Hello! This is a continuation of my previous posts depicting the time that my family came to Paris for a week or so. I’m tired and it’s Bastille Day, so I’m going to keep it a bit short this time, haha.

After the first few days, my dad left to go back to Austin, but my mom, Adam, Luci, and I kept on exploring Paris. On one particular day we decided to go to Paris’ business district (I believe it’s called La Défense), which is a very modern and has a  lot of skyrises (as you see in the pictures). While it’s nothing incredible to explore through and experience, it was a cool area with a nice (and different) view of Paris. We ate lunch on the steps of ‘La Grande Arche de la Défense,’ which is a modern-looking, rectangular arc. This arc is actually positioned in line with the famous Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées (although it’s not technically connected by the Champs-Élysées), so if you ever stand on top of le Arc de Triomphe and look towards the west, you can follow one of the roads which spring off of the arc you are on and in the distance see la Grande Arche - or, similarly, you can sometimes see la Grande Arche within le Arc de Triomphe if you are at le Jardin de Tuileries (by the Louvre). Anyways, it was nice to eat on the steps of la Grande Arche because it had a nice view of a big plaza with a lot of enormous, modern buildings around it — the very modern “landscape” that La Défense is comprised of, and it is a very weird sight having come from downtown Paris. However, like I mentioned, there’s not much to walk around and see in La Défense, so after lunch we took the metro back to Paris where we stopped at the older arc - the Arc de Triomphe, which I had mentioned earlier. Like we imagined, this area was PACKED with tourists (like ourselves), so it was not so easy to enjoy the beauty of Paris, the Champs-Élysées, and the Arc because it was so crowded and loud. However, we did manage to walk around and see a good amount. The Champs-Élysées, while crowded and a bit modern when compared to other streets in Paris, is still really nice because it has a lot of shops, cafés and restaurants. From that general area, we made our way towards the Eiffel Tower - a must see if you’re in Paris. Again, super crowded, but of course it was a great sight and it was worthwhile. That night we ate at an amaazzinnggg asian restaurant right by the apartment which made it’s noodles fresh - you could see them constantly making the dough. It was probably the best asian food I’ve ever had, and it wasn’t even that expensive! If you ever go to Paris, go eat at ‘Happy Nouilles’— it is on the street Beaubourg, which you get to by taking the metro to the stop called ‘Arts et Metiers’, trust me. Anyways, the next day I had to go to work so Luci and Adam were nice enough to go with me half of the way back to my dorm, while in the meantime enjoying Paris at night. That was actually one of the things that I realized that I hadn’t done enough - walking through Paris at night! The thing is that I usually get back to my dorm before dinner so that I can eat and go to bed and what-not, and since I had no visitors until then I had no excuse to go out and get a drink or something. Walking around at night with Luci and Adam was surprisingly nice and it made me want to explore more of Paris at night! Everything looks so different, yet still just as amazing - the lighting in the streets and in the little cafés and restaurants is very pretty, as well as the river, which has some lights on the side.

Anyways, I’m off to go celebrate! Chau!