Sweet Disposition: An American Girl in Paris (yes, I stole that title from a Sex and the City episode)

Paris. Where to begin? We were only there for three short days but we managed to see and do so much! The trip began on Thursday morning when we (my roommates Hannah, Catherine and Raye, and Mitch, another guy on the trip) took the train at 6:42 in the morning. We were able to sit in first class on the way there because for some reason it was cheaper when we bought our tickets. The seats were very comfortable and it was very quiet (perfect for sleeping through the 5 hour train ride)! Once we arrived in Paris we had to figure out which metro train would get us to the correct street where our hotel was. I was very proud of us for reading all of the maps, taking the correct metro, finding and checking into our hotel with no problems at all. Once we had checked into the Hotel de Paris and Mitch had checked into his hotel right up the road, Hotel Avalon, we went and grabbed lunch at a pizzeria that was right up the road. After lunch we began walking around the city. We had done quite a bit of research about the best things to do in Paris before we arrived and a bus tour of the city was pretty high on the list. So once we reached the Opera House, we saw there was a stop to get on and off one of the double-decker buses. They came every ten minutes so we were able to get on one fairly quickly. The bus tour turned out to be a great purchase because our tickets were valid for the whole three days we were there, we could hop on and off at whatever stop we wanted. It stopped at most of the major sight-seeing spots and throughout the entire ride we were given headsets that told us about each place we passed and all of the history behind it. The first place we stopped at was the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc was very intricate and was engraved with the names of generals who commanded the French troops during Napolen’s regime. Napolean was the one who commission the arch in 1806 to commemorate his victories but he died in exile before the arch was even finished for him to see. The Arc de Triomphe wasn’t completed until 1836 during the reign of Louis-Philippe. Next we stopped at the Eiffel Tower, which was what I was looking forward to the most. Here are a few interesting facts that I learned about the Eiffel tower:

· The Eiffel Tower took 2 year, 2 months, and 5 days from start to finish

· Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was the main architect, and he decided to design this structure to prove that iron could be beautiful. He was also the person who created the internal frame of the Statue of Liberty in 1885.

· The tower stands 324 meters tall, and for a while it was the tallest structure in the world.

· Approximately 60 tons of paint is required to paint the Eiffel Tower, and it is painted every 7 years in 3 shades of brown (darkest shade at the bottom).

· They still use paintbrushes to paint it!

We got off the bus at the Eiffel Tower, admired the view of it for a while, and took approximately 500 pictures of it haha. At around 5:00 we walked down a street that was close to the tower, found a little restaurant and had a glass of wine outside while we people-watched. After we had finished, we decided to get a bottle of wine and got to sit under the Eiffel Tower to watch the light show. When we went into to the store to grab a bottle of wine, we were approached by a woman with whom we had a very interesting conversation. After we had explained that we were studying abroad in France and were just in Paris for the weekend, she asked what school we went to. We told her Virginia Tech and she responded with, “Dear God, that’s the school where they kill people.” My first reaction was either to slap her or just turn around and walk out of the store (I probably should have just done the latter), but I think I was so stunned by her comment that I just stood there paralyzed in disbelief (I think my mouth was even hanging open). Then she proceeded to ask if we were in sorority, so of course Catherine and I replied that we were both in Sigma Kappa and Raye told her that she was in Delta Gamma. “Ugh, don’t you just find that sororities are just awful these days? And those frat boys you all hang out with…they’re just terrible!” I’m really not sure how she wanted/expected us to respond to this…maybe with a “yes, sororities are awful and that’s exactly why I joined one.” I pretty much blocked out the rest of her comments for the time we were in the store but I do remember her closing with this last comment, “I bet you all think its so cool that you can buy wine here! What are you 16, 18, definitely not legal at home, right?”

Hmmm…last time I checked, typically 16-year-olds didn’t go to college.” It literally felt like it took about 20 minutes for the cashier to ring up my one bottle of wine but I finally managed to get out of the store and escape her.

We made our way back to the Eiffel Tower, made ourselves comfy on a spot on the grass and watched the sunset behind the tower. It was absolutely beautiful. Once it got darker the entire tower lit up and then around 10:00 the whole thing started sparkling in white lights. We sat there forever just staring in awe. Later, we caught a taxi back to the hotel so we could get some rest for our big day ahead of us!

I’m breaking up my posts because I have so much to write about Paris but there will be more to come soon!