I was in PARIS!!! I can't believe it has been a whole year. I have been hesitating about writing this post because it is so important to me that I capture every single amazing moment of that time. It is still so fresh in my memory and I am really excited to finally share it here. I have been in love with Paris since at least 8th grade. It was then that I had Monsieur Luipold for french. He really made me love French and everything else along with it. You couldn't not be in love with Paris studying with him and then after that I studied it right through college. Never being immersed in the language, it didn't stay with me, but I remembered enough to give it a shot when I was over there.
My story begins with a harrowing cab drive from Charles de Gaulle airport. I was staying at a Marriott right in the city so I did not expect to get so lost in translation right off the bat! Marriott Rive Gauche was not registering with him and wouldn't you know that I had left all of the information that I had printed out before I left on my desk! I did not have a clue where to tell this guy to go, no address to show him or phone number to call. I did have an internationally capable mobile phone that I borrowed from work so I decided to call the guy I was working with who had been in Paris for a few days already. The freaking phone did not work! I was getting some kind of error message in French and I could not figure out how to make a call. We are on the highway at this point and I'm thinking I'll just try to get him to take me to a cafe with wi-fi so that I could boot up my lap top and regroup before hailing another cab. At that point, I realized that I did have this silly little sticky note that had the hotels phone number on it! A few days earlier I needed to call the hotel and I wrote it down to bring it to a phone at work that could make international calls (a privilege not granted to all of us worker bees). It was hastily written between my student loan balance and the pediatrician's phone number but it worked. He called the hotel, got directions (I'm sure had a little chuckle at my oh so American expense) and we were officially on our way.
Upon arriving at the hotel, I promptly passed out. After a red eye flight and the stress of the morning, I was exhausted! Before that, I did press my face to the window in an attempt to spot the Eiffel Tower. The thing is huge! I expected I would see it from everywhere. I was wrong. It was just a little too far to the NW of where I was to see it. I was disappointed, but it made my first time seeing it so much more exciting!!
I was only able to sleep for 2 hours before I had to drag myself to work for the afternoon. After a slight mix up at the RER (their commuter rail. The hotel was the Denfert-Rochereau stop) I was on my way to Massy (Massy-Paliseau). The office was about 40 minutes outside of Paris and there was a 15 minute walk on either end of the train ride. It was fun to commute like a Parisian, but my god it was cold. Absolutely freezing. All of Europe was experiencing record cold, but I hardly cared...I was in PARIS! And yes, it is mandatory that I exclaim that in capitals every time. The office was quite unimpressive. I sat in a chair at a table with 8 or so computers in a completely undecorated room. The cool part was that I was working on a NATO program so there were many countries represented on the project. I was working with not only French but also Italian, Spanish and German engineers! It made for some interesting meetings and interpretations.
I could not wait for the day to be over. It was to be the only day that both Mark and I were in the office together, but things were going so poorly on defining the interfaces for our software to work that Mark had to stay the whole week that I was there. We finally left at 7 or so and grabbed dinner in a restaurant close to the hotel. We were the only ones in there, early birds that we were, and it was really my only experience with anyone being rude. The waiter/owner was greatly unimpressed by Mark ordering his steak well done. I had my first glass of Burgundy and was hooked. It was all I drank the whole time we were there. I preferred the St Emillion region to the Cote de Rhone and the 2007 to the 2009. I am a connoisseur after all.
Friday was another day at the office, but it ended in spectacular fashion with the arrival of Nicole from London!! I hadn't seen her in so long and to see her in PARIS of all places was too exciting. We took advantage of the wine and cheese in the executive lounge (I travel in style...) before heading out to finally see the Eiffel Tower! I was beside myself with excitement. It was kind of ridiculous.
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| Pretty much my first view of the tower. I had to stop right in the middle of the sidewalk to capture it (kind of like the guy/girl in front of me). |
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| It...was...spectacular. |
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| Nicole and Mark were laughing at me and my childlike excitement over it all. |
We figured it would be easy to find some place for dinner near the tower, but it's actually kind of out of the way. We started wandering around and it started to snow. It was lovely! We walked past one restaurant that did not at all fit my vision, but we ended up back there after finding little else open. It turned out to be really great. The owners were there and the wife took excellent care of us. We had a delicious dinner, great wine and even Champagne after dinner for a treat. It was perfect!
