PARIS!

Hey everyone! I'm so excited...last night my dad booked my flight home for spring break! I'll be home for almost a month, and I'm so excited about being seeing my family, friends, and just getting a big dose of Mississippi. :) My flight gets into Jackson at 11:05 p.m. on March 28th. Today I had my first class of the semester. From now on, I have class on Tuesdays for three hours, and class on only three weekends, which will be nice. After class, I went to Costa with Marfo, Michelle, English Natalie (now the ONLY Natalie, since American Natalie went back home!), and Bryone to catch up on our holidays. Ok, here's a recap of our trip to Paris:

On December 30, the five of us girls woke up early and headed to Buckingham Palace and St. James Palace (where Prince Charles lives!), where we had fun posing for pictures with the Beefeater guards. Ashleigh even made one of them laugh by telling him a joke! It was great! We strolled through St. James Park, and then headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and go to Waterloo Station to catch the Eurostar train to Paris. Due to service problems on the train, we had a two hour delay in getting to Paris! It was ok, though, because we had a great time on the Eurostar, and were even served a three course meal! (Note: do NOT eat the pate on European trains!) When we arrived in Paris, we had a little trouble getting out of the train station due to the language barrier and lack of change for the Metro ticket machines. When we finally figured everything out, we took the Metro to our hotel, the Hotel Berne Opera, which was surprisingly nice! European hotels are much smaller than American hotels, so you never know what to expect. The next day, we headed to the Champs Elysees, the most famous avenue in Paris and home to the Arc de Triomphe. We soaked in the beautiful landscape of the French architecture, and climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for an even better view. Afterwards, we decided to hop on a double decker tour bus, which we rode to the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line, and went to the VERY top of the Eiffel Tower! The view is unbelieveable...Paris is HUGE! We found a delicious crepe stand that also had hot chcolate (chocolat chauds). Crepes are like thin pancakes, and you can get them filled with anything from ham and cheese to chocolate and banana. My absolute favorite crepe is a Nutella crepe. Nutella is a chocolate/hazlenut spread, and I LOVE it! Since it was New Year's Eve, we headed back to the hotel to change. We walked down our street to the Place de Clichy, where we found a cute Middle Eastern restaurant with great food. We had a wonderful meal, and a great time chatting during dinner! We met up with the Tooleys and headed back to the Eiffel Tower to watch the fireworks at midnight. Bonne anne! (Happy New Year in French). It was such a cool experience! As you know from the past riots in Paris, Parisians can get a little rowdy. Besides the occasional drunk guy trying to mess with us, we had a lovely time walking up and down the Champs Elysees after leaving the Eiffel Tower. We stayed out SO late...but how often do you get to spend New Year's in Paris? On New Year's Day, we woke up late, but had such a productive and fun day! We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and walked along the Seine River next to the cathedral. It's so beautiful! Then, we headed to the Madeline Church and the Opera house...home of "The Phantom of the Opera!" The Opera house is gorgeous. Paris is such a beautiful city! Next, we went to Montmartre and saw the Moulin Rouge, and had dinner at a little restaurant across the street. Afterwards, we walked to the Sacre Couer, which we all agreed was our favorite place in Paris! The Sacre Couer (sacred heart) is an enormous cathedral that is built on a high hill in Paris, and it was the most beautiful view of the city. We went at night, so we got an extrememly impressive view of Paris at night. We walked along the cute little streets near the church and browsed through some souvineer shops. Then, we headed back to the Champs Elysses and walked towards the Louvre. We saw the Rose Line, which was the original prime meridian for the Earth before it was moved to Greenwich, England. The next day we woke up and headed to the Louvre, which is another beautiful work of art. Unfortunately, my wallet was stolen, so I didn't get to go through the museum with the girls. Luckily, I've been to the Louvre before, so I didn't miss out on seeing anything new while I went to the bank and had money wired to me. It was definitely a blessing that I didn't have my passport or even that much money in my wallet! That afternoon, we headed back to London with another fun ride on the Eurostar! :) Observations about Paris: the food is delicious! My favorites: crepes, croque monsier (kind of ham and cheese on a toasted biscuit with egg on top), and profiteroles (like cream puffs); Paris has amazing architecture and is a very romantic city! Parisians are not big fans of Americans, or anyone who speaks English for that matter. We encountered some Parisians who were very rude to us, but we also met some really nice people, too. Marfo told me that when she went to Paris, she couldn't speak French, only Greek and English, and when she tried to speak English to someone in a store, they just gave her a rude look and wouldn't speak. Basically, almost everyone in Paris can speak or can understand English...they just prefer to speak in French, NOT English. Needless to say, we were all ready to return to London even though we had a fantastic time in beautiful Paris! :) Tomorrow: our final days in London.

Cheers! Dinner on the Eurostar.

In front of the Arc de Triomphe

A view of the Champs Elysees from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Close up of the Eiffel Tower

Me and Ash on top of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower at night...it sparkles on the hour, and looks like someone poured glitter on it. So pretty!

Bonne anne...Happy New Year!

Notre Dame Cathedral

View from the Seine River

Cute house in Paris





More pictures will be posted tomorrow!