Well as I left you all last, I was heading to Paris in the morning! This was the last big trip we had planned for the semester and were all super excited to be heading to France. Bright and early on November 28th Amanda, Richard, MK and I set off to the airport to head to the one and only city of love; Paris, France. When we finally arrived, we made our way to our cute little backpacking hostel right next to the Sacre Coeur church! I immediately fell in love with the city of Paris.
Once we got settled in, we decided to walk around the city of Paris and head towards the Notre Dame. On the way there we came across the Louvre! We of course had to stop and take pictures, but saved the museum for another day's adventure. Continuing our walk we came across the love lock bridge! For those of you who don't know what this is, is it is a bridge crossing over the river in Paris that is filled with locks. When you get a lock it comes with three keys. You write on the lock the name of you and your loved one and lock your love to the bridge. Then you take one of the keys and throw it into the river. The other two go to yourself and your loved one. This makes it so that if someone were to want to ever break your love it would basically be impossible for them to because I mean come on, what are the chances of finding the exact key in the river!? So as cheesy as it is, of course I put a lock on :p What a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving then being thankful for Jacob right? After taking pictures so I can attempt to find the lock again one day in life (think my memory is that good...?) we continued our walk and finally reached the Notre Dame!! It was definitely a surreal experience seeing the church in person. When we walked in it was gorgeous. It was later at night and the sun wasn't shining, however the stained glass was still breathtaking. The stained glass was definitely my favorite part! And our adventure didn't end there! After taking our time walking through the church, we took a night walk along the river to go see the Eiffel Tower at night. It was cool because from Notre Dame you could see the top of it and the more we walked the closer we got and the more we were able to see. At one point the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle! It was pretty magical. We finally arrived right at the base of the tower and boy is it tall and majestic. It was such an incredible site to see all lite up at night. Definitely a site to see one day again. We then headed up the street and stopped to see the Triumphal Arc which is the center point of Paris. And it too was a beautiful site but by far can't beat the Eiffel Tower (what can??). After doing our touristy walk for the night, we sat down at a cute little restaurant and at our Thanksgiving meal. We all ate chicken and french fries haha and then headed back to our hostel for the night
Bright and early Friday morning we woke up to head to Versailles! After slight confusion on the train, we made it! Even with the slight fog in the sky and the overcast day it was absolutely stunning. It is a huge place and every since inch of it is amazing. Nothing ugly existed there. Ever. We first walked the palace. My favorite room hands down was the Hall of Mirrors. It was just amazing. There's no other way to put it. I felt like I was back in junior high/high school when we took pictures in the mirrors :p definitely not an opportunity we could pass up! haha we spent a lot of time just looking in that room at everything and anything. So much to see. After walking through the palace we headed outside to look at the gardens which of course were beautiful like everything else there. We also visited Marie Antoinette's summer house. It was cool but slightly disappointing in the sense that compared to Versailles it was very plain. Still cool to see though! After spending all morning and part of the afternoon there we headed back to our hostel to rest for a little.
After resting a little bit, Richard and I went to visit the Sacre Coeur and then do some souvenir shopping. The church was beautiful after you climbed up the steep steps to get to the top haha we then went back to meet up with Amanda and MK and got dressed up to head out to dinner that night before going to the Moulin Rouge! Dinner was delicious and Moulin Rouge was a lot of fun. It was a great experience even if the show was in French. We still understood most of what was going on because of the story line. There was also a ventriloquist who did his part in English. He was pretty funny. Overall it was a great night!
Saturday morning we headed back to the Louvre to walk around the museum for a few hours. We saw the Mona Lisa! It wasn't that exciting to see because it's small but it's still cool to say that I've seen the Mona Lisa. My favorite part of the entire museum was the Napoleon Apartments section. The rooms were gorgeous. It was definitely a place I would've wanted to live! The furniture was exquisite. After spending time at the Louvre we walked to the Eiffel Tower again, but this time to climb! After standing in line for tickets and 500 or so steps later we made it! And it was wonderful and the lighting was perfect! We then climbed our way back down and then met up with my old pastor Scott Herr from Fort Collins. He preaches at the American Church in Paris now and we met there and were welcomed into his apartment. We spent a few hours catching up with him, Chris, and Matthew (2 of 4 of his kids). It was fantastic to see them again!
Sunday was our last day in Paris. I spent the morning attending church at the American Church in Paris. With Scott preaching it was a little taste of home that I needed; it came at the right time. I then met up with the others and we headed to the airport to finish our semester in Rome. It was a wonderful long weekend; one that ended too soon when you are that much in love with a city.
The next two weeks were filled with studio worked. Studio on studio on studio. It was literally never ending work right up until it was due. Finally, we turned in our CD's with our boards to be printed this past Sunday. Monday morning was set up for presentations and then it all came down to Tuesday. One last 20 minute presentation and critique. And it turned out great! We have positive comments all around. I couldn't of asked for a better review. The semester is now over and the last few days haven't consisted of much but pure laziness and cleaning the studio spaces.
As I sit here and write this I can't help but have mixed feelings. This semester has by far been the best one yet and I loved every moment of it and I'm really excited to be home. However, the fact that I may or may not be back here is a saddening thought and one I don't really want to have to think about quite yet. Luckily for me my family is joining me on Sunday and I have a few more days left in Italy to be able to show my family where I have lived, and the places I have left pieces of my heart. One adventure is left on my agenda; share my love of this country with my family. I then will get to head home to my beloved state of Colorado :)
