Hi everyone! This is Sidra Zammam. During my trip to London, I recently had the good fortune of visiting Paris for a weekend. I knew before embarking on my trip that if I didn’t do this, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

When my roommates and I were planning this out, I had just one thing on my list: the Catacombs. I’ve been obsessed with them ever since we read the Cask of Amontillado in ninth grade English. Unfortunately, all of the tickets were sold out. I guess this is why you don’t plan things a week in advance!

However, we took a were lucky enough to get tickets for the Palais Garnier and the Louvre. First, we went to Palais Garnier, which is a former Opera house and an absolutely beautiful representation of nineteenth century Parisian architecture. There were statues and paintings in every room, a ballroom I would give a lot to be able to dance in, and the actual amphitheater was vast and beautiful. Around the building, they had display cases of costumes that were used in different operas the establishment put on.

Afterwards, we graced one of the pharmacies with out presence. People recommend going to pharmacies in Paris because you can find skincare a lot cheaper there than it would be in the US. If I’m being honest, they were still expensive over there, too.

We headed to the Louvre around 2:30 and line up in the queue. They handed us intricately detailed maps that were maybe four feet long. These provided absolutely no help in navigating the premises. Regardless, every ceiling was painted and the walls were full with famous works. Attempting to see the Mona Lisa, of course, took about half an hour of wrestling through a crowd of people also waiting to see her.

We ended the day off with sitting on the grass right next to the Eiffel Tower. Around 10 PM, it started to sparkle and we all took a couple of pictures with it. This day was one of the best I’ve had and I wouldn’t have done anything different.