I'm going to jump back to June of 2007, probably the earliest trip that I'll write about. I was 18, had just graduated high school three days beforehand, and was off to Europe for the first time. One of the young, jetsetting teachers at Walsh Jesuit had organized a couple of group trips that were open for anyone at the school to sign up for. This was the first year they were introduced, so he had a pretty great response. One of the options was for France, which was the #1 place in Europe that I wanted to see, so my good friend Chelsey Kovach (who thankfully actually studied French) and I both joined in.
Day 1
Paris: The Louvre & Arc de Triomph
The group was large- 40 people- but we all got to know each other better over the week traveling around. Ten were from my graduating class and the rest were a mixture of the younger grades and the chaperones. We all met at the Cleveland airport around midday, and I had my first experience on a jumbo 767 plane. I should mention I've always been terrified of flying, and although I'm used to it now I still don't like it. Well, I was assigned to the middle of the plane which freaked me out even more, but thankfully one of the guys switched seats with me so I could sit to a side. I've always felt better by windows so I can reassure myself that the wings aren't on fire or we're not rapidly spiraling into the ocean or anything.
What was not cool was that I got literally zero seconds of sleep on the flight. I must not have been tired, but I remember trying very hard to get a nap in. It didn't work, and when we landed in Paris at 8:30 in the morning (which is 2:30 AM back home) and I was still wide awake, I knew it was going to be a rough day.
To make things even rougher, due to half of our luggage being on another flight that we had to wait an extra half hour for, by the time we got to our hotel, we weren't allowed to stop into our rooms at all. We just left our baggage and had to get on the bus. To clarify, this meant that after a full 14-15 hours of travel, we weren't allowed to shower or even change clothes. I don't think anyone thought when they were getting ready for an overnight flight that they would be planning their outfit for their first day around Paris. I was wearing red lounge pants and an Insane Clown Posse hoodie (let's not talk about my juggalo phase).
So, obviously, I felt really classy rocking up to the Louvre first thing. Despite the fact that I felt too dirty to even exist in that gorgeous building, I really enjoyed the artwork. I actually waited for over five minutes by my favorite sculpture just so I could get a picture unobstructed by Asian tourists.
Worth it.
Winged Victory comes in as my second favorite.
The building itself was, of course, also spectacular. Golden walls, painted ceilings, and the outdoor pavilion with the glass pyramid where I spent a lot of time.
What was disappointing, however, was the Mona Lisa. It's small and simple and if it wasn't so famous you wouldn't even give it a second glance. Plus, you have to fight a huge crowd to get close to it, it's behind guardrails AND a glass case, and then you just get yelled at by the big, bad museum police if they so much as see you preparing to take a picture. There are way better paintings in the Louvre.
We spent a very acceptable amount of time in the museum, then headed out to the Arc de Triomph. I don't know what to say about it because by this time my eyes were starting to go in and out of focus and all of my energy was concentrated on not passing out in the street.
During our free time, I discovered my first French obsession, Gauloises cigarettes. They weren't even menthol (my preference), but they were the best cigarettes I'd ever had. I quit smoking now about a year ago except for the occasional one here and there, but I would like to someday have one of those again. I thought the French were so lucky, but the funny thing is that I had a French friend years later in Ireland who laughed when I told him about my love of Gauloises and said they were old man cigarettes.
We met back up with the group and had our first dinner at a place called Froms. We sat at long tables and they brought out a few flatbreads with toppings to spread across the tables for everyone to share. Initially we all were really confused because this was not enough food for a group of Americans, but then as soon as we finished one they'd bring out another and another until we'd had a huge selection (I remember three veggie ones alone), including dessert flatbreads.
Afterwards, we spent about a half hour watching these four pretty impressive breakdancers put on a show, then we finally went back to our hotel where I was rooming with Chelsey and two other girls from our year in school. First and most dire priority was a shower, closely followed by bed.
Day 2
Notre Dame, Montmartre, the Eiffel Tower
I was well-rested again for day 2. Unfortunately though, my memory about some of these places is not all there. To start, Notre Dame. I remember it being tall with detailed stained glass, but I don't remember much else about it.
All I can gather from my not so great photos is that it was long with arches and chandeliers.
Second, Montmartre. What I remember clearly is that this was my absolute favorite section of Paris.
It was adorable with little creperies and shops all below this hill with a church at the top. We did go up to the church, but I couldn't tell you anything more than what you can see in photographs.
I also got my first ever French crepe with chestnut cream inside and a double espresso and was in love. Plus, I could smoke inside while drinking my coffee which at 18 years old was the highlight of everything. I have a lot of photos from France where I made a very real effort to show off my smoker status. Subtly, as you can see.
