Aero: Claire Darling – France 2014 – City Life

Aero: Claire Darling – France 2014 – City Life
Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

Aero: Claire Darling – France 2014 – City Life

Claire Darling

Paris was a completely different world. Vitrè seemed more like the authentic quiet France that I expected, while Paris is a mixture of cultures, languages and a whole lot of tourists. Paris also contains tons of monuments, museums and important historical sights. It was like a much older and more refined New York City.

The driving and traffic in Paris was unbelievable, there were tons of cars and there weren’t always lanes. The twelve roads intersecting around the Arc de Triumph were practically a monument themselves, there were no lights, lanes, yield signs- nothing, people just went and stopped if they felt they might get hit. I’m glad that we walked and took the metro everywhere. The metro was really fast and easy and allowed us to get to lots of different parts of Paris. We ended up with pockets full of little metro tickets.

ML@FLCC France 2014 Flickr Gallery

We saw many of the “must see” places in Paris which included Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, the Tuileries Garden, Sacré Coeur, the Montparnasse viewing tower, and Paris lit up at night via the Bateaux Mouches on the Seine. One of my favorites, which we didn’t even expect, was Sainte-Chapelle, a church that was built to house the crown of thorns. The upper chapel was nearly wall to wall stained glass windows and there was detail in every inch, it was beautiful. There were also tons of shops and restaurants. My favorite shopping was actually in Rennes, there were a huge variety of shops selling very unique products. It was also funny to see “the mall” which contained about six stores including an H&M and a Brioche Dorée. Deciding where to eat was usually quite the challenge because there were so many options. It is incredible how many things there are to see and it’s no wonder Paris is a huge tourist destination.

Paris was beautiful, it’s full of amazing things and I would go back in a heartbeat but one thing I really had trouble with was the amount of tourists. There were people everywhere, many of them disrespectful and unaware. Ultimately our “school group” made some hilarious and unforgettable memories thanks to a certain set of tourists.

Learn More: Study abroad with Modern Languages @ FLCC

– Claire Darling

The LEAF Project
www.leaflanguages.org
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike