Paris Revisited: Days 3 & 4-

For day three, I went adventuring on the bus system, to see where is easily accessible from Laura's apartment. Quite a lot, as it turns out- one bus goes straight to the Eiffel Tower, then the middle of the Champs-Elysee, then winds its way up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur! All the tourist destinations on one line. I didn't get any pictures, since I was on a bus most of the day, but I saw lots of Paris, both the major sites and the residential streets. Highly enjoyable.

That night, Laura and I met up with some of her friends from Boston who are studying in Paris right now. We had dinner near the Eiffel Tower, with a very sassy French waiter.

The next day was far more action-oriented. I started my day by busing over to the Central College office and surprising my program director. It went quite well, and I was there for about half an hour.

I continued my bus journey, up to St. Michel (just about at Notre Dame), where I hopped off the bus when I finally spotted an Orange (telephone store). I got a SIM card for my phone, so that I can be in contact with the Keepers of the Keys (Laura and her husband) for the week. From there, I decided to walk for a bit, and ended up strolling the Seine to this adorable little garden on Ile de la Cite.

Garden! I took a picture of the more garden-y part, but unfortunately it prominently features a trash bag.

I wrote for a bit in the garden, which was very satisfying and reminiscent of last spring.

Moved on to the Louvre, where I could catch up with another one of the buses that runs past Laura's place, and see where it went.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of more busing and more wandering, and then finally, about 7:30, I set up at the Champs-de-Mar to await the 8 o'clock sparkling.

It is around this point that I realized that there are really only so many ways you can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower, and I've probably done all of them, but I did my best:

The sparkling never looks that impressive in pictures, sadly.

And yet, no matter how many pictures I take of it, it still thrills me every time!

Paris Revisited: Day 2- Strolling the Seine

After sleeping in for quite a while, and lazing around for several more hours, I decided it was finally time to get out and see more of Paris. I grabbed the local Metro (the 8 ligne) and took it to one of its Seine stops- Place de la Concorde. Up to this point, I had seen only parts of Paris that were new to me (with the exception of the Gare de Nord, which I am quite familiar with, but doesn't really count for our purposes). So it was exciting and new, but it wasn't Paris. That all changed when I emerged from the Concorde Metro stop at sunset:

Now that looks familiar!

 It looked like Paris again! My Paris. I spent many happy hours strolling along this area of the Seine at twilight, and here I was again. My goal was to be at the Eiffel Tower by 7pm, in case it was dark enough that they would start the sparkling. But I had a little over an hour, so I took the opportunity to meander....

Through the Tuileries...

View of the Place de la Concorde from the Tuileries, all the way down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe

Down to the Louvre....

Then over to the Seine!

Discovered a new bridge...

And walked into the sunset to get to the Eiffel Tower

Got my crepe at the base of Trocadero

No sparkling until 8 (which I couldn't stay for), but all lit up and pretty nonetheless!

Fountains at Trocadero

The day rounded out with a dinner at Laura's in-laws. We spoke French most of the time, and it was comforting to know that most of my hard-earned semi-fluency from last year has remained intact. I've lost some random phrases, but I could fearlessly trundle ahead with less-than-perfect, yet still understandable, French. They also served a really excellent Speculoos cheesecake for dessert!

I spent the rest of my evening babysitting Nootka and Skypeing avec ma mere, then lying in bed until 4am because I forgot to take my sleeping pills. So I slept in past noon today. But I am determined to be up and about earlier tomorrow! You will see.

Paris Revisited: Day One- Arrival and Antiques

The long flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First of all, it turns out that AirFrance has an absolutely superb in-flight entertainment line-up. I was actually sad that I would need to sleep on the flight. Even watching movies non-stop for both the flight here and back would leave me sad that I had missed a few. But in the end, I just watched about an hour of Harry Potter, got half the plane in an uproar when I dropped my iPod and couldn't find it, and generally amused the same half of the plane with my antics trying to crawl over my sleeping seat partner (did it successfully both times, by the way). I'm pretty sure the entire coach section thought I was Lucy Ricardo brought back to life. But I found the iPod, and my seat partner was nicely rested when he got to Paris. Apparently, he is coming home for the first time since a year's deployment in Afghanistan (American soldier). I tried to stalk him when we got off the plane, to see the family reunion, but he had luggage checked, and I didn't. So I let him have his privacy and made my way into Paris.

A little worried about the state of my hair and make-up at this point, because when I first got on the plane, the flight crew spoke to me in French. As I exited, they spoke to me in English. I think I looked distinctly less polished. 

I actually got to Laura's place with minimal mishaps- a benefit to having lived in the city before, I would imagine. Problem was, when I got to her place at 10am, I realized I wasn't positive which one exactly was hers. I remembered the right range of numbers, but not the precise one. I settled on it being one of two numbers (it turned out I chose the wrong one), and awkwardly waited on the street for about 20 minutes. Obviously, this didn't work. Luckily, I had exited the Metro station right in front of a Starbucks, so I went back, bought a random green tea, and used their wi-fi to make contact with Laura. It all worked out, and I was able to drop off my stuff, meet The Puppy, and go grocery shopping (read: bread, goat cheese, crumpets, Nutella, peanut butter. Quite literally what I subsisted on for my entire semester here).

