Days 1 and 2 in Paris...

Bonjour, tout le monde! Yesterday, I arrived in Paris. I was freaking out because my flight from Denver to Iceland was late and I only had an hour layover. Happily, all of the flights waited for my plane so I caught it. My flight from Denver to Iceland was about 7 hours and it was the longest that I have been in a single plane. Plus, I immediately jumped on my Paris flight afterwards, so then I was on a plane for 10 hours completely straight.

When I arrived in Paris, I was lucky enough to meet another girl from my program who was on my flight and we took a taxi together to the hotel. These are my first impressions of Paris thus far. It was cloudy and gloomy when I arrived. I love the classic architecture. Everything is on a small scale here. The cars are tiny and all of the shops are really cute. Parisians all walk really fast and go through crosswalks at all times, even when the cars are going.

Yesterday, we took a boat tour on the Seine and I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time. We were lucky enough to catch it when it lit up.

 La Tour Eiffel from the boat

 It was so cold on the boat though. By the end, all of us went inside the boat. For dinner, we went to an American place called Breakfast in America. Rather funny that my first meal in France was in an American diner. :)

Today was very busy. We got up early to go to Versailles. It was absolutely stunning. Every ceiling was breathtaking in its detail. I have always wanted to go to Versailles and it did not disappoint. My favorite room was the dauphin's chamber. I loved the green color on the walls. Something I didn't realize was that a lot of the furniture are reproductions because the furniture was lost in the Revolution, although they are trying to trace the originals and have restored some back to their original places.

The Dauphin's Bedchamber

 My group and I had fun taking pictures imitating the statues. I am sure everyone thought we were crazy, but it was super fun. I will try and post those pics when I get them. It was so freezing out in the grounds. I was sad that the fountains were not running, the view was still amazing. The gardens and grounds of Versailles stretch for miles. Sadly, we didn't have time to go to Le Petit Trianon, which, for those who don't know, is where Marie Antoinette had a whole village set up and she would dress up as a peasant with her friends. It was too far away and there was no time.

Me in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles

Afterwards, we went to the Musee d'Orsay. Getting to see the Degas paintings up close was beyond amazing. I never realized how beautiful the Impressionist paintings are. Seeing them more up close really showed that to me. I actually preferred them a few feet away, because they obviously look a lot sharper from that view. After a while, my group left to go see the Tomb of Napoleon. It was pretty epic and there were several other people buried there, who were important, I am sure, but I didn't know who they were. Haha.

The final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte

I had a vanilla macaron on the way back to the hotel. It was my first French dessert and it did not disappoint. The vanilla was clearly first-class and it wasn't overly .

We went to dinner and it was about a 3 hour affair. That was a new experience for me. We had four courses. We all had a little turnip soup to start and then I had a smoked herring salad. It was too salty for my taste, which made me sad. I'd never had herring before, but this one was not to my liking. I then had lamb stew for my main course. That was ok. The lamb and potatoes in the stew were great, but the stew part was not a good flavor for me. Finally, in my dessert course, I had a knockout. It was a chocolate ganache cake-like thing and it was utterly amazing. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

So, my first two days in Paris have been uber busy, but very fun. I will post again in a few days, probably Thursday night, when we get to Grenoble. Au revoir, mes amis!