Yay Paris!

 

  We all got up early Thursday morning

and headed over to our tube station

to take a train to Heathrow.

 After one long flight, a few train and metro rides,

a mild amount of stress, 

and a couple miles of walking in the rain (we couldn't find our street),

we finally found our hostel.

 Three of us got this little room!

It was very nice and I took the top bunk.

Our room was three flights of stairs down,

which is funny

because we live on the fourth floor in London.

It's great! 

 We went out to see the Eiffel Tower that evening!

Yay! All four of us!

Taylor and I were excited.

 We got pretty close.

 We watched as the sky got darker

and the tower began to light up!

After grabbing a bite to eat

we came back by

and enjoyed a little light show

of the glittering tower!

Highlights from day one: we happened to meet a very nice woman who currently lives in Paris, but originally was from New York. She was especially kind and explained some of the metro and gave a few tips for getting around Paris. 

The next morning we headed over to the Louvre

and saw the Mona Lisa!

 It was very cool to see all the gorgous artwork

and there were a few artists in the galleries

doing splendid repeats of the greats.

 The Louvre has the fanciest ceilings I've ever seen.

Viva La France

 It was a gorgeous day with gorgeous architecture!

 We got into St. Chappelle 

The stained glass windows were stunning.

Then we headed on over to Notre Dame.

There's sweet Caitlyn!!

We walked across the river.

It was absolutely lovely. 

We stopped for lunch and split a baguette!

 Taylor and I in front of the beautiful Pantheon. 

 The inside was lovely.

 We headed on over to a Luxembourg Garden/Palace area. 

 Fancy schmancy.

 We had the most wonderful weather!

We enjoyed the arch for the early evening, and hiked all the way to the top!

 The view was fantastic.

Highlights of day two: I didn't have any pictures from this, but we visited the Musee d'Orsay. It was huge, but we hit up the Impressionism exhibit, which was a majority of the entirety of the fifth floor. There were tons of Monet's paintings (he's one of my favorites), along with many Renior's (another favorite), and many others. We also stopped by to view several of Van Gogh's works. I loved it. And the view at the end of the day at the top of the arch provided the perfect mix of stunning and relaxing to end the day!

On Saturday we hit up Versailles! 

There was gold everywhere, on the gates and embellishments.

Everything was beautiful.

We were blessed with lovely sunshiny weather!

We got in to see the apartments

(which I don't think we were technically supposed to do with our museum passes

but they didn't check, so hey why not?)

Every room-overwhelmingly fancy

Everything-beautifully decorated

I can't even comprehend living in such a grand place

It's kind of sickening to me, to be honest

Too much fancy.

After a bite for lunch we came back to enjoy the gardens.

Taylor and I especially enjoyed the green statues.

 I love the outside.

 It was just lovely 

and these pictures

 didn't even capture half 

of the majesty which the gardens had to offer.

Highlights of day three: the gardens at Versailles. I could have spent days hiking, walking, biking, and just sitting and enjoying the wide open spaces, the trees, and the lovely ponds. That's something I hadn't realized I missed!

The following morning we walked around

and enjoyed our last tastes of Paris.

We ended up walking from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower.

 My last best friend picture with the tower.

We hit it off pretty well.

The most hilarious thing happened while we sat on a bench by the Eiffel Tower. A small group of people walked by, and this one guy appeared to be jamming to his own tune. He makes eye contact (because of course I'm people watching), does some hilarious dance moves, finishes it off with a flair and a point in my direction, and smirks as I burst out laughing. It was certainly interesting and I enjoyed the moment of camaraderie brought about by someone willing to look absolutely ridiculous and not care what anyone thinks about it. After enjoying Paris and being serenaded on the metro and in the streets several times by various musicians (pictures on facebook), we made our way back to the airport and finally arrived back home! Not going to lie, it's good to be back. I hope y'all had a lovely weekend too!!!