Eiffel in Love With Paris…I Louvre This City

My mom has taught me so many amazing things in my twenty years.  One of the least useful things she’s taught me is the French phrase “voulez-vous acheter une carte postale” meaning would you like to buy a postcard.  This was incredibly irrelevant during my weekend trip to France.  Long story short, I love my mom and I love Paris.

I waited for 30 minutes after my flight from Dublin landed in Charles da Gualle airport for my friends Madison and Caroline to get in from Denmark.  Madison finally texted me to meet at baggage claim…in Orley.  So yeah, not the same airport.  After a day of travel I managed to get to our one room Air B and B apartment in the 13th quarter of Paris.  We took the evening to get dinner and champagne at the café below our apartment.  The next morning, the hot, long, and amazing adventures began.

Did you even go to Paris if you didn’t see the Mona Lisa?  So the Lourve is where we headed first.  After grabbing a quick pastry and buying a metro pass, we speed through the underground and popped up right between the iconic glass pyramid and Eiffel Tower.  For as famous as it is, the Mona Lisa is tiny and nearly impossible to get a good look at, but I saw it so check that off the bucket list.  We were also able to see a Delacroix exhibit featuring his famous work depicting the French Revolution, Liberty Leading the People.  Later on a river tour, we learned that it would take over 3 months, day and night, to see every piece of artwork housed at the Lourve.  After two hours of browsing the seemingly never-ending galleries of European Renaissance painting and sculptures, we called it a day and headed out to find food.

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Croque-monsieurs were the go to lunch and dinner of the weekend.  A lot like a ham and cheese sandwich toasted, a croque-monsieur is different because it also has cheese melted over the top of it.  We were even able to catch a glimpse of the Paris Pride Parade as it passed through the streets while we ate.  We finished our lunch and headed towards the gothic Notre Dame Cathedral.  The construction of Notre Dame took about 200 years, which is almost as long as the gothic period itself.  Pictures truly can’t convey how massive and impressive the detail of Notre Dame is.  We sat in the shade of trees lining the square up to the incredible cathedral, and listened to the bells chime at three.  Next we headed to Sainte-Chapelle.  Sainte-Chapelle, just around the corner from Notre Dame, is a holy chapel intended to house precious Christian relics.  At one point, the relics included Christ’s crown of thorns, which was acquired by Saint Louis.  The chapel earned its fame for its 15 windows, 15 meters high, made purely of stained glass.  In total, the windows depict 1,113 scenes from the Old and New Testaments recounting the history of the world all the up until the arrival of the relics in Paris.

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Needing a rest, we headed to Jardin du Luxembourg, or Luxembourg Gardens.  Its grounds include a massive, gorgeous residence, manicured lawns and gardens, a man made pool, an outdoor cafe, and statues and fountains galore.  The estate was built by French Queen and Italian heiress, Marie de’ Medici, the second wife and widow of King Henry IV.  Marie built and moved to the estate when Henry died and she acted as regent for her son Louis XIII.  We took a quick walk around the massive park to take in the views.  Then, we relaxed and sat down at the outdoor cafe in the shade of a ton of leafy trees and had a glass of wine.  It was a beautiful afternoon.

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After our afternoon wine, we felt like we needed a sweet treat and headed back towards the river to Laudurée, no doubt the best macaron shop in all of Paris.  The Laudurée family and business are deeply tied to the beginnings of Parisian tea rooms and the creation of the original macaron recipe.  Unable to wait to chow down the colorful little dessert sandwiches, we parked ourselves on the banks of the Seine and indulged.  The beautiful river view added to the true French macaron experience.

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With our purchases in hand, and a few in our stomachs, we finally made our way to the big event, the main stage, the star attraction…you guessed it, the Eiffel Tower – the Iron Lady.  After popping in to markets along the way to buy crackers, brie, prosciutto, strawberries, and wine, we made it.  We entered the Champ du Mars park and gazed up at the incredible mass of steel.  Then, of course we plopped down on the grass and began our picnic.  It felt like a dream, a movie, a fairytale…anything but real life.  The sun slowly set and at 11 the sparkling lights began.  Now, time for a quick “it’s such a small world” anecdote.  The two girls who sat down behind us asked us to take their picture since we were speaking English and they are also from America.  As it turns out, they’re from Boston University and we have mutual friends now from the Boston University kids in Dublin.  We talked about everything from our majors and hometowns and colleges to our European summer plans.  It was really nice to meet such friendly people who spoke English!  Even after sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower for four hours, I still can barely believe that I was really there.

After our whirlwind first day, we slept in on Sunday and headed into Paris to Baguett’s Café for brunch.  Croissants, baguettes, jam, yogurt, granola, eggs, bacon, avocado, coffee – we ate it all.  And it was fantastic.  After so much amazing food, we knew there was no way we would be able to actually walk around the city, so we did one better.  We hopped on a river cruise down the Seine for an hour from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame and everything in between.  I learned about the gold mold of the Statue of Liberty’s flame (a gift to France from America as a thank you for Lady Liberty), the first American Church in Paris (Protestant), and smallest bridge in Paris (which has already collapsed and been rebuilt seven times).  After an hour in the sun we headed into the d’Orsay Museum and its air conditioning to see its massive collection of Impressionist paintings.  The amazing works included van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Manet, and Degas.  Like the Louvre, the actuall building of the d’Orsay is itself a piece of art.  The Louvre has its glass pyramid and the d’Orsay has nine story arched ceilings and a massive clock.  The cool thing about the enormous clock in the wall at the top of the museum is that it’s also a window with an amazing view of Paris.  We were able to see the view from inside the clock at the end of our walk through the Impressionist paintings.  Next we headed to an interesting iconic Paris spot: the love lock bridge.  In the recent past, it became a tradition for couples to fasten a lock on the rails of the Pont des Arts bridge and throw the key into the Seine River to seal their love forever.  In 2015, portions of the railings began to collapse under the weight of the locks.  According to BBC, there were close to one million locks – weighing 45 tonnes that were removed and the bridge’s rails are now covered by a glass casing.  However, you can’t seem to stop tourists set on participating in the tradition (like me, guilty as charged).  So, another simple walking bridge down the road now has a lot of locks fastened to it.  We went down to it and I fulfilled my dream of adding a lock to the bridge, despite being very single.  So I closed my lock and gave my love to the cities of Paris, Dublin, and London and my European summer.

After a long few days, we ended our amazing Paris adventure with crêpes and crème brûlées back in the 13th quarter near our apartment.  The weekend feels kind of like an oxymoron.  It’s a mixture between a hot hazy blur and perfectly precise moments.  All in all, the weekend was the most magical trip I have ever taken.  The city and its people were gorgeous and unforgettable.  Check out a video I made about the weekend, sending love from the city of love! XOXO.