Hello again everyone! This past weekend I was able to share my little Parisian apartment with five very good friends of mine! Three of my Pi Phi friends, girls in my sorority at Iowa State, and two of their close friends came and stayed with me last wednesday night through sunday morning! Wednesday night I took the metro to the middle of the city and met Emily and Abby, two Pi Phis and their two friends Kirsten and Beth. We took the metro back to my apartment, got everyone some bedtime snacks and caught up on the lately happenings! Since I am living in an apartment hosted by my school I only have so much space in the apartment and my friends has to sleep on the floor. I offered my bed every chance I could get but to no avail, they all slept on the floor. The next morning, I headed off to classes with instructions for the girls to meet Nickie, another Pi Phi, the next afternoon at the metro station closest to my apartment. Unfortunately, I was feeling completely sick to my stomach while I was at school and after several calls home to mom we decided it was probably best that I take some medicine and sleep for the afternoon. My friends didn't know I was in the apartment when they came back after picking Nickie up and I gave everyone a huge surprise when I started talking from under the covers. After hugging Nickie and getting diagnoses from everyone, I went back to sleep and the girls went out and continued to tour for the day. So most of thursday was spent in bed sleeping and working on handstitching until my roommates and friends came back in later that night. That night we just caught up on chatting and talked about roommates, study abroad experiences thus far and what else we were planning to see.
Emily surprised Nickie with a Venetian mask!
Friday morning I had class from 9 to 4 and made plans to meet my friends around 6 at the Louvre. It was a long and boring day and it was hard to wait that long but finally 4:00 rolled around and I headed home to shower and meet my friends! I headed for the metro to meet them at the Louvre and they were coming from sight seeing at l'Arc de Triomphe. We finally found each other and headed inside to find some food!
Next to the Louvre is a shopping and dining center called the Louvre Carousel. We wandered through the shops and grabbed some dinner before heading to see some paintings and sculptures in the Louvre. On wednesday and friday nights admission to the Louvre is free as long as you can show a valid student ID. We stood in line, got our tickets and headed to find the Mona Lisa along with the Venus Milo and several other paintings and sculptures. The Louvre is HUGE. In order to see and appreciate everything, a person would need to set aside many hours or days to take in everything. Before going in we made a game plan of what we wanted to see and mapped out how and where we needed to get to everything. Some floors had only sculptures and others had paintings. Some paintings are small and others cover entire ceilings and walls. The Mona Lisa is relatively the size of a kitchen window in a house. I don't really know how else to describe the size! It is not that big but is neat to see in real life. From here we saw several paintings of Napoleon and sculptures on our way out.
Venus de Milo
Nike of Samothrace
One of the ceilings at the Louvre.
Napoleon I crowning himself the Emperor of France.
Not as good of quality, but the girl sitting in the picture is sitting roughly 15 feet away from the painting and the painting is still huge in comparison!
The Mona Lisa
The next morning we headed to Versailles! I have been waiting see to the Palace of Versailles for as long as I can remember and I was so excited to go with some of my closest friends! From Paris, we took the 40 minute metro ride to Versailles and headed to look for the Palace. After walking no more than two minutes, we turned a corner and saw huge golden gates just a few blocks away and we knew we were on the right path! Walking up to the Palace was breath taking in itself.
The golden gates that greet you before you can enter!
A look at the front of the Palace.
French models?
A cathedral inside the palace.
One of the huge hallways lined with sculptures!
A small look at the gardens from the main floor. Even from the windows the gardens are beautiful!
The fountain at the back of the palace with more gardens off in the distance.
A look from the second floor of the cathedral.
One of the doors with golden accents!
A ceiling painting in one of the rooms.
A crazy huge chandelier!
A painting of a duchess that stayed at Versailles.
An underneath look at a chandelier.
A small part of the gardens!
The Hall of Mirrors! This hallway was completely breathtaking! I think I walked up and down it like 5 times. I had my "European Moment" where it actually hit me that I was in Europe and was walking down the same hallway that Marie Antoinette and other famous French royalty walked down!
Being modest in the Hall of Mirrors?
Marie Antoinette's Bed!
The dining room, where the King and Queen of France would eat their dinner and have 30 people watching them do so.
The King of France's bed!
A statue next to the main fountain in the gardens.
The backside of the palace.
My Pi Phi friend Nickie!
Woot!!
Coming back from Versailles, totally pooped.
After the palace, we had to make a pit stop at the gift shop and I wanted to buy everything! But after weeding through what I wanted and what I would actual put to use, I bought a few postcards and several other things...that I can't say because they're for my family!
After ooohing and awwwing all morning at Versailles we headed back into Paris for an afternoon at the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Elysee for some shopping! With girls, we end up taking lots and lots of photos!
Kirsten and I!
After Eiffel Tower photo shoots, we headed for some shopping and crepes! We were all so tired that we did not end up shopping for very long and instead headed up to the Moulin Rouge just to see what it looked like!
Lets just say that the street the Moulin Rouge is on is not a street to take your children too. The shops and names of the shops there were completely ridiculous and we all had the giggles because we couldn't believe the names and window displays in the shops! We walked quickly out of that area and headed to the Sacré Coeur to see the city of Paris from the top! It is said that one of the best views of Paris is from the top of the Sacré Coeur hill and it is definitely true! After way too many steps we finally made it to the top and it was beautiful! There was a man playing guitar and singing and we all sat together and looked out over the city as we listened!
On our way to the top!
Sunday morning Abby, Emily, Kirsten and Beth left for the airport and Nickie and I got to sleep in! After making breakfast and getting ready for the day, we headed out for a walk because it was so nice outside! Nickie and I did not really have plans so we just wandered and made our way to the Seine and from there on to the Louvre where we happened to eat McDonalds... :) It was just a really relaxing and beautiful day and Nickie and I just talked all day! We both were able to practice our French with each other too, that was really nice!
A walk through Luxembourg Gardens!
On the balcony of my apartment!
Nickie at the McDonalds kiosk! In Paris, you order your food at a kiosk and it prints out your receipt and you take it to the counter!
I had a great weekend with some of my closest friends and we had so much fun catching up, traveling around the city and just seeing each other again! I can't say how nice it is to spend time with friends and catch up on things from home!!
