J'adore Paris!

On Thursday, September 30, a few of my friends and I took a night bus to Paris for a three-day weekend. Our hostel was right by the Sacre Coeur in the Montmarte district of the City of Lights. We hit the streets early on Friday morning and, by the end of the day, we figured that we had walked over 5 miles and climbed approximately 2,000 stairs! We started the day at Notre Dame, went to Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and the Pont Alexandre III bridge, saw the Sacre Coeur and the Montmarte district, strolled through Pere Lachaise cemetery (where we saw the graves of the Impressionist painter Georges Seurat, the Doors frontman Jim Morrison, and the composer Frederic Chopin), and ended with a nighttime tour of the Louvre. By the time we left the Louvre at 10 pm that night, all we were able to do was stumble back to our hostel and crash for the night. Overall, my favorite part of the day was hiking through the Montmarte district and Sacre Coeur, and the most surprising part of the day was our exploration of Pere Lachaise cemetery. We had heard that it was impressive, but we were blown away by the size, age, and sheer tranquility that it achieved in the heart of a giant city. Here are some pictures from day one:

On the steps of Sacre Coeur (my favorite part of Paris)

Pere Lachaise Cemetery - an oasis in the middle of Paris

Notre Dame in the early morning

Saturday ended up being an early start as well. Although we didn't have as much climbing to do, there were still a lot of sites on our list that had to be seen. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower, then we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysee. After we shopped for a couple of hours, we walked through La Concorde on our way to the Latin Quarter. We met up with some other people from our program that were also in Paris for the weekend, and hung out in the neighborhood for the rest of the night. A quick pictorial overview of day two:

Eiffel Tower

Excited about shopping and eating on the Champs Elysee

Arc de Triomphe

On Sunday, we went to the Musee d'Orsay for a couple of hours before catching the bus back to Brussels. Overall, it was an exhausting tour of Paris but I loved every second of it! As a teaser for my regular readers, the title of my next post (which will be up soon): Bummin' in Berlin. Until then, au revoir!