host was very nice and hospitable, and we had a great time chatting and joking around, and also talking about where we had been and getting advice on where to go. Then we got on our way to the nightlife of Paris…

From across the street

Sparkling!

Almost there!

Seeing the Eiffel Tower up close was even more magical – we got to see it all lit up and sparkling at night (and thus really living up to the entire city’s nickname, the City of Lights)… it was so beautiful. When I take a step back and think about it, I really don’t know why a fancy metal antenna intertwined and designed so nicely should be so magical and inspiring… but it was, is, and will always be, to millions of people, and definitely to me. On our way to the actual base of the tower, we started talking to these two French guys, one of whom played guitar, and so Laura sang her heart out while Corrinne and I chatted with the other one. It was an entertaining stop on the bridge right before we actually got to the real base. When we got to the actual base, even though it was getting close to midnight or later, there were the usual peddlers of cheap keychains and souvenirs badgering us to buy something, but we politely said no and got on our way to have our moment. What a cool moment it was… standing right under, looking up, taking pictures, marveling in the magnificence of it… I will never get over the Eiffel Tower. Je t’aime, Paris!

After that, we made our way back to our accommodations for the night – Laura back to her host’s place, and Corrinne and I to our hostel. We had wanted to get to a jazz club for some gypsy jazz, but it had gotten too late and we were a little too intoxicated. It was nice to finally sit down and relax for the night, and then we got to sleep.

Breakfast in the morning was a nice continental breakfast, and then we made our way to meet up with Laura at her host’s place. After we made some plans for the morning, we made our way out to the Opéra de Paris. What a pretty sight! Apparently it’s some kind of music school, at least from the looks of the inscription on the outside.

Title on the building: "Académie Nationale de Musique" - National Academy of Music.

And the other side: the Opéra Charles Garnier.

After seeing the Opera, we once again made our way around the city. We took our time navigating the streets and lingering around such sites as the Place Vendôme, which was originally constructed as a monument to Louis XIV (my favorite French monarch!) in 1702, torn down by the Paris Commune in 1871, and now today is being restored as an important monument to French history. It was a cold and dreary day... but then again, it was still my first time in Paris!

The restoration project of the Column at the Place Vendôme.

Then we made our way to lunch at Ladurée, a famous macaroon shop. What a charming place, and what spectacular pastries! Corrinne and Laura ordered some pain perdu, and I ordered a raspberry-cinnamon tart. We each ordered tea to go with our meal as well (and I just could not resist ordering the tea called Le Roi Soleil – the Sun King, i.e. Louis XIV!). Then we got some macaroons to split…and we ended up not having to even pay for them, so that was a bonus! We whiled away an hour or two sipping our tea and talking about family, more travel plans, and life in general. It was a great way to spend a late morning in Paris.

Ladurée from the street. What a beautiful and charming place!

Corrinne and me just after sitting down in Ladurée. We were already having a blast!

The menus - one for pastries and macaroons, one for tea

Brunch! Laura had some pain perdu, and Corrinne did as well à la framboise, and I had a tarte aux framboises et cannelle.  

And, of course, Ladurée's specialty: macaroons! Clockwise: pistachio, raspberry, coffee, and salted caramel. Yum!

At the end of our lovely experience at Ladurée, we decided that since Corrinne had already seen the Louvre and Laura and I hadn’t, we would split up for a few hours to explore the famous museums. On our way in the general direction of the Louvre, we stopped in some more shops along the way and got another pastry at a lovely little bakery called Aux Délices de Manon...because, Paris.

Of course we stopped at a French lingerie store. Three girls in Paris - why not?

We also stopped at Pierre Hermé, a designer macaroon bakery. We did resist the urge to get more macaroons... barely.

Living the French life, enjoying great cuisine!

And we made it to the Louvre area not too long after. Corrinne headed to the Jeu du paume, a small museum around the Jardins des Tuileries, and Laura and I headed over to the Louvre.

Walking up the path to the famous museum

First sight of the pyramids!

A statue of the Sun King (le Roi Soleil) just outside the Louvre!

And the main pyramid, the grand entrance!
...wait...where's the line with all the people? There's a problem here...

The one thing we didn’t realize was that it was Tuesday… and the Louvre is closed on Tuesday. What a bummer! I’ll be back to Paris at some point anyway, so I wasn’t too worried, but I did feel bad for Laura. Oh well… We still walked around the amazing glass pyramids outside, saw some people posing as statues on concrete blocks in front of the entrance, and then as we were on our way back to the gardens, we ran into a guy who was directing pigeons around with lots of feed in his hand, and he was giving small handfuls to people around so that they could hold the pigeons too… So we wanted in.

