City of Lights
Bonjour à tous! Paris was where we ended our little French excursion. I got to do some of the things I didn't have time for in January, like actually go up the Eiffel Tower and visit Versailles. Also, fun fact that I recently learned, if you're a resident of the EU (or have a visa like me) and are under 26 years old, you can get into a majority of museums for free.
Now thats a gate
Our hostel in Paris wasn't the best, but super cheap and about a 15 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, so we did pretty good. The very first thing we did after we dropped off our stuff of was run and get a look at the Eiffel Tower. It was night so it was lit up. At the top of every hour the lights flicker. We made it just in time to see it. The next day was one of the busiest of our entire trip.
We woke up in the morning to meet Sandeman's for a Versailles Garden Tour. We actually didn't have time to do the regular free walking tour with Sandeman's this trip, but the garden tour was amazing and we managed to take some time afterwards to visit the palace. Helpful tip, the line is always shorter in the afternoon. When we got there in the morning, the line to get inside the palace was almost to the street, but by the time our garden tour was over the line was gone and we simply walked in.
After exploring Versailles, we headed back to the city for our Eiffel Tower experience. We booked it through GetYourGuide, something I would recommend doing if you're in Paris. It was the cheapest tour option and helped us skip the majority of the lines. The elevator you take to get to the mid-point of the tower was huge! Two-stories and each stories holds up to 50 people. My little claustrophobic heart almost gave out, but I forgot all about it once we reached the top. We did the night tour of the Eiffel Tower and I am glad that we did. It was the best time to really see the City of Lights.
Picture of me and Frankie at the Louvre
Saturday was a more chill day, and not just because it happened to snow. We went to the Louvre and then just walked around Paris. We did a little bit of shopping, but mostly tried to avoid the cold. It's funny, I almost think Paris during Spring Break was colder than it was when I visted in January.
Normandy Cliffs
We spent Sunday outside of Paris, doing a D-Day tour in Normandy. It was freezing, but definitely worth the trip. We saw Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Going through Normandy was one of my travel companions ideas, I had never thought about it. However, now that I've been I would recommend it to everyone. Hopefully I can find more historical tours to go on during the rest of my semester.
The only downside to my trip was that I never managed to find stamps during our visit in Paris, we were just so busy and most places were closed on Sunday. Some of my postcards had to be sent from Rome. Remember to look at my Postcards from HJ tab to see all the cards I've sent home!
Au Revior!
