Our Visit with Rosie & Cara: Arras, Paris, and Versailles!

Two weeks ago, two of my and Grace’s closest friends came to visit us from their own study abroad home, Cork, Ireland. Cara and Rosie made the trek through the United Kingdom (where they did some touring), through the Chunnel (on a bus!), and finally to Arras. They spent four wonderful days with us; we visited Arras, Paris, and Versailles and in the meantime we caught up after not seeing each other since December!

Us lovely ladies!!!

Our first full day with our friends started with a tour of Arras. We started out with the Petit Place, where we took some time to go into the Hôtel de Ville (this was my and Grace’s first time visiting it too) and up the belfry to have an aerial view of Arras! (Belfries sort of became a motif during this trip.)

We took an elevator initially to get to the top of the tower, and then we had to climb 40 steps of a spiral staircase before we were able to see Arras from above. It was a pretty cold, blustery, and eventually windy day, but it was still really cool to see the city from a different angle! Out in the distance were old battlefields from World War I. There were also helpful little plagues around the belfry that showed what cities were how far away from Arras, which was cool to see too!

We then walked to see the theatre and a park that Grace and I adore. Circling around, we stopped in the town’s cathedral, which is a huge structure. It was initially built in the 9^th century, but was rebuilt in a classical (not gothic) style around the 18^th or 19^th century (thank you Grace, for that information ;)).

The park we love :)

The Labyrinth! 

Playing in the Labyrinth at the Beaux-Arts museum

Me and Cara!

After the cathedral we took the girls to “our” café, Le Cercle, where the owners/our best friends ever were delighted to meet our American friends. Grace and I introduced Cara and Rosie to our favorite café drink: un cappuccino noisette, or a hazelnut cappuccino. After catching up at the café, we wound up back at my place to watch Ratatouille and eat some delicious pasta.

Saturday was our big trip to Paris. We started the day in Montmartre, one of my favorite areas in the city, where we saw the city from another aerial view (the hill of Montmartre is HUGE) and walked around the Sacré-Coeur basilica.

The stairs that we climbed up to Montmartre

Paris from Montmartre

Sacré Coeur

Sacré Coeur

We then wandered through the streets in an attempt to find the Moulin Rouge, but were distracted by the Montmartre Cemetery. Despite some confusion caused by looking at the wrong cemetery map in our guidebook, we were able to see Degas’ tomb before deciding to continue with our journey. We found the Moulin rouge shortly after that, in front of which Cara sang a bit and we took our photos before continuing our tour of Paris.

The Montmartre Cemetery

The tomb of Degas

One quick metro ride later we were in front of the Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame. As the line for Notre Dame was incredibly long, we continued along the Seine toward the Musée d’Orsay, whose line proved to also be too long.

The Louvre

As the girls really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, we headed over to the Louvre, whose line was shockingly not long and we were able to see La Jaconde very easily! I actually don't have a photograph of the Mona Lisa, but I have some other Louvre works!

Winged Victory

Da Vinci

Madonna of the Rocks by da Vinci

After a quick stroll through the Tuileries Garden and a quick pit stop at a fountain near the Place de la Concorde, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower! There wasn’t enough time to go up the Tower, so instead we ate in its shadow and had a massive photo shoot before returning to the train station and Arras. All in all, a very successful and exhausting day.

The most amazing place in Paris: Standing outside the Louvre, one can see the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysée that leads to the Arc de Triomphe, and just out of sight to the left is the Eiffel Tower

The Tuileries

The fountain, with the Place de la Concorde in the background

Les Invalides

Pont Alexandre III- part of a very famous bridge

Scenes from our "photo shoot"

On Sunday, Rosie and I woke up early again to travel to Versailles. Our trip included a train ride from Arras to Paris Nord, a metro ride to the St. Michel station where we boarded an RER train to Versailles. I think, in total, the trip was very close to 2 hours. But! We arrived at the town and the palace, and after waiting unnecessarily in line for an hour we were able to enter the palace for free!

The Golden Gates!

"To all the glories of France"

The palace tour included the rooms of various royal family members, the Hall of Mirrors, the king’s chambers, and the queen’s chambers. The queen’s chambers are decorated still with Marie Antoinette’s summer hangings, in case you were wondering. I guess I should point out before I continue to gush and post a million pictures of the queen’s rooms: I adore royalty and I adore Marie Antoinette. But, I slightly digress.

The Chapel, Marie Antoinette was married here

The Hall of Mirrors

The King's bed

The queen's bed/chamber

Marie Antoinette herself

As it was a Sunday, the palace was completely packed and terribly crowded, so after seeing the main sights Rosie and I ventured into the gardens. As it was a Sunday, fortunately, the fountains were on and from many, many speakers poured forth classical music. This was absolutely delightful as Rosie and I strolled through the gardens in the late afternoon sun, day dreaming of being royal and wearing our gorgeous 18^th century dresses. In addition to our daydreaming, we spent some time sitting by the Grand Canal, eating dinner and trying to evade the very persistent and unafraid swans searching for food. It was unbelievably pleasant, as it was a very warm day and several families were playing in the grass and taking out canoes on the canal. It was quite picturesque! Versailles typically fits this bill, it goes without saying.

The Grand Canal from the palace

Rosie with her favorite fountain!

The palace from the Grand Canal

We made it back to Arras around 11 p.m. that night, where Rosie and I joined Cara for a movie before heading to bed. Our last full day together happened to be that Monday and Grace and I had class and a final (the final went pretty okay!). Cara and Rosie made us dinner (a chicken, carrots, onion rice dish with macarons as a dessert) and us girls spent the night chatting and enjoying our lovely company before they returned to Ireland the next morning.