a walk down a parisian memory lane
i've traveled with my parents since a young age but my first real international trip as an “adult” (and no, i don't count canada) was to paris, france right before my sophomore year of high school. the specific details of the trip are a little fuzzy - now ten years removed - but the memories are still so vivid. with my small, silver canon camera & passport in hand, i boarded a plane to charles de gaulle with my best friend hannah and her family. let me preface this by saying, the images you’re about to see are low-quality and the outfits are what you'd expect from a teenager in 2011, but this trip really jump started my passion for travel.
at the risk of sounding clichè, you can’t go to paris and not visit the eiffel tower. you just can’t. day or night (and i recommend both) the eiffel tower shines. it’s an ethereal feeling, and one that i equate with standing near the grand canyon. you feel so small in its presence and so, so lucky to be there. a little bit of history - built for the world fair in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of the french revolution & initially met with little enthusiasm, the eiffel tower is the tallest structure in the city. it was also once the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for over 40 years! a few other fun facts on the eiffel tower:
it wasn’t meant to be a permanent structure. it was supposed to be torn down 20 years after being built, but gustave eiffel put a radio antenna and telegraph transmitter at the top and the city deemed it too important to demolish.
there’s a secret bunker underneath the tower! not so secret anymore though since you can tour it!
it’s the most visited paid monument in the world, welcoming nearly 7 million visitors a year!
to this day, one of my most memorable experiences was sitting in front of the eiffel tower as the sun was setting, eating gourmet cheese and fresh bread, in the company of the best people.
there are boat tours on the seine river that take you right by the eiffel tower and if you book one at night while it sparkles, i can confirm you’ll feel just like lily collins from emily in paris.
when visiting the louvre, be prepared to wait in line. but i mean, it’s the largest art museum in the world, so that’s to be expected. i guess what i’m saying is come prepared. all hannah & i wanted to see was the mona lisa, so that’s basically all we did. i honestly don’t even remember seeing anything else! unpopular opinion though, the mona lisa isn't that spectacular. it's smaller than i imagined and the crowd around the plexiglass covering was similar to a walmart crowd on black friday.
near the louvre is a ferris wheel on the place de la concorde, a public square, and the view from the top is just breathtaking. i remember seeing paris and the eiffel tower below and being totally mesmerized. hannah, on the other hand, was avoiding looking outside our little bubble at all. she’s deathly afraid of heights but i’m so proud she actually went on the ferris wheel with me!
moving just 12 miles south of the city, you’ll find yourself at the palace of versailles, the crazy beautiful home of king louis xvi and marie antoinette. this place is old money and it is insane!!! i cannot imagine people living like this. it’s opulent & grandiose & every other fancy word you can think of. i don’t know what surprised me more - its sheer display of wealth or the fact that it’s still standing after nearly 400 years. my favorite room was the hall of mirrors decorated with what felt like millions of sparkling chandeliers.
another stunning landmark in the city is the notre-dame de paris. over 850 years of history and prayer fill the walls of the medieval catholic cathedral known for its french gothic architecture and flying buttresses. this is also a must-visit in my opinion, but i love visiting historic churches on my travels. it broke my heart to hear of the fire that destroyed part of the cathedral in 2019, and i hope it’s able to be restored to preserve its historical and architectural integrity.
on our walk over to notre dame, we came across this pedestrian bridge decorated with hundreds of locks. we later learned this to be pont des arts, where tourists would attach padlocks with their names and initials. throwing the key into seine below signified love everlasting. something out of a hallmark movie right? these love locks, as they came to be known, eventually started to deteriorate the bridge and part of the parapet collapsed in 2014 due to the sheer weight of nearly 700,000 locks, according to some reports.
i remember every morning waking up in our little hotel and walking around the corner to get a fresh baguette. i would call my mom on a payphone each day and recant our travels. one night we stayed out so late, the subway closed and we were stuck in the city. after a few hours we made it back to our hotel, laughing the whole way home. we butchered the beautiful french language when ordering dinner. hannah and i did face masks at 2 in the morning because we couldn’t sleep. we met abercrombie and fitch models on champs-élysées and thought that life was good. (it was).
it's crazy what sticks with you. i only remember vague bits & pieces of what we did - the double decker tour bus to familiarize ourselves with the city, sneaking sips of wine, eating crepes on a street corner - but it all felt so magical the whole time we were there. i regret not writing down my experiences then. i didn’t know it was going to be a trip i look back so fondly on.
i've always read that paris is overly romanticized but that's exactly what it felt like for me. being in a foreign city at 15 years old was truly an eye-opening experience. one that ignited this passion for travel. the culture, the people, the food - it'll all stick with me for the rest of my life. and i can't wait to make it back to paris one day.