paris

Yesterday, Shaina and I made it to Paris after a long and scary trip to our hotel. We're staying in zone 2 of the metro system here, which makes things complicated...apparently not all of the trains come 'round these parts. But, thanks to six Paris police officers, one beautiful black man and one completely francophone woman, we made it. 

At last!

We started our tour of Paris the way any good tour would start, at the Tour Eiffel. I have been waiting, hoping and wishing to get to Paris since I was quite young. In sixth grade I wanted to take French, but as my luck would have it my middle school stopped offering it the year I became eligible to take it. So, alas, I have been Paris-less for 21 years of my life. No more! When we got off the metro and I stared up at the 80 story structure in awe...I was there! I saw it (as evidenced by the picture on the right)! I still am in a bit of a shock. Every time we go out on the streets, I whisper to myself, "this is it! this is Paris!" and honestly, I think it is just as beautiful as I imagined despite the less than desirable weather. In fact, it might even exceed my expectations.
Not everything about Paris is a picnic. It is extremely confusing...the streets are never in a grid and don't line up. Parisians all speak French and in response to my amateur, "Parlez-vous anglais?" 65% of the time I receive a curt "non." But hey, at least I try, and I've been getting better at broken French, too. "Je veux un....s'il vous plait" o "Bon apres-midi!" are among my more advanced French phrases.

After our morning with the tower, Shaina and I wandered into a nearby neighborhood in which there were fewer tourists, and consequently less English. But, I am happy to say, we survived and found this cute little French restaurant, and ate an extremely high-end French lunch with only one mix-up on the order (not in my favor, but probably for the best, as I ordered a not-so-good for me dessert and our serveur brought me a yogurt.) You can see the picture of Shaina full of food and joy as we finished up our lunch on the left. And now back to granola bars.

After the restaurant and a little bit more exploring the streets of Paris, Shaina and I decided to go home. On a whim we stopped off at Notre Dame (please see the completely unoffensive picture of me posing as the hunchback on the right). For being built in 1163, the place is stunning. Actually, it's just plain old stunning for being built in any year. I love the gothic architecture and the way it melds into all the newer buildings surrounding it. By newer, I mean 17th/18th century...still old by my standards. So, we made our way through the cathedral and then through the streets around it, finding ourselves immersed in a full-blown Parisian night. Each building is illuminated in a unique way to highlight the beautiful stone architecture; the shadows play with the light to create a completely different city than we experienced in the daylight. The way the lights reflect off the Seine is something that I could never capture in a photograph. It's a beauty that you have to see for yourself, like mountains or vast beautiful vistas. And what could have made it better you ask? Definitely the warm spiced wine served by street vendors. Perfect.