Vacayyyy de la Toussaint, Part Two

PARIS

Yes, mesdames et messieurs, I hit up Paris. And it was beautiful.

Thursday, arrived from Tours. Nicole, Amy, Emily, Darija and I got into our little Hotel Printemps, turns out we were to stay on the top floor. Ok, I know the French are all into being skinny and buff and stuff but good lorde, could you please put an elevator in your VERY TALL building so I don't lose die every time I ascend your stairs? Just a few things to consider: premature death by respiratory failure, fire hazards, death by falling (wobbly banisters like WHOA) and over all death by fatigue. Yes, my friends, making that ascent with our eight hundred-pound valises was not a pretty sight. But hey, I just figured every time I walked up I got to reward myself with a pain au chocolat, right?

Hotel Printemps worked nicely for us, though. We were right by the subway stop so, as soon as we'd put down our bags, we we headed for the Eiffel Tower.

No, just kidding, we headed to Starbucks. Seriously. Starbucks.

Now, before you write me off as a coffee-crazed, addicted and slightly pathetic American, hear me out: I haven't had a coffee larger than a shot glass here. Ever. I pay a euro fifty once a week for a teeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiny coffee and knowing that Starbucks was in Paris was like knowing that the Cadbury Chocolate Superstore is in your hometown. We just HAD to go. And go, we did. I will neither confirm nor deny that I went to Starbucks a (truly satisfying) four times while in Paris. I own that! I loved every single over-priced sip! I savored the sugary syrup of my latte, the four pounds of butter in each muffin, the stares I got from the Parisians as I took out my knitting to do what any American does in a coffeeshop - stop, put her feet up, and people-watch . I leafed through their "We're environmentally-friendly and we're humanitarians, we swear!" leaflets and I browsed through their beautiful shiny thermoses (thermoses is a weird-looking word, eh?) and I salivated over their caramel macchiatos, their chocolats chaud and their regular old coffee. Holy whoa, who knew I could write such a long paragraph dedicated to Starbucks? I think I'm longing for some America back in my life.

After Starbucks, our first stop on our Paris-tour was Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. It was a Thursday afternoon, grey and dreary - reminded me of England. Amy had scuttled off to meet with her friends so it was just me, the D(arija, my colocatrice), Emily, and Nicole. We saw the stairs. The stairs were intimidating. We took the stairs by storm.

Yeahhhhh buddy.

Once we got to the top we got to look out over all of Paris while simultaneously getting to listen to some dudes sing Bob Marley. It was like a flashback to college except I wasn't eating ramen and no one was locked out of the bathroom. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, it was exciting. We posed for pictures for approximately eight million hours and then headed back down to wander the streets of Paris. I decided to start a photo shoot of me looking like a fool at every grand Paris monument. I'm pretty sure I succeded!

Next stop on Paris Tour was the Champs-Elysees. I'd like to give a shout out and a hollah to Madame Weltzer, who put me through French 2-4 at East Lansing High and had us sing "Au Champs-Elysees" a million times. Hollah! Thanks to you, I know the song and I know how singing can really help in a class with foreign languages (heads up: I taught my kids "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" the other day and it was one of the greatest moments in my life). We walked down the street, we checked out l'Arc de Triomph, we strolled down the Avenue. I couldn't help but feel a little like I was in New York walking up 5th Avenue and then I got all nostalgic for New York but I was in Paris so what was I doing thinking about New York but hey , homesickness is hitting me a little bit at the moment so it makes sense.

ANYway. I made a video. On the Champs-Elysees. And it goes a little like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKHLd9jwy-Q

Next stop was... the Eiffel Tower! It went a little like this:

"Hey guys, let's take the metro to the Eiffel Tower!"
"Ok!"
yaddayaddayaddachattingonthemetromakingfoolsofourselveslookingreallyamericanlaughingourbuttsoffmakingdarijacringewitheveryhugeloudguffawandthen
BAM
the freaking Eiffel Tower. Out the window.




Good gravy that was amazing!
I seriously was very very close to crying. Not sure why - it's not like I have a history with the Tower or anything but it was just like WHOA I was not expecting that. Emily and I fumbled around on the metro for our cameras, as we wanted to get a shot of the Tower as we whizzed by, but we couldn't do it. Nice-looking Parisians (say WHAT!) smiled at our touristy-efforts and we basically ran off the metro at our stop trying to get to the monument AFAP.

Photos photos photos. I went to the Tower a total of three times during the trip wait maybe more and I took artsty ones, stupid ones, fun ones, ugly ones, blurry ones, night ones, I got 'em all. So good to go with four girls who all realize how important it is to get everysingleangle for everysinglecamera for everysinglepersoninthegroup. I'm surprised our cameras didn't all run out of batts there! Oh yeah - I too my "Hi I'm Emily the crazy American tourist" shot at the Tower, too.

