The Eiffel Tower at night

Loss Prevention Investigator Lucinda Murphy has always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in person, and she finally got the chance earlier this month. Just days after the Paris Olympics closed, Lucinda, her best friend, Gloria, and two other friends set out for the City of Light.

And while the Eiffel Tower was spectacular in the daytime, Lucinda said it blew her away to see it all lit up at night. “Daytime pictures don’t do it justice,” she said. “It’s just so beautiful at night.”

Loss Prevention Investigator Lucinda Murphy (back, right) and her friend, Gloria (back, left), traveled to Paris earlier this month with Gloria’s cousin and another friend.

Lucinda is a new North Shore Bank employee, hired in July. She and her friends were part of a tour group of 10 people who traveled around Paris together. They took a fantastic nighttime riverboat cruise on the Seine, which allowed Lucinda to see the tower from a different vantage point, along with other noted buildings like the Institut de France.

The itinerary had them visiting the Louvre, which Lucinda said was much bigger than she expected, and the Palace of Versailles. The Palace gardens especially impressed her. “You would literally be walking for hours if you wanted to see all of it,” she said.

Another trip highlight was the delicious breads and croissants served everywhere they went. “We just could not stop eating the bread and the croissants—they just melt in your mouth,” she said. “The bread was so good!”

Another view of the Eiffel Tower

Lucinda and Gloria both have birthdays in August, so the trip was also a bit of a birthday celebration for them both. Lucinda said she called this getaway her “you deserve this” trip. She gave herself permission to unplug from everyday life and didn’t call home at all (except to check in on her 4-year-old twin grandbabies, of course).

She admits she’s been bitten by the “travel bug” and looks forward to visiting other places on her bucket list, like Hawaii. Next up, though, likely is a trip to Jamaica to celebrate another friend’s birthday.

“I think people are just wanting to travel more, and now that I’m getting older, that’s what I want to do,” she said. “But how do you top Paris?”