June/July 2008 - Paris

In 2008, my cousin had a formal wedding in Aachen, Germany. My parents and I decided it would be awesome to visit her and see some of Europe. Here is a post on my livejournal account after we came back I made about our arrival and trip to Paris (this is post 1/3 of Europe 2008)

July 21st, 2008

PARIS (June 29th - July 4th)

So...we flew out from Dulles on the 29th on an overnight flight to Madrid. There was only a two hour layover until Paris but we flew Iberia which SUCKED. Their seats are way too small you can't even just sit there without feeling squished. Airlines are sooooooo selfish.
We took a taxi from Orly to our hotel, the Magdelini which was near Montparnasse cemetery.
It wasn't bad...maybe a little smelly though.
We only stayed for one night because the airline changed our flights and we couldn't get a room at the hotel we already booked. But it ended up being good since we were jetlagged. We just walked around and got used to Europe. Here are some pictures from the Montparnasse cemetery. I hate cemeteries but this one was pretty cool.

You can put something like this on my grave... Ewww. dead people. Samuel Beckett!

Then we moved to the Jardin de L'Odeon right near Odeon Theatre. It was a really cute neighborhood and nice and quiet.
From there we were only a fifteen minute walk to Notre Dame. We hopped on the Batobus (the one that goes around the river)...do not recommend. It was hot and the thing is so damn slow. It only goes one way. It could have taken 15 minutes to get to the Eiffel Tower but instead it took like and hour and a half because we had to go alllll the way around instead of back two stops. But we finally got there...

Then Mom and I went to the Musee d'orsay which was filled with impressionist works like Van Gogh and Monet.
The next day we went to the Louvre. All this time we had been trying to meet up with my dad's sister, Christine, her husband Livingston, and their two children, Danielle (11) and Madison (7). It was hard work because my phone was having a lot of drama. First it wouldn't charge then we found out the wire was almost split so Dad fixed it then my mom called THEM (I get free incoming calls but raped when I call someone) and used 90% of the 15 euros on my phone so all through the Louvre we played "where are you?" text message tag until I ran out of money on that too...we later tried to put more money on it but it wouldn't let me. That phone is such a hassle! But we did find them eventually...umm and re: the Louvre. I did not like it. Too too too big. Massive. Uncontrollable. (not to mention nothing was in English or ANY language besides French...it's a world renowned museum...you'd think they'd have the stuff in the mandatory five languages). But I liked the pyramid (why do people not??) and I liked the statues.

We went out to dinner with the Banks by our hotel (which was near the Luxembourg Gardens and they were alllll the way over at Sacre Coeur). I freaking love those little girls. Who knew it could feel so nice to have a seven year old worship the ground you walk on? Their parents told them to stop bugging me but they didn't believe I didn't care. I'm an only child for goodness sake and my little cousins are so adorable (only annoying when they sing a certain Camp Rock song OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN :) ) I didn't mind them.

For our last full day in Paris, my parents and I were on our own again. We went to the Arc d'Triomphe (Dad and I went up to the top and Mom stayed below with the masses) and then walked through the Luxembourg Gardens. Outside the Gardens they have this magnificent display of award winning photographs which were all just amazing. I wish I'd taken pictures of my favorites but I didn't...



And then we finished our trip with a beautiful moonlit (or really still sunlit walk...it didn't fully set until after 11pm) around the city. We watched the lovely Eiffel Tower sparkle. It changed from when I went there nearly two years ago when I was in Ireland. The tower now constantly glows blue at night (and it has stars on it for the EU flag) and sparkles for an hour every night insteadly of multiple times. I wanted to stay forever but my parents made me leave.


And so ended our trip to Paris. On Friday, July 4th we hopped on the high speed train from Paris to Bern and then Bern to Interlaken. That Independence Day marked the beginning of our journey with the Banks who shall forever be our travel buddies.


But before I go on to that, let us not forget the statue complete with undies :)


Stay tuned for the other parts of my Europe 2008 trip.