Parisian football nights and sunny Montmartre days

These past few weeks have certainly been a whirlwind, and the adventures continued in Paris over the past 24 hours. A few weeks ago, I bought tickets with 5 friends (Nathan, Joey, Alicia, Jake, and Natalie) to go to the France vs. Spain national team game at the Stade de France, just outside of Paris in the St. Denis area for last night. The game was a “match amical,” or friendly match, in preparation for Le Coup de Monde coming up this May in South Africa.



Upon our arrival in Paris, I immediately headed north on the 13 to meet with a friend from my church at home, Elle Stephan, who very kindly let me crash with her last night. After filling up from a “Kebaberie” near her place and catching up on her Parisian life, I headed over to the Stade de France. Reminding me a giant spaceship – one with a capacity of over 80,000 – it’s very impressive (and it’s the 5th largest in Europe).



I was a bit surprised by the atmosphere of the fans: People for the most part where pretty quiet and subdued. Perhaps, if we had actually scored, it would have been different! But I think this can be attributed to three things 1) Europeans take their football seriously, so everyone was focused on the game 2) it was a “friendly game,” ie not a world cup qualifier, and 3) security and crowd control were intense!

We ended up losing 0-2, but it was still a ton of fun! I cheered, “ALLEZ, ALLEZ, ALLEZ! (Go, go, go!)” as best as I could, despite currently recovering from a sore throat. I also tried to represent Les Bleus well by wearing my French soccer scarf, bright blue pants, and my Dwight Football Club (from NBC’s The Office) t-shirt.

I got to sleep in until almost 9am today, which felt wonderful! Then I compiled a great breakfast in Elle’s area of Paris, the 17th, by grabbing a baguette, 2 bananas, and an apple, all topped off with a café from McDonald’s. And I picked an excellent McDonalds: Free-wifi! So I got a good amount of work done for a couple of hours.



But the best part of the day was slowly walking along Boulevard de Clichy – even passed the Moulin Rouge - and coming across Montmartre’s Sacre Coeur. It always looks so stately, yet so welcoming. The sun was shining, and I sat on the steps in front of the church listening to the gorgeous music of a harpist. I listened to a beautiful melody of songs such as “Yesterday,” “Canon in D Major,” “My Heart Will Go On,” “La Vie en Rose,” etc. Words cannot describe how great the music was: So luckily – I found a youtube video of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZKiW_6rnrk



Then I slowly made my way through Montmartre, stopping at the painters’ square where I will most certainly take visitors and do some personal shopping in the future. Being at Montmartre again since December 2008 with Renee was a bit surreal, I remembered specific streets and even a little jewelry/accessory store! After that it was back to the Square de Clichy area, where I made my way over to Porte de Maillots for a bus ride to the Beauvais Airport (of course I napped the whole way), and a 2-hour flight, I arrived in Madrid just about 3 hours ago! Scott Berger, one of my best friends from IU, is my host for the weekend, and I’m so excited! Tapas, Flamenco, el Prado, etc – I will update again soon!