Bonjour!

Bonjour! From Paris! That’s right I am in Paris! Really can’t believe this. (Got an awesome stamp on my passport.) Well, I suppose I won’t waste any time letting ya’ll know how it’s been so far! Of course it’s been great, but we shall go in to detail. Everyone loves detail. Here we go.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a train at St. Pancras to go to Paris. It was all a bit overwhelming and confusing, but the Olympic rings are up so that was pretty darn cool. After having a bit of breakfast (a chocolate banana muffin that was super organic) we made our way to our train. We went through lots of security and got an awesome stamp with a train on it. I really love stamps on my passport. We got on our Eurostar and off we went to Paris! It was a little over two hours for the whole ride and we went under the English Channel for about 20 minutes. That’s right. We went underwater in a train. The train also had a dining car which was awesome. Okay, so. We get there. And we get off the train at a super complicated and busy station. There were people everywhere and they were rushing around and everything was in French. Crazy! We managed to find a place to exchange some money, so we were able to get some Euros. I don’t know why these countries can’t use the same currency. We then walked outside to a line of taxis with French men trying to get you to come in their cabs. I’ve seen Taken so getting in a random, non-official, cab is a bit scary. We were going to go with someone but a nice French man told us to go to the official cabs, which charged a lot less. Good thing we found him because we saved €30. We found our way to the official line for cabs and waited a bit, guarding our bags with fervor, as we have heard there are pickpocketers. There were also men on motorcycles offering to give rides. Um, no, I do not think so. There is no way I would get on someone’s motorcycle. And they were gross looking.

So we get in this cab. It’s official. Our driver looks decent I suppose. We literally have barely closed the door to the cab before he has taken off at high speeds. We are thrown all around the back as we winds down the street shouting the F word at people, yelling in French, and rapping along with the radio. I don’t know if he thinks the F word is funny, but he sure liked that word. There are absolutely no road rules here or lines on the streets so one simply weaves all over the place, avoiding the other cars. Seriously thought I was going to die. He was a maniac, yelling out different monuments and important places but not pausing for one moment to let us actually look. He pointed out the tunnel where Diana crashed. So sad! Of course I had all of two seconds to look before he found his way to another street. Then he went off about how the monarchy killed Diana, and she was pregnant with Dodi’s child. We also listed to “N*ggas in Paris” by Jay-Z and Kanye West which I thought was appropriate. And then we finally manage to make it to the hotel, in one piece thank goodness. By the way they drive on the same side of the road that we do.


We go on in and attempt to check in. Well that’s a whole another story. Many places in Paris will not allow you to put more than two people in a room, which is dumb. Even though we told five different people that we needed three people, they did not have that on the records. So we sat in the lobby for an hour and a half trying to sort all that out. We couldn’t move hotels either because we have no idea where we are. We finally figured it all out finally and went up to the room. In order to get to our room we had to go on the smallest elevator ever. It barely fit three people. If you know me, I do not like elevators at all. So being in a miniature one with three people isn’t my idea of fun. I survived. It’s a lovely room. To turn on the lights, you have to insert your door key into a thing then you are connected us to the electricity. Isn’t the weird? The hall lights are also off until you walk through, they are motion censored.


