Day 21 and 22: Paris
I wiped out on a bike in Paris.
But more on that later.
Paris is by far my favorite place that we have gone to. It actually felt like a different place, a different city, and a different culture.
The bus ride there was not very exciting, it took 5 hours with a 45 min stop built in. The rest stop we stopped at was very similar to rest stops in the states, a bathroom and food. People were buying croissants and waffles and baguettes and sandwiches only to be handed a box lunch when we got back on the bus. It was the most elaborate box lunch I have ever been given. It had three sandwiches, an orange, a yogurt, a corn muffin, a water bottle, and an orange juice box. Delicious.
The first thing that we did was take a walking tour of some of the city. We saw the modern art museum. The building was built with all of its heating and water and electricity on the outside so that there would be more room on the inside. The result is not the prettiest building but it has become iconic and is now a popular hangout place for street performers and artists. We saw a man creating an elaborate drawing out of chalk.
We saw Notre Dame, which was extremely beautiful and grand. Interestingly, it was completely surrounded by buildings, which I wasn't expecting. It made it hard to take pictures of. It was very surreal to stand in front of it, to see a building so iconic right there.
At one point we stopped to get food from a stand on a corner. They were making crepes right in front of you. I didn't get one but they looked delicious. They were making both sweet crepes with chocolate or banana or nutella as well as crepes with ham and cheese. They all were mouth watering. The crepes that I did end up eating later were phenomenal.
We also went to the love lock bridge, which was moving and inspiring. I thought that you were supposed to put a lock on and then through the key over and it meant your relationship would last forever. Apparently that is the commercialized way. In actuality two people are supposed to put on a lock that has two keys and in 1 year, if they are still in love, you are supposed to come back and take the lock off. Because of the two different ways to do it, it was impossible to tell whether a lock from 2003 was a failed relationship or not.I like the commercialized way. It eliminates the heartbreak. To me, all of those lock were successes. Thinking about all that love in one place is just incredibly joyous.
When the walking tour was over Cody decided he wanted to go to the Eiffel tower, so he, Molly, Shuo and I decided to walk. Going there was included in the tour the next day but it doesn't hurt to go twice, right?
It took us two hours to walk there. Granted, we took our time and stopped a lot of places along the way. We walked along the Seine and found games painted on the sidewalk. There was hopscotch and a maze and a map of the world. There was also a chalk wall that you could draw or write on. It was a lot of fun to just stroll and play in Paris.
The Eiffel tower was surreal. It was completely surreal to stand in front of it. You know, you see things in movies and pictures in books and they just become larger than life. A thing all of their own. Then, when you are standing in front of it, it doesn't feel real. Like that wasn't actually the Eiffel tower, the real one is still hidden in some far away land of wonder and mystery.
I thought about its history, and how when it was built people hated it. They thought it was the ugliest thing, then over time it became iconic and loved. I agree with those people, it isn't really that pretty. It's a giant hunk of metal sticking in the air. When you look at it as a whole you see the icon, the beauty of it. But when you look closely you see the stairs and the nets and all the metal making up that’s frame. It was amazing to see in person, and feel its wonder. How incredible would it be to wake up with that right outside your window, and have walking by it be your norm.
We spent a lot of time in front of the Eiffel tower. Cody has a tripod and a remote (He's the king of the selfie) so we set it up and took dozens of photos. Group photos, individual photos, jumping photos, crazy photos, serious photos. We had a little too much fun.
Cody really wanted to eat in the restaurant that is in the tower, but that wasn't going to happen. First of all, it was ungodly expensive. About 70 euros for an entrée. Secondly, we would have needed reservations and we didn't have them. Thirdly, they have a dress code and we were not even close to dressed correctly.
So eating there was out. We then wanted to go to the top, but the line was really long and we were hungry so we didn't, which I regret a little.
It took us a while to find the subway, it was two minutes till 8 when we finally found it. I made everyone stop because I had a feeling that the Eiffel tower was going to sparkle right at 8 since it happens once an hour. I was right! It was magical.
The place that we ended up eating at was over by Notre Dame. I had snails. It was weird. They didn't taste all that bad, very garlicy and buttery. But they looked like snails and so it was freaky. I ate them all but it gave me chills because I just kept thinking about what they are like when they are alive. All slimy and squishing along. I don't think I will voluntarily be eating them again.
I am actually very proud of us, we managed to navigate the metro by ourselves to get to dinner and then get back to our hotel. It was pretty easy, one of the easiest metros I have ever been on. Our tour guide gave us each a large stack of single ride tickets to use. We felt perfectly safe and confident that it was all we used to get around.
The next day started off with a bike tour. Let me tell you, it was still raining. It had been raining for days. It was raining in Brussels, it was raining the day before on our walking tour and it was raining now. But tours don't stop for anything, which also means we were damp for days. That doesn't work well when you have three days away from home and only brought two pairs of shoes.
But we made it work.
