Oui Oui, Paris!

Hola from Madrid, Spain!

Aye aye aye! These past seven days have been pure insanity! Last time I wrote was exactly a week ago, and since then I have left London, hit up all the best tourist attractions in Paris, France, and now I am perched on the Del Rios couch in Madrid, Spain. Holy Guacamole!

To start where I left off last, last Tuesday Caity, Alex, Anna and I visited the Tower of London, and then flew off to Paris!

Myself, Anna, Alex and our friend we made in line for tickets, Cassy, at the Tower of London

After half a day at the Tower, we rushed back to my flat to gather our luggage and then raced off to the airport to catch our flight to Paris! Once we landed in Paris, our group of four split in half; Alex and Anna headed to the hostel they would be staying in (called Woman Bed, not sketchy at all) and Caity and I got on the Metro in the direction of *Carine’s apartment!

*Carine came from France to California to study abroad during our junior year of high school, and lived with Caity’s family, and graciously hosted us during our stay in Paris

On the RER from the airport (Que my French theme song)

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to meet back up with Alex and Anna, and head for the most iconic Paris attraction, the one and only, Eiffel Tower!

Myself, Caity and Anna waiting in line to climb the Eiffel Tower!

The view from the first platform

And the view from the second platform!

The line to buy tickets to walk up

And now it’s time for the embarrassing amount of cliche pictures infront of the Eiffel Tower!

After our brief photo shoot with a landmark, our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe!

After a morning of power walking and picture snapping, we bought pieces to make lunch and ate in a park along Avenue Des Champs Elysees!

 After a quick break it was off to the Obelisk and The Louve!

I think I’m more intrigued by the Louve Pyramid then the Louvre itself

Now don’t get your hopes up, I did not go into the Louvre, although Alex and Anna did. I have seen so many pictures of the pieces of art in the museum, that I decided I would rather spend my limited amount of time in Paris exploring other places!

Macaroon break before Norte Dame!

The bleachers outside Norte Dame for the overflowing crowd that can’t get seats inside to watch mass, to watch from outside on the screen set up

It becomes madness when it’s time for 6:30 mass

Thursday we bounced onto the Metro, giggling like five year olds (that’s a lie, we were all half asleep with aching feet) to go to Disneyland Paris!!! I mean, come on, how could you not go to Disneyland in another country?! To make my day even brighter, Caity, Alex and Anna surprised me by buying my ticket for me as a thank you for hosting and showing them around London (awwww!). This too, like the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios Tour, is a whole blog post in itself, so I won’t say much for now, other then it was amazing!!!

Friday we spent at the Palace of Versailles, which as sad as it is to say, I believe is a bit overrated. In all of it’s beauty, the majority of the day we spend in lines or crowded into the corner of yet another royal room (my favorite was where the royalty would eat dinner infront of the public, gasp!) but don’t let my opinion turn you away! History buffs, you will love it, and it is something everyone has to check off of their list while in Paris.

A model layout of the property aka it’s basically its own city! The tour said that approximately 10,000 people were working and/or living on the property

The rooms did have pretty ceilings, though!

My favorite part of the Palace, the Hall of Mirrors

Alex and Anna had a flight back to Madrid at 6am Saturday morning, so they slept over at the airport Friday night (those darn Metro hours) and Caity I went out, the two of us :(, on Saturday to see some last minute sights before our flight to Madrid that afternoon.

Sacre Couer (with morning McDonalds coffee!)

Seeing as I worked for six months prior to this trip, solely to afford it and pay my own rent in London, my parents wanted to do something, so we settled on them paying for my flights (lucky me!!!), but it came with one circumstance; I have to take a picture in each city with my Red Nose.

Apparently Paris street art likes red noses too!

The foggy view from Sacre Couer

I love Paris street art

And our last tourist stop was Molin Rouge!

We picked up a French classic, crepes, on our way back to Carine’s flat, and oh man am I going to miss them!

More crepes!

We arrived in Madrid Saturday night, where I checked into my hostel and Caity went back to her host-house, and met back up Sunday morning for an Easter Sunday church service, in all spanish! Yes, I’ll admit, if I didn’t know the story of Christ’s resurrection  I wouldn’t have had a clue what they were saying, but hearing Happy Day in Spanish was pretty cool! And that is where I will leave off my story telling for now!

Adios!

Michelle