Paris

Paris
If I am being completely honest, I must admit that my expectations for Paris were not exceptionally high. I wanted to go, but I was expecting disappointment. I had heard so much about Paris for so long and I had seen it in so many movies that I was convinced it could not live up to the image I had of it. I was wrong. We walked out of the train station and into the streets, and I fell in love. Paris is BEAUTIFUL. It is truly like a dream. The streets are broad and the river flows through the heart of the city. There is a café on every corner, along with a man playing the accordion. There are vendors selling prints and crepe shops everywhere. We walked to Notre Dame, which made me want to cry. It is truly majestic. I never thought when I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a child that I would ever see it in person. We ate in a café right in front of the cathedral. There, I had my first glimpse into the wonder that is French food. French culinary standards are remarkably high, and since they invented most of the food western cultures enjoy, they have western food essentially mastered. I had an incredible omelet with ham and cheese, and a coffee with whipped cream and cookies in it. The omelet, though I am sure fried in butter and quite fattening, was almost worth the entire trip to France on its own.
After breakfast, we went to mass in Notre Dame. Notre Dame is massive and honestly overwhelming. Though it is a beautiful building architecturally, it is hard for me to worship in a space which feels so big and cold. However, I was more than honored to be in the same church where Quasi Modo lived, and I was generally shocked to be in Paris at the same time. That is what I remember most about Paris: shock and awe and delight.
We ate crepes and wandered around Paris that afternoon, ending our day with the monumental elevator ride up the Eiffel tower. At my first site of the tower, I burst into tears. I had no idea how grand and beautiful it would be. I thought about my family and the sacrifices they were making so that I could see something that they may or may not get to see. It was a difficult but revolutionary moment for me.