Paris!

We arrived at Gare du Nord very excited to see Paris, until we realized that the ticket machines for the metro would not accept any of our credit cards. So, we began wandering through the streets, all the way up by Montmartre, not sure how we were going to make it all the way because we were having a really hard time navigating. We came upon another metro station, but again our credit cards didn't work and no one was working at the booth, so we had no choice but to enjoy Mcdonalds as our first snack in Paris. However, we got 50 euro bills from the ATM, and my 95 cent fries were sort of a hassle to get change from. We went back down into the metro and someone was at the booth finally! So we didn't need our change but got hassled again by the man working there. It wasn't in a mean way, but he let us struggle with our French until after about 3 minutes he told us he spoke English. In any case we made it onto a train, which are very strange very tall square things that sort of sway along. And finally to the hotel, where we could see the top of the Eiffel Tower from our window! We dropped off our bags and headed out to see it all lit up. It was exciting to be there for our first night, it was really beautiful, bright blue with all these sparkling white lights.

several accidents happened under the Eiffel Tower. One being that while I was eating a chestnut crepe, my wallet disappeared. The next day after a lot of frantic running around, someone called and said they had found it on the ground, and EVERYTHING was in it except my credit card. c'est bizare!

my theory is that because I lit a candle at Notre Dame (in front of Joan d'Arc) I got it back. I'm not a religious person but I was there so I figured why not, hm. The man who gave it back to me said he was Arab, and it proves that Arabs are good men.

Back to Notre Dame it was beautiful, and there was a service going on, and the music sounded amazing in the Cathedral. When we go back outside, there was an amazing windstorm, and a girl stopped us on the street to tell us that she would be famous in 4 months time and we would see her on TV.

We also went to Jardin de Luxembourg, which really wasn't my kind of park. they have strange square trees and you can't lay in the grass, but I did have some yummy fig and violet gelato.

For dinner we had a picnic under the tour Eiffel.

Every morning we went across the street to Poilane, an amazing patisserie. The croissants, pain aux chocolat everything was amazing, so flaky and buttery! sadly, our last day there was a Monday, almost everything was closed and we tried a boulangerie for our breakfast and it was the worst chocolate croissant I've ever had!

On the second day we went to a street market to buy snacks for lunch. One was a Brittany cake that was made of butter and sugar only. I can't really describe how it tasted. nutty, maple-ey, buttery. We ate lunch at a park that was commissioned by Napoleon where all the landforms were man made. a large rocky cliff, waterfalls, caves, stalagtites, winding streams and a lake all man made. I feel like it was a very French thing to do for some reason. Maybe it's because they prune their trees into squares and parks are really fountains, paths and patches of grass you can't sit on. That day was the fourth of July so we went shopping around our hotel for a picnic, we bought a piece of watermelon, a rotisserie chicken, fried whole new potatoes and a really wonderful bottle of wine and sat right along the seine across from the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed our dinner. Everyone riding boats along the river waved at us and took our picture, maybe they thought we were French, or what were were doing was very French?

The next day we stumbled upon Gerard Mulot (?) a choclaterie/patisserie where they have lots of little fancy treats. I bought some raspberry/cream thing and 8 little macaroons. They were beautiful, bright colorful little pillows! my favorites were the chocolate and the lavender/apricot. Then we went to a wine bar called fish la Boissonerie for lunch, it was the best meal we had in Paris. We each got a glass of Champagne, and a buffalo mozarella salad that had flowers in it. I had fish with veggies in broth, everything tasted so fresh and Juls had rabbit, which was so delicious. It came layered between fried potato/parmesan tuilles and mushrooms. It was the most beautiful food I had ever seen.

(can you tell food was the focus of my trip)

then we wandered towards the Centre Pompidou but got sidetracked/sort of couldn't find it and decided to go up to Montmartre instead. The next day we went to Pompidou and it turns out it was behind us the whole time, we just didn't see it. That happened to us a lot there. But Montmartre turned out to be a good choice, it was really bustling at night, all the cafes were it up, we went into the Sacre Coure (I lit another candle, in front of the patron saint of lost things (st. Andrew I think?) and saw an amazing view of the city. Then we walked across to the square where every cafe had a tent set up outside with lights strung up, and waiters in costumes. We had l'escargots, moules (mussels) et frites! it was a really nice, lively dinner.

The next day we set out to see the sights we wanted to get to before we left. Our first stop was the catacombs. It was an amazing deep-underground walk. Apparently, serious illness broke out in Paris, and they believed it was coming from the graveyard, so they exhumed every single body and at night, chanting priests wheeled piled of bones down into these catacombs. The bones actually made the walls around us, huge walls of bones, the skulls arranged in shapes and patterns (we saw a heart) that went on and on! It was damp, and cold, water dripping from the ceiling...it was everything you could want from a huge underground grave.

We also went to that famous cemetery where Oscar Wild and Jim Morrison are buried. I can't quite figure out how he got there, but this place was HUGE and crowded with graves. Most of the graves were actually these tall, narrow buildings, sort of mini altars to light candles on and leave flowers. The only "famous" grave we saw was Chopin's it was covered in flowers. There was a funny group of men that were going in frustrated circles looking for Jim Morison.

We made it back to the Pompidou and had a picnic on the concrete hill in front of it. Baguette, figd and the most amazing chevre and comte! All I wanted to do was eat, I wish I had another stomach. my favorite part of the museum was the escalators going up. The view of the city was incredible! we saw the exhibition on sacred images in art, which I honestly didn't enjoy very much, except for this floor drawing made out of glitter, and a piece that had a zillion colored dice strewn on the floor. The permanent collection was nice though. They had a whole room dedicated to this artist that makes lots of inflatables. (I'll post his name as soon as I find it in my horribly disorganized journal). Then we to the Arc de Triomphe. The Champs Elysses is realyl just a really big street with lots of flags and more square trees, it was a nice arc. Then we went for a seafood dinner. My favorite parts were these little clams we got with out bread, my sardine appetizer and the cherry soup for dessert.

On our last day we intended to go shopping for stuff to bring back, but everything was closed! the cheese shop, the wine shop where the slightly stern man gave us great recommendations, and the women who takes your money at poilane who is very watchful and sort of like a statue! Even the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, so we found a couscous place, which was pretty good, and our waiter was theatrical. Then we went up to the windy Eiffel Tower, I thought I was going to be blown off. Riding the elevators was kind of scary really.

In the end, we got a snack at a cafe, found a little wine shop and barely made our train to London, where we returned to the rain.