Let me start with Hi.
Ok now stories.
So Sam and I arrived in Paris on Sunday afternoon. Which we originally thought was going to suck because everywhere else, everything shut down on Sundays. And before 6 most other days except thursdays. Since the US always has everything open, this was a severe disappointment. But we were pleasantly surprised.
We walked down by les Invalides to see the apartment my grandfather used to have in the summers. The park was PACKED with people, all playing with their children and their dogs and having a picnic. We kept walking towards the Eiffel Tower and I complained about being hungry, so we stopped at a little cafe where some Texan girls who didnt speak French were pissing off the staff. Needless to say, that wasnt the best experience but I ate something.
We wandered up the Champs Elysee and noted that, not only were all the stores open, BUT THEY WERE ALL HAVING SALES! Thats right! Sam and I somehow managed to coordinate our visit to France's MAJOR sale season. Wow, I'm one lucky girl. So we walked along the side with all the designer stores, and laughed in the Louis Vuitton window, since we think his stuff is pretty trashym, and then we watched the rotary around l'arc de triomphe...in all of its insanity. Sam thinks its really funny, and I have to say that I agree. There isnt any rhyme or reason to what goes on there.
We got back to our hostel later that evening to discover our roomates, who i startled with a "Hallo!" (as in, I spoke English with a German accent). They were two australian guys who were in Europe for the first time and both extremely jetlagged. This was to the point, that while they were in their 20s, they went to sleep at 8:30 instead of doing anything interesting. But they were very friendly, so sam and I were not worried.
The following morning, we woke up to have the free breakfast at the crack of dawn in the basement of our hostel. Which was packed with loud Spaniards. And there was very little space for movement, but who needs to move when you are barely aware of where you are and what time it was? Exactly.
We left to go and see the culturally valuable sites. Sam and I planned our week as such:
Monday - Culture
Tuesday - Chartres
Wednesday - Shopping
Thursday - Home
So we started off in the direction of the Sorbonne and the Latin Quarter because Sam wanted to find his brother a book. We walked around out there, and noticed that it was significantly hotter in Paris than it had been anywhere else. OOh dear. Well, we werent allowed into the Sorbonne, but we did find a book store. Admitedly, I think I ended up finding more there than Sam did. Since i am NEVER EVER EVER taking a french class again, I bought some plays and novels to make sure that I didnt forget french. I think I'll join a french club or something at Yale to help me out with my speaking, which started out a little rusty after we came to Paris from Germany and all I wanted to do was speak German. But he did find his secretly *Urban* brother a book about French films.
From there we went to L'Ile Notre Dame and saw the Notre Dame from the outside since the tourist groups were HUMONGOUS. We also went to see Saint Chapelle, and had lots of interesting times behind a group of Southerners who also did not speak any French. To make it better, all the men were dressed like they were planning to take a month long hike in hybrid preppy hiker clothes and camel backs, while the women were all wearing very stereotypically american beach clothes. I dont meant to sound so condescending, its more that the Parisiennes around us were hilarious about how they reacted to this family, and we kind of understood why.
Saint Chapelle was gorgeous. So much stained glass and magic!
From there we went to find some food, and ended up eating Crepes outside the Pompidou. So yum. It's unbelievable how delicious a butter and sugar crepe is. I'll have one more condescending moment, so bear with me. Sam and I then laughed about how much we HATE it when people say "CR AY Ps" instead of Crepes. I know we speak English and some people think it sounds so elitist to say Crepe, but people. Other countries do not SLAUGHTER the name of our food dishes? You still say Creme Brulee or Enchildad? Whats the difference?
Either way, we cringed several times while people were ordering from our beloved crepe stand.
Then we entered the center of Modern Art. For about 3 hours of fun, we saw Kandinsky's master collection (and I fell in love with his work during his Munich phase), Piscassos, Marcels, Matas....so many amazing things that I had read about and not yet seen! Including Marcel's famous Urinal...so fabulous. The downstairs exhibit was all about women artists who were pushing the limit on sex, religion and gender studies. It was actually really fascinating, though 3 hours was a really long time for my patience.
We realized that we were exhausted from all of our adventures and decided that we would save the long awaited trip to the sacre coeur for the following day. So instead, we walked over by the louvre, took some asian tourist pictures and I stared at the people sitting with their feet in the fountain with envy because Sam wouldnt let me :(
We sat in the park outside the louvre with the other 80% of Paris and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the french guys playing soccer and chasing their girlfriends, the various petting zoos and petting zoo related activities taking place en mass, the intellectuals reading, the teens smoking and drinking beer or wine, the dogs, the guys trying to sell water bottles filled up with water from the fountain, and the guys trying to sell small replicas of the Eiffel Tower. There are only so many times I enjoy being harassed to buy one.
We sat for a while before we walked around trying to find some place that didnt cost a fortune to eat. We ended up near the Madeline and we found a cafe that was not teribbly priced along one of the back alleys. We even tried some wine, and Sam's Bordeaux was significantly better than my Sauvignon. But whatever. We all learn, right?
