Monday, June 25, 2012

Casey in Paris

When we found out that the professors were kind enough to give us a three day weekend to travel, a group of seven of us decided to take a trip to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris, France.

We found tickets for about 130 euros round trip through Ryan Air and stayed at a decent hotel for 30 euros a night. The flight was only about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Seville. We arrived at an airport about an hour and a half away from Paris but they had easy bus transportation that ran every 30 minutes and it cost 15 euros one way. We found that the language barrier would not be a problem. Almost everyone we talked to was very nice and spoke decent English.

Once we arrived, we immediately went to our hotel and found something to eat at a local restaurant. The downside about Paris is that the food, especially in the center of Paris, is very pricey. On average, it was about 10-15 euros a for each meal but the food choices were incredible.

After the meal, we decided to start heading toward the main tourist areas. We found that the easiest way to get to the center of Paris was by the metro train which was 2 euros one way. Along the way, we stopped at an old church which was very incredible on the inside and watched a choir sing.

After that we went to Concord Square which is close to the Louvre and many other amazing monuments. Although we spent a good amount of time near the Louvre, we never actually went in. The line was really long and the size of the building was too massive to attempt in the short amount of time we had there. However, the outside was truly a piece of art itself. As you approached the Louvre, there are gardens with statues which are jaw dropping. After the gardens we continued to admire the architecture of the building itself and the famous glass pyramids outside.

We walked along the beautiful Seine River as we headed to the Eiffel tower. We grabbed a nice dinner near the tower and went back for a good night’s rest.

On the next day we got up and had breakfast at a local bakery which had huge assortments of chocolate and bread in any combination you could imagine. We felt like we were in heaven. Afterwards, we went to visit the Arc de Triomphe which was incredible. As we looked at this monument we also became very interested in the way people drive through this huge roundabout with no street lines or anything. It looked like a mad house to us but appeared to be very easy flowing.

As we were walking toward the tower again we decided to stop and grab some lunch at a Subway because it was cheap and filling. Once we got to the tower, we got in a line to go to the top. After almost 2 hours of waiting in line we were getting close to going in. When we were within 10 minutes, they decided to shut down the Eiffel tower due to a security issue and we all had to evacuate the tower. We were furious but weren’t going to let that ruin our day. We found a nice patch of grass in the park nearby and laid down and relaxed as we looked at the monument and listen to some street performers play their music.

After that we went to go find a restaurant for dinner and to watch the soccer match between Spain and France in the Euro Cup quarter-finals. As we were walking there, we saw several very nice exotic cars. If you like exotic cars like Ferrari's and Lamborghini's,this is the place to be. During our time in Paris, we saw at least 20 exotic cars and it was pretty cool.

Later, we ate dinner and watched the game in which Spain ended up beating France 2-0. We decided to go see the Eiffel tower again lit up at night. On our way we witnessed a very big riot of the losing French soccer fans which was crazy to see. But we got to the Eiffel tower and the police had everything under control. After the Eiffel tower we headed back to the hotel and the next morning headed home.

No comments:

Post a Comment