My Last Night In Paris

After two months of sleeping in a tiny bed and enjoying fresh bread daily, waking up on my first day in the States was surreal to say the least…

My time in Paris was amazing. In the time I’ve spent there, I’ve enjoyed incredible food, made great friends and had many memorable moments. But my MOST memorable moment, hands down, was my last night in Paris.

For those of you who are expecting something similar to the Hangover, well sorry to disappoint, nothing like that happened. There were no Tigers or strippers.

My last night like all nights, began in a bar, The Princess and the Frog, where most of the interns met up to say goodbye. Most of us had really early flights, so all of us left around 1. But rather than to just end it like that, my coworkers who had arrived a couple hours later, decided to give me a tour of Paris; on bikes!

We started by biking over the bridge, Pont Lazare, and stopped at the National Assembly. There, I got a gorgeous view of the Eiffel tower sparkling above the Seine River.

After a brief stop for a photo, we moved on to the Louvre. If you’ve never seen the movie the Da Vinci Code, there is a scene where the iconic glass pyramids are all lit up. Well, what we saw was exactly that, but with the lights turned off haha. Even though the lights were off, it was still a treat to be there and to be able to enjoy the Louvre without all the tourists wandering around. After a quick bike through the US Embassy and the Elysee (the French equivalent of the White House), we ended up on the Champs Elysee. As we pedaled up the street, avoiding all the lingering tourists, we got an incredible view of the famous Arc de Triomphe, bathed in its glorious yellow light.

From there, we biked towards the Eiffel Towel. Since it was at night, the crowds had left, so we were all treated to a beautiful view of the famous Parisian landmark. By then, it was almost two and since I had not finished packing we decided to make our way back Cite Universitaire. As we rode down the hills of Paris, into a tunnel and then finally over a bridge, I saw something really bizarre and surprisingly, a miniaturized version of the Statue of Liberty! I don’t know if you knew Paris had such a thing - I certainly didn't - but I was stunned to see Lady Liberty in the middle of the Seine River lit up exactly like her big sister was on the Hudson Bay.

There is an end to all things, even the good ones. After four hours of biking, my amazing tour had ended and I bade a final farewell to my co-workers.

In my two months in Paris, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in Paris, I’ve seen the best of what Paris has had to offer and also its worst. But I still come away missing the people and yearning to go back.  Until then, I want to use this post to just thank my co-workers, Mamoun, Jules, and Jonathan for giving me such an incredible tour and a memory that will stay with me forever. à bientôt mes amis!