Keeping Up with Kimmy: Bonjour Paris!

Friday morning a group of around 70 of us from my school went to Paris for the weekend. We took the Eurostar train from London to Paris, which was just over a two hour journey. The Eurostar actually travels underneath the English Channel to get to France. Pretty neat but we were only underneath the channel for about thirty minutes, and most everyone was oblivious to it. Upon arriving, we literally walked across the street from the train station and we were at our hotel. It was a very nice hotel but a little far from most of the areas we wanted to see. After checking in and dropping off our stuff, a few of us walked to the river to start exploring. Our first stop was at Notre Dame. We went in and walked around and it is such a beautiful cathedral. After seeing Notre Dame we looked for a cafe or restaurant to eat at, and ended up finding something not too far away. I of course had to order a glass of wine since after all, I was in Paris! We had a nice dinner, and then began walking to the Eiffel Tower. It was quite a long walk from what we had expected, but when the entire tower came into view, it was so worth it. We had our fun taking pictures and decided to get a taxi back to the hotel when we were ready to head back.

Saturday morning we had a guided bus tour of the city, hitting all the key tourist spots. The bus tour ended at the Louvre, where we were each given a ticket. We spent a few hours looking through the Louvre, finding many of the highlight displays, including the famous Mona Lisa painting. We walked back to our hotel after many hours of seeing all the sites and rested before heading to dinner. For dinner we went to a place just around the corner from our hotel. It was another great meal, this time with great dessert. After finishing, we went out and bought some wine to take back to the hotel. Hannah, Alli, Leah, and myself played cards in our room while we sipped our wine. Finished the night with a relaxing bath and then it was off to bed.

After breakfast Sunday morning we found the Sacre Coeur de Montmartre, which means the Sacred Heart Basilica in Montmartre, which was fairly close to our hotel. We climbed A LOT of steps before reaching the entrance to the church. The view from the top of the steps was breathtaking and the church itself was absolutely beautiful. Despite a mass taking place, we were able to walk around inside. After reaching the bottom of the steps, we strolled down some streets to look for souvenirs. We stopped and got some snacks at a cafe before going back to the hotel. I ordered a hot chocolate and a banana split, and they were both delicious! By far the best banana split I've ever had. We had some time to relax and play more cards at the hotel before we had to head over to catch the Eurostar back to London. Everyone was sharing all the fun things they did in Paris. We got back last night around 6:30 and were dropped off by coach on one of the closest main roads to our dorms. My friend Alli and I didn't even make it half a block before we decided to head into a pub for a beer and something to eat. We sure missed our beer while we spent the weekend with wine! Nevertheless, it was an amazing weekend in Paris!!