Paris

Two weeks ago, I went to Paris with my grandparents. It had been their present for my 20th birthday and the first days of my semester break seemed the perfect time to go there. So we took the new TGV at 7 o'clock Sunday morning and arrived in Paris already before noon. It's really amazing to reach such a beautiful city in only four and a half hours!

Already the first afternoon was full of interesting discoveries - as we went from one place to the other almost exclusively by walking, we saw so much: beginning in the "Quartier Latin", where our hotel was (did you know that the name for this area comes from the times, when the university students had to speak Latin? this is where the main buildings of the university are!), we went to look at the Ile de la Cité and the Ile St.Louis. Here are the origins of Paris and it's a beautiful area! Before we went to the famous NotreDame to listen to a concert, we had Ice Cream at "Berthillon"'s - the best Ice Cream in the world, I swear! (yes, despite being a Mövenpick-Fan!;)) In the evening, we had dinner in one of the oldest and most traditional restaurants of Paris, "Le Procope" - it is said that Napoleon and several other famous people used to go there! :)

Monday took us all the way to the modern, almost futuristic district of "La Defense", which impressed me a lot! I could not stop looking at the Grande Arche, which is a true miracle of architecture! And also all the other office buildings with a lot of glass, reflecting every sunbeam...

From there, we walked down the Champs Elysees until we reached the Arch de Triomphe and from there further along this straight line to the pyramid of the Louvre.

In the evening, we went on a roundtrip in one of the cruise ships on the Seine - unfortunately it was raining like mad, but it was still very impressive to see all the monuments from the river (this is why the above picture of the Eiffel Tower is slightly blurred - there was rain on the lens!).

Tuesday was dedicated to the Palace of Versailles. What we did not know was that the famous Galerie des Glaces had only just been renovated and reopened the day before - which with hindsight explains why we had to queue for hours.. still, it was definitely worth a visit!

In the evening, another biig highlight: a visit to the Moulin Rouge!!! After dinner we joined the queue (yes, it was the day of queuing! :)) and then experienced one of the most colorful (and full of diversity!) and lively things I've ever seen! We hardly knew which part of the stage to pay attention to, the movement of the dancing was so fast and all the costumes were overwhelming! If you ever get the chance to see where Baz Luhrmann got his inspiration from, go to a show at the real Moulin Rouge, it is really worth it!!! :)

To end an amazing trip, Wednesday was reserved for shopping. It was just the time of the big sales and the huge shopping malls "Printemps" and "Galeries Lafayette" were more than crowded - but still, just to have seen this was amazing! No comparing these malls to anything we have in Switzerland... After having bought everything we needed (or not needed, but wanted ;)), we returned a last time to our lovely hotel. Before we went to the train station, we stopped at a restaurant to have Crêpes (which I have learned to make myself in the meantime! Thanks Grandmaman, that was fun! :)) and also bought some sandwiches for the way home on the train.

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention that part of the deal was that we would only speak French from the moment we crossed the frontier - can you imagine??? well, I did my best, but especially in the beginning, it was really hard for me - I had not spoken a word of French since I finished High School and was so focussed on English (and Spanish)! In the end, however, it was certainly a great opportunity for me not only to improve my French, but also to get to know a wonderful city - and most of all, to spend 4 days alone with my grandparents! This is something we had never done before and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot! So, if you two read this now, I can only thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, it was amazing!!!