They gave everyone without a rain jacket giant yellow ponchos to wear. But they didn't have arms, so watching them riding a bike in the ponchos was interesting. Molly had been traumatized on the bike tour she went on in Amsterdam so she opted out of this one and spent the morning sleeping. Lucky.
The bike tour took us through the "little known" parts of the city, which basically means we road through a lot of back roads.
We did stop at the Louvre, which was very cool. The line to get into it was very, very long. I thought it would be cool to get a picture looking down the line and as soon as I walked to the back of it someone came up and tried to sell me an umbrella.
It was at that moment that I became sick of people trying to sell me things. You wouldn't believe how many people there were trying to sell you stuff. It got so annoying. By the end we were all snapping at them to leave us alone. We were expecting it at the Eiffel tower but we weren't expected them to come up to us while we were eating in a café. I can't think of anywhere in the US that it is that bad. Especially not at our monuments. I went to DC over the summer and don't remember there being that many people standing around with things to sell you.
On the tour we stopped for a snack at one point. We went into a café called Paul and I got the most delicious raspberry tart. It was the most delicious thing I had eaten the whole trip. All of their food looked amazing and they had this automatic bread slicer that I am sure is other places besides france but it was so cool to watch them slice the bread.
Towards the end of the tour, we were cycling down one street when Cody, who was in front of me, completely wiped out. Of course Istarted laughing at him, stopped paying attention and wiped out myself. It turns out that the white line in the middle of the street was also raised, and when you ride right along side of it and the ground is wet you're going to skid out sideways.
It was painful, the bruise I have all down my right thigh is impressive. I definitely do not recommend biking in the rain.
After the bike tour we were given an hour and a half of free time. I went back to the hotel to meet up with Molly. Her, Cody, and I were going to go get crepes for lunch but ended up just laying on our hotel bed while she filled out an application. Rain makes you lazy.
The next activity was supposed to be another walking tour, this time going to all of the major sights. Well, Molly and I really wanted to shop. And we had already been to the Eiffel Tower, and the only other place we wanted to go was the Arch du Triumph, which we could get to on our own. So, we signed out of the tour for the afternoon and went off on our own.
We found a place for lunch. I got a croque monsieur, which is basically grilled ham and cheese. But better. It was one of the first things that I ever learned about in French class.
We found the biggest, craziest, most elaborate department store I have ever been in. It was overwhelming. It was seven floors, and was all designer.
Think of a mall. Now take away most of the walls that surround the individual stores, and add lots of other things to buy in all of the empty spaces where you normally walk. That is what it was like. There were individual brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton, and Armani with their own individual sections but then the main department store had stuff of their own spread out between it. And it went on for seven floors. We were trying to find formal dresses because I didn't have anything to wear for the Alumni Ball later in the semester. But it wasn't organized by clothing type so it was too hard to find.
We thought we would start where the wedding dresses are since those things are normally grouped together. It said the wedding dresses were on the sixth floor but we were never able to find them. We walked around that floor forever. We still don't believe that they exist.
We had to leave that department store, we were getting overwhelmed and claustrophobic. Right outside of it was an H&M so we went in there and Molly got a shirt and some shoes and a hat and I bought a sweater. It was still pretty crazy in there but a little more manageable.
We finally just decided to walk and see if we found a dress store, since we had driven past a lot of them when we were coming into the city. We were successful! We found a store that had some and they happened to have the perfect dress that I absolutely love. I am so excited for the Alumni Ball now and I can also wear it for my sororities formal in the spring, perfect.
We eventually made our way to the Arch du Triumph. It was very cool, even though it was raining. We saw the most adorable dog wearing a rain coat. He wasn't on a lease and was following behind his owner perfectly. The dog laws in Europe are fun. Meaning that there really aren't any laws so there are dogs everywhere and they are perfectly behaved.
We only stood in front of it before our toes started to freeze so we went into a café and had ice cream.
By that time we needed to make our way back towards the Eiffel tower to meet up with the group. We were taking a boat tour on the Seine. We walked in the drizzle and found it easily. There was a little souvenir shop right near where we needed to meet for the tour and it was blasting heat so we huddled in there.
The tour itself was not that exciting, but we did go past all of the places that we had walked the day before. We don't really know how it took us two hours to get to the Eiffel tower when we walked because we had been right there. We took the round about route, that’s for sure. Paris is beautiful at night, especially the Eiffel tower when it sparkles.
After the tour we wanted to find food since Molly and I hadn't really eaten dinner. We found a place right near our hotel. I had hot chocolate and pasta and duck and a crepe for dessert. French food is so incredibly delicious. It was the perfect end to the day: warm and dry and eating.
I have never been so excited to get out of clothes before. My feet and pants were soaking. Molly's shoes hadn't dried from the first day so she had worn my TOMs the whole day while I wore my sneakers. This meant that both pairs of my shoes were wet. I didn't really want to walk around Disney the next day in wet shoes. The good news was that she has just bought new ones at H&M. So I was able to wear her first pair of shoes that were dry by the morning and she wore her new ones.
We crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel room. We were planning on getting up early to head to Disneyland.
Disneyland was awesome. But that's another story…
