Last Weekend in Paris.

This weekend was my last weekend in France. It certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for nearly a year and I’m definitely not ready to leave this city or the amazing people I’ve met here! We decided that for the last weekend together, we would have a great time and forget about the fact that we wouldn’t have another time together for quite a long time.

So on Saturday, we planned to sit and sketch a cute, Parisian scene. We didn’t have much of a plan actually. We “planned” to meet at the mall and buy some sketching materials. This was the first bad idea because we ended up spending almost two hours in Fnac… After this embarrassing waste of time we decided to head to the Seine for a view of Notre Dame, the river and maybe a bridge. Unfortunately, it was raining in the morning and we weren't able to sit on benches so we tried to find a café with a view. Which wasn’t successful.

Eventually (after so many hours) we ended up on the Seine behind the Notre Dame. I don’t know why we decided one of the most revered pieces of art in the city was a good idea for our first drawing. It was so detailed, so many little pieces that we sat for hours—it was so difficult. I would definitely do it again and will probably implement this into future sightseeing activities. It really engages you into the place you’re looking and gives you a really good vantage point to admire the little details that you may have never seen otherwise.

There was a picnic planned for this weekend where all the Au Pairs could get together and hang out for a fun time before we had to leave. It was raining and not super picturesque so Hat, Vera and I walked to the McDonald’s nearby instead and accidentally stayed there through the picnic… Whoops. We did, however, use this as an opportunity to take touristy photos with the Eiffel Tower and walking around Paris. The day was mostly spent walking. In fact, we walked around and decided to stop at a café for drinks after dinner. For whatever reason I’ve decided to give up coffee and alcohol so I enjoyed a nice green tea. After that we walked around (again) and found the most gorgeous view. The sun had set but the sky was sill lit and the bridge looked amazing over the river. We stood and admired while reminiscing on our year and how much we’re going to miss this city. We decided that we would stay out to see the Eiffel Tower light up (as it does every hour.)

Next, we decided to take a boat tour of the Seine to see the city from the river. We chose to take the Batobus tour which doesn't include a tour guide and allows you to hop on and off for 24 hours. This was so great because we knew everything a guide would have told us at this point and we could see the city from multiple different times during the day. I could have probably rode that boat all day long; I loved it!

I’ve also always wanted to hear the organ played at Saint Eustache so we did! He plays at 17:30 on Sunday and is free to the public. It precedes mass but we didn’t stay for that. He played for thirty minutes and there was a pretty decent amount of people who came to hear him play. The acoustics were amazing. I love hearing music in churches like this one because it was basically built for the sounds of music. I’m so glad I finally got to see it!

Basically, I’ll really miss Paris but I’ll mostly miss the adventures I end up on with the amazing friends I’ve met here this year.