Bonjour bloggettes! Sorry this post is a bit delayed, but I have just been EXHAUSTED these last few days. Maybe it's the traveling across Europe, walking across cities all day, and then waking up at 7 every day to go to work for 8 hours. Yeah, maybe that's it. BUT, it's hard to complain when I am living it up in Europe!! And this last weekend was another successful one-it's pretty hard to go wrong in....Paris!
Not only did I get to visit the most romantic city in the world, but I got to stay in a real Parisian apartment. I know, so amazing. Rose's aunt, Christine, was born and raised in France and has an apartment right in the city that she very graciously let us stay in. It was super cute and she was honestly the best host ever-I think if we had asked to borrow her left arm, she would've chopped it off right there for us. We had a meal ready for us at any hour and anything that we could want. I don't think she sat down for more than two minutes before jumping up to get us something again. The first night we got there (it was around 930pm mind you), she had a full dinner prepared for us and we somehow found a way to fit it in even after already eating around 6. She had just gotten back from traveling and lives by herself so she isn't used to all the company, but she did all she could to please us. The last time Rose visited her in Paris she was 10 years old, and Kris said in her French accent "All I remembered you eating as a girl was meat and potato; so, tonight I make chicken and potato!" It was indeed delicious, but every meal was based exactly on what we mentioned in passing that we liked. Breakfast the last day was: chocolate croissants, chouquettes (little croissant-like pastries with sugar crystals on top), Coke, cherries, and cookies. No joke. She was so cute putting all our favorites out, but even my stomach didn't know how to tackle the carbs on carbs.
But other than the Michelin man diet, everything was amazing. Kris insisted she sleep on the futon in the living room and gave the other two bedrooms to us, with me getting my own bed (Rose and Emily kind of tentatively came up to me and said, "well, we know each other a little bit better and we were just wondering if maybe you wouldn't mind sleeping in the room by yourself?" Hmmm sleep in a queen size bed all to myself for three nights? I think I might just be able to manage). It was the perfect set-up in the middle of Paris and made the trip so much more homey and special. It was just perfect.
Now to talk about the city! This is my third time being in Paris (I know, I know, super spoiled, but not rotten I promise!), so I had already seen all the sites and didn't think I'd enjoy the city too too much, but it was even better than I remember it. Every day was a beautiful 70 degrees and it was as charming and cute as Paris could be. The city really is special-you can just feel as your walking around that artists, philosophers, writers, musicians, and some of the greatest thinkers the world has even seen painted, thought, wrote, and played right where you're walking. Pretty neat. (Right as I wrote that, the Beastie Boy's "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn" came on my iPod to snap me back into my less-dignified American reality. Oh well, one can dream!)
Onto the touristy stuff. And we definitely did the touristy stuff. We went from the Effil Tower to the Louvre to Versailles to the Arc de Triumphe and everything in-between. It was exhausting, but so worth it in Parí! Some various thoughts and stories from the trip:
1) Why is Mona Lisa so darn famous? I'm still not quite sure-she's tiny, not that detailed and frankly not that pretty. Beats me what made her smile so fascinating.
2)Napoleon sure thought a lot of himself. Everywhere you look that darn little guy pops up. He put a few statues of himself and thrones with N's on them in Versailles, built himself a whole apartment in the Louvre (look how short his little bed is! Hey there little fella!), and built a Roman arch in the middle of the city to commemorate a victory on the battlefield. No wonder they call it a Napoleon complex...
3)I forced Rose and Emily to climb every church, hill, and monument Paris had to offer, including the 700 steps up the Effil Tower-towards the end of the trip Emily told me she felt like she was on The Biggest Loser. Hey, if that makes me look like Jillian Michaels, I'd be alright with that. With views like this all those steps are worth it!
4)I would just like to make it clear that I am 100% team British Monarchy - With Versailles and all that, King Louis and the rest of the French are a bit much for me. Will and Kate all the way.
5)I love America. We were wandering around and randomly ran into the American embassy! I got so excited seeing our stars and stripes blowing in the wind and said "look guys! look!" They thought I spotted a celebrity or something, but it was just our embassy :) I really love our country ok? I miss it! I saluted and snapped a pic.
6) This is about five "lanes" of the heaviest traffic in Paris in a free-for-all. No lanes, no stop signs, no lights, just chaos. We find ourselves outside the circle. We want to go inside the circle. What is our brilliant plan to get across? Find a group of male Spaniards, convince them to cross with us (power of numbers), and play human frogger while I scream "This is so dangerous! This is so SO dangerous! That's it, I'm gonna die!" After several honks, a few French profanities (which I returned with a "hey, watch it jerk!" I showed them), and a close encounter with a Vespa, we made it!
Basically, Paris is amazing and it is definitely a city you need to have on your bucket list. There's too much history, culture, and things to see to not experience at least once. Brush up on your French though; people hear are not as willing to speak anything but their prized language. So I'll give it a go: Adieu mes amis, jusqu'à la prochaine fois...
(Doesn't get much prettier than that)