Teenage life.
Our last sight of the day was the Eiffel Tower.
I also had a habit of not smiling in pictures.
My main surprise I remember was that it was so much larger than it looks in photos. I took tons of pictures of the base to try to capture this fact.
In a really disappointing turn of events, we were told the group had to stick together and so the vote was to not actually go to the top of the tower. What?! We were allowed to go to the second floor which had nice views, but come on. I'll have to go back for that alone.
After dinner, we were able to go out on the town by Notre Dame, but we were limited on time and had just enough to run to a bar and have one drink. Keep in mind that we were all underage in America, and these were the first-time bar experiences for me and I'm assuming most of my traveling companions as well. It was kind of a big deal and also why any free time was usually used to take advantage of this opportunity.
Day 3
Chartres, chateaus, Tours
I'm just going to consolidate this because I kept terrible notes about the trip when I was younger. I remember Chartres being a small town, definitely nearer to the country because there were bugs and sun again, two things I hadn't seen at all in Paris. There was an open-air market I vaguely recall and shops. We also went to a cathedral.
Next was our first chateau- and here's how I know I have grown up as a person and traveler. I didn't even go IN. We were at this massive, expensive chateau (I believe it is called Chambord) and I didn't even bother looking inside. Chelsey and I walked around the garden. Look at a photo of this place. I couldn't have cared less.
We spent the night in Tours and were allowed out on our own, so my friends and I saw the city by barhopping. I drank Jack and rum but clearly not enough because I was far too sober to compete with the drunk circus that was our hotel that night.
Day 4
Chateaus, mushroom cave, some town...?
So within the first three sentences of writing about this day way back when, I managed to call chateaus "so boring" and say that they are all basically the same, but with more profanity. However, I "actually bothered" to go into one of them and seem to have enjoyed the slave quarters. I also liked the gardens which is something I actually remember really well. They were really pretty with ponds, black swans, a forest next to one of them, and flowers.
I have way more photos from the outdoor areas of the chateaus which isn't surprising. What I can tell you from Googling is that the large one on the water with the beautiful gardens is called Chateau de Chenonceau, but I cannot tell with any certainty what the other one is named (in the bottom picture below). I took no notes whatsoever and was clearly not bothered with these details.
We had galettes (savory crepes) for lunch, then were taken to a secret destination. We actually found this hilarious. The chaperones played up a surprise for us all and we spent quite awhile trying to figure out what we were doing while on the bus, but nobody expected what it actually was.
They took us to a wicker store. I don't know, maybe some people get really excited about wicker, but we were all very confused. We quickly embraced the ridiculousness of it though and I took many wicker basket photos, was amused by the 15 minute long informational video, and bought a wicker flower as a souvenir which is actually still in my bedroom back home.
Our last stop I absolutely loved. We went to a snail and mushroom cave. We looked at the snails first which were kept in a big glass cube and had the pleasure of learning about their reproductive habits and biology. Let's just say it's all disgusting. The shroom area was cooler and I enjoyed using my solarized camera function for trippy photos.
But the best part was that was that we ate dinner in the cave.
We had mushroom tart, brie, bread, and apple pie (there was also an option to try escargot but aw man, I'm a vegetarian, what a shame). The French eat a lot of bread. There's a 99% chance any given meal will heavily feature bread. Also, Nutella is a huge thing. Peanut butter is not to be found anywhere, but economy sized jars of Nutella will line the windows of the crepe shops.
Wherever we decided to post up that night (I clearly didn't find it important enough to write down), four friends and I ended up out at a hookah bar. We met some foreigners there and shared a couple hookahs and some chats, then back to the hotel.
Day 5
Brittany used to, at some point, be its own country. It also was a walled city. We had an interesting tour given by a guide named Coco who had her honest to God pirate's license, so she was kind of interesting in her own right. There's a beach as well, but it was foggy and sort of forlorn looking.
We checked into our hotel which I shockingly wrote down the name of- Oceania- because it was that nice. I stuck with my same group of roomies, but we had two levels to our room, the main level and an upper loft, so Chels and I took the downstairs (I think all of us wanted the loft but that wasn't an option).
We had some time to shop then and I'm mentioning this because I happen to both still own and still wear both things I bought that day- a black dress and my black and gold skull bikini. I just briefly considered whether or not I should be concerned that I am still wearing clothes I bought at 18, but then I remembered that I still own clothes I bought when I was 12, so maybe I have bigger things to worry about, like my issues with hoarding.
We had dinner at a crepe place in the evening, then we all had the night off. I bought some t-shirts (one of which I still own- but it's a mime pantomime hanging itself, you can't get rid of a shirt like that) and then walked around with the roommates until we found our other friends at an Irish bar. It was a cute little place called Le Shamrock, and we had the whole cozy upstairs to ourselves.
