Erasmus Trip With My Friends (2nd Part)

Hello again! I shared the 1st part of my blog yesterday about Paris. I would like to share in detail what did we do, which place did we stay and what is our first impressions?

We arrived at about 1 hour 30 minutes to Paris. We got off the plane in the afternoon at the airport called ''Beauvais Airport. We bought a bus ticket to the city centre. It has cost about 32 euros. Finally, we arrived in the city centre for about 40 minutes. We booked a hostel before coming there via booking.com. I can recommend it. We stayed with 10 people. Also, that hostel was Asian street as a location. Because If you go there, you can see many restaurant or market related to the Asian company. I have been and seen that kind of street. I was strange and interesting to me. We paid there and moved our luggage.

After resting a few hours, we started to walk around there. It was nice as a location. There was a metro station and tram station. That is why it was so crowded street. We wanted to see first the Eiffel Tower. We asked some of the people and went. It was so crowded during this period. It was so amazing view and nice landscape. We bought snacks in the supermarket and sat on the grass. We walked too much. We were walking at about 30 min every day. We stayed at 3 days there. Then take a lot of photo in front of the Eiffel Tower for sure;), we went to the hostel. 

Next day, We went to the Louvre Museum. Especially, I like so much to go to the museum and archaeological places. It was the best museum I ever visited. You can see a lot of things from around the world. I will also put photos of this museum. I would like to inform about the Louvre Museum. 

Louvre Museum, French Musée du Louvre, official name Great Louvre, French Grand Louvre, national museum and art gallery of France, housed in part of a large palace in Paris that was built on the right-bank site of the 12th-century fortress of Philip Augustus. It is the world’s most-visited art museum, with a collection that spans work from ancient civilizations to the mid-19th century. 

We could see Mona Lisa but it was so crowded. Also, we saw a lot of materials, painters' works, archaeological things and more...

After this museum, I wanted to go to Paris St. Germain Store on the Champ- Elysees. I bought one t-shirt there :). It was nice to store. I was happy to visit.

We ate something outside. I can say ıt was so expensive to eat in the restaurant for us. So, we were eating snacks or sandwichs. Last day, we made a breakfast close to Versailles Palace. We bought a train ticket for going there. It was so crowded. We waited in the queue for about 40 minutes but we visited there. It was so impressive and amazing for me. France has a lot of museum and places this kind of structures. 

About History: Until Louis XIV’s time, the town of Versailles comprised but a few houses to the south of the present Place d’Armes. However, the land was given to the lords of the court, and new buildings sprang up, chiefly in the north quarter. The Palace of Versailles was declared the official royal residence in 1682 and the official residence of the court of France on May 6, 1682, but it was abandoned after the death of Louis XIV in 1715. In 1722, however, it was returned to its status as the royal residence. Further additions were made during the reigns of Louis XV (1715–74) and Louis XVI (1774–92). Following the French Revolution, the complex was nearly destroyed. While many of the 6,000 paintings and 3,000 sculptures held by the museum are not available for public viewing, a portion of those holdings are on display throughout the palace. In 1870 and 1871 Versailles was occupied as the headquarters of the German army besieging Paris, and William I of Prussia was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors on January 18, 1871.

After the peace with Germany and while the Commune was triumphant in Paris, Versailles was the seat of the French National Assembly. It housed the two chambers of the parliament until 1879, and during that period Versailles was the official capital of France. After World War I the treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in the Hall of Mirrors on June 28, 1919. The Treaty of Trianon, ending the war between the Allies and Hungary, was concluded on June 4, 1920, in the Cotelle Gallery in the Grand Trianon. After World War II the palace was occasionally used for plenary congresses of the French parliament or as housing for visiting heads of state, but its primary utility lay in tourism. 

UNESCO designated the palace and its gardens a World Heritage site in 1979. Following a devastating winter storm in 1989, which destroyed more than 1,000 trees on the palace grounds, the French government initiated a wide-ranging project of repair and renovation. A severe windstorm in 1999 caused the loss of some 10,000 trees, including several planted by Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon. The château was also damaged. In 2003 an ambitious restoration and renovation program was launched as the “Grand Versailles” project. With a 17-year schedule and a budget that topped €500 million, the plan was billed as the most significant expansion of the palace facilities since the reign of Louis-Philippe.

After spending a few hours here, it was time to return to the hostel. The next day we had a flight to Milan. It was a nice trip for me. I will never forget this moment. I hope I get a chance to go again and stay longer. I would like to thank my friends who participated in this trip with me. I hope to come back together and have a long trip ...

See you next to the blog :)