Travel: Paris, the City of Love ♥

This Erasmus semester has much more to offer than studying abroad, living in another country and meeting new people (what´s actually a lot already). It also takes me to so many amazing places in and around Belgium and I really love that part of it. I have already been to Paris before but I don´t remember everything because it was during a really stressful exchange programm from school and we only spent one day in the city. But this time I really wanted to take photos of everything, so I can keep something to remember it. And actually the next time I´ll go there I´ll try to not take any photos at all but to take it all in to really feel it.

From Brussels, it only takes four hours with the bus to get there. With the high speed train it would be even faster but a little bit more expensive. As I decided to take a night bus at 5am, I arrived there around 9am and had two whole days until sunday evening. The first thing I really wanted to do, is getting original french breakfast with a pain au chocolat, a café au lait and a jus de fruit. That was really easy to accomplish. Then my first stop was the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Élysées. When you get there before all the shops open, you can really enjoy walking down the street without too many people crossing your way.

From there I got to the Place de la Concorde, from where you can walk through the Jardins de la Tuileries to the Musée du Louvre. This was also one point on my bucket list, because last time I couldn´t visit the museum. I now think that you should spend a whole day in this museum because it´s huge. But also is it very crowded. Normally I prefer quiet museums, so this one was not really my cup of tea. But I saw the Mona Lisa, so I´m fine with it ;).

After the Louvre, we went on the île de la cité to see the Notre Dame. It felt kind of weird to go there once again, remembering where I sat five years ago eating the lunch my guest mother prepared for me. I will never forget the chips and the apple puree! But this time we had our dinner really clos to the church at a really nice italian restaurant. The Pizza is even in France (where you should actually eat french food) always a good idea.

As our Hostel was in Montmartre, we were able to walk up to my personal favourite of the city: Sacre Coeur. And this time I was able to see it at daytime and nighttime and from the inside, so I was really happy.

A little tipp for people who stay in Montmartre: the restaurant-bar-club BARBÈS next to the metro stop Barbès-Rochechouart is really nice! I had my first ever try of oisters there and I think I have eaten things that tasted worse. But I don´t really get why you should spend so much money on it when you just swallow it without tasting it..

On sunday we went to a great market at the Place d´Aligre and also had some more frenchy lunch there. And the last stop was the Tour Eiffel. I really think that you have to see it when you´re in Brussels because it is so impressive.

All in all, this trip was exhausting and stressful, but as I managed to see everything that was on my bucket list, I was really pleased in the end. See you next time, city of love!