Early last Thursday morning, I headed into Paris to meet with Dustin, a friend of Nic’s who I’ve hung out with on multiple occasions, and his friend Alex. Despite my late arrival – I guess I’m becoming French – we were still able to make a leisurely stroll through the Latin Quarter before our FREE Sandeman’s tour of Paris started. We even went by the café that Renee and I got castigated at for our lack of French! But the Sandeman’s tour was great. I’m really glad they suggested we do it, because I learned quite a few interesting facts about Paris. For instance:
1) If you were to spend 30 seconds on each piece of art displayed at the Louvre, and you go from open to close, it would take you 32 days to complete. Keep in mind, only 10% of its art is on display.
2) The French have considered moving the ENTIRE Louvre in order to make it align with the Axis of Paris (La Defense – Arc de Triomph – Place de la Concorde - Arc du Carosel)
3) The face sculptures on Pont Neuf were the original “facebook” – the king at the time had court artists draw his friends’ faces when they were drunk and then posted them on the bridge!
After the tour finished, we walked along the Seine to the Trocadero area for the prerequisite Eiffel Tour photo shoot. Can you believe Dustin and Alex almost didn’t get a photo in front of the Eiffel Tour!?! Classic example of how boys travel: A group of girls normally do a 45 minute photo shoot. After that, we headed up to Montmartre where we had pain au chocolats, witnessed a somewhat awkward photo shoot, and took in the city skyline. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from Sacre Coeur to the St. Georges area – not an easy feat!
Soon thereafter, we were all set on having a Parisian picnic, so we went into a grocery store for some cheese, wine, baguettes, fruit, etc. Luckily, we were right in the Latin Quarter so we set up shop at the Jardins du Luxenbourg. Great setting, except for two setbacks: 1) We could not get our “easy off” lid to the wine bottle off, no matter how hard we tried. Even hammering it with my house key made no progress. Then…2) I didn’t realize how late it was, and we were kicked out of the park at 8:30 because it was closing. So half an hour and two convenience shops later, we relocated to the banks of the Seine where we enjoyed a few awkward moments (1 French girl flashing a tour boat, 1 guy asking us for a wine bottle opener when I didn’t know that word in French).
After that, we were beat so we made it back to our Young & Happy Hostel where we met our roommates. One, a kid studying in Kent, was fine. The other, an art “student” from the Netherlands was a bit off. What worse, the hostel messed up our reservation so one of us had to stay in a different room. But the day ended well when Scott and Nic finally arrived! Despite Scott’s flight being delayed 3 hours, they arrived in Paris without any major problems.
The next morning, we rose bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (not quite) for a trip to Versailles! It is simply an amazingly grandeur place. I had been there with Renee in 2008, but it was nice to see the grounds and gardens in nice weather. A large part of our day was spent walking around the grounds (naturally, I enjoyed the farm and beautiful flowers the most) and soaking up the sun. Not even our somewhat-rude waiter at the restaurant along the Canal could spoil our mood.
Once we got back into Paris, we headed straight for “ground zero” aka Notre Dame. One of the highlights of the day was the flying buttress photo shoot which ensued. Next stop was the Louvre, where in addition to seeing the 3 ladies (Mona Lisa, Victoire a Samothrace, and Venus de Milo), we enjoyed taking in a lot of French and Italian art and the Code of Hammurabi, one of the first written codes of law. Essentially, the concept of “an eye for an eye” literally came from this piece. But I had no idea it was so big! I remember studying it in AP Art History, but I always pictured it as about 2 feet tall. Nope!
The day ended with dinner in the Latin Quarter, and we were all quite content with our mini feast and wine selection. I particularly enjoyed the little comments the waiter made. One of them: “A Paris, la femme jamais paye!” when he delivered the bill. Translation? “In Paris, the woman never pays!” Have to say, I agree.
The Eiffel tower at night, complete with a "Sparkle show!" perfectly concluded the day.
Next day, Alex and Dustin had to head out – they were taking a ferry back to England! But Nic, Scott, and I checked out Montmartre and then headed towards the Arc de Triomph. And naturally, our walk along the Champs d’Elysees would not be complete without dining at the mother of French cuisine: Quick, essentially a French McDonald’s.
After an extensive photo shoot at the Eiffel Tour, we headed towards Gare Saint Lazare. Somehow, we lucked out with a HUGE LINE to buy tickets. So 5 minutes before our train to Rouen was to take off, I started asking people in my very broken French to let me cut them in line. Luckily, everyone was nice so we got our tickets and hoped on the train about 1 minute before it took off. Relief!
Showing Nic and Scott Rouen was great. They seemed to enjoy the overall city atmosphere and architecture, as well as our 3 AWESOME Gothic cathedrals. We also enjoyed amazing macarons at the Vieux Marche. The best part of the day, however, was getting baguettes, cheese – Camembert, of course, and cidre for our picnic in the park in front of the Musee des Beaux Arts. A superb, relaxing picnic with my best friends on a gorgeous day in Rouen = Hard to beat!
The day began to conclude with a walk up to my neighborhood and house, meeting my host parents on the way who were headed off for some aperatifs. Chilling out, watching TV, listening to music, and going out for a beer at the end of the night made the evening fun and relaxing after so much sightseeing.
Sunday morning started with the essential Gros Horloge tour/city panorama. Somehow, that spiral staircase in the tower seemed much more difficult to master after so much walking the previous two days. But the museum is a Rouen must-do. After that, we got lunch at the Vieux Marche before I had to see them off. Hated saying goodbye: I’ve been lucky to share so much time in Europe with some of my best friends, and now I won’t see them til the end of the summer! But with Scott in Spain until July, Nic interning in Bangladesh, and me working with TFA in Mississippi, I’m sure we’ll all have great stories to tell at the next reunion…
.jpg){kind=small}
I was very impressed with the three Gothic cathedrals!! For how "small" Rouen is, it felt pretty big. Picnic in the park was probably the highlight of the weekend as well :) Thanks for playing host!!
ReplyDeleteI love your "Flying Scarf" picture ... Classic Kristy!!!
ReplyDelete