So with about 2 weeks left, I am running out of underwear. What is the logical action point to take? Do laundry. This is what I would normally do and what I have done all summer but now it is slightly a different story. There are only two weeks left (very bitty sweet) and I have debated this for a few hours now. I think it would be cheaper to purchase a pack or two of new underwear to last me the remainder of the time instead of paying to get my laundry done again. I have plenty of clean clothing to make due and this way I win both ways: I spend less and I have more underwear in the end. The only losing factor is that I will have more dirty clothing upon my return to the states and that the nice lady at the laundry place won’t fold all of my clothing is very tight neat piles which would make for easy packing.
Anyway, the more interesting stuff: PARIS. Started off with the coach ride there. We were waiting to pull out of the station when a very smelly boy plopped down across the isle from us. Sickkkk. The body odor must have dispersed because it ended up being hardly noticeable and the ride was bearable. We made it into Paris and found Ally’s cousin’s apartment. It was pretty much the most beautiful apartment ever and her cousin is living a storybook life. After studying abroad in France, she moved to Paris and got married. Her current French lover/husband, Nico, is adorable. They have two boys, who are also cute as a button. You would think that we met this family to know how cute and perfect they are. Nope. We just stayed in their apartment. We met Nico, who drove us around the Arch and a little bit of the city and gave us trendy recommendations. We also met their oldest son (he’s 6) for about 15 minutes. But majority of what we know is from their beautiful apartment that is filled with photographs of them. Nico enjoys photography as a hobby and this is very apparent with the vast amount of pictures covering the walls and countertops with his pretty family in them.
The apartment was about a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms and other rooms we never went into. If that doesn’t impress you yet, every single room looked as if it popped directly off of the page of a Pottery Barn catalogue. We were in pure heaven. We finally got to sleep in comfortable beds, take showers with proper h2o temperatures and just love our surroundings to the extreme. Nico suggested a bakery for breakfast, where we got the best croissants I have ever tasted. He then drove us around for a little (on the right side of the road…hello London, learn something from your surrounding countries) and dropped us off at a photography exhibit. The exhibit was all pictures taken by an American photographer. Many were of important political figures, celebrities, musicians, models, etc. It was cool to see an exhibit on photography, since most of the museums we have gone to are filled with more sculpture, paintings, etc.
Speaking of art, we then ventured to the Louvre. The building was spectacular. We walked into one of the most anticipated rooms in Paris, and probably in all of Europe. Standing in the middle of the room is a huge wall divider, with a tiny picture in the middle that is about 8.5 by 11 inches, a little larger, and it is covered with thick glass. There are guards on either side of the wall, and a massive crowd surrounding the painting. The Mona Lisa. I went and I saw it and I was not super impressed. It looks like any copy we would have seen in art class in elementary school and it is so much smaller than a lot of the other masterpieces in The Louvre, and in most museums and galleries actually. We did venture through the Louvre and saw the famous winged statue of Venus one of Aphrodite. I enjoy sculptures. They are so smooth and intricate and look impossible to do…and I just find them very impressive. The David, in Italy, was the most impressive to me but I like them all.
Paris continued with Notre Dame, the Ile of Saint Louis and a walk along the river back to the apartment. Notre Dame was breathtakingly beautiful. Ally and I sat in a pew and stared for a long amount of time. The stained glass was the prettiest than any of the other churches we have gone into…and we have seen our fare share of churches. My grandma taught me to make 3 wishes every time you go into a new church. She told me this on my first trip to St. Pat’s cathedral in NYC, and I have done so ever since. I also tell everyone else to make their wishes too. I make the same 3 every time, and after this summer, they better all come true because I have been able to wish the same ones over and over and over again, all in new churches of worship.
Business Traveler recommended a sorbet/ice cream place in the Ile of Saint Louis so we figured we might as well try “possibly the best ice cream and sorbet in Paris.” Couldn’t find it. We gave up and gave into a different place with a long line. We have learned that any place with a line or that requires reservations… it is probably worth the wait.
We returned to the apartment and got ready for a nice, fancy, trendy French meal. Around the corner of the flat was this awesome restaurant. We sat outside and had the view of Napoleon’s tomb. Our waitress helped us translate the menu and we had a fabulous French dinner, trying new foods. My family would be proud to hear I tried encompote…which is like a steak. Considering I didn’t eat meat for a few years, and didn’t eat red meat basically my entire life… I have done a pretty good job this summer trying new foods. My meal was served with fries. I found it kind of ironic to be eating French fries in paris,… they are not really a French food, but whatever. The crème brulee was a perfect ending to a perfect meal.
We finished off the evening with a bottle of champagne in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was a lot bigger than I expected. But it was lit up blue. Kind of tacky, I thought. There were a ton of people on the park area in front of it, so we joined in and enjoyed the warm Paris weather, under the stars, sipping some bubbly, the four of us (Megan, Ally, Danna and I).
At midnight the Tower all of a sudden began this crazy light extravaganza show thing. We thought maybe it would go for like a minute and this was a daily occurrence. Not the case…the flashings lights when on for a few minutes before going crazy fast and then stopping. It was humorous.
Sunday Ally wasn’t feeling up to par, but Megan, Danna and I took a train to Versaille. We waited in a windy, long line for the Palace. It was worth the wait. It was beautiful. Megan continued on into the Gardens while Danna and I got crepes at a ‘famous creperie’. That’s a bunch of bull. They were not that great, and we were both kind of unimpressed. This was made up for at dinner when we got some off the street and they were simply melt in your mouth fantastic. After Versaille, we traveled back to the center of Paris (only like 30 minutes) and did some shit shopping. We now call all souvenir shops shit shops. I can hardly get myself to buy anything from them, because most of the goods are just crap and pointless and I don’t understand who buys or uses or wears any of that stuff. We kind of gave up on finding stores that stayed open on Sunday and Danna and I ventured to the red light district in Pigalle to see the Moulin Rouge. It was an interesting street, and the Moulin Rouge looked like I pictured it but a lot smaller. It was more extravagant in the movie. The Eiffel Tower made up for the small size of the Rouge.
Oh! And Sunday was the end of the Tour de France. So there were tons of crowds and bikers and fans. Kind of cool to say we were there. My guess is that Lance was there as a sponsor at least. We didn’t get to see him though. We just saw the set up in the city centre and heard some announcing going on in French.
Sunday night it was time to hop back on the overnight bus and head back to our summer home in London. This trip was simple, because I was just exhausted from the long fun filled weekend. And soo sleepy from the amount of walking that especially Danna and I fit in on Sunday…I slept the entire way back. Made the bus ride go so quickly.
Paris was beautiful and I could see why it is considered to be the city of romance. We witnessed a lot of snogging going on at the Tower Saturday night… but all tried to just ignor it, have fun, and love the city being in the presence of each other. I had an amazing time and was not ready for our short weekend trip to be over. It was like a little tease. I wish I knew some French, so it would have been easier to communicate and to understand. But none the less, it was a perfect weekend and I think I can speak for all 4 of us when I say that we enjoyed every last minute of France and we were sad to go. AND… we did not have one problem with rude staff. Everywhere you look, they warn you of the ‘rude French.’ That’s a lie. We were in touristy places and non-touristy places and didn’t encounter the apparent rudeness. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe we are just pretty and it is hard to be mean to us… I don’t know but it was fun ;-)
Miss you all, more later!
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