Bonjour from Paris! Well, technically, London, as I am writing this. I am currently a junior studying abroad at Fordham University’s campus in London. Last weekend, I went on a trip to Paris through Fordham. If you choose to study abroad in London, there are trips offered during the semester. The options for this semester were Paris, Brussels and Edinburgh, Scotland.
Since classes aren’t offered on Fridays in London, we left for Paris on Friday morning on the Eurostar from St. Pancras Station. Our train ride was a little over two hours and brought us right into Paris’ Gare du Nord Station. We then got our Metro cards to head over to our hotel. The Metro experience in Paris is quite different from the one in London, with one of the biggest differences being that everything is in French. Also, people on the Metro were more talkative than the people who took the tube in London.
We stayed at the Ibis Paris Gare Montparnasse Catalogne, taking the Metro 4 towards Bagneux-Lucie Aubrac to get there from Gare du Nord. Once we got to the hotel, we got a quick lunch nearby. There were so many cafes and other shops to get something quick to eat before our academic activities. Many people opted for French baguette sandwiches, which is probably one of my favorite things we ate in Paris.
For the academic activities, we were offered a few walking tour options. I chose the tour of Notre Dame. Our tour guide walked us through some history behind the Cathedral, some insights on the fire, how it started, what was saved and then the reconstruction process. Hearing about the very extensive and intricate reconstruction process with modern technology really put into perspective for me how long structures such as Notre Dame originally took to create centuries ago.
After our academic activities, we had a free evening. For dinner, we went to Le Spicy Home, and it was excellent. The food was amazing, and the staff were so incredibly nice. After dinner, we got a recommendation from my friend Laura Rodriguez, GSB ’26, who is studying abroad in Paris, to go to the jazz club called Le Caveau de la Huchette. This was one of my favorite things we did throughout the weekend.
On Saturday, we did a lot of sightseeing. We started the day off by going to a cafe near our hotel, where we got breakfast quiches. We then made our way to the Tuileries Garden, which is between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. We then walked along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, where we took all of our classic tourist pictures. Throughout our walk and around the more touristy areas, we saw a lot of Olympic decorations and even the deconstruction of some of the venues used for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
After the Eiffel Tower, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. We learned a little bit about the history of the Arc in the museum, which is at the top of 284 steps. We were able to go to the very top of the Arc and see Paris from a much different view. It was cool to see from above each of the 12 grand avenues that connect to the huge roundabout that surrounds the Arc.
All those stairs had us develop quite the appetite, so we got lunch at a local restaurant near the Arc, where we made a compromise because this place had both crepes and what we thought were regular steak and frites. The restaurant actually served steak tartare. Not knowing what that was, we ordered it anyway and were very surprised when it came to the table. None of us had eaten raw ground beef before, so it was definitely an experience. It was surprisingly very good!
As I mentioned before, this was a Fordham-planned trip, so along with academic activities, there were optional activities and a dinner that were all planned by Fordham. One of the activities that I did after lunch was the wine tasting at Cave Les Piqueurs, which was near Square Louise Michel. Shortly after the wine tasting, we went on a dinner cruise aboard the Le Diamant Bleu, which was on the Seine. This was especially unique because we went past the Eiffel Tower quite a few times and had a great view of the Tower of the Hours when it sparkled.
On Sunday, my friends and I walked through a local market near our hotel. There were many vendors on the street, and there were also tons of cafes and pastry shops. All of the Parisians were very kind to us and accommodating to the fact we did not know much French.
After our picnic, I left my friends and headed over to the catacombs, where this walkthrough was an optional activity offered through Fordham. It was very cool being underneath all of the public transportation and the sewer system in Paris. But once I got to the actual catacombs underground, I immediately regretted going alone — seeing all the bones and skulls was actually creepier than I thought. Definitely a one-and-done experience for me, but I’m still glad I saw it.
I left the catacombs, then did some classic souvenir shopping and headed back to the hotel. I was upset that our trip was coming to an end. As a group, we headed back to the Metro to bring us back to the Eurostar train at Gare du Nord. The weekend in Paris was such an amazing experience. I do not think a weekend is enough time in Paris at all, and I definitely will be back to visit all of the spots I did not have time for!
