New link for Paris pictures

It has come to my attention that the website I used for my Paris pictures (for the non-Facebook users) required you to sign up to see the pictures, which was not my intention. I've changed the pictures over to a new site that you should not have to register for to see my pictures. If it doesn't work again, please let me know!

Paris Pictures: Try Two!

Pictures of Paris

I've uploaded many more pictures from my two days in Paris to both Facebook and Snapfish. If you don't have facebook, click the link below to check them out. Enjoy!

Paris pictures

Paris is my hometown: Day 2

Michelle and I slept a full 12 hours!! I felt wonderful when I woke up and was fully over the jet lag. This made very glad I stopped in Paris before heading to Lyon. If I hadn’t, I would have been exhausted by the time I arrived in my new home, right when I would be meeting all my colleagues for the next year. Plus, my stay in Paris allowed me to get reacquainted with the French language and French life in a familiar place, before heading to a place more foreign. It was a welcome pause in my long transit from Pittsburgh to Lyon that made me excited and ready for Lyon.

Completely refreshed, I set off on my own to visit the Rodin Museum (Michelle had already been there twice). I had never been there, but it is now one of my favorite museums in Paris. Rodin’s sculptures are housed in a mansion surrounded by gorgeous gardens. Smaller sculptures are inside. But the true masterpieces, including his most famous, The Thinker, are scattered throughout the exquisite gardens filled with shady tree groves and sunny flower patches. It is incredibly beautiful and the perfect way to experience Rodin’s great works of art.

"The Thinker" in the Rodin Museum gardens

After the museum, I enjoyed walking the residential neighborhood around the Rodin Museum. It had the atmosphere of being completely untouched by tourists, hard to come by in Paris. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing as the Parisians do. I grabbed a goat cheese, tomato, and bacon salad and took it to the Jardin du Luxembourg, without a doubt, the best place in Paris to people watch. It was a beautiful day and I loved visiting one of my favorite places in Paris for the afternoon.

Jardin du Luxembourg at lunchtime


La Fontaine de Medicis in the Jardin du Luxembourg

I met up again with Michelle that evening and went to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur Basilica, the highest point in Paris, to watch the sunset. Another entry on my top ten list of things to do in Paris (it’s been used as a travel guide by many, let me know if you want to see it!). And it did not disappoint. It’s the best view of the city and a district full of life and excitement, with street performers, artists, tourists, and young people all enjoying the view from underneath the beautiful white church. We ended our short tour of Paris with a quick trip to the Eiffel Tower at night. We saw its lights sparkle and met some fun fellow tourists.

Paris at sunset from Sacre Coeur

All in all, I had a fantastic time in Paris. It was a perfect beginning to my year here, but I was ready to go to Lyon and start something entirely new.

Paris is my hometown (one of them)

I've lived in four places in my life: Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Angers (my sophomore year abroad), and Washington DC (well now 5, with Lyon). Paris is not one of those places. In reality, if you add up all the times I've visited Paris, it probably only amounts to about 2 weeks total. 2 days here, 3 days there. Yet every time I go, it feels like one of my homes. I have favorite sights to see, some famous with tourists, some not. I navigate the metro like a pro. More importantly, when I go to Paris, I just get that warm feeling of being in a familiar place I love. But of course, every time I go, there is always more to see. As the famous ex-pat Gertrude Stein said, "Paris is my hometown." (Shout out to svaldes for the quote/blog title!)

Before coming to Lyon, I spent a fabulous two days in Paris. It was by far the cheapest and easiest city in FrancePittsburgh to Paris by way of DC, I met up with a friend Michelle. for me to fly into, so how could I not stop? After flying from She is also doing the assistantship program and we met through the program's online forums. We both worked up a decent sweat dragging our massive 50 lb. bags through the airport and across Paris. But we made it, checked into our hostel, and set out to revisit Paris.

We started by wandering around the Marais, a beautiful district of Paris where you can still see the pre-revolutionary homes, streets, and parks of the nobility, such as Victor Hugo. Now the neighborhood is the trendy of home to a vibrant mix of the artist, gay, and Jewish communities in Paris. We grabbed a take away falafel from the most famous falafel stand in Paris, which we ate while people watching in an adorable little park full of Parisians taking their lunch break in the sun.

Place des Vosges: The park in the Marais

Next, we took a walk through the pedestrian only streets in the ritzy district around the Eiffel Tower. Jet lag finally began to catch up with me, so we stopped along Rue Cler (a favorite of travel writer Rick Steves) for a coffee and more people watching. We then continued on to a familiar but unbeatable walk along the Seine River, from the Eiffel Tower all way down to St. Michel and Notre Dame, with a break at the Jardin de Tuileries of the Louvre in between. After a dinner of crepes and pints of Belgian beer sitting in front of Notre Dame, we headed to bed early because we were still exhausted from the jet lag.

A view of the Eiffel Tower from across the Seine