New place like home: Paris in a Day

On your mark, get set, GO! After eating a delightful almond croissant and cafe olay from the bakery, we were off to our packed day of sightseeing through Paris. First stop- Notre Dame de Paris. Although we didn't run into Quasimoto or Esmerelda, Notre Dame was simply magical. The stained glass windows were tied with the beautiful arched ceilings as my favorite part of of the church.

I loved this stained glass window!

Inside Notre Dame

Outside of Notre Dame

Next stop- I had never heard of this church before arriving but once I saw it, I was in awe. Sacra Couer sits at the very top of a hill (more like small mountain) and once you get to the top, you can see the Paris skyline all the way to the horizon. The church is in the Momantra area, which has a cute, artsy market where artists were painting and selling their work right then and there. For lunch, me and Laura did the local thing and ate cheese on a baguette in the open park area below the church. It was delicious, and I felt so Parisian.

Sacre Couer

Outside of Sacre Couer

After lunch, we took the metro to the see the Arc de Triomphe. The monument was very powerful as it honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. Names of generals and places of French victories are inscribed on the inner and outer walls of the arch and there is a tomb of an unknown soldier buried beneath the arch. The monument was very touching and incredibly beautiful to see in person.

Arc de Triomphe

Being the arc

Since the arch is in a very central shopping location, our leader gave us some free time to shop around and chill. We certainly did more shopping than chilling but I'm not complaining. Seeing the Paris fashion was very cool and made me feel like I need to get with the program on how to dress like a trendy European.

We met back with the group at the US Embassy where we had a meeting with their outreach coordinator and immigration specialist. The meeting was extremely informative, and I learned a lot about the embassy's purpose in different countries. It was also nice to be around people who spoke English!

Continuing to push through the day at full speed, our next destination was the Louvre. The Louvre was amazing since it is a historic monument and art museum all-in-one. I adored roaming the exhibits, totally mesmerized by the ancient and contemporary art. We visited the Mona Lisa and other famous works in the Louvre like Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. It was an awesome and extensive museum but I need about four more days in there to see and read everything I wanted to!

She looked right at my camera!

Living works of art

Venus de Milo

Still no signs of stopping on this whirlwind of a day! From the Louvre we had a classy dinner on the patio of a restaurant by Notre Dame. I learned that smoked salmon is not my favorite but the dish looked picture perfect-

Food may be my favorite thing to take pictures of

After dinner we grabbed some bottles of wine and ventured out to see the Eiffel at night one last time. It starts to sparkle at 11:45 and only shimmers for 15 minutes so we made sure not to miss a second. Watching the tower glitter in the night was a gorgeous ending to our eventful day.