DAY 1 - 3/22/17 - Wednesday
The Land of Nutella
After a relatively uneventful exit from Lithuania, I arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning. The flight was interesting; since it departed from Vilnius it was almost entirely composed of Lithuanians, so most of the announcements were made in three languages - Lithuanian, English, and French. The feeling of ignorance at only knowing one language was a continuing theme as an American traveling abroad.
Still, it was great to finally be in a country where I could read, speak and understand a little of the language! In Lithuania I couldn't even pronounce words correctly. I was sad to leave Vilnius, which I grew to love, but Paris felt so comfortable. Like coming home.
Also came home to Nutella crepes.
I flew into the Paris Beauvais airport about an hour outside the city, and then took a long distance bus and two lines of metro, knocking into strangers with my giant turtle backpack and almost plowing over a small child whilst trying to get off at the correct stop (since when did they get so short?). Finally I arrived to the peace and quiet of Noémie's bright and cozy flat in the 11th arrondissement, my home for the week.
Way back in 2004, my family was extremely fortunate to have been assigned a French exchange student who is one of the best people in the entire world - Noémie. We are still good friends to this day, almost 13 years later, and she has been back to visit Portland several times. She graciously hosted me at her flat for 3 days, with plans to go up north to see her family in Lille for the weekend. When I got into the apartment, she had set up a breakfast station for me - complete with Nutella!! What a class act.
I ate spoonfuls of it. Seriously, not an exaggeration, spoonfuls.
After gathering myself together and resting a bit, I went out to explore. I found a beautiful church nearby called Notre Dame de Lacroix. No affiliation with the sparkling water company (as far as I can tell) but did you know that the name LaCroix is not nonsense and actually means "the cross" in French? Now you do!
Just realized how much I miss LaCroix.
Inside the church. Still no sign of any flavored sparkling water.
I walked around a bit more, grinning like an idiot on account of the euphoria of being in Paris. It was actually surprising how overwhelming it felt to walk around the busy streets.
Besides traipsing around smiling like a goon, I saw a lot of cool looking people and found a door handle shaped like a hand.
Sugar coma had probably set in by now.
Finally it was dinner time! Noémie was working all day, so we met up at a delicious Italian restaurant called Ober Mamma. It was one of those places where you had to line up about an hour before they opened. I got in line and she met me a little later - it was a joyous reunion!
We caught up and chatted over yummy pizza, pasta, cocktails and wine. Noémie (and her parents) treated us to dinner, because again they are some of the loveliest people in the world. It was so nice to see my old friend again!
Look how happy we are! And we hadn't even started on the pizza.
And that was that, my first wonderful day in Paris. I'm not going to lie the La La Land soundtrack was playing through my head all day. And now I have it in my head again. And now you probably do, too.
DAY 2 - 3/23/17 - Thursday
Crepes with a Homie
I woke up late on Noémie's extremely comfortable futon bed. She had already left for work, so I lounged for awhile, ate some Nutella (quelle surprise), and finally got my things together and left the flat for the day.
Noémie's flat is located in a perfect vintage-looking French building, right down to the staircase.
Old, creaky, wooden.
I walked around some more, continuing to grin like an idiot, and somewhere along the way managed to order a crepe IN FRENCH. Alas, I couldn't quite understand the ingredients and it ended up involving tuna, but c'est la vie.
I found another pretty church and went inside. I love wandering around churches while traveling because they are (usually) quiet, relatively empty, and peaceful. To be perfectly honest I can't remember what this one was called or where it was.
One of the first times Google has failed me.
As stated in my introduction post, it's been a tough year. I'm honestly not sure how this works but I lit a candle for three people who were lost this year and will always be in our hearts: OS, Uncle David, and Laura. Each of you is thought of, loved, and missed often.
❤
I continued on and ended up stopping at another church. This one was easier to find via Google, and is a great example of a church that is not quiet, empty, or especially peaceful. It is called Notre-Dame de Paris.
Recently discovered the magic of PERPENDICULAR panoramas.
And there's me in front of it! Photo by someone who doesn't know about perpendicular panoramas.
The inside - I had to literally wait in line to get this shot.
Selfie sticks = sacrilegious.
Notre-Dame is indescribably huge. Construction on the cathedral was completed around the year 1345, which just boggles the mind further - they built this gigantic structure almost 700 years ago.
After standing in awe of the Notre-Dame for awhile, I went to the Sainte-Chappelle, in order to get my mind blown again. Emerging from the staircase into the main chapel is breathtaking; it feels like being inside a jewel. Even the ceiling is a pretty pattern. This chapel was completed even earlier than the Notre-Dame, in 1248. Meanwhile America has recently come up with anti-wrinkle khaki pants, so we've got that going for us.
Although to be fair pants are useful to everyone and chapels just sit there. So HAH.
Incredible, detailed stained glass. Like many things in Paris, photos don't do it justice.
