A Slow Study Abroad Weekend Enjoying Paris
This weekend, like most weekends, I spent it enjoying my host city, Paris. I chose to study abroad in Paris because I fell in love with the city. Even though I've enjoyed the easy access to traveling while studying abroad, I chose Paris because I wanted to really be immersed in the Parisian experience.
This weekend was amazing, because my friends and I were all in Paris—nobody was traveling and we made plans to go do things we’d been putting off and go try restaurants we’ve had saved forever.
We started off the “official” weekend on Thursday, because it was our friend Ava’s last class. We met her at the CEA CAPA Study Center, then we went for a long walk because we wanted to start the weekend by just slowing down and taking in Paris. We made it from Le Marais to the 2nd arrondissement and spent that time planning out what the rest of our weekend would look like.
On Friday morning, we all went to Bibliothèque Nationale and sat outside to finish up some studying. The inside of Bibliothèque Nationale is beautiful, but always packed. Luckily for us, the weather was amazing and we got a good two hours of work done.
After this, a few went home and my friend Shayne and I went to try a new coffee spot called LaÏzé. There are multiple locations of this shop, but I got the dirty chai and she got a cappuccino and they were hands down the best we’d had in Paris.
We had been looking for Mexican food in Paris, but it is hard to come by—especially a burrito. A lot of my friends I made through CEA CAPA are from California and they mutually agreed that the thing they missed most from home was actually burritos. We found our way to Bocamexa which we’d had saved for a while and we finally got them some burritos (which were amazing)!
The next day, Saturday, we decided that we’d go try another restaurant that had been recommended to me by a French friend I met in Tallahassee, Florida, back home. The restaurant is Bouillon Pigalle and it was super affordable and you definitely get the bang for your buck. And as you can see, the desserts were amazing! We spent this night talking for three hours, catching up on the previous weekends when some friends had been traveling.
We then decided to change the location to a Paris classic: the Seine! We stopped here, got photos, and went for a walk along the river until we were tired enough to go home.
On Sunday, we were all exhausted but met up that night to go to a service at Notre-Dame. A lot of us—including myself—had only previously visited the outside of it, but never made it inside. Although this is post-reconstruction from the fire a while ago, it was still surreal. It was a great way to take in Paris all together and remember why we love our host city!
This weekend was amazing, and I’m so grateful that it was the perfect mix of relaxing and fun because I was surrounded by some of my best friends.
