Paris, France

I continued to recover from my sickness in Paris, so the days weren't quite as action-packed as one would hope. That said, we were there for 6 whole days and 6 whole nights, so there's still a lot to tell. To avoid writing a novel, I'll try to just stick to the main sites and highlights.

Paris is a city that needs no introduction. Romance, Eiffel, Crepes, etc. I will say that even after being abroad for a week and a half, hearing all that French was still very jarring. Maybe it's just because I'm kind of used to hearing Spanish in California, but the French language just sounded so different and unintelligible to us. And the pronunciations are horrendous. Every time we took the Metro, we played a game called "guess how to pronounce the names of the stops." Most of the time, we lost.

On our first day, we visited Sacré Cœur (after 6 days I was still saying it wrong). We arrived just in time for mass and walked in with the ceremony and the hundreds of other tourists. It was beautiful inside, but to be honest at this point we were already starting to get used to basilicas and cathedrals. The really cool part was climbing up to the center tower. There are two hundred and something steps I think, and the basilica is up on a hill so it yields probably the best view of Paris short of the Eiffel Tower. There's also a nice grassy park on the hill in front of the basilica, which is a very nice place to sit, relax, and eat a crepe with nutella and banana.

On the second day, we visited Notre Dame (note that it is pronounced something like "not-ra dahm". Ask a French citizen where "noder dayme" is and they will give you a big eye-roll). As I said earlier we were beginning to tire of cathedrals, but I gotta say this one really lived up to its name. There are tons of other beautiful cathedrals in Paris, and I would advise travelers to visit them first because they all seemed boring in comparison to Notre Dame. If you're willing to wait in the long line you can take a tour of the top to see the gargoyles, but me and my sick stomach just sat at the bottom for a while and ate yet another crepe while waiting for Rodrigo. From there we also found time to walk around the serene Jardin du Luxembourg, and see the adjacent Luxembourg Palace. We also didn't miss an opportunity to eat some exquisite French macarons (no to be confused with bland Jewish macaroons).

That night we went to a show at the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret, only a few blocks from where we were staying. I suppose it is my fault for not really doing my research on what cabaret is like (it was Rodrigo's idea originally), but I really didn't expect so much nudity. But it was a fantastic show featuring some truly talented dancers and acrobats, and a one-of-a-kind experience. My tip is to splurge 10eu for the ticket that comes with Champagne, because once you're there it costs 80eu.

We spent pretty much the entirety of the 3rd day in the Louvre Museum. People always say you need a whole day to see it, but they're wrong; you need a whole week. The most important thing: GET AN AUDIOGUIDE. Seriously. You can splurge the extra 5 euros. And the same applies to every museum we've been to; having an audioguide enriches the experience dramatically and can make you care very much about art pieces that you had never previously heard of. Additionally, the audioguide systems in European museums are technologically advanced and not like the crappy ones I'm used to. At the Louvre, it was a modified Nintendo 3DS system, which included an interactive map of the museum that tracked you with GPS so that it knew what room you were in at all times (other museums provided modified ipod touches or Samsung galaxies).

Anyway, the Louvre was amazing. Of course I saw all the must-see masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo but the museum has an unbelievable amount of content to offer. You have to just experience it for yourself.

On the fourth day (this is starting to sound like Genesis), we woke up early and headed to the Eiffel Tower. We hoped that by getting there right when it opened (9:30am) we would be able to skip the line. Well, we still had to wait 30 minutes but I guess that's not too bad. The view from the top was grand of course, but as any architect or engineer will tell you, the coolest part about the Eiffel Tower is the elevator. After a successful morning, we ate lunch and then packed our things and moved out of our AirBNB host's apartment to my uncle Eliav's and aunt Vered's apartment closer to the center of the city. We stayed with them for the rest of our time in Paris. That night we checked out the Opera building and that whole section of town, but we didn't stay out late.

On day 5 we took advantage of our recently acquired proximity to the famous Champs-Élysées (~ shaw-zelizeh) boulevard, and spent the day walking down its length. We started at the Arc de Triomphe, which we also climbed to the top of (~300 steps). Then we headed down the boulevard, stopping at the various automaker galleries along the way. For some reason they choose this area to display all their newest and coolest concept cars and sometimes classic cars from their history, and truth be told it is really cool to see. Further down the street is the Luxor Obelisk and the Grand Palais, as well as its sibling the Petit Palais which we were actually able to enter. At the very end of the boulevard stands the Louvre with its glorious Pyramid, marking the end of our trek.

On the 6th and final day of our stay in Paris it rained very heavily. As such, at my uncle's suggestion, I chose to stay indoors and visit the Musee de l'Orangerie. Boy was that a great choice. This relatively tiny (in Paris terms) museum has none of the lines of the Louvre or the d'Orsay, but what its collection lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. The highlight of course is Monet's Water Lilies, taking up the entire ground floor of the museum, in two oval rooms specially constructed to display them. It's breathtaking.

That night we checked out some bars in the Latin Quarter of the city, which is very touristy but fun. Later, Eliav came out to meet us and we went to another bar in a quieter part of town. And that was the end of our Paris adventures.

Next up is Amsterdam!