"there are places i remember, all my life"

Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Everywhere you turn around there is a breath-taking monument.

We left by the TGV train at 2pm on Friday, and went from the train station to our hotel which was located in the east of the city. Not only was it Friday the 13th, but there a woman had her black cat with her on the train! So ironic. It was a nice little hotel. Everything is so tiny in France, from the cup of coffee that you pay 3 euros for to the hotel room you stay in. But at least my height is coming in use here. At any rate, it was a clean hotel, and we ended up paying a lot less staying in the hotel than we would have payed to stay in a hostel.

Unfortunately, Friday was a bit of a tense day. It all began when we arrived at the train station in Paris. Jen and I took the lead and while we all stood in line to buy a little book of metro tickets, we looked at the map of the metro, and figured out what route we needed to take to get to the hotel. It wasn't difficult to figure out, and she and I have both already been on the metro so we had a little bit of knowledge to stand on. Suddenly I look over at Lindsey, and she is standing in her tracks with her mouth agape, looking like she is ready to kill. Uh oh. Apparently Andrew, who was invited along to come to Paris with us by Gary, had turned to Pat and said, "Um, don't you think we should double check where we need to go? Everyone knows girls can't read maps."

This can of course be brushed off at first as just a funny sarcastic joke, but when Lindsey turned to him and said, "What did you say?" he replied back, "What, it's true." He was being dead serious! I couldn't believe it! I looked at him, and I could just feel my hair standing on end, I was so angry and offended. "You don't think any girl can read a map?" I asked him.

His face was turning red very quickly as if he suddenly felt impending doom from us three girls looking at him in disgust, but he still answered back, "What? Generally that's just how it is. They just can't read maps and get directions." He was still trying to defend himself!! Matt knew that I was pissed off, and just said something under the lines of, whoa girl calm down we don't need carnage in the metro, so that we could just keep moving and get our line to take us to the hotel.

Of course we arrived just fine...girl's directions and all.

After getting cleaned up a little bit, we went to the Latin Quarter and walked around. The metro is such a funny experience. First of all, you have to be sure to look really pissed off and moody, and in no way should you talk to anyone else who is riding it. At one of the stops a hobo got on with his guitar and started playing Bob Dylan, but his English accent was so bad at first that I couldn't tell what he was playing. Interestingly enough, Matt told me that he read an article this past semester about the musicians that play at the metros and a good majority of them are in fact French government employees. Apparently the government has them do that to encourage musicians and artists in the city to keep up with France's bohemian legacy. I don't know how well it's working to be honest, haha. I definitely do not come to France to listen to French music. I've been hearing a lot of French rap artists trying to mimic 8 mile angst, and it just isn't working.

I saw this sign by le Palais de Justice in the Latin Quarter, and I could not for the life of me figure out what it was forbidding. Kidnapping? Holding hands? I'll have to ask Thao, hahah. Matt and I trying to look French and moody in front of Notre Dame. We sat by the cathedral for an hour or so, soaking in all the sculptures, gargoyles, and ornate carvings. The cathedral, when first built hundreds of years ago, was actually all golden--all the the stones were painted with a metallic gold, red, royal blue, etc, paints. But with time and weathering, it's now all gray, with only the stained glass windows to testify to its former dazzling glory. It is still of course, very beautiful.
break dancers in front of Notre Dame.

Then we were all getting hungry so we went to a cafe and had some dinner. I ordered a croque madame--a sort of french grilled cheese sandwhich with ham and a cooked egg on top. Anyone who comes to France must order a Croque Monsieur, or croque madame (the madame has the egg on top.) They are delicious! And made with delicious French cheese. Expensive, but, "Welcome to Paaaaris" as Thao always tells us in his French accent whenever we complain about how poor we are here.

We walked around some more after dinner and ended up going back to where our hotel neighborhood to go to a bar. Disaster! It was a horrible night. Welcome to Paaaaris. Our first mistake was going to a little bar where everyone was a regular. Second mistake was that some people were being too loud. Third mistake was that when Matt and Pat and I ordered our beers, Gary just asked for water. Fourth mistake was that when our waitress came back with our beers, Gary then proceeded to order a pint. She looked at him and just told him no. I didn't know whether to crack up laughing at that point or lay on the ground and expose my belly in submission to the waitress. "Welcome to Paaaris" kept running through my mind. Fifth mistake was that Jen and Lindsey ordered monaco's (white beer with grenadine) and then the bar tender got very snobby and Parisian and claimed "We are in Paris" meaning that they must call it some sort of other name there. Ack! It was a cultural warfare. In short, it was a long day, we were getting frustrated with the Parisians and with each other, so we finished up and just left the cafe. Thankfully, I didn't personally get any heat from the waitress or bar tender that night.

Saturday: a much better day in a fabulous city. Lindsey, Jen and I decided to venture out on our own in the morning, and let the guys do what they wanted to do. We went to this not very well-known purse store near the Champs Elysée that sells designer purse for 20% off. So of course I bought a really adorable Longchamp purse and feel even more frenchie now. Then we walked around the fashion district and saw all of the designer stores: Chanel, Dior, etc. We got a little turned around trying to head for the Champs Elysée, and suddenly there were more and more policemen, French army men..there were at least five of them every 50ft. It was scary. Then the streets started getting blocked off ...but it turns out that we were heading closer and closer to the American Embassy and ironically yours truly was in Paris that day--President George W. Bush. Whoopity-do. So, we back tracked and spent the rest of the morning shopping. It was fun. We ended at the Arc de Triomphe and met up with the guys and went to Montmartre.
I finally saw Moulin Rouge! Right in the heart of the red light district. Quite the interesting boulevard, to say the least.

From there we went to see le Sacre Couer, still breathtaking, especially being able to see the Paris skyline from such a high hill.
View from just below le Sacre Couer. There was a parade that day, and so it was really crowded.

Saturday night was definitely the high light of my weekend :) I got to go see the Eiffel Tower again! I don't think I will ever grow tired of seeing it. It's enormous, impressive, beautiful..really the epitamy of Paris and France in my eyes.
Walking up to the base of the tower.
Lindsey was pretty pumped to see it for the first time, hahahah.

We went to the second floor of the tower (the top floor was closed off for the night because of a president's dinner....ARGH. Bush is just ruining my time in France too.) But of course..the view is amazing regardless how high up you are. The first picture in this entry is of me on the second floor of the tower.

So now I'm back in Tours and going to get back to the school routine. I've got two papers to write, and a 20minute speech on Tuesday. Ohhh well. :) who else can say that they took a weekend vacation to Paris? And plus, I get to go back next Monday to meet up with Lauren and Christian! I can't wait.