Amy had gone off earlier in the day to go meet up with her British Uni friends and Nicole took Thursday afternoon off for herself so it was just me, the D, and Emily who then went to the Louvre. It should be said that we're all ballers on budgets and were trying to do Paris on the cheap so we didn't acutally go into anything. Seriously. Photo ops on the outside were just fiiiiine by me. Some day when I am famous and make a million dollars makign stilly videos on YouTube or singing covers of Girlyman I will be able to go back to Paris and live it up but for now... outside-of-important-buildings shots are a-ok with me. And holycrapican'tbelievewe'reinparislet'slookreallyshockedandhappy shots are also ok.

So we went to the Louvre and went all DaVinci Code on it and took pictures of the giant triangle thing. That was cool.

I just realized that I think I've gotten my days mixed up. Or I've made my Paris experience into one long adventure, like the sun didn't set on my vacation. But, uh, I just can't remember when one day ended (Eiffel Tower at night) and the next day began (obligatory Starbucks). So bear with me, it'll make sense or something.

Ahhhhh I think I remember. I went to the Louvre on Friday. Ok who the hell knows. We'll just say that's what happened.

Friday was my day with just me, Darija, and Emily. We went to the Louvre (on the outside - hells no were we gonna pay to go in! Ciao, Mona Lisa) and we went to the Notre Dame and we went and ate ice cream at the best ice cream place in all of Paris and we walked on the Seine and took artsy fartsy photos and we went to this really famous square but I can't remember what it's called. That night Darija left to go party with her fam out in Lyon and Nicole and I took an amazing repose back at the hotel that consisted of us watching Scrubs for a lil' bit. That night we met up with Nicole and her friend, Lorraine, and had a delicious Menu meal (you know, like 14 euros for an entree, plat, and dessert) and I drank, literally, 7 carafes de l'eau - j'ai soif like WHOA here in France!

Aaaaaaand we went back to the Eiffel Tower for some night shots. Holler!
Found a lil' art exposition on the Seine as we finished up at the Tower. Very very cool.

And of course we had to go to the Moulin Rouge! At night!
Crazy sketch.
I've never seen so many sex shops in my life. Here in Europe they're called "sexy shops" and, for some reason, that makes them sound dirtier than usual to me.
I hunted around for Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman but, alas, they weren't there. Instead, the group of us were whistled at, men gave me confused look (the garcon ou fille? look) and there was all that whistling and hollering that comes with being young (totally beautiful) women in France. The guys who do all the catcalling are called drageurs and they're everywhere. And annoying. Luckily, I don't get much of that.

Anyway, we were pretty excited to be on the street of Lights 'n Filth. Elysia met up with us that night (ok i remember! This was Saturday night!) and she had her first Paris crepe and it was all merry and stuff.

Sunday was our last day in Paris. I'd left Avignon at 5:00 am on Tuesday and, being the homebody that I am, by Saturday night I was ready to be back in my fortified walled city, back at the Lalogene, back at Place Pie, back at 5 rue Saint Thomas d'Aquin, back on Rue de la Republique, back at the Palais, back to everything that's familiar. But just because I was feeling like I wanted my Avignon home didn't mean we didn't live up Paris for our last day!

We checked out of Hotel Printemps in the morning, took all our bags to the train station for the day. For those of you who are doing international travel and all of that, i totally recommend it! Useful and not too pricey and useful!

After the Gare me and Emily and Elysia took off for the Louvre again, to give Elysia a few sights to see. This time we went IN the Louvre because guess what! All museums in Paris are free to the public on the first Sunday of every month! And we were there on the first Sunday of November! Woohoo!!! But someone shoulda given me a whistle or something to blow because I got lost in the Louvre and I couldn't Marco/Polo my way to my friends. Oh well - found 'em and then we went and saw the Mona Lisa.
And then I saw a bunch of statues.
And then I saw a bunch of paintings.
And then I saw a lot of African art.
And then I wished I knew more about art. I couldn't fully appreciate the Louvre. But it was still freaking cool.

Sunday was our first and only beautiful day in Paris but we really took advantage of it. We went to Place de la Concord, we went to the Louvre, we went to l'Arc de Triomph. It was all beautiful. And we went UP l'Arc de Triomph because guess what oh yeah it as open to the public and it was AWESOME. I looked out onto Paris from its center - it was breathtaking. That was an wesome moment.


Ok, so I think that ends my Paris Tour. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Champs-Elysees, Montmartre... I feel like I did it all! Of course I didn't and I need to go back a million times to get the city in its entirety but it was a nice entree to a plat, I feel. And I was with these really freaking sweet people the whole time. I wish Parisians wore color. I wish they picked up after their dogs. I wish they smiled more. Makes me miss home :)

Paris was an awesome time!