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| On the way home there was a band playing on the train...of course there was! It was PARIS! I was kind of disappointed that this did not occur again during our trip. Turns out that was a fluke, but what a fun time. |
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| Mark and Nicole, probably laughing at me again. |
The next morning arrived cold and clear and with it came Jayna! She flew all night to arrive early Saturday morning and we got up and headed out for the day. We went across the city to Sacre Coeur and the art district of Montmarte.
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| There is was again! |
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| Who doesn't love Dali? Actually, none of us loved Dali and the exhibit was closed anyway. |
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It was freezing again and we went into this little shop to get some coffee and get warm and it was another of those unexpected treats. They had these pastries that kind of looked like munchkins (we dubbed them French Munchkins) but were light and airy. We also had quiche and ham and cheese on crusty bread. It was all delicious and just what we needed.
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| We wound our way down the hill and into the red light district to see Moulin Rouge. It is super expensive to get in there so we just took a look and got on the train to somewhere else. |
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| Jayna wanted to go somewhere near the Seine so we picked a stop and here's where we ended up! It's Place de la Concorde and it is a huge open space between the Champs Elysees and the Tuileries Gardens. Marie Antionette and many others were beheaded here... |
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| Looking down the Tuileries Gardens toward the Louvre. It was heartbreaking to think of how beautiful this must be in the Spring/Summer with everything in bloom! |
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| The Seine looking towards Saint Germaine. |
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| We walked over the river and into the Saint Germaine area to warm up a bit. Us ladies chose wine while Mark took a more direct approach. |
After all of that, we headed back to the hotel to chill out until dinner. Jayna was in desperate need of a nap so Nicole and I went and worked out and then scoured Yelp in hopes of finding an authentic French experience for dinner and drinks. We found a restaurant totally off the beaten path called Au Pere Louis, full of locals and a waitstaff that barely spoke English and wasn't too terribly amused that we didn't speak French. We didn't care. We enjoyed a great meal even if it wasn't exactly what we thought we ordered.
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| Jayna's, a-hem, sausage and a picture of my favorite wine. |
After dinner we walked down the street to a bar that had a club pretty much underground. This arrangement would never have flown in the States. You walked down these jagged rock stairs that had to be part of the original structure. There were no lights or handrails to assist you and then you were in the basement rocking out! It was awesome.
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| There was this guy at the bar drinking a whole bottle of Jack Daniels. He asked us to watch his bottle while he went to the bathroom. Yep. Sure buddy. We got to talking to him and he asked us to come to an after hours party with him but he was pretty sketchy and it was kind of like a wink, wink, nod, nod situation so we declined. |
We did go to another bar after this and it was a very young, drunk crowd and they all started singing and dancing to this one song at the top of their lungs. It must have been the French version of Come on Eileen or Sweet Caroline or something. We also met a very nice man named Gregory who bought us drinks and hit on Nicole. :)
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| This picture might not be of the best quality, but I love it so much. 2 am in PARIS! |
We headed home after that and I sat in the front with the cab driver. Feeling a bit tipsy and daring, I decided to speak to him in French. He thought that was hilarious! He was impressed with and amused by me and we talked the whole way back. At one point I heard Nicole say to Jayna "is she speaking French?". I made the guys night so much that he kissed me on the cheek, told me he loved me and gave me a pack of gum. Score!
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| And then we had to sit in these Austin Powers chairs before heading up to our rooms. |
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| Mark too! |
The next morning I had bought tickets for us to go to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. You couldn't go all the way to the top for some reason. When we got there, it has snowed less than an inch but because part of the way up is stairs, they closed it! I was so very disappointed.
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| It's pretty darn awesome in the day light too, but I am so glad that my first sight was at night. |
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| Yep. It's still pretty amazing from this angle. |
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| Me with my new love. I totally get how people can fall in love with inanimate objects after this experience. |
We walked a long way down the Seine from the Tower to Musee D'Orsay. Museums are free the first Sunday of the month so we waited for a really long time to get in and it was, once again, freezing. We were so happy to get inside and not disappointed. They had an amazing collection of paintings including Monet's Nymphéas bleus (waterlilies?) which was amazing to see in person. The layers of color were gorgeous
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| You can't take pictures in the exhibits, but at the end of the museum through a clock window you could see across the Seine to the Louvre and Sacre Ceour in the background on the hill. |
After the Museum we had a quick lunch and Nicole had to leave for her train. Mark and Jayna chose to go back to the hotel to rest (and warm up!) but I could not bear the thought of wasting a single moment in PARIS! I wanted to see Notre Dame so I took the train and there it was. It was a pretty powerful experience. You could feel how special it was just being in there.
