Roommates in Paris!

The weekend of April 4th-8th I met up with my roommates in Paris. It was absolutely WONDERFUL. My roommate Laurel was studying in Rome and she flew up with three of her Rome roommates. My roommate Sarah is studying in Montpellier so she took the train up with one of her friends. We were just missing Bethany and Mari!

Thursday, April 4th
Signe and I flew on Finnair which was luxury compared to the cheap Ryan Air flights. We got coffee or tea, a cold beverage and a meal on the long flight. We did have a layover in Helsinki but it was so worth it for the nice flight. We got to our hostel rather late, like 10:30, and the hostel lied. It is not close to the heart of Paris. It was the most expensive hostel I've stayed in but it was also the most disgusting. I think it was partially under construction and the numbers on the doors weren't plaques but instead ripped pieces of computer paper with the room number written in pen. So not legit.

Friday, April 5th
Friday Signe and I met up with Laurel and her friends at the Palace at Versailles. I got in fo' free since I had my Swedish residency permit. Saved me 18 euros. The gardens in Versailles weren't in yet and a portion of the gardens was under construction so it did not exceed all my dreams but it was interesting to see. It's unreal that people actually lived there. Like what do you do with all that space? Absurd.

The front of the palace

Someone slept here.

Why does anyone need a room with so many foot rests?

Or so many paintings?

We also checked out Marie Antoinette's Estate. Basically, where she went to play peasant and enjoy country life. I can't imagine why she was disliked during her time as queen. She seemed just like a normal person just like you or me. Not. Even her supposedly simple estate was ridiculously decorated. The life of a monarch must've been so hard.

After Versailles we headed back into Paris and split up. Signe and I checked out the Notre Dame Cathedral for the first time. More on that later.

Notre Dame!

We met up with Laurel again for dinner. One of her friends knew of a fondue place that sounded interesting and boy it sure was! It was called Le Refuge des Fondues. It was tiny but super fun. Since it was fondue there was only two choices, meat or bread. Since there was six of us total, we got one of each. Oh man was it delicious. The best part about it was drinks. The served your drink in a baby bottle! I felt really weird drinking out of a bottle.

Our appetizer wine!

Laurel and me with our wine bottles.

Leaving my tiny mark in the back of the restaurant. 

From there, we were already in the Montmartre district so we walked up to Sacre Coeur. So beautiful. Getting to the to the top of the hill was a work out. It was something like 225 steps not including the few at the front of the church.

Sacré Cœur

Sarah's train got in that night so they dropped their bags off at the hostel and met us at the Obelisque which is our new favorite monument in Paris. I learned from my travel book that it is a 3,000 year old Egyptian obelisk and is part of Place de la Concorde which at the location of the execution of LouiXVI. It sits at one end of the Champs-Élysées, opposite L'Arc de Triomphe. 

Obélisque de Louxor

Finally, we walked down to the Eiffel Tower. Ahh it was AMAZING. All lit up and every hour or something like that it sparkles. And all three of us are in the same sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma, so we of course had to take a Sigma picture!

Sigmas at la Tour Eiffel! Me, Sarah, and Laurel

Saturday, April 6th

It was mostly a food day. We had free breakfast at the hostel; the only redeeming feature of that hostel.  We wandered the L'Arc de Triomphe and ran into our fellow Gustie, Jenni and her mom! I knew she was in Paris but I was not expecting to see bump into her. We did some light shopping along the Champs-Élysées. It was unreal. I was shopping on the most well known street in the world with my roommates. So cool. In classic Gustie fashion, we made our way to Chipotle. YUM. Oh how I love Chipotle. So American. 

And again the next day!

Crazy awesome chalk art.

L'Arc de Triomphe

 Laurel had few goals for her weekend, but one was to get Ladurée Macarons. Delicious mission accomplished. We ended up back at the Notre Dame, hanging out on the steps eating our macarons. After that we said bye to Laurel since she had an early flight back the next day :(

Marie Antoinette flavored macaron

Just chilling in Paris. Casual.

We (Sarah, her friend Liz, Signe, and myself) continued to hang out in the touristy area around the Notre Dame. Bought some awesome paintings and some postcards. We ate at a nice little restaurant near the river. I had Boeuf Bourguignon. So French and so good.

Outside Musée d'Orsay acting like statues

Sunday, April 7th
My goal for the day was to use more French. Early, early day for everyone. Sarah and her friend went to stand in line at the Eiffel Tower. Signe and I headed to the Louvre. Luckily on Saturday we stopped by and asked about tickets and such and were given a tip: to go in through the Lion Entrance. We didn't wait in line at all to get in. While trying to figure out how to get to the Mona Lisa, I got the chance to use my French! She knew no English so I had to ask in French where it was and how to get there. She gave us directions in French. Totally followed the directions and found the Mona Lisa! GREAT SUCCESS. Luckily, I did not have high hopes for the portrait because I had been told by many people about how much of a let down it is. Low expectations so I was not disappointed but I was thoroughly entertained by the high number of people taking pictures of paintings with iPads. Lolz.

Tiny tiny portrait. 

Classic.

Outside the Louvre!

 While going to meet Sarah and Liz after the Louvre, we stopped and cheered for the Paris marathon! It was good motivation for when I got back to Sweden and had to get back on track with my running for Grandma's half marathon this summer.

\

Allez! Allez!

We met up with Sarah, Liz, and Liz's friend studying in Paris. Liz's friend brought us to her favorite crêpes stand. Delicious and giant cheese and ham crêpe. Sadly, after hanging out with them in a park soaking up the sun (I got sunburned), it was time to say goodbye again :( But we snapped some awesome pics in the archway!

Roommates!

 Signe and I headed back to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top! If you go to Paris, book your ticket online before hand. We went through the VIP line and got the jump to the very front of the queue. Obviously, we had to have a snack at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

So many pastries. 

At the very top!

View from the top!

Riding the elevator to the very top was actually one of the most terrifying things I have experienced. But once we made it to the top, I relaxed and was able to enjoy the view! It was a beautiful day so the view was fantastic. Obviously, we went back to the Champs-Élysées to do some serious shopping and we both ended up buying at least one new article of clothing from a store on the Champs-Élysées. We made our way toward our hostel and found a little French restaurant for dinner that was so charming. We ended up at a table next to two women from Eau Claire, Wisconsin which is where Signe is from originally. What a small world! We had to have French onion soup and French fries since after all, we were in France. Unfortunately, I lost the slip of paper with the name of the restaurant and searching for "restaurant in Paris with good French onion soup" on Google does not yield any results. I will let you know if I find it.

Monday, April 8th
Short and sweet. Got up, caught like 12 different trains to the airport, flight to Helsinki. 6 hours in Helsinki. Haha we decided to go eat at a mall near the airport. We unintentionally picked an American restaurant. Oops. We had wings! And then spent some time shopping. We went out to catch the bus and two buses that stopped at the airport drove straight past us so we had the genius idea to walk to the airport. Dumb idea. We walked for an hour and gave up. Found a hotel that had a free shuttle to the airport. But we made it and didn't miss our flight! We even had time to buy some lingonberry liqueur. Made it home to Uppsala very late but it was worth it and I slept so well that night.


We basically ate our way around Paris. But we also walked a ton. It was such a lovely trip and I am so so so glad that I got to enjoy the city of love with 2 of my roommates!

Au revoir!