Next we went to a more authentic Irish pub, and I still tell people about this today, because it was just the dirtiest pub experience of my life. I ordered a rum, but as I was drinking it, I noticed ashes in the bottom of my glass. I think that's a valid complaint, so I took it back up to the bartender and told him. He looked straight at me and went, "I didn't put them there." Then he took it, washed it out (dumping the rest of the rum), poured another shot for me, CHARGED me for it, and when I got back to the table I realized not only were there still ashes, but now something was floating in the bottom of my glass. I was too grossed out to drink it but one of my alcoholic friends was happy to take it off my hands.
We were a little bit buzzing when we walked back. The rest of the night was chilled out and fun. I walked barefoot through the streets to a phone booth to call my mom, had some chats at the hotel with my roommates, and had a few visitors to our room who stayed to hang out until around 3 AM. Brittany was cool.
Day 6
San Michel, Normandy, & D-Day beaches
San Michel is a gigantic monastery on a hill. It's really impressive and I only have one low-quality photo of it that doesn't do it justice.
You can Google better images.
We did a tour there that I described as "super boring" but I'm sure that it wasn't and I was an idiot. Please don't let 18 year old me discourage you from seeing one of the most famous sights in France.
I loved the D-Day beaches though. We saw one harbor beach that had huge mossy pieces of metal just abandoned there and a museum to walk around.
We also went to Omaha Beach which felt unreal to me. Just standing in a place with so much history was hard to wrap your head around. Thinking about the amount of lives changed and lost in the Normandy invasion and realizing that battle happened on the peaceful beach that you're now standing on is crazy. And what I didn't even realize at the time (nobody in my family knew until recently) is that my grandfather was actually there that day.
Finally we went to Pont Du Hoc which still has German bunkers every few yards that you're allowed into. Those were really fun to explore, some were built into the ground, some small, some pretty large. They were right next to some cliffs overlooking the sea, and you could see craters in the grass all around from land mine explosions. I was actually very cautious and refused to walk off the paths unless it was to a bunker because there were signs everywhere warning that there may still be live landmines. Um, nope. No thanks.
Since we were in a much more rural area and there was nothing around to explore at night, we all just hung out at our hotel. We had a grassy area outside and a picnic table and a large group smoking cigarettes, then our own smaller group just hung out in our room and watched terrible porn on public television and had a "girl talk" night (including one guy).
Day 7
Rouen, Paris, Latin Quarter, Seine River Cruise
Rouen is the capital of Normandy, and I really liked it because of its medieval look, but I also spend my short summary complaining about seeing another cathedral and comparing the boredom to that of seeing chateaus. I would like to retro-smack myself sometimes.
I had my last French lunch sitting outdoors with Chelsey and having a Nutella crepe, double espresso, and Gauloise. Perfect.
I also bought an artsy black and white photo of a boy holding a baguette on the back of a bike with an old man as they ride down a tree-lined road.
We headed back to Paris again afterwards and were dropped off at the St. Michel fountain in the Latin Quarter. We all split up to wander and do our last minute shopping.
The roomies
We met back up for dinner at a trendy place called The Hippopotamus, then we were once again free to roam around. One of our awesome guy friends bought all of us girls gelato, then we went to sit down in a cafe (ok, it was a Starbucks) to play cards for a little bit. We left around 9 to stop at a bar even though I was literally the only person in that small group having drinks, and I downed a few shots before we went to meet back up with the big group.
I had a really nice buzz on and was just feeling happy and in love with Paris. We all took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and ended up having to run down the streets to try to make it to our boat tour. I was struggling though because I kept trying to stop and get non-blurry photos (my camera wasn't of a high quality at that time in my life) of the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night, because I was totally amazed. It was all golden and at certain intervals sparkling silver lights danced around all over it. This was my first experience seeing it like that and it was so beautiful.
Our Seine River cruise was equally beautiful. I cannot think of a more perfect way that trip could have ended. It was my absolute favorite event of the trip. I just stood by the rails in the warm breeze watching the city lights reflecting off of the water as they went by and thinking about how I would forever remember this moment of my life. And I still do.
Unfortunately our hotel was a shithole that night as we had been booked out of our original one, and I got just about no sleep because everything looked too dirty to lay on. I actually curled up on the comforter (the sheets were so bad that it was preferable) and used my jacket as a pillow.
I was in an exhausted haze the next day on our way home, but I was so happy to have had the opportunity to be on that trip. I couldn't have adored France more, and I still would like to go back one day. And when I do, I promise I'll write a far more comprehensive entry.