From there I walked over the bridge of locks (couples write their names on a lock, fasten it to the bridge and throw the key in the river) to an area of Saint Germain (I think). I was just wandering and enjoying the city and I bought a Nutella/banana crepe from a window vendor and oh my god it was delicious! I was a happy girl.
Monday night we decided to stay local. After all, Mark and I had worked all day and we'd all had a full weekend. We got directions to an Italian restaurant not far from our hotel, but we managed to get lost on our way there and froze our butts off looking for it! We were all a bit cranky when we got there and the place was busy but we took a table in the front where the only tables were available. The reason they were available is because it was freezing in the front of the restaurant! We were cold all through dinner. However, dinner was delicious, and amusing. Another issue with translation, we though there was a fixed price menu. We weren't entirely wrong. There is a fixed price menu...for lunch. We each ordered an appetizer, entree and dessert and got a surprise when the bill came! Mark and I were happy to be on per diem for work. (Sorry J!)
Tuesday night Jayna and I decided to hit the shopping district to pick up a few (or more!) items for ourselves and maybe others. I worked all day and I think this was the day she went to Versailles (not. jealous. at. all.). We had planned to meet at the train station and walk to the store. As we were entering the most amazing department store ever to exist on the planet, I noticed the store hours went until 20:00 or 8:00. It was 7:45!! We were devastated. We each bought a bunch of scarves and then had to leave.
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| This is the interior of the store. Floor after floor of European goods that we were not able to even look at! It's probably for the best...I guess. |
So what do two crazy American girls do when their shopping dreams are dashed? They head to the Arc du Triomphe! It happened to be just a few stops up from where we were and what a wonderful plan b this turned out to be.
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| From here you walk under the crazy rotary that goes around the Arc and then climb some number of stairs to get to the top. |
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| The view down the Champs Elysees from the top of the Arc. It was cold and windy up there so we didn't stay too long but I'm so glad we got to do it. |
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| There was a pretty decent view of my buddy from there. |
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| me and my buddy. |
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| It was pretty late when we got back from our adventures so we had dinner at the hotel bar. We each got a cheeseburger and they were delicious! It must have been the cheese, but whatever it was it was just right. |
Wednesday night had been designated "Louvre Night". It was free on Wednesday night's so that worked for us! I met up with Jayna after work again and we figured out that you enter the Louvre through this glass pyramid that does not at all fit its surroundings. The Louvre itself is absurdly huge and old. You can't even believe how it goes on and on. It used to be a palace, I think before Versailles but don't quote me on that. Regardless, we were excited and overwhelmed to be there.
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| Winged Victory |
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| Me with my girl Mona. Because it was late and Februrary, it was not busy at all and we got as close as the public is allowed to some amazing art! |
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| Jayna with Venus de Milo |
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| Any Da Vinci Code fans out there? The inverted pyramid? So cool. |
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| I'm pretty sure this restaurant was called The Louvre Restaurant or something really original like that. We didn't care, we were exhausted! I think we spent all of 45 minutes in The Louvre. It was completely daunting with wings and floors and so many exhibits. We didn't have a plan and just couldn't handle it. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for Jayna to pack as she departed on Thursday. |
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| Mark and I on our last dinner in PARIS! It was a small but busy restaurant back near where we had eaten on my first night. |
That is pretty much the end of my trip to PARIS! Our flight didn't leave until the afternoon and I almost ventured out in the morning to see just a few more things, but I couldn't do it. I needed sleep. Between working all day and sight seeing at night, my body couldn't take any more!
As I mentioned last year, while I was off gallivanting in France, Grandma Suzanne came up to help with the boys. I was away for 9 days all together so Steve deserved a little help. We were able to Skype at least once while I was there, but I was so excited to be back with my boys when I got home! It was a long, long flight but worth every minute. It is a trip I will never forget and I can't wait to go back!
This is also my 300th post to the blog. I feel like that's a big deal for some reason. This is probably my longest post ever! I am so glad to finally have it out.
