J'adore Paris

Bonjour! (congratulations! you have now heard 1/3 of my entire French vocabulary)

Thursday night (3/25) Maura and I left Alicante to spend the weekend in PARIS!  We stayed with Maura’s cousin Tim who lives in Paris. Tim is definitely one of the nicest people I’ve ever met! I can’t think of a more ideal place for us to have spent our time in Paris.

We arrived in Paris late Thursday night. We successfully navigate the Airport bus and then the subway and arrived to Tim’s place around 11:30. Tim had a quiche waiting for us in the oven as well as fresh French bread, cheese and wine for us to eat. We were exhausted and SO happy to a good meal ready. Tim’s apartment is BEAUTIFUL  and HUGE! Maura and I shared the guest room with the most comfortable HUGE bed .. such a nice change from the tiny twin bed in my apartment and the short box-y leather couch Maura had to sleep on all week at my place. Tim’s apartment is located in the oldest neighborhood in Paris, and his building was built in the early 1700s. He had all wood floors, a HUGE kitchen and a really nice fireplace in the dining room. The apartment had 3 bedrooms, one for Tim and his wife, one for baby Tim and a guest room (for us!) so it had lots of space.

After we ate dinner we were all exhausted and went to bed. The next day we woke up and went across the street to buy croissants from the bakery, and had to test out our non-existent French skills for the first time. It was definitely a struggle but we got our croissants so the end result was a success. I got one plain croissant with butter and one with chocolate inside. I thought that I had had a croissant before.. but you have NOT had a croissant until you have one in Paris! It was unlike any croissant I had ever tasted. It was really flaky on the outside and the inside melts in your mouth. Needless to say we went back to that bakery every morning. When we got back to the apartment, Tim made eggs so we had a more nutritious side to breakfast. Afterwards Tim helped us get all set up with maps and directions and he walked us out to Notre Dame (about 5 minutes from his place), our starting point for that day.

Tim was the best tour guide and seemed to know SO much about the city. He knew so many facts about a lot of the buildings and statues we walked past so it was really cool it have our own personal source of information. We got to Notre Dame, where Tim sent us on our way to explore the city.

Notre Dame was beautiful inside, Huge stained glass and really cool architecture. The outside of the building had tons of gargoyles and statues sticking out. Just like I had imagined it! There was also some kind of concert going on outside so that was pretty cool to see.

The back of Notre Dame (I think it was prettier than the front!)

Notre Dame!



Stained Glass inside Notre dame



After Notre Dame we walked around that part of town to a little park we saw on our map. In front of the park we ran into my friend Leah! I was so excited! Leah is studying in Rome and unfortuneately will be home already when I go to Rome in May. I had no idea she was also going to be in Paris this weekend. I spotted her group when I saw a bright red Maryland “HEY-YOU SUCK” shirt from far a way.. kind of hard to miss in paris!

After talking with Leah for a little, Maura and I got some food and I had my first crepe in Paris… ham and cheese .. delicious!!

After Notre Dame, we started on our major walk for the day. To see as much of the city as possible, we decided to walk from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower – about 4 miles! It was perfect weather so it was nice to walk around and we made lots of fun discoveries! We found a couple of great markets with awesome street food. We also found a really cool bridge with lots of locks attacked to the chain-link park of the bridge railing. People locked padlocks to it and signed their names. Still working on trying to find the story/meaning behind it but it was pretty cool!

Halfway through our walk we ran into the Louvre. We had already decided we didn’t want to go inside. I’m not much of a museum person and it was such a beautiful day, we didn’t want to spend much time inside. Had I been in Paris for a week, I would have gone in, but for weekend trips you really have to narrow down to the few main things you want to see – Sorry, Mona Lisa, but you didn’t make the cut! We wandered around the ground of the Louvre which was really pretty. It was packed (another reason why I’m glad we didn’t go in) but it was nice to walk around and see the outside.. I had no idea it was so big!

The Louvre



The Louvre


After a seemingly endless walk we FINALLY found the Eiffel tower. I didn’t expect to be so excited to see it in person for the first time, but I found myself feeling like a little kid feels when they see Cinderella’s castle in Disney for the first time (or, let’s be honest, how I STILL feel when I see Cinderella’s castle). Both of us couldn’t believe we were looking right at the Eiffel tower. It was SO much bigger than I thought it would be. I couldn’t stop staring at it!

On the walk over, we stopped to pick up a couple bottles of wine. When we got to the tower we found a spot to sit on the lawn and posted up with our bottles of wine. By this time it was around 3:30 so we decided to hang out there until sunset (around 7:30) so we could see the tower light up. It was perfect because we were EXHAUSTED (honestly don’t think my feet have ever been so tired) and wanted nothing more than to just sit for hours. We ended up making friends with two Aussies who were sitting near us. We started talking to them because they were attempting to build a replica of the Eiffel tower with their empty beer bottles. My kind of people. We hung out with them for the rest of the day, and got a few more beers from the guys walking around selling them from big white buckets. Perfect weather, relaxing under the Eiffel tower with beer and wine… seriously doesn’t get any better than that! Also, we ran into Leah again at the tower so that was fun!

perfection!

Maura and I

Me and Leah!

The Eiffel Tower lawn

Our Aussie friends.. architectural geniuses

Finally it got dark and we got to see the tower light up. It was so worth the wait because it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen!! Deifnitely 100 times more beautiful than you can show in a picture or video – one of those things you just have to see in person. Also, the Eiffel tower twinkles! Every few minutes the lights start twinkling/sparkling.. it was so cool! I think I could have spent the entire weekend doing nothing but sitting in front of the tower and I would have been perfectly happy!

