Last Thursday, Chris planned a last minute trip to Paris for us and a couple of friends from the office joined in!
Friday:
We left after Chris got off work. Mark drove us since he was the only one with an international license. Right off the bat I was dying laughing because Angela brought along snacks for the trip but she also brought spaghetti, tomato sauce and seasonings so we told the boys if they heard anything weird in the back seat it was just us munching on dried spaghetti and sauce. Drinking in the car is legal in Europe (the driver cannot be drinking of course) so we indulged in a couple of Heinekens. Well, Chris started feeling playful so every truck we passed he did the sign for "honk your horn." Most drivers were not amused by this but he got a couple of them to honk for him haha! It's the small victories sometimes. For some reason, Mark was amazed by every cluster of cows. So for a while, about every 10 minutes we would just hear "COWS!" and then pointing haha
We arrived in Paris later that night and met up with the girl who's apartment we were renting for the weekend. She was so nice, provided WiFi and gave us a list of local cafes, restaurants and night life hot spots. When we walked out into the street, you could clearly see the Eiffel Tower lit up! Mark later discovered we could also see the Arc de'Triumph. We decided we were not in the mood to go out after the long drive so Angela prepared the spaghetti dinner she brought along. Chris and I decided to go downstairs across the street to purchase some wine and fruit from the little vendor. On our way down the stairs I slipped on the edge of a step and proceeded to fall down half a flight! Thank God Chris was there to catch me before I slammed my face into the wall! Anyways, we pretty much just ate and went right to bed. It was a long day!
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| Paris night sky |
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| Living room |
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| Midnight dinner time! |
Saturday:
One little happening that has stuck in our heads is what I did upon waking up Saturday morning. There is an episode of Absolutely Fabulous where Eddy talks her daughter into going to the top of Le Tour d'Eiffel and flashing the world. Mark opened the window in the living room and I decided to sort of re-enact this scene (not actually flashing, duh). As I did it I shouted "HELLOOOO AMERICA!" and the room just got quiet. "Umm, Deidri, we're in France...." "Oh yeah. SORRY!! HELLOOOOO FRANCE!!" This was not the only time I did something like this. I believe I referred to Eiffel Tower as The Statue of Liberty at least once. I mean in all fairness, Lady Liberty DID come from France so it's not a total insult.
We stopped at a little cafe before making our way to the metro station. I cannot remember exactly what I ordered but I know it was a mistake haha It was a small baguette with what was supposed to be some kind of meat baked inside. I was not a fan. It tasted like the French equivalent of a McDonalds breakfast. The Metro Station was very easy to navigate. Maps everywhere with all the big tourist attractions listed for each stop. You could buy tickets in packs of 10 and they worked for the trains and buses and they don't expire until they're used. We saved our unused for when my friend comes back to visit because we plan to take her to Paris for a day or two.
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| Part of the walk to the Metro Station |
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| Filthy but useful Metro Station |
Le Louvre - Our first stop on our "Tour de Paris" ;) It was very surreal looking through that gorgeous archway and seeing that pyramid and fountain in person. I had only every seen it in all of my French text books. Chris and I immediately got down to business. The picture business! "Let's get a picture of it. Ok now you in front of it. Uh-huh and one more. Okay now me." "Deidri, look left. Got it." "Thanks, babe. Oh! Let's pose like idiots here....we ARE Americans after all."
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| Chris and me with the Louvre behind us |
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| Gorgeous fountains everywhere |
We got downtown early enough that we were able to get inside without waiting in any lines. AWESOME! We've heard horror stories of waiting hours to tour sites. Looking up from under the pyramid was pretty cool! All of the staff was very friendly and worked with us and my elementary French skills haha After that I left most of the talking up to Angela.
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| Looking up from inside the pyramid |
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| Typical view looking up anywhere inside Le Louvre |
The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and the most visited. At one point Napoleon re-named the museum Musee Napoleon (he's so humble, I know....) and housed pieces he confiscated from churches. Of course, after his defeat, The Louvre was once more and all the confiscated pieces were returned to their rightful owners, though not without a fight first. We toured the Denon Wing which housed the Nike of Samothrace, The Mona Lisa and Liberty Leading The People (one of my favorite paintings!). As the minutes went by the museum became fuller and fuller! It eventually got to where we couldn't really take a picture without people walking in front of every shot :(
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| Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory) |
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| Mona Lisa |
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| Liberty Leading The People |
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| Cupids Kiss |
Funniest Moment: The signs read "No Food or Drink" Well Angela decided she was hungry towards the end of our Denon Wing tour and pulled out her breakfast. She tried very hard to be sneaky but immediately dumped about a pound of sugar all over her, the benches and the floor. Comments ranged from "Damnit, Angela, we can't take you anywhere." to "Dear mercy! Let's get out of here!" After snapping a shot of this situation we quickly brushed it all to the floor, said "gross, it looks like dandruff!" and walked away. Once again, laughed myself to tears mostly because of the look on Angela's face the entire time haha!
