Paris for Valentine's Day

Well folks, I did what every girl dreams of doing, I went to Paris for Valentine's Day (at least an early one.)  It was one of the best weekends I have ever had, the only problem was it was way too short!

I headed to Paris Friday afternoon. This entailed taking an hour and ten minute bus to Pisa and then after that the flight was only an hour and twenty minutes! I quickly realized that traveling in Europe is the easiest thing ever. Kai met me at the airport and we quickly hopped on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was unbelievable and I couldn't believe that I was actually seeing it in person! Kai and I were very eager to go up, but the line was about a 3 hour wait, so we figured we would wait until Saturday.

Instead we headed to a restaurant where we decided to order some Bordeaux. Dad, I am starting to learn differences between Wine, I have realized that I love Chianti, but Bordeaux is too heavy for me. Aren't you proud?! I then saw on the menu they had Escargot. I told Kai we were ordering some and he said there was no way he would eat them. I had, had them on a Carnival Cruise when I was in fourth grade and even Carnival made them taste good, so I figured in Paris they had to be amazing. I finally convinced him that we had to order them. The Escargot came covered in butter and pesto, what could be better. When Kai tried one he loved it, and we had officially began our French experience.

We headed to the place we were staying, a room in a couple's apartment that they rent out. It was in Nanterre, an adorable and quaint suburb of Paris. Kai had been there earlier that day and so he knew where the apartment was, or so he thought. We ended up walking around in circles for about an hour, looking for the place while Kai kept saying "this looks familiar" in a very unsure voice. Finally, we were able to get ahold of the man who's place we were staying at, Randall, and he walked us home! We were so far away from it, we could have been walking all night.

Saturday we woke up and headed to the Eiffel tower once again. We got breakfast at a cute little restaurant; an omelette and croissants. Finally, eggs for breakfast!!! The Italians eat them for dinner and I have been dyeing to have them for breakfast. Then we went to go meet our Fat Tire Bike Tour. Lisa Danis told me to do one of these and since Kai and I were short on time we decided it would be a great way to see everything. It was a blast! Our tour guide, Sadie, was very fun and entertaining, and the people were on it were either young couples or students. We got to see and learn about the Eiffel tower, Napoleon's Tomb, The Louvre, Ecole Militaire, Alexander III Bridge, and the most expensive hotel in Europe where the winner of the Tour de France gets to stay! I highly recommend doing a Fat Tire Bike tour if you are ever in Europe, it was so much fun and the perfect way to see the city.

When we finished the bike tour we decided to walk 669 steps up to the second floor of the Eiffel tower! This was harder than I thought because there were some people that looked pretty out of shape inline so I thought it would not be too tough. Well, 669 is a lot of stairs, but we made it! There was an iceskating rink on the Eiffel tower too, and of course beautiful views of the city. We headed to the very top by elevator and when we got there it started pouring rain, which actually made it a really cool view.

By the time we got back down the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We went to go check out the high end shopping. It was ridiculous. Every designer you could possibly think of were all on the same street in Paris. We went to an overpriced dinner near there, where we enjoyed the best french onion soup I have ever had and the worst nicoise salad I have ever had. We made it safely back to our apartment that night without getting lost.


The weekend was very fun and romantic! It was so great seeing Kai and it made me wish we had studied abroad in the same place, but I am headed to London to celebrate my birthday this weekend and get to see him once again!