:-)

One of my favorites

walking under the eiffel tower.. looks so cool!

That night we got back to the apartment and went out to dinner with Tim. He took us to this really cute little restaurant in a square where part of the Bourne Identity was filmed (awesome!). The restaurant was a typical little French place and I was so excited to have a nice French meal. I ordered escargot (!!!!!!) and mussels. I was a little nervous but I figured I should try escargot while in Paris and it was AMAZING! It was cooking in a pesto type sauce and you basically just pull the meat out of the little snail shells with a tiny fork. DELICIOUS! One of the best things I ate in Paris. I also tried raw oysters for the first time (Tim ordered that as his appetizer) and it was pretty good! We also had some great wine and a good dessert that came with Maura’s meal. It was so nice to be able to experience a real French meal with someone who knew what to order and HOW to order (Maura and I would have been lost without Tim to order for us, haha) After dinner we went back and had some drinks at the apartment before passing out for the night.

Saturday was our big shopping day. We spend the day shopping, which turned into mostly window shopping since we are both flat broke, and had a lot of fun! Even though we didn’t buy anything it was still fun to look in all the little boutiques in town. Tim lives really close to a great shopping district so it was convenient too! We stopped for crepes round 2 – Mo got ham and cheese and I got banana and nutella… even better than the first crepes we had!  Later we had falafel at a place Tim recommended .. also great! After shopping around Tim’s neighborhood we took the metro over to the Champs-Elysses. We shopped some more along that street and ended up at the Arc d’Triumph. So cool, and also bigger than I imagined! Afterwards we were exhausted so we headed back to the apartment.

The Arc d'Triumph

Walking under the Arc! So much detail!

When we got back Tim suggested that maybe tonight we could stay in and make our own French meal. He picked out a recipe (beef bourguignon… a type of beef stew and really typical French dish) and  told us to stay in and relax while he ran to the market to get ingredients for us to cook – I wasn’t kidding when I said he’s the nicest person ever! When he came back he put on some good cooking music (Frank Sinatra .. Nana would be proud!) and we got to work. We cut of carrots, peeled the mini onions and cooked up the beef and the rest of the vegetables… all the while eating delicious bread and cheese and drinking good wine. The stew turned out great and I loved being able to learn how to make a French dish. After dinner we walked to a place called La Notre for macaroons (a typical french dessert) It was SUPER fancy and gourmet. Maura and I got a box to split and bring back to the apartment. it was the first time I'd ever tried them before and they were really different than i expected (they looked like mini cheeseburgers!) but REALLY good! We all spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking and later watched a movie before bed. Staying in and cooking at Tim’s place was one of my favorite things we did in Paris!



Cooking with Tim!



mo money being betty crocker





yum!

Our fancy macaroons!

Sunday was our last day – we were leaving at 6 so we had some time during the day to see a few more things. We woke up early because we were going to get an early start and we WERE going to to go mass with Tim. We set our alarm on both my phone and my iPad and at 8:45 it went off on the ipad. I checked my phone, wondering why it didn’t go off, and it said it was only 7:45. I was confused, thinking it may still be set on Dublin time and brushed it off. We got dressed and ready to go and went out to wait for Tim. It was really quiet so we thought maybe he ran to get breakfast or was still in his room. After a while we started to get nervous that something weird happened and we actually slept in. 9:30 rolled around and we realized it was daylight savings time! The day is different in Europe and I seriously had no idea. It’s a good thing we found out before our flight .. that could have been ugly!

After that whole mix-up cleared up, Tim took us to his local outdoor market. Its open two days a week and was incredible! I may have even liked it better than my Mercado Central! They had suc ha crazy variety of stuff from really intricate prepared foods, seafood, fresh veggies and fruit, furniture, clothes, etc. Anything you could think of. It was so cool to see. For breakfast we got a Lebanese food called “Manouche” that Tim recommended. It was a giant thin pita stuffed with some kind of seasoned ground meat. It was sweet and savory at the same time and seriously amazing. I’m drooling just thinking about it! After the market we split up from Tim to go check out the gardens at Luxembourg. The gardens were a short metro ride away and really pretty! There was a huge pond/fountain where kids drove mini remote-controlled sailboats and lots of beautiful statues and flowers.

The gardens at luxembourg

the gardens ... but looks like the capitol building in the backround!

pretty fountain in the gardens

After the Gardens we checked out St Sulpice Church – also really pretty!

St. Sulpice

After the church we headed back to the apartment because sadly it was time for us to leave Paris. I am getting sad just thinking about leaving again! It was the most perfect weekend and we had so much fun hanging out with Tim and doing all things French. I wish I could go back and do it all again!

We got back to Alicante around 8. Maura got all packed up at my place and then we relaxed and had some wine on the balcony. Maura left at 8 am on Monday morning. We had such a fun time and I was so glad she came to visit and sooo sad she had to leave! I seriously love being able to show people Alicante and I’m so glad Maura was able to come on TWO weekend trips with me! Maura leaving made me realize how fast my time here is going by… her visit used to seem SO far away and now it’s already over. Seriously unreal/depressing/scary … I need time here to slowwwww down! Im continuing to have a great time and am so thankful for every day I get to spend here J

Au Revoir! (make that 2/3)