Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Paris Rewind Begins...


Well hello there, the world of blogging! This didn't exactly work out the way I planned (my bad)... For what was supposed to be a diary of my Parisian adventures turned into nothing of the sort, and I apologize for neglecting my reporting duties. However, the bottom line is that we, Georgetown Paris 2013, traveled to the City of Light where we made some great friends, studied very hard, shared some amazing experiences together, and now when it all came to an end we are left with some incredible memories and stories to tell. So over the next series of posts I would like to turn back the page to those six amazing weeks in Paris, and share with you that which I failed to record... Our adventures in the City of Light, so here goes!


The falafel... Probably not the most conventional of foods to be first savored upon your arrival in Paris, nevertheless I was  determined to have one in part because of our hotel's close proximity to Paris' Marais district. I was the first of the group to arrive at our hotel meeting point (thanks to the major SNCF strike causing much commuting disruptions in Paris that day) but was shortly joined by Brian, another economics student in our group, who had arrived in Paris a few days earlier. With Brian's help I had retrieved my Carte Navigo (very handy for the use of the RER and the metro), and it was then that we decided that a falafel is the next "must-have" item on our menu... But while we were busy ascertaining the exact whereabouts of various falafel shops we had gathered a small group of five or six Georgetown people all of whom were just as anxious to try out an authentic Parisian falafel as we were! So when all local recommendations were heard and all maps gathered off we went!

With its charming cramped streets, small alleyways, iconic Parisian architecture and small shops bursting with life the historic Jewish quarter was everything we had hoped for... A rich and beautiful introduction to Paris... 

One of the highlights from the historic Jewish quarter...


L'as du Fallafel is highly recommended by every Paris guidebook out there, however after reading and hearing numerous reports of patrons receiving food poisoning from their famous "Lenny Kravitz-recommended" falafels we decided to pass up this famous tourist trap...  

Officially my first picture in Paris... Taken in the courtyard of the incredible Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris where we enjoyed our falafels.