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| The sugary evidence |
Arc de Triomphe - I can't really decide which I liked better. Seeing the Arc or the walk to see it. The walk was just amazing. Downtown Paris is gorgeous! Fountains and gardens and the softest, greenest grass on which I've ever set foot. Chris started noticing all these chairs being set up along the street, bright yellow vendor carts and flags. He quickly realized it was for Le Tour de France! That was pretty cool! Once we arrived at L'Arc de Triomphe cyclists rode by with escorts to display their team spirit. The streets would just come alive with the sound of applause and cheers no matter who was riding through. Then someone crashed their bicycle....that was awkward....
Anyways, L'Arc de Triomphe! Yes! It is located at the end of Champs-Elysees (the most expensive shopping strip I've ever been on) and is FULL of history! The Arc honors everyone who fought and died in the French Revolutionary War and I believe the Napoleonic War. I will correct that if I am wrong. The Arc also contains the names of French victories and beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Cafe de Holy Crap - We stopped at a little cafe off the main walking area to avoid paying an arm and a leg for lunch. First of all, the tables were VERY close together. So much so I had to pull the entire table out to get to my chair as did Angela. The waitress came by and told us the lunch specials. Chris, Mark and Ang ordered the chicken and pasta while I had the fish with steamed vegetables. Chris and I each had one beer. The waitress brought our check. 101 EURO! FOR LUNCH! AAAAH! Thank God we have a credit card....We will never again not ask the price of a meal before ordering. "Special" or not.
Le Tour d'Eiffel - This was probably our favorite part of the whole trip. We have seen pictures basically all our lives of this monument and we still were not prepared for the size of this thing. Just, completely blown away. The four of us found a nice area of soft grass right in front of the Eiffel Tower and sat down to just take it all in. Chris tried so hard to get a picture of me in front of it but the lighting was just not working for us. It was pretty funny, actually. I think we tried about 10 different shots but it just didn't happen haha. We laid in the grass for a little while just soaking up some sun and reciting "The freakin' Eiffel Tower is right in front of me."
We got up eventually to take a stroll underneath this beast of a tower. We realized it actually wasn't very expensive at all to go to the top but the line was out of control! I've never had so many people trying to sell me illegally obtained souvenirs, flowers, champagne, photos and there were these guys dressed as plant vines. They were on stilts on all fours, faces painted green, covered head-to-toe in greenery and flowers. It mind sound pretty but they were really creepy. The guy knew I was freaked out too because he came LEAPING towards me! Haha. I screamed and ran. Chris and the plant guy got a good laugh.
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| A good scale to really understand just how large this tower is |
Chris and I ventured out later that night to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. It was just gorgeous! We took lots of pictures and definitely did some kissin' underneath the tower. As we were making our way back to the metro station I wouldn't say I was bummed but I was definitely wishing they would make the tower sparkle. We just assumed it was for special occasions but then all of a sudden SPARKLE LIGHTS!! EEEEE! It was so beautiful!!
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| We're pretty blessed, I think :) |
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| My personal favorite |
Notre Dame de Paris - One thing we regret about our trip was not being able to tour Notre Dame. I think it's supposed to contain the Crown of Thorns and a crypt below the structure containing ancient ruins. The three archways are (from left to right) the portal of the Virgin, the portal of the Last Judgement and the portal of Saint-Anne. There was such a large mass of people all around the cathedral that it was hard to get decent pictures this time. Hopefully on our next trip we can stop by earlier or later in the evening when all the tours are over.
Outside to our right, Ang and I noticed a ridiculous amount of birds on the ground by this statue. Amongst these birds were people feeding them, petting them, children basically rolling on the ground with them and parents just applauding this. Naturally, I had to photograph this. We agreed neither of us would ever let our kids play with wild birds likely carrying disease. There was one man, in particular, with birds all over him eating out his hands and off of his clothes. All I could think of was the bird lady from Home Alone 2 haha!
