Paris

When Austin and I left Fontainebleau we went to Paris. We got to our hotel on July 4. Happy Independence Day! It’s all right to be here because the French helped us out against the British, it’s all good. The hotel room was very small. There was barely enough room for the bed. There was also only one power outlet in the room. Other than the size it was a nice place. It wasn’t spectacular but it was definitely all right for a couple of college guys on a budget. We spent a little bit of time in the room settling in, but not too much, cause we were in Paris. We headed out to dinner and stopped at an Italian place. And I’m pretty sure we were the only ones in there that spoke English. We played a really fun game with the waiter called “point at what you want on the menu.” I just got a pizza because I knew what that was. It wasn’t a bad time; it was just our first eating-out experience with the language barrier. We went to the market after that and got some bread and chocolate to eat later. It was a fairly uneventful first night.

The next day we decided to be proper tourists. We got a fairly late start, hopped on the metro (the subway) and headed downtown. Our first stop was The Louvre. It was very exciting being there, but not as exciting as I thought it would. We saw quite a lot of Egyptian antiquities and some Greek and Roman antiquities also. I liked those two sections best out of all that we saw. We also checked out some paintings, including the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was the smallest painting in the room; it was also the most viewed painting in the room. I recognized fewer paintings at the Louvre than at any of the other museums I’ve visited in the past month. That part was sad but being there and seeing a lot of the historical pieces and sculptures was really cool. When we were walking through the Egyptian section I kept expecting a Goa’uld to pop out of one of the sarcophagi, but that didn’t happen. Our second big stop was the Eiffel Tower. We had planned on seeing it at night but I wanted to see it during the day as well. It was absolutely packed out with people. The lines to go up in the thing were ridiculously long. It was fine for us cause we hadn’t planned on going up yet. We sat on the lawn by the tower for quite a while, resting and looking at it. We were also still tired from traveling so the rest was good. I went and got some ice cream. The ice cream over here is more like gelato than ice cream. It’s soooooo good! It was a warm day so it made the ice cream even better. France has been very warm thus far, which wouldn’t be bad except that none of the buildings have air conditioning, but it’s really not that bad. I have definitely experienced more intense heat than I’ve experienced here. After the Eiffel Tower we went to see the Arc De Triomphe. It was exceptionally cool to see that. The first full day in Paris was a success!

The next day I woke up a little earlier and headed off to have a quiet breakfast alone. I had wanted to have some time to myself for the past month and had never really gotten it, so I decided it was time. I found a nice little café on the street and decided to eat my breakfast there. After getting help from two other customers I finally ordered my food. I sat down in front of the café and waited for my food. The great thing about café’s in Europe are that there are usually tables set up out in front of the restaurant. I loved sitting out there for breakfast. I ate my croissant first, which was impeccably delicious. I also had a large glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee. I sat there for about an hour just watching people walk by and listening to the conversations around me. I could not understand what people were saying, but that did not detract from the experience at all. In fact, in a way, it added to the experience. After breakfast Austin and I had to check out of our hotel room because we only booked two nights. For our last two nights we stayed with Austin’s friend Maxence. Since we checked out of the hotel we had our packs with us all day. They were heavy indeed. We spent most of the day at Montmartre. It is a cathedral that is on a hill that overlooks the city of Paris. It was another hot day and we spent several hours sitting on a bench in the shade. This doesn’t really sound like a very exciting time, but we enjoyed watching the locals. We sat by a large fountain, most of the visitors made it into a pool. The security guards came by several times and made everyone get out of the fountain. We also saw a group get kicked off the premises for trying to smoke weed. And we saw a guy running away from the security guards. Austin and I were walking up some stairs and this guy ran past us very fast, about ten seconds later five security guards ran past us after him. It was an eventful afternoon to say the least. After that we headed to Maxence’s apartment, Austin’s friend. When Maxence’s mother was young she stayed with Austin’s grandparents in the U.S. on a foreign exchange program. When Maxence was younger she also stayed with Austin’s grandparents for a time. So Austin’s family has multiple ties with Maxence’s family. That night we stayed up and talked with Maxence and her two roommates. We talked and exchanged stories and tried to figure out the correct pronunciations for words. Austin and I learned that a lot of French words sound the same to us; I have been learning that the ear is as important as the tongue when it comes to languages.

On our last day in Paris we decided to visit the art district. I can’t remember the name of the area we went to, sorry, but I can tell you there were a lot of gay people there. When I commented on this to Austin, his explanation was, “it’s the art district.” Not really sure how I feel about that, anyways. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of cool buildings around there. The streets were also very cool. There were a lot of small shops around that were fun to look through, we even looked through a pet store for Austin, and it had some unusual pet clothing. That night we went back to the apartment for dinner. Maxence made crepes. First we had salted crepes, they weren’t actually salted, they just had ham and caramelized onions and cheese and cream. Apparently crepes aren’t just for dessert; who would have guessed? We had crepes for the main course and then crepes for dessert. My first dessert crepe had honey and my second had melted chocolate. The crepes were delicious. That night we headed back into town to go up in the Eiffel Tower at night. The lines were a lot shorter at night, and it also helped that we didn’t get tickets for the elevator, we got tickets for the stairs. We only went up to the second floor. There are two floors and then the top at the tower. We were a little crunched on time so we ran up the stairs. We got some photos and chilled for a little bit, then I headed back down because I wanted to get a picture of the tower sparkling. The lights come on and sparkle for about five minutes every hour starting at eleven at night. On my way running down the stairs I could see the lights come on and I could hear the crowd cheering and clapping. I ran down the rest of the stairs and ran out to the large lawn to try and get a photo before the lights shut off. I got two photos in before they turned off. Not as much time as I wanted but I’m glad I got down in time to catch it. I’m just sad I didn’t get any video. It was absolutely wonderful! I honestly didn’t get the whole; France is the city of lovers, until I saw the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night. It was a Disney-esque romantic moment indeed. I don’t really have a wish for a “significant other” in my life right now, but at that moment it would have been nice. It was quite the moment indeed. Also, I got more ice cream.

After the Eiffel Tower we hurried back to the apartment, avoided getting mugged, and got to bed. Everyone else was already asleep, so there were no French lessons that night. We got three hours of sleep, then made all three of our trains and were on our way to Bordeaux the next morning.