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When considering their favorite city in the world, a lot of people choose Paris. There’s always talk about how romantic and pretty it is, but I ended up liking it for very different reasons. After a late arrival on Thursday night, I set the morning and lunch aside for the Louvre Museum, supposedly the largest museum in the entire world. One could literally spend days in the building and not see everything there is to see. My favorite pieces were ancient Egyptian sculptures but more so than any art piece, I loved the building itself.

As I said before, the building is massive and intricately decorated throughout. The building is styled how much of the rest of the city is. After a number of hours at the museum we took a stroll along the River Seine and ended up at Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s hard to describe the scale and beauty of the cathedral in words. You have to see it in person to fully understand it. That night, we ate near our hostel and went out in Bastille, a trendy area of the city with lots of restaurants and bars. Getting to and from wherever we wanted to go was very easy thanks to the Paris Metro system. As much as I love the EL, it can’t hold a candle to Paris’s system. It was very fast and surprisingly easy to navigate.

The next morning we trekked to the Arc de Triumphe, commissioned by Napolean as a promise to his fighting soldiers. The Arc heads the Champs Elysees, one of the more famous streets in the world. At the other end of the street is the Louvre – which you can see from atop the Arc. North of the central part of the city is Montmartre, a bohemian neighborhood on a hill. At the top of the hill sits Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church which overlooks the entire city of Paris. In front of the church sits steps where people can watch street performers and look out over the horizon. We were lucky enough to watch a soccer/street artist perform some amazing tricks. It was quite the site to see.

After recharging with a long nap, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Despite the wind and rain, it was beautiful and worth every minute. When going to a big tourist city like Paris, it’s hard to avoid tourist trap restaurants and get truly authentic local food. I’m not sure if the meal I ate was authentic or not, but I don’t really care. It was amazing. After escargot for my appetizer, I gorged myself with fondue and nearly exploded and topped the meal off with creme brulee, one of my favorite deserts. The next morning we were too tired to do much of anything and ended up going to Musee D’Orsay which houses many famous impressionist paintings, including a number by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir and Degas. Unlike most people, I didn’t think the city was particularly romantic. I did, however, really enjoy the architecture and the atmosphere. It seems as if there is an extremely diverse population both in ethnicity, economic status and language. It created a unique melting pot of sites and sounds that I sincerely hope I can experience again sometime soon.