Paris, Eiffel in love with you!

Welcome back friends! Today I will be sharing my trip to Paris with you. This is a continuation of the EF Europe trip. After London, we traveled to Paris via the Eurostar Train. If you are not familiar with a map of Europe (like me), I will insert a picture of how far London is from Paris.

If you notice, the UK is not connected to France! How does the train get from London to Paris??? It goes UNDERWATER! How cool! Sadly, you cannot see anything while you are under the water because it is just a dark tunnel, but it’s still really cool to know that you are traveling under water! The eurostar train travels under the water for about 30 miles. The entire trip from London to Paris takes about 2.5 hours so it’s not too bad. It is also easy to sleep on, and most importantly, has outlets to keep your electronics charged!

We left London at 2:25pm and arrived to Paris at 5:47pm. We had dinner at L’Orange Verte, near Gare du Nord station where our Eurostar train arrived. We were all very tired after dinner so we went straight to the hotel to rest and prepare for the next day. The next day we began by going to Montmartre. It is an area known for its artistic history and white domed basilica. It is on a hill and you can walk up the many steps to reach the top or pay 1.90 euros to take a little car to the top. Please beware of pickpockets in this area. You will run into gypsies who will try to get you to sign a petition as a distraction and then you will have fallen victim to a pickpocket. Also, beware of people selling tickets to the car that takes you up and down the hill. They will try to sell you tickets that are meant for children at a higher cost than buying them yourself. If you are caught using the child’s ticket and you are not a child you could be fined! Montmartre is a beautiful area where you will find many great souvenir shops as well as artists who you can buy artwork from. They will also draw a portrait of you.

After Montmartre we took a bus tour of the city and it ended near the Arc de Triomphe. From here, half of us went on a tour to Versailles and the other half enjoyed free time in the area. I did not go on the Versailles tour but some of my students did and they had a great time! Versailles is a palace and it includes many beautiful gardens. If you are interested in visiting it while you are in Paris you should get your tickets well in advance. If you try to get them while you are there, you may miss your chance to visit the Palace. For the rest of us who had free time, we walked around the Arc de Triomphe. The arc is one of the most important monuments in Paris. It is formed by 12 avenues and honors those who fought and died in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Beneath its vault lies the tomb of the unknown soldiers from World War I. There were many shops such as H&M, Gap and high end shops like Louis Vuitton also. You can also go up the Arc. There is an underground tunnel to walk from one side of the street to the area underneath the arc. There you can buy a ticket to go up the Arc.

After this we went to the Montparnasse Tower where you can get a stunning 360 degree view of Paris. This is definitely worth your time! We took an elevator to the top and back down. At the top, there is a rooftop bar where you can enjoy a drink and some snacks.

The view from the top.

They had this wonderful wall decorated for pictures.

Our last activity of the day was a boat ride along the Seine river. We boarded the boat near the Eiffel Tower around 9pm. It was still daylight so we were able to see the Eiffel Tower during the day. The tour ended at the Eiffel Tower also and by then it was dark. It was beautiful to see the tower at night! We were there until 11pm which is when the tower sparkles for 5 minutes! It was a stunning view and should be experienced if you can fit it into your schedule!

Here on the boat.

The next day we began with a visit to the Louvre museum. Yes! We got to see the Mona Lisa! That was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. I am not into art, but I mean come on, did you even go to Paris if you didn’t see the Mona Lisa? They move the Mona Lisa often, so the first thing we did as a group was figure out where she was and went to see her. The line can get quite long so I suggest that if you really want to see her, you do that first and then visit the rest of the museum.

I took this wonderful picture of the Mona Lisa.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the Latin Quarter area and visiting the Eiffel Tower again. We had free time to explore and eat lunch. We saw Notre Dame, but of course could not go inside because it was still under construction.

This was the last activity in Paris. Our next stop was catching a night train from Paris to Milan. In my opinion, that was one of the coolest experiences! Be on the lookout for the next blog post where I will talk about our trip from Paris to Florence and our experience on the night train. Thanks for reading! Enjoy some pictures of our food in Paris below!

Breakfast at our hotel

Ham, egg and cheese crepe.

Caramel Crepe