France
It’s time to read about Strasbourg and of course Paris,
France!
Strasbourg
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Me and Katie with our bikes! |
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| 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
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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!
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| Climbing trees in Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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
