Our First Night in The City of Lights and Love

The day has finally arrived—it’s time for my Contiki Eurotrip ‘07! I held out on packing until this morning (with my tendency to procrastinate, this isn’t a surprise!) But I actually think that that actually worked in my favor this time around, because I didn’t overpack too terribly! I generally have a problem with that, but the Contiki staff had said to pack what you think you need and then take half of it out! Good call, cause I don’t want to lug things around Europe that I’m not going to use!

I got dropped off at LAX and met Ashley, another Contiki traveler who was on my same flight. At our layover in Houston we also ran into Brandon and Kyle, two other guys who were on our trip! I was getting really excited to meet the other travelers on our tour and was so stoked on seeing the sights of Europe.

When we finally landed in Paris, the Contiki staff was waiting for us at the airport and we loaded up into the Contiki Coach. It was actually a pretty nice bus, pretty comfy. We met our tour guide Ryan and he showed us a bit of the city through the coach window as we made our way to our hotel. I met my roommate Brittany from Penn State and we headed up to our room to get ready for our first dinner with the entire crew! We had a traditional French dinner and wine and then set out to see one of the most famous, iconic sights in the world—the Eiffel tower.

Since we were such a large group, we got special tickets to see the tour, and got on the elevator to ride it to the top. There were two sets of elevators, the first one went up diagonally along the side of the tower and the second went straight up to the very very top of the tower! We took some pictures up top and watched the sunset from the top of the tower. What a great way to kick off our trip! As we made our way back down after the sun set, we enjoyed a spectacular light show that made it look as if the tower itself was sprinkled with glittering diamonds. We even saw a proposal occur on the top of the Eiffel tower as the light show was beginning. …now I know why they call it the City of Lights and Love! We made our way back to the hotel after the show, had a beer with the team at the bar downstairs in our hotel and then headed off to bed so that we could get up early and explore Paris the next day. Already I can tell this is going to be the trip of a lifetime!!

"Paris is the city in which one loves to live." –Margaret Anderson

"The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American."- Scott F. Fitzgerald