We got back later than usual, and the Aussies were already there. We talked about our days, and they admited that they spent the day at the Louvre, and that Alex (one of them) had lost his shoe to the filter in the fountains outside the louvre! They told us about the scene they created and it sounded absolutely hilarious. They also asked us about our trip to Amsterdam, because that was where they were going next. I think there was a particular amount of interest for them in the window prositutes, but that was a conversation Sam had with them.
We also talked about the differences between American and Aussie culture. It was really interesting! And amusing because they had very strong opinions about things. What was worse, was that they know tons about American culture since they get all of our tv shows, and we know so little about their culture. Other than our very stereotypical and rude impersonations of Aussies that include phrases like "G'udday Mate!" and my brother's favorite, "Let's throw some shrimp on the Barbie!" Not that they even call them shrimp, according to Marco, because they are called Prawns.
The next morning we went to the train station and headed out to Chartres, which is a lovely little french town. The chapel is the main reason people go there, and we walked around in its cool darkness for a very long time. I even lit a candle for everyone's health. even though I'm not catholic...it was so pretty and I kinda believed in it at the time. Plus the money went to restoring the church...
From there we went into the little winding streets of the village and discovered a little Bakery across from a Cheese store. Most excellent, we realized. So I bought some of the most delicious pepper brie that I had ever tasted and 2 eclairs and some peach tea, while Sam supplied the Baguette. It came to a total of 4 euros a person for our lunch. and it was super. we ate outside the church in the garden and watched some boys play frisbee. I went to the Epicerie and bought my dad some curious fruit spreads for his birthday, and then we went back to Paris in the oppressive heat.
Once we climbed the never ending stairs from hell to the mainland, we had to climb more stairs up the side of a hill to reach the sacre coeur. But it was so worth it. The building is a knock out. When we reached the bottom of the first set of stairs I was approached by a man with some string. Since I originally thought I was getting mugged, I pretended that I only spoke Spanish and I played the dumb Spanish girl. It didnt matter that my accent in totally not that of a Spaniard because the guy didnt speak much Spanish anyway. I stood there since Sam had basically run away, and waited for something to happen. The guy ended up being really nice and he made me another rope bracelet that I am currently wearing on my wrist in the collection. And it really was very beautiful, so I thanked him and gave him some money.
This evening, we decided, that we wanted to see a movie. In attempts to save money, we ate at France's fastfood place and laughed about how much we avoided places like this in the US. Then we went and saw a french romantic comedy called Fais Moi Plaisir, sans subtitles. It was actually one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time, despite our original doubts since the rest of the audience was over 40. Apparently all the teens needed to go and see the Hangover aka a very bad trip, in France. The movie was about this guy with a bipolar girlfriend who wants him to cheat on her with this other woman who ends up having a pyscho fiance, is the daughter of the president of France, and has very strange expectations from everyone. The movie is full of awkward disasters and I LOVED it.
The Aussies were in the hostel when we got back, after their first trip to Disney world where Marco bought his nieces and nephews various things, including a little snow white dress that he was kind of obsessed with. This is Marco the boybuilder...I was highly amused.
The next morning was SHOPPPING DAYYY!!!! so we went back to the Champs Elysee and wandered around there, then we walked around some of the other high fashion streets and found some magical things. I had found the most wonderful handbag the day before in the Galerie Lafayette. It is grey and the leather is so soft and fabuous that I melt whenever I touch it. Handbags are basically the love of my life in the shopping world, so sorry that I sound like such a ditz. But its smooth and enormous and wonderful and I love it. Especially its zillions of pockets. ANYWAY we had a nice wander, and we watched some gay guys in the new and very bustling marc jacobs store pick out a new murse. Good times.
We had lunch at a cafe where all the french people came for lunch during their very long lunch breaks. It was divine, especially the chocolate cake that sam had, though my mochi were very yum too. And the best part, besides the fact that everyone who worked there was so *Urban* was when a man walked by with a HUGE neon green LV duffle and Sam moaned and went "Thats not ok!" in a tortured voice. It was up there with our list of *Urban* rules that include not drinking water in order to suffer, but eating lots of ice cream because it tastes too good to deprive yourself from it. We had a good time.
That evening we retired earlier in order to pack and found the Aussies in the room again. This was a 3 for 3 scenario where they got back so much earlier than us... how surprsingly dull? Sam and I went out for cocktails one of these nights but I forget which day it was exactly, and I recieved the greatest compliment of my life. The guys at the bar asked Sam where he was from and he replied that we were from America. They were shocked. And when we asked why, they said it was because they thought I was French. My accent is good! They said they didnt notice one at all!! YAY!!!!!!! So that was my very happy place.
We went to bed really late because the Aussies were telling us about Alex's Get Rich Quick schemes, that included growing Bonsai trees outside, selling chips from broken plasma tvs, raising fish... it was hilarious. He had all these stories and wives tales about everything from dreaming to religion and we had such a laugh.
So now I'm home, after we passed through the maze that is Dublin international Airport and its been pretty good. I hope you all had happy 4ths!
There is more on that to come, later.
Love.
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