This week was a little crazy because one of my dearest friends, AMY, came to visit me in Paris from Tuesday to Sunday (today). It was wonderful to have her here. I am so terribly lucky to be here in Europe for this time, but I do miss my friends and family a lot. Having her come was the breath of fresh air that I needed to help get through the last 3 weeks I have here until I can see everyone!
I didn't want to create a strenuous itinerary for the first few days, so we started her visit out in the true spirit of Paris on Tuesday by going to see the Eiffel Tower in all its glory. As we made our way to that part of town she kept commenting on how quaint the architecture was and we agreed that Paris looks just the way you expect it to, just the way you want it to. She was also surprised at how incredibly massive the Eiffel Tower is and how unbelievable it feels to stand right in front of it. After many, many pictures we headed over to see the Notre Dame along the Seine River. We were able to tour the inside for free and gawked at the beautiful arches and columns and stained glass windows. We walked along the river for a little while, across one of the many beautiful bridges of the city (which happened to have many locks of love on it <3) and wandered the backstreets of the Saint Michel-Notre Dame area. Then we found our way to Shakespeare & Company, a well-known english bookstore in Paris right across the river from Notre Dame. With all its nooks and crooked bookshelves, we adored it. We stopped at a cafe for a quick dinner and then headed home to get poor Amy to bed after a long, jet-lagged day.
Wednesday we woke up late, allowing ourselves to catch up on some sleep, and headed right for the Avenue de les Champs Elysses. This giant road is Paris's equivalent of New York City's 5th Ave. or Chicago's Michigan Avenue. We window shopped in awe of all the extravagant designer clothes, and almost died when we saw the Abercrombie and Fitch. It has a huge iron gate to a gravel pathway lined with trimmed hedges that curves around to a small, french garden outside the grand entrance, with a shirtless guy in a thick, fur-hooded coat of course. Inside the poor employees were dressed head to toe in Abercrombie and forced to continually bop along to the music, while having annoyed conversations under their breath. The cologne being piped in through the air vents was suffocating and the lights were so low they were pretty much off... we were trying so hard not to laugh at how epic this Abercrombie tried to be. We were like, "It's not like this is some special brand in the states, there is an Abercrombie in every, crappy outlet mall all over the country haha." Anyway, after we caught out breath from laughing we kept walking and found the famous Laduree Maracoon shop! Of course we had to get 8 in various flavors, if only for the adorable box they came in. Luckily they tasted amazing, too. When we got to the end we took lots of pictures of the Arc de Triomphe, headed back down the other side, stopped for a quick, necessary Starbucks run, and caught the Metro stop home for a little rest. Later that night we headed toward Montmartre, in the northern part of the city, to do some sightseeing before a fancy French dinner I had planned for us... part of Amy's Christmas present from me. We found the Moulin Rouge, went up the hill to Sacre Coeur, another big church with a beautiful view out over all of Paris, found where all the artists usually set up to sell their paintings and artwork, and peeked our heads into a few touristy shops. Finally, we found the restaurant for dinner and Amy tried my escargot!!! Another great day.
Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving Day! We decided to meet up with our friends Elise (also studying in Paris) and her friend Taylor (visiting Elise same time Amy was in town, we know her from Pittsburgh). The agenda included the Chatelet les Halles mall and some vintage shops in the Marais area. Needless to say we all left with a vintage sweater or dress or handbag. Then we had to go back to the dorms to cook our contributions for the Thanksgiving feast later that night (mine was my mom's Corn Pudding). We cooked, spruced ourselves up, and headed to Belleville for the Thanksgiving dinner! We were all excited to see that we had quite the spread: Turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread, corn pudding, homemade noodles, roasted vegetables, mac & cheese, celery knobs, cranberry sauce, green beans, spaghetti squash... and all amazing! Of course there was also a plentiful supply of baguettes and wine. We talked and laughed and bonded over our incredible meal and although we couldn't spend Thanksgiving with our families, we almost created a family of our own. After dinner we orchestrated a quick clean up and I ran home to video chat with my own family, all cheerfully preparing our traditional Thanksgiving meal in our little log cabin in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
On Friday we set out to see Versailles! We took the train out and were amazed by the splendor of the Chateau (even though I had seen it once before). We decided to walk through the expansive gardens to Marie Antoinette's private mini-mansions on the property while we were fresh with energy before tackling the main Chateau. We were a little early, but never fear, there was a cafe near there with Angelina's famous hot chocolate, the thickest, richest hot chocolate you will ever have in your life. Naturally we couldn't pass it up and shared a cup. In the Grand Trianon (the largest of the mini-mansions) I was disappointed to see that the exhibit of gowns designed by world famous designers inspired by the style of Marie Antoinette was no longer on display for Amy to see, but it was beautiful either way. We walked back through the precisely manicured gardens to the main Chateau and went from room to room, necks craned and eyes wide open, historical commentary in our ears from our Audioguides. Every pressed velvet wallpaper and over-the-top chandelier provoked a gasp and look between us, just incredible. We made it through Versailles quicker than we thought we would, and decided we would try to do the Musee D'Orsay, too. This is a smaller museum that houses, among many things, some of the most famous paintings from the Impressionism Era. We were in shock at the Monet's, blown away by the Renoir's, and literally brought to sentimental tears by Degas's extremely famous dancer paintings. It was at that moment that I realized how incredibly proud I am of my art and blessed to be part of the tradition of dance. Once we saw what we wanted to see, we went home to rest and change, because Amy had not yet experienced the night life of Paris. We met up with Elise and Taylor, as well as our friend Leanne, and hit up a few bars on our favorite street, Rue de Lappe, in the Bastille area, where our dance studio is. Just a fun girl's night out, meeting people and having a few drinks.
Saturday I had a reservation to take Amy to the top of the Eiffel Tower at noon, so we slept in again and made our way, butterflies in our stomach, to the Eiffel tower. We headed up the elevators and once we reached the platform (really it was about half way up, that thing was just too tall for us to go all the way to the top!) and had the most beautiful panorama of Paris before us. Again, many, many pictures were taken between sighs of contentment and disbelief. After the tower, there was one major thing left to do in Paris, and that was the Louvre museum. We knew that we had quite the feat ahead of us, with how HUGE, famous, and crowded it would be, but we just couldn't pass up the Mona Lisa and the bust of Aphrodite, or the "Venus de Milo." We also saw the Code of Hammurabi, the giant tablet that unlocked all understanding of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, sculptures by Michelangelo, lots of mummies and Egyptian tombs, the apartments of Napoleon III, and many other incredible works of art. Once we were too pooped to continue we headed back to my place to change to go out for drinks again, this time in honor of Taylor's birthday on Sunday! We tried to go to a club near the Champs Elysses, but it wasn't open yet, so wouldn't you know, we just ended up back in Bastille where we knew a good time was pretty much guaranteed. We hit up a few bars, Taylor got some free drinks, and we went home satisfied with a great evening!
Today Amy and I woke up early to get her safely to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye, because we had had so much fun running around this beautiful city like some ridiculous American girls. It also just made us excited to live back in the same house again when I return to Pittsburgh in the fall. All in all we covered a lot and Amy was able to see everything she and I wanted!
Places: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Shakespeare & Company, Champs Elysses, Laduree Macarons, the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre with the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur, the Marais, Versailles, Musee D'Orsay, Bastille, the Louvre
French food: Crepes (especially with Nutella, favorite), quiche, escargot, fancy french dinner, Croque Madame (like Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top... yummm), macarons, pain au chocolat, baguettes, strong french Rochefort cheese, french wine, of course
Mission: Give Amy the full Parisian experience, Complete!
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