Paris et Bar-ce-LO-na

Ok, so I'm back in Nantes after a week of Winter Vacation. With three wonderful girls from IES, I traveled to Paris and Barcelona, and then back to Paris. It was crazy, tiring, amazing, challenging, and wonderful all at the same time. I got to know my friends better, got to see amazing things, meet some really cool people, and experience travelling in a foreign country where I don't know the language, at all. 

Paris first. After arriving via the TGV, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, not realizing that we would arrive just in time for the hourly twinkling lights. AND it was midnight. Call me sappy and cliché if you want, but in my opinion, it was pretty darn magical.

The next day, after visiting the Sacré Coeur and the open-air market, we took off for Barcelona. Well, "took off" is probably a bit romanticized, considering we used RyanAir and had to take a hour-long bus ride to a city outside of Paris for the Paris-Beauvais airport. I'm not complaining though; it's insanely cheap. Favorite quote from that experience: "Please turn off your cellphones and other electronic devices, and for those who smoke ... please quit."

Some highlights from Barcelona include happening upon a late-night party in the street, seeing a demonstration complete with cardboard guillotine, and hearing a man rap about Jesus. Well I guess those are more like oddities than highlights...

We walked everywhere, and took tons of pictures. Gaudi, a famous architect, lived in B-Town and designed a ton of amazing stuff, including the Sangrada Familia. I loved the uniqueness of this cathedral; it's so different from the Gothic architecture all over France. The front wall recounts the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion with abstract sculptures, and I found it really interesting to experience the story in that way. Hopefully my pictures can do it justice.

Paris will always have my heart, but if you took away the history, the language, the food, and the Eiffel Tower, I think Barcelona would definitely win. I loved the weather, the architecture, and the ambiance of this port city. The people of Barcelona were also strikingly warm and friendly. Half the time we had no idea what they were saying, but they were super kind and patient. Me gusta Barcelona!


If you ever need a pick-me-up while learning a language in a foreign country, just go away to another foreign country where you know zero percent of the language, and then come back. Seriously, after being almost completely deaf and mute to the Spanish for 3 days, speaking and understanding French was cake in comparison. It made me appreciate how much I actually do know--even if I do still get weird looks and "huh?" expressions. I love this language.

So returning to Paris was great, because words actually sounded like words and not like a mixture of rolled r's and I-don't-know-what-else. But it was also weird, because some words sounded like English. Because they were English. I heard so much English there it was crazy. Tourists--everywhere. And the storekeepers in the tourists section, too; they know English so they're going to speak it to you if they know you're American. The few people who didn't--who actually respected our attempts--have no idea how wonderful they are. I wish I could send them flowers or chocolates or a new car or something. On the reals. They're the best.

My four favorite things in Paris ...

- Nutella crepes. Obsessed. In love. A little scary.

- le Musée d'Orsay. My favorite part of the entire trip. I always had a hunch, but I've now decided Monet is my favorite impressionist.  His paintings are beautiful. And seeing real Edgar Degas ballet paintings was like a dream come true.


- buying an amazing water-color painting in the artist square at Montmartre. The woman who painted it was so sweet, and I'm so excited to hang it on my wall at home. A little piece of Paris.

- getting told I "don't have a heart" because I didn't want to give money to help feed insanely fat, stray cats in a Parisian cemetery. Definitely a first in my life.

I think this week taught all four of us how stressful travelling can be, but I'd say we managed pretty well, and even came out on top. Just navigating the Paris metro system in itself will give you about 10 years of life experience. Needless to say, I'm extremely happy to be back--it feels like home now compared to the big city. I had a wonderful time, but I'm ready to get back to exploring my Nantes!!

                                                               (Nantes -->)