So what’s on the agenda? We are indeed in Paris, so perhaps we should see Parisian things. First stop? Eiffel Tower! We asked for directions from the lady who works the front desk and made our way there. We were trying to work our way there, a bit confused given the fact we are in a completely new and confusing city, when we turned a corner and BAM! There it was! We continued forward to get a closer view. Here are my first thoughts: It honestly looks like a cellphone tower at the top, so not that great. It’s a bunch of metal. My first impression was not great. It just wasn’t as spectacular as I expected it to be. As we continued forward we decided to stop for some lunch before actually going up to it. We had lunch at Le Malakoff which we found in the roundabout closest to the Eiffel Tower. (They really like roundabouts in this city, which are super hectic and confusing.) I had a Caesar salad but it tasted nothing like a Caesar salad I have ever had. They don’t really like salad dressing here, so the dressing was more of vinaigrette and didn’t taste like the typical Caesar. The croutons were fried which was weird, but I liked it. So, nothing like a normal Caesar salad, but delicious none the less. We then walked closer to the Eiffel Tower. We first got a glimpse of it at the Palais de Chaillot on a platform where one had a great view. We wanted to actually walk down and get close to it, so we did that. That thing is massive and I got tons of great pictures. I’ve decided that the bottom portion is the best portion of the whole thing. We did not climb up to the top because 1.) There is only one lift working. 2.) I don’t like elevators. 3.) There was a long line. My main goal was to see it and get up close to it. I didn’t have to climb to the top to be happy. We walked around it and under it and to the far side to ensure we had a view from everywhere. A friend recommended that we take a river boat cruise, so we decided to do so on the first night and made our way to the banks of the Seine to get tickets for that night. From there we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The monument recognizes all the people who fought in the French Revolution.  It’s a really lovely monument. I was really looking forward to seeing this. I took some pictures from far away then we went underground to be able to go under it. It began to rain, but that did not deter us. The inside detail is beautiful and intricately carved. It’s a spectacular monument. We also came across a military ceremony. After googling it after the fact, we discovered that it was the lighting of a flame at the memorial of the unknown soldier. Pretty cool. Over all I would say this is my favorite monument in Paris. We made our way back to the hotel to freshen up and to sit down for a bit, as we had already had such a busy day!

It was time for the river cruise so we went back down near the Eiffel Tower to the River Seine to board our boat. I really like cities that have rivers running through it. London. Paris. Savannah. So the Seine was also one of my favorite things. We boarded the boat and off we went. This boat ride took us down the river and we were able to see many monuments and buildings. We also had a guide and an audio guide to point out specific things and tell us some history. A few notable things were The Louvre, Notre Dame, and The Eiffel Tower. In Paris there are a ton of bridges spanning the river, almost like London but there are tons more, practically one of each block. Bridges are called ‘ponts.’ One of the most famous is the Pont Neuf, which means New Bridge but it’s actually one of the oldest. I really like the bridges. They are just so cool and pretty. I’ll tell you more about bridges later. The Eiffel Tower looked a little more majestic in this evening lighting, by the way. Afterwards, Emily and I were hungry even though it was 10 at night. We went to a place called Cafe Trocadero. (No website)  For some reason, we were craving spaghetti so that’s what we had. I know we aren’t in Italy but it’s what we wanted, so that’s what we had. We had spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and it was delicious. For dessert we decided to be French and get a crème brulee. I had never had crème brulee but it was delicious! Stuffed beyond capacity, we walked back to see the Eiffel Tower. During dinner it had gotten dark, so it was all lit up. This is where the Eiffel Tower becomes pretty, when it’s all lit up in beautiful lights. There’s also a light on top that spins. It was quite beautiful in all its light.  Completely out of the blue, it began to sparkle. There were sparkling lights all over it. So cool! After the show, we walked back to our hotel to turn in for the night. The hotel is quite lovely but there is no wifi in the rooms, only one Ethernet cord, which is a bit inconvenient given there are three of us who need to do things online. We also had some “fun” trying to figure out converters and such. We planned the next day, got ready for bed, and fell fast asleep. We were exhausted.

As we had been in Paris for a full day now, I have some observations of Parisians but I will wait and write about those on my last Paris blog, as more observations were added later in the trip.  Here are a few teasers:

• These people smell. Like bad. They don’t wear deodorant and even if they put some on, they would still smell. Like you need to go scrub your pits for an hour to get of that smell.  Even waiters smelled like b.o..

• Parisians like to smoke. A lot.

That's not a ton of pictures but there are a bunch of pictures on Facebook. Go look!

Week Four: Day Four: BLC 18