Paris, Part Deux

Out of all the cities that I've visited in Europe, I think that Paris will always have a special nook in my heart.

The last time I visited, I didn't have the chance to visit the Rodin museum. And, Rodin being my favorite artist of all time, I made the extra trip to go see some of his greatest works. It is probably my favorite museum I've ever visited in Europe. Outside, there is a sculpture garden lined with trees and a huge fountain in the center. It was weird, pairing the serenity of these natural elements with the disturbed and highly emotionally charged sculptures. Just to see his stuff and hang out in the garden was worth the Chunnel ride.

While I was in Paris, there was a short laundry list of things that I really wanted to see/experience. Shakespeare and Co. was definitely up there. It's almost cliché to want to make a mini pilgrimage to this little independent bookstore where greats including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce stayed in the attic and found inspiration in this beautiful city. But, even with its induction into popular culture and all, it was darling.

Everything from the writer upstairs typing away at his laptop, the old typewriter cubby, the notes on the wall, and of course, the shelves upon shelves of great literature, was beautiful to me. So I ventured there twice during this trip and came away with What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver.

One of the most incredible pastry experiences I've had was at Ladurée with Alanna. We had an assortment of macarons, which was apparently invented by this shop, and it was incredible. From the perfume-y rose flavored one to the rich caramel, every bite was unique and delicious.

What was funny was that everyone in the little square we were sitting in was eating a box of pastries too. It's still a mystery to me how the French manage to produce and consume some of the best pastries and food in the world, and yet manage to stay so fashionably thin.

At the risk of sounding like a complete pig, I must pause here to discuss the best ice cream I've ever had, Berthillon. I had three scoops: pear, chocolate, and raspberry. It was luxurious, subtle, and really tasted like the flavor it was trying to replicate. I've been on many eating adventures with Alanna, especially since touching down in Europe, and this was certainly a major highlight after hearing so much about it from her.

There were so many more memorable moments from Paris, but I will end my account of them here. I hope that Paris will become a regular part of my life as I move on from college and start 'real life.' It's so beautiful, and any time that I spent alone there did not feel lonely, because as cheesy as it sounds the city is vibrant and rich in history and culture, and was as good a companion as I could ask for.

Paris, J'taime

This past week, my friends and I headed off on a four city European adventure. After nine days of intense sightseeing and travel, I feel exhausted but so fulfilled by the experience. This is going to be long, so I'll write about it in installments.

Paris Day One

3 a.m.: We woke up as people were stumbling home from their Thursday nights and were miraculously all aboard a cab by 3:45 a.m. For a bunch who all got between 0 and 2 hours of sleep the night before, we were surprisingly cheery and nothing but smiles. Our cab driver was nodding off during the drive to the airport and kept swerving into neighboring lanes (Eek!). I would have been more scared had my friend Lu not been petrified enough for the both of us. We got there all limbs attached, though, and headed off to our first city, Paris.

8:30 a.m.: We arrive in Paris! Sleepy and tired, we trek on over to Oops! Hostel in the Latin Quarter. It was the most darling hostel with Art Nouveau inspired wallpaper and an awesome breakfast. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in visiting Paris.

After having my first Croque Monsieur, which is a more epic version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe where we climbed all the way to the top and saw the first of many amazing views of Paris.
Mid-afternoon, we wandered along the Champs-Élysées on our way to Musée d'Orsay. I longingly stared at the glorious Louis Vuitton store with the beautiful window decorations and I could feel my heart breaking as we passed over a visit to this mecca of fashion to go to a fancy and overpriced Häagen-Dazs. It's the world's largest luxury store where there are enough employees for every customer. I vow to return one day (soon) and pay my respects.

After browsing the museum for a bit, we were ready for dinner. Our group gets quite grumpy when we're not fed, which is why most of our excursions and decisions revolve around food. After a wonderful and expensive steak dinner and some wine, we went up the Eiffel Tower. They were doing a special light show that night where the tower didn't just sparkle, it turned different colors and patterns. Here's two video clips of the sparkle show and the special light show side by side so you can see the difference. You'll have to turn your head sideways because I can't figure out how to rotate the video. Don't mind the oohs and ahhs on the second video. We were just super excited.



Here I was reunited with Alanna in the most romantic and cinematic of fashions. I ran up to the platform at the Trocadero and it was really dark and I couldn't see, so I started shouting out her name and running around across the platform. Then out of the darkness, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, Alanna ran up to meet me after probably the longest we've been apart since we've met. It was cheesy, but real cheese, not the fake kind. Here we are at the top of the Eiffel Tower (still can't believe it was your first time Alanna).

Paris Day Two
After stopping by for these AMAZING tarts (I told you our lives revolve around food)...
...we hit Notre Dame (which we climbed up and saw yet another spectacular view of Paris), the crypt outside Notre Dame (where we saw awesome ancient ruins) and Sainte-Chapele. At this beautiful church covered with the most intricate stained glass windows that typically awe people to silence, we found ourselves in the middle of the room chattering away and laughing at just about 100 decibels, enough to make the guard there shush us and kick us out of the church. I apologize for being an embarrassment to respectful museum goers everywhere and for perpetuating the stereotype of loud American tourists. In our defense, whatever we were talking about must have been really funny...
We finished the day at the Lourve just as the sun was setting behind the glass pyramid. Obviously, we couldn't see everything we wanted, but that gives me another excuse to return to Paris.

That night we saw Reggie Washington and DJ Grazzhoppa perform a jazz concert in Marais. We all went in thinking it would be a more traditional jazz performance but they incorporated a lot of hip-hop and spoken word into it, which was really interesting. Maybe French people are abnormally skinner than the rest of us because the chairs that we were sitting in were teeny weeny and squished close together. Practically stacked on top of each other in that warm room with the music playing, we all drifted off to sleep...except Brendan because he's the Energizer bunny.

Paris Day Three
After a failed attempt to go skydiving with Max (we stupidly thought they would take walk-ins), we visited the Pompidou museum where we saw Duchamp's Fountain, the Jewish Quarter (best Falafel ever!), a French history museum, and Victor Hugo's house while the others went off to Versailles.

After reuniting at Les Invalides, we headed into the army museum where they had an epic display of weaponry (I'm a little obsessed with swords).
We spent that evening in Monmartre and visited the Sacré-Cœur, where we fought each other with baguettes like the tourists we are. After seeing the Moulin Rouge and more of Pigalle, we had dinner at the cutest restaurant just below Sacré-Cœur (Thanks to Rick Steves for recommending it!) where I had this quiche.
Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, and after 3 days of eating Camembert, drinking wine, and looking at amazing art works I wasn't ready to leave. I still need to visit Père Lachaise cemetery and kiss Oscar Wilde's grave, go to Musée Rodin and finally see a comprehensive collection of my favorite artist's work, shop, and a million other things on top of visiting the Louis Vuitton mecca and revisiting the Lourve. But Belgium called, where more eating, drinking, and sightseeing was to come...