Paris

Ever since I took French in high school I have wanted to visit France. I have learned a lot about French history as well as famous places to visit. Before a week ago these were just pictures that I had in my head. Luckily during my time in Europe I got to visit Paris for six days. Every French person will tell you that you cannot see Paris in only six days, but I definitely gave it my best shot. I saw nearly every name brand item in Paris possible. The Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Sacre-Couer, the Louvre, Centre-Pompidou, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, l'opera, Moulin Rouge, and of course the Champs-Elysees. I had the pleasure of staying at a French's friends house in Paris which was a significant benefit. He could speak the language for me as well as drive me around to all of these places in half the time. The city is beautiful. Everything was incredible except I found some of the French to be very pompous. Not that a person should not be proud of their city and country, but there is a certain limit before it gets to the point of annoying, According to the French everything in Paris is an extremely famous place. Many of the places we went to I had never even heard of and I have studied French. So it cannot be that famous. Also, everything in Paris has a ridiculous price tag on it. We visited a shopping center where every store for the first 3 floors was named something along the lines of Gucci or Armani. Everything in this place cost over 100 euro, most of them running into the tens of thousands of euro. I cannot believe that people will actually pay that kind of money for CLOTHES. I saw a 100,000 euro watch...by no means is that necessary, but there are people in this store legitimately wanting to buy these things. Where I am from in America things are definitely different. Once something costs into the hundreds of dollars it is a big decision on whether or not to buy it and if it is bought it is taken good care of. The French were throwing their money around on these things like it grows on trees. There are much more important things in life than 300 euro shoes. Maybe it is just my short perspective from only being there a few days, but it is how I felt. Overall, Paris was incredible besides the materialistic side of the city. I give it a 9/10 and I hope to come back someday!