Pigeon heart

The pigeons loved Laura!

After that fun interlude, Laura and I waited for a little while to meet up with Corrinne, during which we had a serious (and on my part much-needed) conversation about budgets and being responsible, and then Corrinne arrived, and we decided we couldn’t do without one more cup of Angelina’s world-famous hot chocolate to go. Then, it was time for shopping!

We made our way past the Opera again to the Galléries Lafayette – a name which I hope rings a bell for at least some of you. For those of you who don’t recognize the name, it’s a world-famous shopping center in Paris (which is therefore obviously very expensive – I did not end up buying anything… but the window shopping opportunities were endless :)). We shopped around for a couple hours, had lots of fun looking at the beautiful Christmas displays and designer shops and products, and then we made our way out. (The place closed at 8:00PM!)

The beautiful Christmas centerpiece already in place in the Galléries Lafayette, along with a display of scarves.

After such a wonderful experience, we had one stop left on our to-do list for our trip: the Moulin Rouge! We made a quick stop at a grocery store on the way for dinner, and then we walked straight there (it actually wasn’t too far). We snapped some photos, I raved about the movie, and we even did a tiny bit of people-watching – it was funny to see so many other groups of people there just to take pictures (and how many of them were groups of guys as well, haha). We made our way back to Laura’s host’s place to get our bags, and then we parted ways – Laura is now off to Bordeaux for some wine and oysters, and then Spain!

The real, live Moulin Rouge, up and close!

All in all, the two days in Paris were excellent, and a wonderful way to experience the city for the first time in my life! There are still plenty of things I have on my list to do when I get back to Paris – visiting Notre Dame, actually going up the Eiffel Tower, and seeing Versailles chief among them – but for now, I can at least say I’ve been to Paris for the first time. La vie est encore plus belle!

Coming down from the excitement of Paris, I got back home to Lille for three days (Wednesday through Friday), in which I got to rest up a little, do some laundry, a teensy bit of homework, and of course hang out with some friends who were also taking it easy in Lille. Wednesday was another afternoon into evening spent at Amandine’s house with Corrinne, which was absolutely wonderful! Thursday I took a run with Corrinne through the woods around the Citadel, which was certainly an interesting new experience, and then Friday I cooked some dinner/breakfast for the bus and packed for London!

Fatima and I headed to the bus/train station just before midnight on Halloween night. Even in Lille, there were a few hooligans about for drunken, costumed festivities, and I told Fatima about the crazy Halloween party that would be happening at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that same night (there’s even a Wikipedia page!). We waited a little bit, met a girl from Atlanta, Georgia who was relieved to hear us speaking English and who was on her way to her grandmother’s house in England (who we told to say hi to our friend Michal who would be coming on her later bus), and then boarded and settled in for the short five-hour night.

Fatima and I just after getting settled into our seats on the bus. Au revoir, Lille!

Crossing into the United Kingdom!

We went through both French customs and English border control - the latter of which intimidated me a little because I got asked several rapid-fire questions, presumably because I have an American passport - and then the bus went through the Chunnel and made its way into England!

Welcome to London! 

When we finally stepped onto English soil at Victoria Coach Station, Fatima and I were so excited. This was my first time in London in my life, and Fatima hadn’t been for at least four years. Even though it was only 5:30AM, we were definitely ready to start seeing London! After strolling around for a bit, we found a Prêt-a-Manger that had wifi and a bathroom, and we got some tea for breakfast (English breakfast tea for me, in fact!).  Then we set out on our way to find Amandine and her friend Marie-Mathilde, because we had planned to meet up in the morning with everyone including those two and head to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace later in the morning. On our way to meet up with the girls, Fatima and I took a slight detour through Hyde Park, which ended up being very worth it - the sunrise was absolutely gorgeous!

Morning dawns on Hyde Park. What a sight!

Then we met up with Amandine and Marie-Mathilde at the Tower of London, and proceeded to take the scenic route through the city to get to Buckingham Palace. We stopped at London Bridge, crossed over Millennium Bridge, saw Tower Bridge, saw the Globe Theatre, and even went through a great big market on the way. Then, after stopping to buy some iconic poppies, see the Horse Guard Parade, and as always take a few pictures by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, we arrived at Buckingham Palace (via double-decker bus!) for the Changing of the Guard.

