April 17

2 weekends ago, South African Emma and I decided to go on one of the Sandeman's Free Walking Tours of Paris (side note: since then, I also did London and Dublin. If you ever have a short amount of time in a city, I definitely recommend these tours- they're walking tours between 2-4 hours long and cover all the highlights of a city). It was great! It was a lot of stuff I've seen on my own in Paris already, but it gave a lot more background info and fun facts.

After the tour, we decided to go to LaDuree, which is a fancy bakery in Paris. It's actually the most famous one for macaroons, the french version of which are COMPLETELY different from what we consider macaroons. They're these small, cookie sandwich-ish things with a layer of a jelly-ish thing in the middle. I realize I've painted a very specific picture with my description but here's a real photograph to better explain:

Later that night, we went to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. On the way we also made a stop at the spot where Princess Di died in her car accident- a little morbid but it's also where there's a statue of the flame from the Statue of Liberty.

Finally we made it to the Champ de Mars to watch the Eiffel Tower all lit up!

Ok, I can see why some french people might see it as a LITTLE tacky, but I personally love it! Also I just realized that we're actually in this picture- that's me and Genevieve, but we're a little hard to see.

Versailles

On April 12, my friend South African Emma and I went to see Versailles. It's about a 40 minute RER ride away (plus a 40 minute Metro ride to my apartment) so it was a bit of a hike! But I've been looking forward to seeing Versailles since I saw Marie Antoinette, that horrible Kristen Dunst movie everyone in the world hated besides me.

We decided to save going through the gardens for a more summery day, but we walked all through the house. It was just a LITTLE bit showy...
Hall of Mirrors- that's me and Emma in the reflection if you look closely.

Scotland!

This past weekend was Easter, and I decided it would be nice to be with someone from home since I can't be there. So I went to visit my friend Josh from high school, who is currently studying abroad in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was a great trip! We saw the Scottish Parliament (that's where he's working this semester), we walked up Arthur's Seat (a group of hills), visited The Edinburgh Castle, walked the Royal Mile, and then took the train into North Queensferry, a town about 20 minutes away to walk the Coastal Path. Then we went to some bars (we only stayed at 2 but we visited a couple). On Easter, we went to a very small (30 people or so) service in a gorgeous church called St. Gile's. We also ate a very traditional Scottish breakfast (haggis!!). We visited the Princess Street Gardens, the Waverly Bridge, the cemetery where the philosopher is buried, and Calton Hill. It was a packed trip but it was great! Edinburgh is gorgeous and it was a nice change of pace from Paris- very, very different!




We started by hiking up Arthur's Seat, which was lovely and gave a fantastic view of the city.























The Edinburgh Castle was interesting- very dark looking but with really beautiful parts to it.



























North Queensferry was lovely- it was the quaintest little town in which I have ever been!




































St. Giles was where we went to an early morning Easter service.






















We followed church with HAGGIS!

















Princess Street Gardens were nice and right by the Waverley Bridge (which divides the new/ old sides of the city)











The cemetery was very pretty and peaceful

















Calton Hill has a very different monuments on it, and the view from the top is great of both Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat.

Musée de L'Orangerie

The Musée de L'Orangerie is a small museum of impressionists and post-impressionists right off of the Tuilleries Garden. My favorite part was the upstairs, which was 3 rooms of these long, mural-length Monet paintings.



The downstairs was neat, too. There was a lot of Matisse stuff I liked a lot, and also some Cézanne (but I'm not a huuuge fan of his), Derain, and I think some Picasso too.

Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges is this nice little square off of the Marais. Victor Hugo lived in one of the apartments surrounding it, and it's not a museum.

Musée Rodin

I absolutely LOVED this museum! The sculptures were gorgeous, the building was gorgeous, the garden was gorgeous! Another one of my Parisian favvvvvorites!