Instead of being on a plane pointing towards Rome, I was searching for something to eat among the meager selection of crappy French airport food. Instead of taking a bus back to my comfortable bed at my homestay in warm, sunny Rome, I was sitting in a cold airport in France. And, mid-afternoon, when I was hoping to be showering and then sleeping away the afternoon, I was checking into a sketchy hostel called “Formule 1” in the little airport town of Beauvais. But the clincher came, when instead of eating a delicious homemade four course Italian meal made by my host-mom, I was sitting at “Buffalo Grill,” an American steakhouse chain in France.

Why, you might ask? Because of fog. Fog in France the Monday morning of our departure back to Rome. Don’t get me wrong, I’d enjoyed my 10 day vacation, but I was ready to get away from the cold and stop living out of a suitcase. After our flight was cancelled, however, our vacation was extended another day and a half, despite our opposition.

And since most of us had entirely consumed, if not exceeded, our vacation budgets, we had to look for a cheap hotel accommodation for the evening until we could try to leave France again Tuesday night, on the flight we’d been rebooked for. So, with everyone in high spirits (insert sarcasm here), we waited in the cold for the bus to come (for which the man at the ticket counter told us the wrong time), finally climbed on the bus that was little warmer than the outside temperature, and headed to the place we’d be staying for the next twenty hours: Formule 1.

It looked about as nice as it sounds. We got two rooms for the 7 of us, so each of us paid about 10 Euro for the night. Basically, we got what we paid for. Although we did have private rooms, it was hostel-style with the bathrooms and showers down the hall. Once we arrived, half of us took a nice long nap to sleep away our troubles until dinner. Then we took a little walk in search of food, and found the now infamous Buffalo Grill. Why we went to an American cowboy-decorated restaurant, I’ll never know. But after some hard bread, undercooked meat, an interesting cheese plate, and some mediocre crème brulee, we returned to our welcoming hostel (the man at the front desk said he hoped our next flight was cancelled too so that we’d be around for another day and he could enjoy our company!). We all hurried past him to our rooms, ignoring more creepy French men in a room nearby, and piled into the two beds in my room for a movie before bed. Fortunately, Ali had brought her laptop, and I had brought a portion of my DVD collection, so we could all enjoy Ocean’s 11 before tackling the challenge of having sweet dreams in our uncomfortably cold hostel.

After a solid 11 hours of sleep, we awoke and all too happily departed Formule 1, crossing the street to the Auchan supermarket where we’d spend the next two hours before waiting another 7 hours at the airport. Fortunately, the night air was fog-free, and so we were clear to depart for Rome! After a bus ride from the airport to the train station, and then a taxi, I was safely home at about 1 a.m. And I could finally sleep in my warm bed again!

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If you’re planning a trip to Paris that’s at the beginning of the month, my advice would be to do your museum visiting on the first Sunday of the month, because entrance is free! We were lucky to come across this tip on a map, and coincidentally, the first Sunday in November fell during our five day stay in Paris! So, we saved our visits to the Louvre and the Museum of Orsay for Sunday, our last full day in Paris.

The Louvre was beautiful albeit overwhelming. We felt rather saturated with art by the time we left. We of course saw the Mona Lisa, which was mounted on a huge wall by itself, behind thick bullet-proof glass, with a roped off area immediately in front of it. I felt like all these security measures in addition to the hyped up expectation everyone holds reduced my ability to appreciate it. But, I guess I can say I saw it now—whatever that means.

Every room we entered was filled with so much art, that after walking from room to room in a half daze looking at each painting I passed, I decided on a different approach. When I entered a room, I would look around and see which paintings (or statues) I was drawn to, and then just go to two or three in each room, spending more time looking at them in depth and being able to appreciate them, rather than leaving the room having seen every painting but not being able to remember a single one. I liked this new approach, and I left more satisfied than I think I would have if I had tried to see everything single piece of art.

After a couple hours in the Louvre, Erin and I headed to the Museum of Orsay (after a crepe stop, naturally…mmmm just thinking of them makes me want a crepe with nutella real bad!). We primarily wanted to see the Impressionist exhibits, so we followed the signs pointing us to Monet and Van Gogh. We saw a number of famous paintings by both of these artists as well as by Manet, Degas, and some post-impressionists. Erin and I agreed that we almost enjoyed this museum better than the Louvre because we both appreciate Impressionism, and it was a nice break from all the Renaissance paintings, Baroque art, and marble statues that we see all over Rome, and which is what we primarily saw in the Louvre. It was fun going with Erin as well because she’d studied ballet dancer-obsessed Degas before, and therefore was able to provide an educational mini-tour through the rooms of his works.

It was quite the art-filled Sunday, and after we were museumed-out, we retreated to Versailles for our last French dinner, or so we thought (see “I hate fog.”).

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Naturally, the first thing I did in Paris was climb to the top of the famous 117 year old, 324 meter metal structure that looms over the city. Not by means of the 1665 steps, though. Are you kidding me? I paid that 11 Euro for the elevator to tote me up to the top. Packed though we were into the elevator, I pushed my way to get a spot at the window so I could film my ride as I ascended the tower.

It was amazing! I didn’t think it would be that exciting and didn’t realize how gorgeous the view from the top is! I just figured I had to go because I was in Paris and it was something to check off my list of things to see. But, I guess because my expectations were low, it made exceeding them all the easier! I could have stayed up there all day! But, the cold and Ali’s fear of heights prevented us from doing so.

For those of you who’ve never been, first, you choose a line to wait in for about an hour. Three of the legs of the tower are equipped with elevators, and the last leg (South Pillar) allows the more adventurous and budget-minded people to climb the stairs to the middle level of the tower for free. We opted for the elevator, which first dropped us off at Level 2 (115 meters up), where we could take in the view from all sides of the tower. The city of Paris is huge! I had no idea how big, white, and pretty it was! After some mouth-gaping and picture taking, we waited in the line to continue our ride to the top viewing deck. This ride was a little nerve-racking, standing next to the glass windows right by the elevator door, moving straight up, rather quickly, and watching the city fly by. I was glad to be filming and watching through the camera lens, because when I looked out directly, a little shiver went down my spine.

Then we stepped out into the covered, enclosed area where we could see the amazing view from an even higher point! Then I went up the little flight of stairs to the open air viewing point, although it was enclosed like a cage with bars to prevent things—or people—from falling off the tower. Even though it was cold and windy at the top, I loved it! I just kept going around the circular viewing deck, and couldn’t get enough of the view and how high up I was! I especially got a feel for how high we were when I aimed my camera towards the ground and zoomed all the way down to ground level; it was a video of what it’d be like to fall from the tower, I suppose—haha! I also took a couple of pictures of the view straight down the side of the tower, which are pretty amazing!

I didn’t want to leave, but we had to get on with our day, and we needed to get Ali back on the ground! So, using the view as a map—we actually found the L’Arc de Triomphe out the window at the top of the Eiffel Tower—we plotted our course to see this famous monument next. Then we descended the tower and said Au Revoir to the golden statue of Mr. Eiffel himself!

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