Moving right along; I reluctantly left the jewel-chapel and meandered my way to the Seine to see the nearby Pont Neuf. As I've mentioned before Europeans really have a thing for putting locks on bridges, and it seems that this trend started in Paris on the Pont des Arts and exploded outwards. The fence in front of the Pont Neuf had literally every inch covered in locks, with some locks locked onto other locks.
Nothing says love like placing your love lock among thousands of other love locks.
I ended up at the tip of the Ile de la Cité, and got a nice photo before a couple showed up and ruined it by making out enthusiastically in front of the tree.
They had probably just found an open bit of railing to put their lock onto.
I continued to meander, which was apparently my travel method of choice in Paris, and which suited me just fine. I walked along the Boulevard Saint-Germain for awhile, stopping at a Kilo Shop, which is exactly like it sounds - a shop that sells clothes by the kilo. This was extremely exciting at first, until I realized that the cheapest price was about €20 per kilo. Meaning that the simple cardigan I picked up was over €10. I could buy two Nutella banana crepes for that price!
After wandering for awhile longer, I went to meet up with Augustin, another wonderful exchange student my family has had the pleasure of hosting. We have truly been so lucky to have been connected with such great people in this way. Augustin is originally from Annecy but has lived in Paris for several years, and is now working on his PhD. His research involves flying in a plane that drops him into free falls so he can experiment with different ways of stopping fires in zero gravity. He is quite literally a "firefighter in space", as he put it. He is basically a French space version of Indiana Jones.
We met at a crepe restaurant, but before dinner Augustin took me on a mini-tour of Montparnasse. By this point it was dark out, and raining slightly, which made everything that much more picturesque. We went to a street that had a poem written on the walls - sections of Le Bateau ivre by Arthur Rimbaud.
"the drunken boat"
Lovely Paris.
At the restaurant, we both got a dinner and dessert crepe each. It was phenomenal. And it was so great to see and catch up with Augustin! We have also known each other for a long time, about 10 years now.
Originally Noémie was supposed to meet us at the restaurant, but she got held up with a work event. I will leave you with this photo of Augustin enjoying a crepe.
Augustin: Crepe and Montparnasse guide extraordinaire!
Market, Arch, Giant Metal Tower
Noémie had to work again, and when I finally left her flat on Friday morning I stumbled into a street market right out the front door. I walked all the way along the length of the market and back, mesmerized by the sights, sounds, and smells.
Overwhelming in a good way.
Poulpe.
Concombres! Haricots verts!
Kitchen items.
Most of the regulars had these rolling shopping bags.
I went a little nuts and got an array of food, plus a watch, for around €12. For Paris this was very very exciting.
They even had cheese! The watch was €5. It has since broken.
Cheese addiction starting to take hold.
After eating literally the entire round of goat milk brie cheese, and almost an entire baguette, and after the obligatory phases of shame followed by acceptance, I set out to explore. I decided to spend some time at the more famous monuments, starting with the Arc de Triomphe. Like Notre-Dame, it is staggeringly huge.
Another perpendicular panorama for your viewing pleasure.
And there's me in front of it!
I thought about paying to climb to the top of the Arc, but decided against it as the line was far too long.
I went in search of the Tour Eiffel, which was easy to locate on the horizon but surprisingly difficult to navigate to among the dozens of angled streets. My sense of direction really is atrocious and did not do me any favors.
This direction? Maybe!
Finally, I found it! There were plenty of tourists there but really not as many as I was expecting. Again, the line to go up in the tower was so long I didn't even consider joining it.
Horse & Tower
Me & Tower & Construction Fences
After that I wandered back to meet up with Noémie at her flat. Unfortunately, after the following photo of four large wheels of cheese, I fell down on my photo taking duties.
There you go, the last photo of the night.
This was a shame because the rest of Friday was so much fun! Although we are both terrible cooks, Noémie and I managed to make a delicious vegetable tart without a recipe. I still don't know how we did it. Probably the miracle of overseas friendship.
Once the tart had been tart-ed we rushed to take a city bus to Noémie's friend Suzanne's apartment in the Marais, where we would watch the French version of "Survivor" (called "Koh-Lanta") with two other girls. Suzanne's apartment was like a page straight out of Pinterest. It was absolutely adorable, vintage-y with high ceilings and wooden beams and a balcony and lovely decorations everywhere.
I couldn't pay attention to the decor for too long though, as we all gathered around to watch a very entertaining and dramatic episode of Koh-Lanta. I was shocked at how much of it I could understand, even though I haven't had a French class since 2008. Noémie's friends were incredibly sweet and friendly and we all had a great time talking and eating the food that everyone brought. Afterwards the girls had a clothing exchange of old clothes they didn't want anymore, and I got to take home several pieces! And since they are all adorable and stylish French girls, the discard clothes were way cuter than anything I brought with me abroad and have completely upgraded my travel wardrobe.
And that brings a close to my 2017 visit of Paris. It truly and completely lives up to the hype.
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