Euro Trip Part II: Oui Oui, hon hon hon

Wanting to visit family in Germany would clearly be enough to warrant preparations for the trip, but sometime between Jon’s sister and family and my brother and family moving overseas, we had a good friend who did the same. So while planning our vacation, we were eager to figure out how to meet up with Nate and Andrea for a short visit. Nate has spent the last couple years in Germany but ended up moving to Sweden weeks before our trip. Thinking of squeezing another country into the queue, Jon’s sister mentioned the close proximity of Paris. This reminded Jon of two friends from France whom he had met years before at Truman. We quickly discovered that Lucie lives in Paris and Ophelie would be on holiday during our travels! One thing led to another, and suddenly there were eight of us being graciously hosted by Lucie and Clemente for a fun-filled weekend with old friends and new!

Part 2: Paris!
We arrived in Paris on Thursday evening after our trip to the Palace of Versailles. After everyone made it to the ‘flat,’ we enjoyed a home-baked meal as the eight of us shared stories and laughter and got to know one another.

Cheers!

The view from the flat.

Day 2: Wasting no time and making up for the rainy weather, we spent our first day indoors exploring the Louvre.

So, I’ve always been intrigued by the inverted pyramid. I remember being super excited to see it back in high school because I had just read The Da Vinci Code. Obviously I was super excited to see it again.

Joan of Arc

At the end of the afternoon, Jon and I had made it back to our meeting spot ten minutes early. As we were passing by the gift shop, we saw a picture of the Venus de Milo. I then asked Jon, “Uhhh, is that here?” Not sure how we missed it at first, but grateful the gift shop had it displayed everywhere so we could rush to see it before meeting out friends!

The Apollo Gallery displaying the crown jewels! The crown jewels were on loan though. 😦

These were some of the most impressively massive structures we saw. The one in the picture on the left was incredible and alarming as we entered the room.

One thing I hadn’t realized before: The Louvre was an old castle! While they’ve restored and rebuilt much of it, the underground portion was left as it had been. The bottom right picture is the area around what use to be the middle tower/fort.

Egypt’s, like, my favorite. Also, top left: Legit corpse.

One of the many decorated ceilings.

Because, you know, pictures of pictures are cool.

Top: Hey, look over there! There’s some small, tiny, super popular painting on that large blank wall! Bottom: The crowd looking at that painting. TLDR: It’s the Mona Lisa!

A view from one of the windows.

A view from another window out the front. Pretty sweet.

After the Louvre, we walked through the gardens and down a long stretch to make it to the Arc de Triomphe. We then met up with Clemente for a brief tour around the streets of Paris before dinner.

Soldiers preparing for the ceremony for the Unknown Soldier.

La Defense

The insane subway. We actually had a fairly scary experience one night as our train stopped abruptly and shut down after we had gotten on. We later found out it was a person on the tracks another station causing all trains to stop. Everything was fine, and no one was hurt, but we were certainly shaken up!

Exploring Paris

Inside shopping malls…

Day 3: A trip through Paris on bikes! Our group of eight rented city bikes and headed to the Eiffel Tower for a picnic. We spent the whole day exploring and experiencing Paris like a true Parisian.

Goofy kids.

We made it!

Picnic at the Eiffel!

Group picture! It only took 10 minutes and approximately 30 tries.

Next up was Notre Dame! I’ve been to Paris once before in high school, but unfortunately missed out on an opportunity to see this beautiful cathedral up close. I’m happy to say that this disappointment has finally been remedied. We also made a quick stop by one of the infamous ‘lock’ bridges.

Biking by the Louvre.

The lock bridge.

And finally, a trip to Ile St. Louis for ice cream. Ile St. Louis is an island named after the same Louis (XIV to be exact) that our hometown is named for. Needless to say, Jon and I were STOKED.

Ice Cream!

After a relaxing afternoon and a delicious crepe dinner, we ended the day back at the Louvre and Eiffel Tower to see the lights at night.

Our dear friends serenading us at dinner.

Our evening bike ride and stroll by the beaches along the pier.

The Louvre at night.

Day 4: A short day before we all headed our separate ways. We did just a bit more sight-seeing before our first goodbyes to Nate and Andrea, then Jon and I shared the joy of bubble tea with our Parisian friends.

The Arab Institute

What a building!

An old Roman ampitheatre

Jon and I made a quick side trip back to St. Louis Island for a picture. We also took most of the group to Bubble Tea Taiwan before we had to leave. We were overjoyed to have two tastes of home and get to share them with friends. We even ordered our Milk Teas in Chinese!

Enjoying our bubble teas, drenching downpour and all!

What a great weekend! We’re so grateful to Clemente and Lucie for their hospitality (and for their rush to drive Jon and I to the train station so we could get our tickets printed and make our train to Mannheim on time!) We’re also so glad to have friends who were so willing to sacrifice the time and money to spend the weekend with a group of acquaintances – made friends – and explore a beautiful city. We had such a wonderful time on this short little adventure with such great people.