The French aint got nothing on my fries

I knew that the French were not responsible for coming up the concept of french fries, but for some reason I thought that they would taste better in France. Uh, no. As rumor has it, the Belgians invented the fries/frites/chips/french-fried potatoes, so I probably should have visited Belgium if I wanted world-class fries. Despite my disappointment in their fries, France was one of my favorite places to visit.

I stayed in Paris at Oops! Hostel. Now, you're probably asking yourself why I would risk staying in a place named "Oops" but the pictures of the modern retro design drew me in as they would any trendy 20-something-year-old. Actually, Oops was quite nice except for the small bed that Laura and I had to share in our double room. Paris actually had the most expensive rooms out all of the places that I visited in Europe. Still, I was in Paris so could not complain. The hostel was located in the Latin Quarter, which has direct metro lines to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Nothing stayed open that late in the Latin Quarter, but by the time Laura and I made it back to our hostel from a day of exploring, we were too tired to do much of anything but sleep.

The Eiffel Tower ("ET") was just so nice that I had to see it twice. (Okay, that sounded much less cheesy in my head than it looks written.) The ET deserves a day and a night trip. I went to see it the first night I arrived in Paris but did not end up going up to the top because the third level was closed. I made my way back to the ET by day three and spent about an hour in line to get to the top. The view of the city was well worth the wait, although I enjoyed the view better from level two than from level three. Actually, the best part of the ET is going down on the elevator, which I have included below.

Most of my time spent in Paris was at the museums. I could have spent an entire weekend in the Louvre and not seen every piece of art on display. Musee D'Orsay was also an amazing museum full of pieces from Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Jean Béraudand Jean-François Millet. I had to fight my way to the front of the crowd to get my photo taken with the Mona Lisa. I think it is behind bulletproof glass. It was the most protected piece at the Louvre, as you had to stand behind a guarded wooden rail several feet in front of the painting. The Venus de Milo, the ancient Greek statue of love was also impressive. Arguably, the best part of the Louvre was the Cour Napolean (Courtyard of Napoleon). It is where the glass pyramid (that was featured in the movie The DaVinci Code) sits and is the entrance to the museum.

Notre Dame was equally impressive. The church is massive and the architecture -- inside and out-- is spectacular. After exploring the church on my third day in Paris, Laura and I had sandwiches from a street vendor. That day, we ended up switching hostels, too, because we arrived a day late and Oops! was booked to full capacity. The second hostel was Hotel Caulaincourt. It is named after the area that it is located in. While the room was nice, the area had less to do than the Latin Quarter.

On day four, Laura and I found ourselves at Les Catacombes de Paris. Apparently, at the end of the 18th century, the Council of the State pronounced the cemetery of Innocent as the root of infection for the district. They began removal and evacuation of the cemetery. From 1786 until 1814, the Catacombs, or underground tombs, were used to collect the bones from all of the cemeteries in Paris. All of the inscriptions inside of the tomb were in French or Latin so Laura and I had a tough time deciphering what they all meant but luckily we met Wendy, a young woman from Nevada who translated what was written inside of the tombs. Wendy told us that she was there visiting for the summer because she won a trip from her school. I was impressed that she had just finished high school (my 17 year-old little sister would not be brave enough to go hang out in France for the summer even if it was free).

So ends my time in Paris, France. It was an amazing four days. I met great people on the way to and from France and am looking forward to a day layover in Geneva, Switzerland.