So, my family and I went to Paris for their last weekend in France! Magnifique! Of course, we didn’t have very much time there, so we had to cram every touristy thing into two days! Pas de probleme.

The first day that we were there, we went to see Notre Dame and St. Chappelle. The churches in Paris are so beautiful. All of the stained glass windows are incredible to look at. They’re so intricate. My mom and I were discussing how difficult it would be to construct one of them, let alone every window in the entire cathedral! I found St. Chappelle to be more beautiful than Notre Dame. The architecture in Notre Dame is really impressive, but it is somewhat dark and dreary in comparison to St. Chappelle. Here are some pictures of St. Chappelle (the first two) and then Notre Dame.

We also managed to make our way to the Eiffel Tower, twice. Once by day, and once by night. I would definitely suggest doing this, because it is amazing to see the light show of the Eiffel Tower at night. The Parisians think that it is tacky, but I was in awe. We went to the top of the Eiffel tower during the day, which was a little bit frightening, but very amazing.

We went on a boat tour to see the Eiffel Tower at night time, and it was so beautiful. The boat tour went along the River Seine, and it had an audioguide to give us more information about the buildings along the bank of the river. It was so romantic…too bad I was there with my parents, haha. (Just kidding mom and dad…it was great!)

We went to the Louvre on Sunday because it is free every first Sunday of the month! How convenient! I got to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, and I disagree with everyone who says that the Mona Lisa is a disappointment…what do they expect? It is a little smaller than many of the paintings there, but I thought it was incredible. My favorite part of the Louvre was the pyramid. I’m so unrefined.

Of course we saw the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur as well. I couldn’t take any pictures inside Sacre Coeur because it is not allowed. We climbed the stairs of the Arc de Triomphe, all 284 of them, even though I only counted 273. It was quite a hike, but the view was worth it. My brother kept using those telescope things which cost 2E each. He had no problem dispensing 2E here and 2E there. My mom said that he thought they were quarters. They’re worth like $2.60!

Overall, Paris was exactly like it looks in the movies, and I didn’t find any of the Parisians to be stereotypically rude. I thought everyone was pretty nice and helpful. Maybe it is because I speak a bit of French. Maybe all the nice people were tourists. Haha. The only thing that happened that wasn’t very good was a thunderstorm in the middle of the day. We tried to outrun it, but to no avail. See for yourself.