Well today we started out with a full schedule...it was a marathon of tourist destinations. When we finally arrived at the hotel we had 30 minutes to freshen up from 18 hours of travel, which in my case is not a task easily completed.
When we finally met in the lobby of our hotel we headed out and visited Sainte Chapelle (a Gothic chapel near Notre Dame). After seeing this amazing work of stained glass, we continued to the Concergerie. This place was really interesting. It was the place where all those sentenced to death during the revolution were held until they were sent to the guillotine. We got to see the room where Marie Antoinette was held before she was chopped.
Then we went to the Crypt Archeologique. This was such a cool stop! This is the remains of the Roman Ruins that were the original foundation for Paris. It was really interesting to see the various layers of ruins and rubble that made up this city’s foundations. After going through this small sections of the ruins we went into Notre Dame. I forgot how beautiful this place is!!! After going through the extremely crowded Notre Dame we convinced our professor that we in fact needed to eat and that all of us were hungry from traveling all day…it was around 5 o’clock in the afternoon at this point. (She was honestly surprised that we were hungry…)
After going into a Monoprix and getting some snacks and food supplies we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before continuing our adventure. About an hour later we picked up our necessary belongings and headed back out into Paris. We hopped on a metro and went straight to the Eiffel Tower.
When we got to the right stop, we got off the train and turned around…there it was!! The Eiffel Tower!! We walked over to this well known monument and along the way were shown intriguing souvenir purchases by eager salesmen…5 Eiffel Tower key chains for only 5€!! What a deal!! (jk) After our photo-ops we decided it would be a good idea to walk over to the Arch de Triumph…for future reference…long walk.
We finally got to the Arche de Triumphe and after seeing the grave of the unknown soldier our group decided to climb to the top…all 284 stairs. The twisty, spiral staircase made everyone dizzy, but when we got to the top we were all breathless (and only partly due to the stair climb). The view was magnifique! We could see the Eiffel Tower towering over everything between the two icons. Then in the other direction you could see from the Arche de Triumphe to the Sacre Coeur. And if you looked down the Champs Elysee you could see all the way to the Louvre. After making the dizzying decline from the top we walked down the famous Champs Elysee. It was so cool to walk down it at night!! The signs for the different stores and cafes were lit up and the sidewalks were full of people. When we got to the end of the Champs Elysee we crossed a bridge in order to find a metro stop to get home. Instead, we ended up walking back to out hotel. It was a day full of walking and site-seeing. We saw most of the major monuments (Sainte Chapelle, Concergerie, Crypt Archeologique, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arche de Triumphe, outside of the Louvre, Champs Elysee). By the end of the day my feet were killing me and I knew just the thing to remedy that…a delicious fresh crepe from the streets of the Latin Quarter…mmmm…sucre et canelle! (sugar and cinnamon) Good way to the end of a long but amazing day in the city of lights!
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