April in Paris, part one.

After a pretty bumpy flight, we landed on a beautiful day in Paris. Once we had collected all of our belongings, we met our French tour guide, who would regale us with stories about Paris' rich history and various landmarks on our bus ride to the hotel in Montparnasse. We quickly found that the reputation of Paris hotel rooms held true- they were comfortable, but very small! We settled into our rooms, then hurried downstairs to begin exploring the city. Navigating the Paris metro was difficult at first, but I started to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Our first Parisian destination was Le Tour Eiffel- the Eiffel Tower. Over the course of the week we spent in Paris, I would go back to the Eiffel tower two more times- I guess it was one of my favorite spots that we visited! As I've mentioned (flashback to my post about Blarney Castle!), I am notoriously scared of heights. This being the case, I decided to forgo climbing to the top. We were all excited to see the tower by night- especially the sparkling lights at the top of each hour!

We then took a long walk over to the Notre Dame Cathedral to see it at night. Along the way, we passed many Paris landmarks along the Seine. I have to admit, I was not overexcited to go to Paris- I would've rather stayed in Dungarvan and relaxed- but after the first night in the city I never wanted to leave. Paris just seemed to have some sort of hold on me that would just get stronger as the week progessed.

The next day, we started our day at the Louvre. I was most excited about this, mainly because I was always a big art history fan and couldn't wait to see such a famous museum full of historic works. (And, OK, I love the book The DaVinci Code). Seeing the museum was all that I had expected, however, sometimes the amazing architecture overshadowed the art- in the case of the Mona Lisa, for example, it was impossible to get close enough to even really see it, plus the actual painting is protected by a few sheets of glass.

Next, we took a walk down the Champs Elysee towards the Arc de Triomphe. I was reluctant to climb to the top, but I decided to face my fears this time and give it a go. Boy, am I glad I did!! The view was unbelievable. It was reminscent for me of the view of Dublin from Gravity Bar at the top of the Guinness Storehouse.

A few of us then decided to head back over to Notre Dame to take a look around during the day. The inside of the cathedral was just as interesting as the outside. The massive stained glass windows were very impressive. Since we finally had a moment to relax, we had a seat at a small cafe next to the cathedral and had hot chocolate (with a splash of Bailey's, no less!) before meeting back up with the group.

That night, we all got dressed up for a traditional French meal, complete with plenty of red and white wine. Everyone had an amazing evening to cap off an amazing first few days in Paris.