Paris

Notre Dame

For my first major trip, I took a train from Geneva to Paris, which is only about a three hour ride on a high speed train. My travel companion rode a later train, and we stayed with my best friend's brother and his girlfriend in their apartment. 

After taking the screechy metro to their home and dropping off my stuff, we started a quick tour of Paris. At the Louvre, we saw the Mona Lisa and explored the different wings. I could easily see myself spending days there, just the architecture of the building was amazing. We walked along a bridge that had railings covered with padlocks, said to ‘lock up the love’ of the couples who placed them there. It was a popular spot for the locals, who drank wine and snacked on cheese and bread. So French : )

Gardens at Versailles

Saturday started with pain chocolat, a chocolate filled croissant, and a train ride to Versailles. Building began in 1687 and continued on for many years, especially under the guidance of King Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette (until their assassination that is). It’s a massive property, with an elaborate château, and acres of gardens, fountains, and ponds. We were lucky to have arrived on a day where the fountains were turned on. We sat on the grass and watched the fountain/ music shows, and later enjoyed a picnic by the lake. Dinner was found at an Italian Pizzeria, after a few hours of shopping and the purchase of my mini tower keepsake.

Light Show

Every night on the hour, the Eiffel Tower lights up like a Christmas tree and at the risk of sounding cheesy, it was magical. We sat in the park just next to the tower, sipping champagne, and gazing in awe until after the last show, at which point we wandered home.

Because Versailles took up the majority of that Saturday, we had a lot to see before our evening train back to Geneva. We grabbed breakfast at a bakery and headed to the tower, where we were met with tour buses, crowds, and men bombarding us with offers of Eiffel Tower trinkets. The lines to get to the top of the tower were long due construction on one leg, and the breakdown of the elevator in another. We also didn’t get to go to the very top because of problems with that elevator, but oh well, it was worth the wait. Reaching the top was an incredible feeling, and with it came a check mark on my bucket list.

View from the Tower

We also saw the Arch de Triumph, Champs-Élysées, Notre Dame, and the Luxor Obelisk, ending with a daytime visit to the Louvre. There I took my first shameless tacky tourist photo (see below haha).  

Louvre

Louvre

The trip home wasn’t as easy as the way to Paris. The station was in complete chaos, no platforms were posted for departure, and no trains seemed to be moving. As our departure time came around and no platform was listed I got pretty nervous. Not knowing the language/ what’s going on was so stressful. But, after a while, a few trains were listed and their passengers tried to move through the mob of people, including us. We were bottlenecked in a corridor when security yelled out something about Geneva, and people scattered throughout the crowd yelled and waved their tickets. This happened a few times until I realized that they were trying to get the crowd to let the passengers of our train through. Well, eventually I made it to my train and it departed over an hour late. I later found out that the delay at the Gare de Lyon was due to protesters on the tracks, taking advantage of a peak travel time, to draw to most attention. Ugh.

I hope to make it back to Paris for New Years, when my sister will hopefully get to visit. :)

~Emer