The City of Love

Paris, France- the home of the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, and much more. Where a crêpe stand is around every corner, or in between a bakery and a hole-in-the-wall cafe. Where couples fill the narrow, stone brick streets, blissfully walking along while sharing a baguette. Where Maddie and I spent what seemed to be, the best five days of our lives together! 

The hotel that we stayed at, Hotel Bonsejour Montmarte, couldn't have been in a more perfect location. The street below us was filled with cafes, bars, and restaurants- where in the evening, were hopping with live jazz music and artsy vibes. If we kept walking down for about five minutes, we would end up at the Moulin Rouge! In this section of town, tourist stands, sex shops and bars surrounded us...which wasn't the best place to end up at night! Luckily, we didn't run into too much trouble or mischief... If we walked ten minutes north from our hotel, we were at the Sacre Coeur! This was an artsier part of Paris, where markets, bakeries, painters, musicians, and quirky/cute stores were located. It was the perfect place to split a sandwich, sit on the side of the street, and watch all of the different kinds of people walk by! 

We got very lucky with the weather the first two days- the sun shone and there was no wind! I thought we were in paradise. Unfortunately, the third day was a bit cloudy, and the last two days it rained. We had a lot of inside activities saved for the rainy days luckily, for example going to museums or churches. 

I'm trying to think of what we didn't do in Paris...but I feel like we packed in everything that was possible in five days! Every morning we'd get up early and go down for breakfast, where we were served bread, a croissant, and hot coffee, by the owner's wife or daughter of the hotel. We'd pick a few things to do on our list that were located in the same district, buy a metro ticket, and head out!

Of course we went to the Eiffel Tower...I mean, who could go to Paris and not see it? We went up to the second floor, where we could see all of Paris. What. A. View. There we sat, on top of the Eiffel Tower, sharing french fries and enjoying what a perfect day and perfect life we had at that moment.

Going to the Love Lock Bridge has to be one of my favorite activities that we did in Paris. It's a bridge located near the Notre Dame, where couples, friends and families lock a padlock to the bridge, and throw one of the keys in the water. We bought a cute lock with the Eiffel Tower etched into it, and fortunately it had three keys- one to throw, and two to keep! Very sentimental, and something that we can always hold onto in remembrance of our time in France together.

The Sacre Coeur was incredible as well. The location made it even better, with the painters and markets surrounding. It overlooks on Paris, which had almost as good of a view as the Eiffel Tower! We went to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Sainte Chapelle, Rodin Museum, Opera National de Paris, and many more! In the evenings we talked over white wine and split an entrée. It was really the perfect vacation, and who better to spend it with than my older sister.

Monday we headed back home on the train, passing again through Belgium. Today we have laid around the house, enjoying being able to relax! I swear I walked more in Paris than I have ever walked in my life...good thing though, we had to burn off all of those crêpe, macaroon and baguette calories somehow! 

Not sure about our plans this week, but I still want to go to Amsterdam and back to Antwerp with Maddie. Stay tuned!

-Molly