Metro Station - Most of the metro stations smelled like urine and more often than not people wouldn't actually pay for their tickets. They'd just jump the gates. No one cared. The further you get from the city center, the more ghetto the stations became. It went from having cool modern-looking seats for waiting to shabby benches with God knows what all over them. Chris and I found this out when we went the wrong way that night trying to get back to The Eiffel Tower haha. Anyways, we hopped on a train to get from Notre Dame to Hard Rock Cafe. We had no idea he hopped on the crazy train. The train operator was either new, drunk or possibly trying to kill us. He would just floor it once the doors were shut and then he'd slam on the brakes for the next stop. Those of us standing were basically pole dancing - we were flung so hard. Psycho or not, we found this to be hilarious....most of the other riders did as well. It was like being in the car during the scene in Meet The Parents where Ben Stiller is racing Robert DeNiro back to the house. *SKERRRRR* *VROOOOOMMMM* *SKERRRR*
We found ourselves hoping we had the same operator on our way back to our apartment stop that night.
Hard Rock Cafe - Ummm...I was not impressed. But it's another HRC checked off the list! :) It was small, the shop was small and VERY crowded since the waiting area, merchandise, registers and host/hostess booth were all in the same spot. They had stuff on the walls but nothing was labeled so we don't know who it belonged to or what's so special about that particular piece. I will say, however, the staff were awesome as well as the service. Our meal at Hard Rock was cheaper than our meal at that piece of crap cafe....AND BETTER! The shirt selection was nothing special so I went with a small pin to go on our little HRC backpack.
Sunday:
Chris and I stayed out pretty late the night before so we slept in a little bit. We woke up to find "Mama Ang" cleaning all the dishes in the kitchen so we helped get the rest of the apartment back in order, got ready for the day, gathered our things and made our way downstairs to find some breakfast before leaving. We seriously had a random guy sort of quack at us on the street. It almost resembled a penguin noise. Anyways, we found a little cafe down the street. Mark had to run back to the apartment to grab something so it was Chris, Angela and me for a few minutes. Chris and Angela walk into this cafe and Chris starts trying to speak to the barkeep inside about getting something to eat and drink. Chris cannot speak French. At all. Angela speaks French very well. Sooooo, why Chris was handling this I don't know but it was hilarious. Chris gives the man his drink order and looks at Angela and says "Do youuuu..." and she thinks he's about to ask her if she wants some OJ too but he says "Do youuuuu - want to do this?" hahaha It was really funny if you were there.
The drive back was stressful for a while. Mark didn't want to buy gas in Paris because Paris rapes your bank account mercilessly. The plan was to stop at a gas station outside the city. Well the first gas station wasn't open, second one didn't want to read his card, then another not reading his card. At this point we were getting desperate because the fuel tank was almost empty. Angela was able to ask one of the locals if we could please use her Euro Card and just give her euro cash right there. She could not because it was not her card and she even asked another person there for us but they said no. The woman informed us of a gas station that was sure to be open inside so we could pay in cash. We get to this gas station and it had closed at 2:00 and it was just after 2:00. AAAAHHHH! So at this point I was in the back seat just praying God would provide us a gas station, make more fuel just appear in the tank or just forgive for the gas syphoning I was about to be doing. We arrived at another gas station that wouldn't read any of our cards because they aren't Euro Cards. But THANKFULLY there was a gentleman there willing to let us use his card in exchange for euro. YAY! We were almost stuck in the middle of nowhere France! haha Mark looked like he wanted to pass out when the guy agreed to let us use his card. We celebrated with a little McDonalds for lunch. Probably the worst fish wrap of my life, by the way haha!
After the stressful gas situation was resolved everyone was in great spirits. In fact, I laughed so hard on the trip home that my sides were killing me the next day. One of the conversations went a little something like "Hey, did y'all notice how many black people there were in France? Like, locals, I mean." "Yeah. They come from Africa." I just started laughing at the thought of Angela saying that thinking we didn't know they originated in Africa. I don't know why but it just cracked me up so much. That is not what she meant though haha they literally came from Africa to France. You could hear it in their accents. Anyways, this has remained a little joke with all of us now. Every time I'm with Angela and we see a black man I ask "would you say he came from Africa orrrrr...." Also, the drive back was really cool because we went through Belgium and Luxembourg! Touched 4 countries in 1 day! :)
I used to think I didn't care that much about Paris. Like I could care less if we did or did not go. That is no longer the case. I forgot how much I loved studying the French language and history. The art, architecture, food, drink, people - all just in text books for me until that weekend. If my friend, Stephanie, is able to come next summer I fully intend on taking her to Paris. Until then, I look forward to visiting other parts of the country for their wine and cuisine. France, Je T'aime!
