“Dérive” – Week IIX

“Dérive” (french) : literally means “drift;” figuratively means a spontaneous journey where the traveler leaves their life behind for a time to let the spirit of the landscape and architecture attract and move them.

This last week was a whirlwind with midterms and papers and it was nice to take a quick break from reality and travel to the city (and country) of love – Paris!

While my friends and I were there we visited all of the major sites and even made sure to add in a side-trip to a Jay-Z concert to boot (pictures will be added at the end, don’t worry). On Saturday I went off on my own and traveled around Paris in order to hit all of the major spots. It’s amazing how much more there seems to be in these European cities than there is in Chicago or even NYC. It blows my mind how at every turn there is some sort of history or some amazing building to witness.

Some of the main places to hit when you get to Paris (also, there is an amazing riverboat that takes you to all of these places called Batoboat – highly recommended):

1. The Eiffel Tower (obviously)

2. The Louvre Museum (where the Mona Lisa and a lot of Grecco art is found for all of you art connoisseurs)

3. Notre Dame

4. The Arc de Triomphe

5. the Hôtel de Ville

6. The Love Lock Bridge (across from the Louvre – YOU MUST PUT ONE ON AT LEAST FOR YOUR FAMILY, it’s so beautiful)

My friend Stratton and I even put a lock on to symbolize our future friendship as CEO’s. You can really put anything on there.

I joked around with postcards to my family that being there I decided I wanted a boyfriend even after I had told myself that I’m not dating until I graduate college, but that place really makes you feel that way! Don’t worry though, it has worn off now that I’m back in Rome. I’m back on track there.

Anyways, out of all of the major cities I have visited in Europe, Paris was by far the most magical.

Here are two final pictures to show you how close I got to Jay-Z (anything is possible) in Paris. No zoom was used in the photographing of this amazing man. Enjoy!

 

Cheers,

Megan