"Morning in Paris, the City Awakes to the Bells of Notre Dame"

France

It’s time to read about Strasbourg and of course Paris, France!

Strasbourg

Sunset on the Ill

We arrived in Strasbourg during sunset, and it was beautiful to see the colors reflecting in the Ill River. After checking into the hotel, we set out for dinner and found a cute French place in Petit France where Katie and I shared roast duck with a caramelized ginger glaze, and spätzle with a puff pastry and chicken in a cream sauce. I also got chocolate moose for dessert!

Chocolate Moose!

When I returned to the hotel that night I discovered that I left my European adaptor in Salzburg, Austria. Whoops! I never leave stuff behind, but I guess I just left it in the wall with all the hustle and bustle of moving around so much. I called the hotel, and luckily they found it and were willing to ship it to me free of charge! I am happy to report that my adaptor set is complete again because they were true to their word and it was waiting for me when I returned to Cyprus!

Strasbourg was adorable :)

During our tour of Strasbourg I learned that Strasbourg has exchanged hands between Germany and France several times, so it’s no wonder that most of the signs were in both languages. It’s a cute harbor town, and the economy is in great shape because of the harbor.

A quirky thing about Strasbourg is that they are known for their storks. Apparently they didn’t return after migrating one winter once the Germans took over, and they became a sign of the Revolution because they returned when France took over again. I didn’t get to see any storks since they migrated for the winter.

At a local bakery, I tried their 7-spice special gingerbread, and it was refreshing even though I’m not a gingerbread fan.

Me and Katie with our bikes!

Celebrating Halloween in France...Vampire?

For the rest of the day, Kaite and I rented bikes and rode alongside the Ill River until we reached Oranjerie Park, where we continued to bike by lamplight. The weather was surprisingly pretty warm for a change and I was so happy to be riding a bike! We passed the Zoo inside the park, but of course it was closed at night, so I pulled my bike over to the wall and stood on the seat in order to look in. I knew there were Storks in there somewhere, so I decided the sleeping thing I saw in the closest cage was a Stork. I guess you can say I sort of saw one, maybe? Haha

We celebrated Halloween in Strasbourg by going to an ‘American’ diner, where they served burgers, fries, and shakes. It was kind of nice to be in that atmosphere since they had decorations and were dressed for Halloween. We wondered if people think all American diners still look like the 50s.

Paris

Paris!

Paris was the last city in our tour of Europe, and it was a nice way to end our adventure. We left Amsterdam at 9am and it took 7 hours for us to drive to Paris. The drive wasn’t actually bad at all! We were lucky with traffic during our entire trip really. After checking into the Hotel we walked to the Eiffel tower, and it glowed a beautiful gold color against the black night sky. It also twinkled on the hour, which reminded me a lot of a show at Disney. There's a video below!

Escargot!

We went to Monmarte and Basilique du Sacre-Coeur (the Sacred Heart Bascilica) where we could see Paris lit up in the night. For dinner we went to a cute little place with a piano player and I even tried Escargot (aka snails)! Surprisingly, the snails were pretty good. I’m not sure I would seek them out if I wasn’t in Paris, but I liked how the butter and garlic complemented the snail.

At the Moulin Rouge!

Kyle, Kristi, Katie and I walked to the Moulin Rouge; tickets were way too expensive and we didn’t care to see that kind of show anyways, but it was cool just to see it all lit up.

The Louvre (Yes, I took this picture!)

As a group we visited the Louvre, Paris’ most famous museum. The architecture of the building with glass pyramids and a ‘u’ shape structure was art in itself! Our audio guide was a Nintedo 3Ds, which made navigating the massive museum a little easier and it was super cool to use!

Mona Lisa :)

I enjoyed looking at a bunch of statues and paintings at the Louvre, the most famous of which was the Mona Lisa. I had heard that she is actually pretty small, but I guess I pictured her too small because she was bigger than I imagined! Haha

Pont des Arts

Next we crossed the Pont des Arts to walk along the Seine River, and I think the amount of locks on the bridge were the most I have seen yet! Of course we visited Notre Dame, which is as extravagant as you’d imagine, and I couldn’t help but break out into "The Bells of Notre Dame" from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is where I took my post title from today!

Notre Dame

If you ever go to Paris, stop at Shakespeare & Company, which is a quaint bookstore that used to house aspiring artists, writers, and musicians at no cost so they could pursue their art. I thought it was really cute and worth looking around at least if not purchasing a book or two.

It wouldn’t be Paris if it didn’t rain for at least a little bit, so we endured some heavy rain for about 4 hours; I’m glad that’s all we had to deal with compared to other stories of rain in Paris I’ve heard about! There was a beautiful double rainbow across the sky though! Katie, Lauren and I did some shopping in the fashion capital of the world on Rue de Rivoli during the rain.

Enjoying a Crepe!

My trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete without getting a crepe, so I got a banana, butter, and sugar crepe! Yummmm…I also had nutella crepes for breakfast almost everyday at the hotel. haha

Arc de Triomphe

After throwing around the idea to spend the day at Disneyland Paris or go to Versailles, Lauren and I decided to stay in Paris and just explore the city. I saw the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down Avenue des Champs-Élysées all the way to the Louvre. It was a lovely walk and along the way we saw street dancers that were pretty good; good enough that I put some change in their hat! 

Climbing trees in Luxembourg Gardens

Statue of Liberty

Père Lachaise Cemetery

We crossed through Luxembourg Gardens, which is absolutely beautiful, and we even took the time to climb some trees! We found the Statue of Liberty, watched some gentlemen play bochee ball, and headed to Père Lachaise Cemetery. This cemetery is a must see in my opinion because it was so interesting to see the long rows of elegant resting places; I even found Chopin’s grave!

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

For my last day in Paris, I woke up early since we were departing Paris at 11am in order to get to the airport. I decided to climb the Eiffel tower as the last thing that I would do on my 18-day journey across Europe. I left the hotel around 9am and climbed 1,665 steps to the second level in about 10 minutes. The weather was oddly warm and I climbed without a coat. I didn’t take the lift to the highest point because I was worried about time, and quite frankly I didn’t want to spend the extra money either. I climbed the tower alone since most of my friends did the tower the day before, but I’m glad I went alone because it allowed me some time to reflect.

The Group at the Louvre

While looking down to Paris below, I thought about the whole 18-day trip and how much of the world I had seen in such little time: 13 cities in 8 countries. Traveling around Europe so quickly was certainly exhausting but I enjoyed exploring so many cities and countries, and trying new foods was a big highlight of the trip! I learned some things about myself and I certainly feel a lot more cultured! When I arrived at Paris’ airport, I used the airports’ free 15 minutes of internet in order to register for Spring 2013 classes at Muhlenberg. Luckily I got the classes I wanted and I am happy to say that I am looking forward to returning to the Berg in the Spring.

Thanks for reading my post about France! I’ve posted a few updates within the past week to separate my trip for organizational purposes, so be sure to check if you missed any Country posts since there were so many! Next time you’ll get to hear all about my trip to Egypt, so stay tuned for the continuation of the craziest semester of my life!

Till next time!

-Courtney <3