Nootka and her mommy, after I woke them up to let me in the apartment

The main adventure of the day was finally going to a Parisian flea market. I meant to the entire time I was here last year, and just never did. When we first got there, I could see exactly why I had never bothered:

Just a bunch of aggressive salesmen and plastic merchandise. Fortunately, Laura persevered, and we found the awesome flea-markety section, full of antiques and books and buttons and truly vintage clothing:

There were also some fun winding alleys full of antiques, but I forgot to get pictures. Sorry.

When we got back in, I was pretty well bushed, working as I was on about three hours of fitful plane sleep, and only about four hours of fitful can't-miss-the-plane sleep the night before that. So I canceled my plans to go see the Eiffel Tower, and we stayed in for the night, with pizza, the puppy, and an episode of X-Files. And then I got to stretch out on an actual bed (futon, rather, but when compared to an airplane seat...) and sleep for 12 hours. Bliss.

Heading Back

Officially on my way back to Paris! I was extremely nervous about driving to Houston for my flight, and actually practiced getting onto the proper freeway twice in advance. And then this morning, I was totally stressed out, as usual. I'm at the airport now, awaiting my flight to Atlanta, which will then take me to Paris. Alternating being stressed out and excited.

I think the thing I am most dreading is the long flight, actually. I'm not positive of the exact definition of a red-eye, but I think this qualifies: it leaves at the perfectly reasonable time of 6pm, but arrives at 8am. Which will be 1 or 2 in the morning for me, with an entire day ahead of me. And I got up at 4:30 this morning (my alarm was for 5, but I kept waking up from nerves and the fear that I had overslept). And I generally don't sleep on planes. I've brought sleeping pills and an eye mask with me,  so hopefully that might work some magic. I have a window seat all the way there and all the way back. That will help- flights always seem longer when I don't have a window seat.

I think I land in Paris in a little over 12 hours. First stop: bread. Well, actually, first stop is probably getting to Laura's place and dropping off my stuff, but then: bread. And cheese.

And the Eiffel Tower tomorrow night.

Going Back

Going into winter break, I realized that I was rapidly approaching my final Spring Break. Going all the way back to 8th grade, I have spent all but one Spring Break doing something exciting (9th grade being the year of hanging out at home for a week).

• 8th Grade: Class trip to Washington, DC (exciting, even if I was miserable because I had mono and the stomach flu at the same time)
• 9th Grade: N/A
• 10th Grade: NYC with my mom for a week of Broadway shows
• 11th Grade: San Antonio and Santa Fe with my parents, to look at colleges and see the Southwest
• 12th Grade: China for two weeks! Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, and Hong Kong
• Freshman Year: Dublin with Katie
• Sophomore Year: Spring Training in Arizona with my parents, along with a trip to the Grand Canyon
• Junior Year: Scotland for a week with Clarissa, and Santorini for a week with the girls! Extensively documented on this very blog.

So clearly, my Final Spring Break could not be a bust. But then comes along the affordability issue. Even if I could find some cheap way to get somewhere exciting, I'd still have to pay to stay there for 10 days! If only I knew someone who lived someplace cool....

And lo and behold, I have a friend moving to Paris in a few weeks. I brought the idea up a few times, but was sort of hemming and hawing.... Fortunately, my mom can be pushy and decided it was a perfect plan and I was going. So yesterday, after a hair-frazzling 20 minutes with the Air France "Reservations System" malfunctioning every time I entered my information, I booked my trip to Paris!!!

I'll be there in less than two months, for just over a week. I'm very much hoping to fit in a day trip to Geneva, London, or Amsterdam, or someplace similarly close. Since I have already lived in Paris, I won't need to knock myself out trying to hit all of the tourist spots. I can just enjoy being back in one of my favorite cities.

That said, I do have a little To-Do List worked out:

• Stop by and say "hi" to Shelley
• Get bread from my favorite patisserie
• Have a meal of fresh bread, goat cheese, and Limonata at the Eiffel Tower
• Walk the Seine at twilight
• Try and find The Magic Steps from Midnight in Paris
• Go to one of the flea markets, or at least a thrift shop, and get something
• Watch the Tower sparkle from Trocadero

At first, the reason I was a little hesitant to book a trip is that... well, I was just living there less than a year ago. It's not someplace new and exciting. But the more I plan my trip, the more excited I am getting. It will be so nice to show up and have it all be familiar! I will get to use my French again, walk my favorite streets again, and finally show off my little neighborhood to someone from home. And I will eat so much cheese. So cheap, and so yummy. 

Plus, the friend I am staying with are very into adventuring. So I should be able to experience Paris in a whole new way!

I'll keep you all posted ;)

Bubbling Over

I took a lot of video during my European travels, not that you have seen any of it. I always intended to make lots of amusing videos set to music, conveniently forgetting my fear of video editing software (stemming from an unfortunate incident in high school, as do so many fears).

Today, however, I was stuck without internet or other entertainment for a 3-hour layover coming home for Christmas, and I put together a little something. Behold:


A bitty video of my time in Scotland! I'm pretty pleased with it.

Final Europe Updates: Teaser

Just to let everyone know that a few final updates from my spring in Europe are coming! I still have Giverny, the second half of Iceland, and my friend Clarissa has finally posted all of the pictures she took from our time in Scotland, so I'll grab a few favorites from that and toss them up here as well!

Stay tuned!

Teaser:

Giverny

Iceland