Bonjour everyone! Recently, my university in Lyon, France, had a week-long break at the end of February. I used that opportunity to visit Paris with my friend Josh, who is also from Mizzou and studying abroad at the same university as me! When a lot of people think of France, they almost immediately think of the country’s capital, Paris. My journey started by taking a high-speed train from Lyon to Paris. Normally, it would take about six hours to drive to Paris from Lyon, but if you take the high-speed train, it’s less than two hours! Once we arrived, we went to our Airbnb and slept so that we would be ready to explore Paris for a couple of days.

On our first day, we went to the Paris Catacombs, visited Angelina’s Famous Tea Room and the Eiffel Tower, and explored the Champ-Elysées, which is famous for its shopping and the Arc de Triomphe. On our second day, we went to the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay. These two museums were both amazing! At the Louvre, I saw my favorite painting, Liberty Guiding the People by Eugène Delacroix, and I saw the Mona Lisa. Then at the Musée d’Orsay, there was a great Van Gogh exhibit. This included the original portrait of Van Gogh! Paris was such a fun place to visit and I can’t wait to go back and visit again.