Emily in Paris? No, Vanessa in Paris! Known for their pastries and landmarks, Paris was everything I dreamed of. I was in Paris from February 11th through the 16th, visiting and staying with my life long friend Emersyn. In my opinion, 5 days in Paris was the perfect amount of time to roam around the city.
As soon as I landed in the CDG airport, I had to take a train into the city which took about an hour. Once arriving at Emersyn's apartment, she greeted me with pastries, baguettes, and cheese... my favorite 🥰 After getting some food in my stomach, the day really began. Our first stop, the Eiffel Tower! My first thought was "Wow this looks exactly like the one in Las Vegas, just bigger". As I got closer, I was in awe with the tower and the beautiful sunny day. Me and Emersyn found the perfect patch of grass to take pictures and took so many touristy pictures. Our next stop was Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Pantheon, and Luxembourg Garden. Notre Dame is the cathedral that caught on fire in 2019, so it was still under construction. Around the construction, there were stories of Notre Dame before and after the fire. I thought this was really interesting since I forgot about the fire. I learned a lot through the pictures and captions. The Sainte Chapelle was absolutely beautiful from the outside, it looked like a royal palace. We didn't go inside since we didn't buy tickets, but the outside was gold and stunning. Lastly, the Pantheon looked like what a Pantheon usually looks like, very Greek like with pillars. My best description of the Pantheon is the white house had a baby with the Greek Pantheon. The Luxembourg Garden is nothing like a park in the US. It is so well organized and planned; there's a fountain in the middle with seats available. After sight seeing for the whole day, we went back to Emersyn's apartment and got some take out at the local Chinese restaurant right next door.
My second day was another sight seeing day. We took the metro to Sacre Coeur Basilica, a church. To get to this church, we hiked up a bunch of stairs. After the stairs I was wheezing but the 360 view of Paris was so worth it. Me and Emersyn ate croissants at the stairs looking at the Sacre Coeur Basilica. After taking some more pictures, we went to this cafe at the bottom of the stairs. Emersyn got a coffee, and I got a glass of Prosecco. I mean it's 5 o'clock somewhere, right? 🧐 Our next stop was the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre. The Tuileries Garden was absolutely stunning. I was in shock with how beautiful this garden was that I spent an hour just admiring it. Right next to the garden was the Louvre, this is where I took more touristy pictures of me holding the pyramid. We then headed back to the Eiffel Tower for a boat tour around the city! This was definitely the highlight of my trip. Even though it was freezing, seeing the city during sunset time/night time on the river was amazing. Once the tour ended, we saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle! It sparkles every hour for 5 minutes once the sunsets. We then took the bus home to Emersyn’s apartment and cooked some pasta.
Continue for Part 2...
