Bonjour! Je m'appelle Diep, Je suiz American! (This was about the extent of my French.) I went to Paris a few weeks ago, at the end of March, to visit Sisi, a friend from Penn who is studying at HEC (apparently one of or the best B-school in Europe). Unlike Wharton students, who still compete at the highest level, HEC students realize they are set and party....A LOT!
I'm going to forewarn you that my Paris trip was entirely about food. Hah, no surprise there, I'm sure. My first day there, I went to a fantastic creperie in Versailles, since France is famous for its crepes. Afterwards, Sisi left me for school and I toured the famous Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles).
The weather was a bit ugly, unfortunately, but the palace is indeed beautiful! According to Wiki, since I can't remember any of the history I read at Versailles, the expansion of the château became synonymous with the absolutism of Louis XIV. 
King Louis XIV wanted to keep his advisors and provincial rulers close him, to make sure they would not revolt against him. Others also resided at Versailles and aided in its current day construction, including King Louis XV and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. 
I'm adding a few pictures to give you an idea of how incredible Versailles is...if you include its gardens, Versailles stretches for miles. It's so massive, I had to spend an entire day just touring Versailles. These pictures are the front of Versailles, the famous Hall of Mirrors, and the gardens/fountains/lake of Versailles. The next day, I had duck confit...duck boiled/roasted in its own fat...yum! Then, to work off that food, I walked to see the Moulin Rouge theatre (where they still have interesting shows *wink*) and hiked up a hill to go to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Church) and to get a beautiful view of the City. Here are a few pictures for you.
Even though the weather was a bit ugly, it was a beautiful view of the city! We also heard random gunshots or something here so we quickly departed. 
Next on the trip, we walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe! Here, there were tons of high-end stores (much like Fifth Avenue, NYC) including the flagship Louis Vuitton store, which I went into hoping I could afford something for Chi, but to no avail. This street was definitely worth the walk, because I had a pistachio macaron (not to be confused with macaroons, an English dessert) from La Duree! It was so good, I went there again later in my Paris trip. 
Towards the end of the strip, we reached L'Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph), which honors those who fought for France, especially during the Napoleonic wars. There's a cool eternal flame for the unknown soldier under the arch. 
I know, it seems like there was no end to this day, we continued on to go to the Louvre, which was formerly a palace and is now a gigantic art museum. I saw Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but to be honest, there are so many cool paintings there besides the Mona Lisa. A little tip, the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of every month and for those under 26 on Fridays from 6-9p.m.! 
By the time I was finished walking through one wing of the Louvre, an hour or two had already passed, and my legs felt like they were going to fall off. Typical me, I demanded we leave and grab some food. Hah. Here's a cool nighttime shot of part of the Louvre. 
The next day, Sisi, Cat (one of Sisi's friends from HEC), and I went to see Notre Dame Cathedral (Our Lady of Paris Cathedral) and did not see any hunchback during our visit. It's a beautiful Church, here's a cool view of it from the side. Cat and I played on the seesaw in the back of the Church and then we grabbed some food. I had pate, steak and fries, and some appletart...apparently typical French! 
After our tour of Notre Dame, we went to the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower, obviously). It's an iron tower built beside the Seine River; it stands as the tallest building in Paris...much less impressive than I had hoped it to be, probably because I decided not to go up the tower. After the Eiffel Tower, we ended the day with Chinatown and had some Chinese food, which was probably the funniest meal I had the entire trip. Since my friends spoke Mandarin, they proceeded to speak to our waiter in Mandarin; however, we had several waiters and only one spoke Mandarin. As I knew neither French nor Mandarin, I proceeded to order in English. hah. We were indecisive about what we wanted to eat for our entree and dessert, and probably called the waiter(s) to our table at least 10 times! I'm pretty sure they thought we were absolutely insane. 
On my final day in Paris, Sisi left me to attend to schoolwork, and I wandered around the French Tuilleries, which is a huge garden that I'm sure is much more beautiful during the summertime when the plants are actually alive. I had some hot chocolate from Angelina's, which was a bit too heavy and rich for me, but others rave about it! Since there was no Sisi and I had no map of Paris, I searched for a hour or so to find the Pantheon. So of course, it would be my luck that by the time I find the Pantheon (which is located at the Luxembourg Gardens stop, which by the way, is a beautiful garden and actually had live flowers and plants!), my camera runs out of battery! It's a cool building that houses the remains of some famous Frenchies, including Voltaire, the Curies, Braille, etc. There are a lot of empty spots; I guess the French thought they'd have a lot more famous French scientists and philosophers and other contributors to the world. hah. After the Pantheon, I tried escargot (snails)...they're okay. Okay, so to say the least, I did a lot in France, which explains why I came back to Rotterdam totally sick!
I'll write about Rome, my favorite trip thus far, pretty soon.
Finally, time to hear from you! Great Trip! Love you, ms Jean
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