Les Fontaines Chantilly

... the way. I ended up at the St. Michel fountain, where I actually ran into one of my friends and we decided to have dinner together. We went to Bercy, which is the section of Paris renowned for its wine. It was a cute little street, complete with cobblestones, and the meal was absolutely delicious. Thursday- This was my last 6-hour day of class and my friends and I wanted to celebrate afterwards. We went to this fondu restaurant near Montmartre where they ...

Slow start to the day after a good first night's sleep under canvas (nothing to do with the bottle of French red of course!) Onto the Metro from Maisons Lafitte, change trains at Charles de Gaul, then to the Louvre for the afternoon. Easy entry through the glass pyramid, hired some electronic tour guides ...

One of the best benefits of traveling is that you inevitably meet a lot of very different people. Sometimes you just spend a couple of minutes talking to them - on the metro, at a cafe, while waiting in line - then move on and forget the conversation. Sometimes you become quick friends and, especially if you're traveling alone, spend the day together. Sometimes you stay in touch, but most times you don't. I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of people on my travels. I met ...

... blogs) the view was awesome and well worth it. The weather was finally sunny and I had a clear day to look over Paris. I recommend going up at the end of your trip, because when I got up there all I did was see things that I had done earlier that week. I headed back down and the quest was on for sleeping arrangements for that night. See, the hostel that I was staying at didn't have room in the inn for me so I had to find something else. I decided that one night ...

... to catch the RER C (VICK) to Versailles. I had been a bit anxious about this as I had read to MAKE sure we got on the right train that said Vick... I didn't know what that meant... but lo and behold on the front of the train it says VICK! Wonderful, am on the right track! Initially my ticket didn't work when I put it in the turnstile machine but happily there was an agent at the info office and she gave me two (one to get there and one to ...

... and the city looked cool at night. Took the Metro to the Tour Eiffel and thought I was crazy because the train skipped the stop. Got off at the next one, went in the reverse direction and it was skipped that way too. Turns out it was closed. Got off and realized that the Eiffel Tower was on the other side of the Seine River...bad news, or so I thought. I ended up walking over the bridge (didn't realize it was pedestrian-friendly), and it was a great experience. The river ...

... French. "No, it's not mine." "And it's too big for me," she explained, putting it on her ring finger. "It must be a man's. What do you think I should do with it?" "Why don't you leave it here on the cobblestone wall," I offered, "maybe he'll come back and get it." Perhaps I'm a hopeless romantic thinking that this poor man is distraut that his wedding band is missing. "I think you should take it." she says, shoving the ring into my hand. "I don't want it ...

... la Gioconda. It was Sunday when entrances to all museums in Paris, Arc de Thriomphe and some other tourism attractions were for free. Additionally, it was my 22nd Birthday, so it couldn`t have been a better chance to do that all sightseeing for free. Because we didn`t have too much of time as we had lots of things to do on that day in our schedule, we went only to see the most famous painting in the world - Mona Lisa. Surprisingly, it was really small (A3 size) and not ...

... go on a bus. And we got on the bus, which was PACKED TO THE BRIM mofos, and there were babies and this crazy bug-eyed woman. And then our bus hit a car. Like, for serious. It hit a ****ing car haha. We were all so confused and we werent sure if they were going to get us another bus so we kind of just left and luckily, we were a block away from Notre Dame. Later that night we went to Monmatre, a really nice place ...

... and I just can't find my party. Granted, I was early. I knew if I had tried to catch up on some rest back at the hotel room, I'd conk out for the night, so I just left. Finally, around ten thirty, I gave up for my quest, thinking that if I didn't, I'd run the risk of also ruining any sightseeing I might do the next day (considering I'd wasted all my sightseeing the first day in finding my hotel and dealing with transit worker strikes) and knowing that if I finally did find ...