In Which I Butcher the French Language Yet Again

One of the many perks of living in Spain is that I can do things like take weekend trips to Paris. A bus ride to the Madrid airport and a short two hour flight later had me landing in the City of Lights last Thursday along with my study abroad group. I proceeded to have an absolutely wonderful time, cementing my choice of Paris as my favorite European city. It's so hard to capture Paris with just photos, so for this city you get videos! There is a special feeling in Paris that you don't get anywhere else, something magical and exciting, which is exactly what I squeal in almost every video on this post. Just a heads up.

Last time I was in Paris, I climbed the Eiffel Tower in the daytime, so to switch it up I wanted to go at night this time. After dropping by the hotel long enough to throw our bags into our rooms, some of my friends and I rode the metro over to the Tower. Even though we couldn't go the whole way to the top since it was too late, we could still ride the elevator up to the second level and look out over the city that way. It was gorgeous and in my opinion a lot cooler than climbing it during the daytime. It's not for nothing that Paris is called the "City of Lights."

Since I had been to Paris before, I tried not to do all the exact same things. Therefore, instead of just going inside Notre Dame (for free) I also paid to climb up it. Similar to how I preferred the Eiffel Tower at night, I preferred the outside of Notre Dame to the inside. Sure the inside is grand and the stain glass is fantastic, but I've seen so many grand cathedrals in Europe, and the stain glass of Sainte Chapelle can't be topped. However, no other cathedral I've seen has such an interesting exterior. The gargoyles add a lot of character to the outside, they're all different and some are carved so it looks like they are gazing out at the city. I ended up with about twenty pictures of gargoyles on my camera since each one was unique. As an added bonus, you also get to go inside one of the bell towers to look at one of the massive bells hanging there. 

The Catacombs were also new to me this trip. According the the cute French man who tried to flirt with my friend and me in the catacombs gift shop, there are over 6 million skeletons down there. Apparently back in the day, there was a large graveyard in Paris with so many bodies that it was causing the neighbors to fall ill. The bodies were dug up and moved to an old quarry that was at the time outside of the city. The highlight of the visit to the catacombs was when I tripped and caught myself against the skeletons. It was rather alarming and I'm sure my face was hilarious. 

This is the cemetery in the neighborhood on Montemarte. I was here on my last visit to Paris, but liked it so much I returned. The crows calling added to the graveyard atmosphere this visit and I tried to capture the sounds in the video though I'm not sure you're able to hear it very well. 

I'd have loved to spend more time in Paris, really the Louvre itself requires about a month to go through. Maybe sometime when I have zillions of dollars I'll go live there and spend all my time eating crepes and sitting on the Seine. Something to aspire to for sure. Hasta luego!