This statement could not be truer....
My sister and I just went on a 10 day trip to Lyon, Geneva, and Paris. We started the adventure by her coming to London first! We clearly did EVERYTHING in just 2 short days. I got her from the airport one morning and we went to my flat so we could put her stuff there, and from then until late the next evening, we did nothing but explore. We went on the Eye, got to Borough Market, walked over Tower Bridge, saw the gardens and the palaces and ate at the Only Running Footman (my personal favorite restaurant here). I was really happy to be able to show her around the city which is now my home. She really liked it also and we had an amazing time! Our feet were dying, but this was just the beginning....
From London, we took an early morning train to Lyon, which is around the middle-ish/east part of France. When we changed trains on the way it was freezing outside and we only packed for warm weather so we were worried, but it ended up being beautiful weather the whole time! We got to Lyon and decided right away to just walk into the city and explore. We went down by the 2 rivers that run through it, got lots of food (fries, crepes, chocolate) and walked through the city center. Lyon i small, but very beautiful. Oh, and no one speaks english, and my sister and I do not speak french, so there was some fun translation going on in between.
On our second day in Lyon we started by going to the local market and we saw some fruits and veggies we have never seen before, along with cute clothes and jewelry as well. We then walked up the mountain side, literally about 700 steps later (and 2 breaks because of me) we made it to the top, where the Basilica is and got an amazing view of the entire city. The view alone was worth the walk. After making our way down the mountain we saw the ruins of a roman amphitheater and walked through the Renaissance quarter. After that, we were pretty spent so we sat out on the river side and got a nice big bottle of wine and hung out there, just like the locals do (I actually tried to order to glasses of wine, but somehow walked away with a whole bottle, my french clearly needs help).
From Lyon, we left for Geneva, a city right on the border of Switzerland and France. Actually, where we stayed was in France, but we took a 20 minute bus to the city center in Switzerland each morning. Geneva is ranked as one of the top 10 most expensive cities in the world....but Dev and I did the city dirty and got away without spending too much. On our first day we went to Lake Geneva and saw the Jet D'Eau water shoot, got ice cream along the water front, and then saw the flower clock in the park nearby. It was such a warm day out, that we wore shorts, but apparently that is weird there because every single person was staring at us, but we did not mind one bit. We also shopped around and of course got some swiss chocolate:) I wanted to get a swiss army knife, but going through customs would not have been pretty, so I refrained from that.
On our second day we decided to go up Mt. Saleve, which we took a cable car up to see. Again, it gave us an amazing view of the entire city. The cable car was sketchy, but we are still currently alive. Once at the top, we attempted to walk up even further for more views, but gave up about 10 minutes into that because it did not look like there was an end for some time. We then just sat back and had lunch up there, enjoying our view, before heading back down to see more of the city. On our way down, we went to see the Broken Chair sculpture which sits right outside the UN center, the second largest in the world behind New York City. Also, right down the block from there was the Red Cross Museum, so Devon and I decided to go see it. We are both not big museum people, but this one was way more interactive then we expected and actually pretty cool. Once back in Geneva city center, we went to see the main cathedral there (they are everywhere in Europe...) St. Pierre I believe was the name. From there we walked around the town, exploring new streets for the rest of the day. Later on, we wanted to find a good fondue place to eat, because that is what the Swiss are known for. So we stopped at an outside place, right on the water, and got a fondue and drinks, which turns out, swiss fondue is my new favorite thing i the world! It was amazing, and we only ordered it for 1 person, because it was pretty pricey, but it still filled both of us up!
On our second day in Paris, we decided to tear apart the city. We started at the Arc De Triomphe, and on our way there we discovered a bakery that sold sugar loaf bread (in a more circular form) with chocolate chips in it, so obviously we got that on our way to the Arc. After seeing that we made our way to the Louvre, stopping midway to lock our love on the Ponte des Artes (love lock bridge). We stumbled upon that by accident but were more then happy to discover it. After finding the Louvre (and obviously taking out pictures putting our hand on it) we wanted to go in to see the Mona Lisa, but it cost way too much so we decided to skip that part. Tired from all of our walking, we went to a cafe which has the best hot chocolate around, Angelina's. It felt like we were drinking liquid chocolate, like super rich but you couldn't stop yourself from having another sip. We then saw the Grande Palace and the Pantheon, which lead us to the Luxembourg Gardens. Our last stop of the day was finally at the Notre Dame, which was seriously so beautiful and absolutely huge, but if I was there during his time, I would have definitely seen Quasi up there staring down at us. After our final stop, we went to a nice dinner at an outdoor cafe and finally got an actual meal consisting of meat and veggies and it was oh so yummy.
Our last day in Paris:( We were not too happy about this, but we definitely were not going to wallow about it, so we decided to go to Palace of Versailles! We walked through the Palace, seeing the Kings bedroom chambers, Marie Antoinette's bedroom chambers, the hall of mirrors, sitting rooms, drawing rooms, meeting rooms, it was the first palace where I could see almost every room in there! Each one more exquisite then the next. I would be in sensory overload if I ever lived there, but I think I'd be able to manage:) After walking through the palace, we found a cafe and a Lauder, where I made Devon try her first macaroon and we ate them in the gardens of Versailles. We explored them for a while, but did not cover much of it at all, as they are absolutely huge! It was a beautiful day and out and we had the best time walking around the gardens. After deciding we have seen enough greenery to last us a lifetime, we headed back into the city. As it being our last day there, we wanted to end it just like we started it, by sitting under the Eiffel tower, of course with another piece of sugar loaf bread with chocolate chips. We just enjoyed the amazing structure for a long while, until we had to go back to our place and pack up and head back to London.
With it being Devon's last day, I took her to Portobello Markets and made her try a Hummingbird Cafe cupcake (at 9 in the morning) before I took her to the airport. It was not fun having to say goodbye, but having all of these memories that we both get to share together is pretty amazing to me. I am so thankful that she could come all the way to London and especially that I was able to take this absolutely perfect trip with her!
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