Big Ben!

Horse Guard Parade - just down the street from Buckingham Palace

Unfortunately we arrived too late to see much of anything through all the people, but it was cool to be there anyways. Some guards walked by and played some military-sounding songs, and we got a few pictures of all the people. We stayed for a while to enjoy the atmosphere (and even got to hear some other random people speaking French), and then we made our way to try to meet up Rob and Walker and our other friends.

Walking up the street to Buckingham Palace. There were already so many people!

And this is what we ran into when we tried to get close enough to see the real ceremony. Oh well...
It was still Buckingham Palace!

The fountain we stood in front of to see as much as we could of the Changing of the Guard

The fancy guards on their way to the Palace, accompanied by military music.

Just before meeting up with them, we decided to have lunch, and of course we couldn’t go to England and not eat the traditional fish and chips! The four of us found a pub right across the street from 10 Downing Street (the residence of the Prime Minister), and we sat down and had ourselves a nice hearty fish and chips with minty peas, along with trying some other local dishes. Although it was pretty overpriced, it was definitely a very good meal.

Fish and chips and minty peas!

And some other traditional English dishes... and two wonderful French girls! 

After fish & chips and a morning of slight hiccups in communication, we finally got to meet up with the rest of the crew just after lunch (Rob & Walker, Michal, and Katherine). On the way to meet everyone, we of course took pictures by a red phone box, and then we all finally met up, and Walker assumed the role of tour guide, with Rob bringing up the rear and making sure we didn’t get lost. From there, we made our way to the National Gallery.

Amandine and Marie-Mathilde,

and me and Fatima!

The National Gallery, right on Trafalgar Square.

After we spent a while looking at paintings and art, we met up with one more friend, Neal, in Trafalgar Square (just outside the Gallery). Then we headed to the National Portrait Gallery, where it was interesting to see all the different faces of important people. Personally, my favorite was Princess Kate, but there were also so many more stylized portraits of leaders, artists, and historically important people. After we finished admiring the artists’ work there, we met up with Amandine and Marie-Mathilde again for dinner just off Oxford Street, saw the BBC building, and had some great conversation over pizza. It was an entertaining evening – for most of the meal, half of the table was speaking English and the other French! The pizza was delicious, and I tried some English cyder for the first time (which was excellent – I highly recommend it!).

The BBC building, all lit up for the evening

Finally, we started toward the train station, stopping at St. Pancras International Train Station (which, according to our two lovely Brits, is the station in London where everyone meets up after having been away) and Platform 9¾ on the way (photo to come when I get it from Katherine!), and then we got on the train to stay at Walker’s grandma’s house in Woking (Surrey), where we spent a nice quiet night after our exhausting but amazing day.

The façade of St. Pancras International Station

In the morning, we got up and ready and made our way back to the train station to get back into London somewhat early. Once we got off the train, we made our way along the Thames to Tower Bridge, where we snapped some group photos, and then to the British Library. The British Library was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend – there were documents that were hundreds of years old just sitting there right in front of us. Seeing things like the manuscripts of Beowulf and Jane Austen’s Persuasion, handwritten pieces by Beethoven and Mozart (and even Pomp and Circumstance!), some of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches, and even the Magna Carta, all in their original forms and very well preserved, was mind-blowing, and simply awesome, in the most literal sense of the word.

Some 800,000 ceramic poppies are planted just beside the Tower of London as a memorial to World War I.

What a beautiful memorial.

Tower Bridge and City Hall. 

The British Library, just before we went in. What a cool place!

We then made our way back to Victoria Coach Station, leaving behind Katherine, who had gone to meet another friend in England, and Michal and Fatima, who had booked a later bus, and settled in for the second five-hour coach ride in two days. We made it back to Lille, through the rain, and settled into bed, exhausted. What a cool way to experience London for the first time! Thank you so much Rob and Walker!

After not traveling too much in the past couple weeks at least, going to Paris and London in one week was absolutely spectacular (and a little overwhelming!). It was so fantastic to get to see so many things I had been waiting to see for so long. If there’s one thing I learned this week, it’s definitely been how to navigate the metro/public transport system in big cities! And of course, the right people made both trips even better :) now how to top that, I don’t know… we’ll have to see what future weekends (and Christmas break!) bring. As for me, I’ve written enough for this week I think, so I’ll be seeing you all next week – à bientôt!

P.S. You can see more photos from the week on Facebook!