Kelli Carter ~ Staff Writer
Last weekend was Valentine’s Weekend, which meant that love was in the air, whether it be with a partner or just showing your friends love. Last weekend, I also got the opportunity to visit one of my bucket list travel locations: Paris, France.
I went to the city of love on the most commercialized love holiday of the year and actually loved it. It was everything that I expected Paris to be. Unlike my friends, who arrived in Paris on Thursday night, I arrived on Friday, allowing me to have all day Friday. My friends, on the other hand, arrived early Thursday morning, so they also had Thursday to explore the city.
The first full day of being there was actually Valentine’s Day, so my friends and I tried to pack as many things as we could into this day. We started off the day by going to a really cute French bakery where we had coffee, a croissant and a quiche (shh, I went Vegetarian in France).
From there, we went museum hopping and went to the Louvre Museum where we, of course, saw the Mona Lisa. I always heard that it was small, but, actually being there and seeing it, I can agree with people who say that it is very small. From there, we went to the Musee d’Orsay where we saw works from Monet, Degis, and Van Gogh. I was mainly fan-girling in this museum because there were so many works that I have learned about in class, and I actually got to see them in person. I was so glad to get this opportunity to see these pieces.
From there we got Chipotle and some wine to have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Fun fact: Spain does not have Chipotle, so my friends and I were really craving it for a Valentine’s Day lunch. Once we got there, we saw so many couples having lunch with their loved ones, drinking wine and eating cheese. We obviously had to take pictures by the Tower, so we did. Also, one of my best friends from the University of Lynchburg, Haley Rolince, is studying abroad in Paris, so I got the chance to see her when I was there.
She came to the picnic that we were having and we just talked about our different experiences being a student in other countries. She has never taken a French class, so the language to her is new, but she is learning something new each and everyday. It was really nice to see her because she reminded me of Lynchburg and just to catch up in person.
On Saturday, my friend group and I went to another museum called Georges Pampidou, which had Contemporary and Modern Art. Being an art minor, I really enjoyed the fact that we got to go to a lot of museums while we were in Paris. I just feel like the city is just filled with so much art, so being able to see some of it was amazing and truly made the trip so much better.
This trip was overall amazing and I would honestly go back to Paris to do more things and see more museums. At the end of the month, I have another trip planned to Morocco, and I am extremely excited about that. Stay tuned to see what happens next week.
