Day 1: Welcome to Paris!

I arrived in Paris today, by train, coming from Luxembourg where I had previously ended my journey through Italy! Taking the subway seems relatively easy now since I've been taking subways across Europe for the past two weeks. I got off my TGV train (Train à Grande Vitesse, meaning high-speed train) at Gare d'Est, a train station in central Paris. From there, I took the subway train to our hostel, St. Chrisopher's. I was pretty anxious to see everyone when I arrived! The hostel is wonderful and comes with many more amenities than the ones I had previously stayed in during my visit to Italy. The next morning, our first real day in Paris, was pretty eventful. We woke up for breakfast (usually consisting of bread and some type of spread such as nutella, butter, and/or any jelly) and immediately departed with our staff from ESA to see Paris! We began by taking the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, a famous arc within Paris that was erected during the Napoleonic era. From there, we walked along the Champs-Élysées. This is a famous avenue next to the Arc de Triomphe that's known for it's high end retail stores. Originally, the area was mainly only for the upper class. Now, anyone can walk down the avenue and see the shops (i.e. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci). The area was gorgeous and the entire avenue was lined with beautiful trees and cafes. From the Champs-Élysées, we took the metro to an area called Trocadéro. This is basically a plaza that overlooks, from a hill, the Eiffel Tower. The view was gorgeous! Our guide, Clair, gave us a few facts about the tower while we were on the Trocadéro. Originally, the tower was built for use in the 1889 world's fair with strategic engineering that would allow it to be easily taken apart. During this time, many Parisians thought the tower was hideous and would ignore it. Now, it's quite the opposite and many refer to the tower as the "Old Lady" because of the lace-like pattern that the iron creates around the legs of the tower. We walked down the Trocadéro underneath the "Old Lady" and got a nice view from under her skirt! From here, we took the metro and arrived at one of Paris' most famous sites, Notre Dame. The church was absolutely gorgeous! The Gothic architecture and intricate stained glass rose windows left many tourists, much like myself, in awe. After this, we visited the Latin Quarter, the location of one of Paris' oldest universities and where many students currently hang out. There were book shops and cafe's around the area and it was quite aesthetic. This was the end of our tour for the first day. Afterwards, the ESA group that I'm with found a local store called "Casino" and went in to purchase some wine (we're legal to drink here, of course). We thought we'd find something relaxing to do so we bought a few bottles of wine and took them out to a local park out on the river that runs next to our hostel. After this, our group made its way back to the hostel to head out to see the Eiffel Tower. We climbed (well, took an elevator) too the top and looked out over the city of Paris at sunset. It's one of the most amazing things I may have seen in my entire life! Afterwards, we headed back down to the bottom where one can watch the tower sparkle at every hour on the hour for five minutes. Watching the tower sparkle was the icing on the cake for a wonderful day!