Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
What do you do when you only have 48 hours in Paris? You do everything quickly!
Today started with fresh croissants from a small bakery on our street. Amazing! We then, sadly, had to spend about 2 hours on the internet and at a train ticket travel agency figuring out our next couple of days. But after that we hit the town.
We managed to do the Louvre in under 4hours, an unheard-of task. We obviously didnt see everything, but we saw almost everything we wanted to. We saw the Venus di Milo, the Winged Angel, crown jewels, a ton of other unbelievable pieces of art, and the slightly disappointing Mona Lisa (for the amount of hype it gets at the Louvre, it is small, heavily guarded, and surrounded by other amazing pieces of work). I dont think we could have gone on much longer... we are starting to have a little museum over-load. We walked out of the Louvre and walked down the Champs Elysees with an incredibly stale baguette that we bought just for the purpose of buying a baguette. We walked through beautiful gardens with big fountains, and saw strange scary sculptures of spiders. The street then turned into a crazy shopping street with expensive stores, before we reached the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc, on this day, was swarming with men in uniforms carrying the French flag, there must have been a dedication or something going on. As we stood and gawked like the other silly tourists, the sky opened up and it started to pour so we ran for the nearest metro station. The ride back to the hotel was made even more interesting by a large group of VERY loud Greek students and the train coming to a screeching hault, causing everyone to bump into each other.
After a quick stop back at our hotel (no time to lay down Nina!) we took off for Notre Dame, and after getting directions from a old man who noticed we looked very lost, we found it. It was just getting dark and it was already closed for the day, but still beautiful. We sat and watched the dinner cruise boats that we cant afford go by, then hopped on the metro in search of a restaurant recommended by a friend back home.
We stepped out of the metro station and walked a couple blocks in what felt like the right direction. an excellent way to get lost as well. after we hit the moulin rouge street (rick rick!) we asked a nice grocery store man for directions. heres what he "told" us: we were directed to go past his left arm, not the first time he swung it in the air but only after the second time. then the restaurant would be somewhere between his wrist and elbow. okkkkkkk so we walked like 10 feet and found someone else to ask for actual directions.
We almost walked past the restaurant, well, because it was only about 6feet wide. The restaurant consisted of 2 very long tables running the length of the restaurant. After being instructed to hang up our jackets (you mean my disgusting sweatshirt??), the waiter nicely helped me to step over the table to sit squeezed inbetween other groups. The waiter asked only 2 things the whole time we sat there: cheese or meat (cheese) and white or red (white). Ok... we still dont have a clue what is going on.... then comes a plate full of appetizers of sausages, cheeses, and pickles (claire your favorite!!!), then delicious pink cocktail drinks (for digestion, we were told). As we wide-eyed looked around we noticed something very strange... people of all ages drinking out of baby bottles. And what came next?? Baby bottles full of wine for us! Glass baby bottles complete with rubber nipples. Then came the delicious cheese fondue, which we went through 3 baskets of bread for. As we sat, 4 drunk french guys our age next to us began talking to us, and continued to talk to us for the next 3 hours. One was incessant on making us believe he was married with kids and we therefore saw lots of baby pictures and a video on his phone of his wife modeling a red dress....ok, we believe you! The other catchphrase of the night began when we mentioned we were taking the train to Metz (pronounced: mess) the next day. over the next few hours we heard: MESSSSSSSZZZZZZ?!?! why messssszzzzzz?! (insert a ridiculous monty python style french accent). But these intoxicated successful French guys did buy us wine and dessert, so we let the now annoying messszzzz refrain pass. By time we realized we were the only ones left in the place (now almost 1am), the guys explained to us that we were missing the last train back. So with their help we ran out of the restaurant to the nearest train station (only 1 block, but NOT in the direction we came from), just in time to make the last train. The train took us almost to our hotel, so we had to walk a couple blocks, but first figure out where we were. Luckily 2 police men walked by and we got directions, then proceeded to follow the policemen (like they were our own secret bodyguards) until we knew where we were. Along the way nina picked up some glasses that were sitting on a bench that became the new "thinking glasses". Yes, they only had one earpiece and were missing a lens...but they totally helped us find the right way home.
So 2am bed time and our train tomorrow leaves at 7. Ah, well, we'll always have Paris!!
-Tiff (with some commentary from Nina, 10 points if you can figure out which parts)
- comments