Welcome back to the Europe scrapbook series! Part 7 covers our weekend trip to Paris. (Calling it a “weekend trip to Paris” makes it sound super boujee, but in reality it was just five broke college girls taking a train into the city for 24 hours and crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t be sharing our hostel with a stranger.)

Our first order of business was dropping off our bags at the hostel and finding somewhere to grab dinner. This is our swanky hostel and the business card for it. Aaand… this is dinner. I did not partake in the escargot, if you were wondering… but I did enjoy watching my friends struggle to eat it. No, I was the boring one. Who gets the chance to eat three meals in Paris and orders cheese pasta for one of them? Me, apparently.

This is the page where we get to quintessential Paris. Our first view of the Eiffel Tower and sunset over the Louvre? I mean, come on. This was the coolest.

Here we have our venture into the museum. I included my ticket and my receipt, as well as plenty of pictures.

Some overflow of the Louvre and a stop for crepes. I also included my receipt for converting some US dollars into Euros. It turned out that I was able to use my credit card for pretty much everything for the weekend, though, so those Euros found a home in the scrapbook, too.

When we shared our weekend plans with other students on the trip, everyone told us to look out for the “Paris Moment”–the moment when it really strikes you that you’re in Paris. I shrugged it off at first, but when we walked up to the Eiffel Tower at night, I felt it. Space and time caught up with me, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the reality of where I was standing. I had to document that story and the pictures of that moment in this scrapbook.

On our first (and only) morning in France, we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, then went back to the Eiffel Tower to take a walk in the daylight. On this spread I included my metro stubs for the weekend and a card from the Ali Edwards travel journal starter kit that perfectly matched the orange and blue theme I had going on.

Is this my favorite scrapbook layout I’ve ever made? Maybe. I was just obsessed with all of the photos we got of brunch, so most of the page is focused on those photos. I added in my homemade Field Notes card and some notes with my vintage typewriter.

Here, we were able to scout out one of the famous love lock bridges. Also, did you notice the Starbucks receipt and drink sleeve? Yeah… we stopped back at the Louvre and I got Starbucks there. Am I basic? Yes. But was it a blast? Also yes. And that’s what matters most, I think.

This page documents our visit to Notre Dame. (Yes, this is all the same day. We were determined to cram as much Paris into this 24-hour window as possible).

Just some snapshots from walking around the city.

Is this the coolest thing that happened this whole trip? I think so. On our train ride back to London meet up with our group, we just so happened to notice a familiar face a couple seats behind us. We somehow managed to be taking the same train as several really famous people, including Warwick Davis, an actor I really admire. He and his wife were so lovely to us, and even offered to take a photo for us. What an amazing way to end our “weekend in Paris.”

If you’re interested in creating your own travel album, here are a few of the products I used while putting these pages together!