To add on to my Summer Rundown post, I want to share my second part of my Europe trip. The second country that we went to was France. In France we went to Paris and we explored the city.
When we first landed in France, it was interesting because the airport was surrounded by a lot of farmland. When we got into the airport it was somewhat small and it was very crowded. As we were leaving the airport, we had to find a taxi driver, but it was extremely hard due to the language barrier. It was hard to understand the native people because no one family could speak or understand french except for my dad. Once we got the directions to the taxi area, we found a driver, but the whole situation seemed a little sketchy. When we got in the car my parents asked the driver if he took credit cards and he said no. At that point my dad knew something was wrong, but by that time we were already on our way to the hotel. The driver ended up scamming us and we paid double from what the usual price is for a cab ride.
Once we got to our hotel, we dropped our stuff in our rooms and went out to explore the city. As you walk up the roads there are many high end stores, boutiques, and restaurants. The food was really good at the little cafes and coffee shops there was amazing. The buildings in Paris were interesting and different from the buildings here.
In Paris we visited a few famous buildings and tourist attractions. The first famous building that we went to was The Louvre. The Louvre was huge and it had many amazing paintings. I got to see the Mona Lisa, but the line was so long we had to push our way into the crowd to take a decent picture of it. We also got to see some famous paintings by Raphael, Michelangelo, and many more amazing artist. We did not go through every room there because the museum is extremely big. The next famous building that we went to was The Palace of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles was really interesting to me because the gold accents all over the palace was real gold. The building was huge and it had over four hundred rooms. I wish I had been more educated about the building itself before I went, but it was cool to learn about everything first hand and seeing the real model rather than a replica.
The last tourist attraction that we visited was the Eiffel Tower. We walked past it a few times when we were walking to other destinations, but when you saw it up close it was so cool. My family and I had dinner in the Eiffel Tower which was such an amazing experience. We had dinner on the second floor, and the tower is a lot higher than I originally thought it was. I was super amazed at how nice the restaurant looked and I was amazed with the view looking out to the city. For dinner, we had a six course meal and I got to try new foods like Pigeon, Foie gras, and escargot. The dinner took almost three hours, but it was worth it! We got to see the sunset while we were inside the tower and we got to see the tower at night when all the lights were lit up. It was an awesome experience and I would 10/10 recommend going to the Eiffel tower for dinner if you ever take a trip to Paris.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend visiting Paris if you enjoy history, pastries, shopping, and of course macaroons.