We'll always have Paris...

Well Thursday flew by... and then it was Friday!!! And we were Paris bound....

PARIS:

…and so we arrived, after Annalise had consoled me on the turbulent flight…haha, and we were in Parsi!! Oh how I had missed you!

Well that day, after we dropped off our bags etc at Vera’s friend’s boyfriend’s apt (haha) and grabbing some lunch, we decided to do some sightseeing to get everything started. So we walked to Notre Dame and around that area! Notre Dame is just my favorite place in the world…so beautiful and inspirational!

Then once it started to get dark we found an area to sit along the Seine in between a group of drunk, guitar playing frenchies and another group of four Frenchmen about our age… and we just hung out there… had some 1664… and relaxed. Paris is such a different atmosphere at night compared to Nice (aka Nice is like the Florida/retirement community/relaxing vacation spot of France and Paris is the NYC/night-life/never-sleeps kind of place. It was very fun…and the Zak and Sarg (the two boys with us) even bought all the girl pretty red roses… tender.

Well it was a great start to a fun, but hectic, trip.

The next day we woke up at the crack of nine and were out the door by 10:30am.  Here’s a run-down of all the touristy things we managed to fit into one day:

*Saw the George Pompido Centre for Modern Art and its surrounding areas

*The Lourve and its surrounding areas

*Musee D’Orsay

*Champs Elysees

*L’Arc de Triomphe

* Tour Effiel

…and that’s a lot for one day…

But I just lurveeee the Lourve… me and Zak (since we had been there before and thus had seen all the “must-see” attraction before) just wandered around and really got to appreciate the art.  It was nice to be one of the only people in the room and just to sit on a bench and reflect… its much nicer than the millions of people trying to sneak a peak at the teeny-tiny Mona Lisa.

Oh and the Musee D’Orsay= my favorite thing in the whole world. Pretty much French impressionism just makes my heart flutter. So I was pretty much in heaven there…. So amazing!!

But after alllllll that my feet we about to fall off (since we walked everywhere= Paris is large), so we took the metro (=relief...) and went back to chill at the apt for about an hour. By this time it is 10:30.. PM.. yes we still haven't dinner, for those who were following the closely! And so we all set out in our cute little dressed and Sarg in his designer shoes and sweater..and Zak in well.. his cargo shorts (oh well, haha). We found a little bistro about a block away from the apt and we snagged a table for six. Well, this particular table just happened to be the one right next to the table housing three 30ish year old Frenchmen (who just also happened to work at this very restaurant also...). Well automatically they knew we were American (=its the English, and maybe the cargo shorts) and they started chatting with us. They were the usual boisterous womanizing 30something aged men (after they have had 2 bottles of quality wine in them...) and it was quite amusing. They recommended things off the menu for us and explained a few things. Well we stared out with delicious red meat (=finally, its not really part of "l'alimentation mediterainne") and wine (=mmmmm). AND then came the escargot. Well I did not eat any (=I am not an adventurous eater) but Zak, Vera, Lorraine and Annalise did- and they liked it okay so I will just take there word for it. Needless to say, the French were highly amused by this fact... haha. 

So that was that and we hung around for a little while longer and then crashed when we got back to the apt at about 2am...

8:30am Sunday morning: think we are still sleeping?? Think again! Lorriane, Annalise, and I were so good and got up early and went to mass at Notre Dame. It was amazing. But too touristy- but I did my best to really take away something special from the mass- I mean its just so beautiful and has soooo much history... Well after mass, it was raining so hard- so were ran to the cafe next door for some breakfast!! Mmmm yummy eggs and coffee- just what we needed! Then to a souvenir shop for a scarf (=necessity when you go to Paris) and then we were back the apt to meet the others to leave for the airport.

Airport= interesting story. Well we left about 2 hours before our flight was scheduled to take off. First mistake. It literally took us an hour and a half to get to the airport. So after a maze of metro, RER, and airport shuttles (which cost us 7euros!!!) we were at the airport. We literally got our boarding passes at the kiosks, flew through security, and walked straight into the "now boarding" line. Good. Well at least we made it.. 

And then it was a beintot Paris!! Tu me manqueras!!