Paris in the Spring

From Brussels, we decided to go to Paris. I wasn’t planning to go to the city, but with Allison why not check out the city of romance?

So we took the train from Brussels to Paris, which was quick and arrived on Saturday evening.

When I was applying to colleges I wanted to go to American University of Paris. I got into the school, but unfortunately it offered no financial assistance at all so there was no way I could go to school there. So I went to the American University in Washington D.C. instead ;)

At American I took a French class my first semester. I really tried to learn the language but I had a lot of trouble with the pronunciation. After not doing very well in the class and on the midterm, my teach cornered me one day and told me she was not going to pass me if I continued to take the class. So the next day I dropped it.

She was probably right; I would have mutilated her beautiful language.

Paris was great. Very cosmopolitan. It actually reminded me a bit of New York in terms of the diversity and the size.

I decided to splurge here, and Allison and I stayed in some really nice hotels here. For two days at a Renaissance and one at a Sofatel hotel. They were nice and it was definitely a difference from backpacking.

We ended up being complete tourists in Paris. On Sunday we went to the Louve. I had earlier picked up a copy of the DiVinci Code to read on the train and bus while traveling so I wanted to check it out. It was free day on Sunday as well so the museum was packed. It’s also huge with tons of art, and I really enjoyed it. The ancient Greek and Egyptian sculptures were great and the Mona Lisa is really small but had huge crowds trying to see it. A lot of people tried to take a photograph of it even though there were signs everywhere, and the guards were constantly yelling at people taking pictures.

From there we walked up the Champs de Elyse to the Arc de Trumphe, which was really cool to see. From there we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was a lot of fun to be there at sunset, and walk up to get a great view of the city.

All in all a very touristy day but whose kidding who? We were definitely tourist.

The next day we took it easier, finding the Asian area of the city and getting some surprisingly good Vietnamese and Chinese food. And there was a bottle of Sriracha on every table direct from Rosemead, CA!

We also checked out the Notre Dame and walked along the Seine. We bought some baguettes and Brie and Pâté and a bottle of wine and went back to the Eiffel Tower to watch the sun set and the light display on the tower at sunset.




But like all vacations it was time to end. I really enjoyed everything about it but the time had come for the real matter at hand: THE WORLD CUP!!!