First Stop, Paris

05/14/2015

      It started with a conversation with a couple of friends while we weren't paying attention in class.  iDevices make it too easy to "pass notes", teachers don't stand a chance.  My friends had been taking trips and asked where I had traveled to. Answer: nowhere. My friend Josh pops up and says his fiancée Alana is running in the Paris marathon; and what had started as a family trip had turned into a big friends and family trip, and that we should join them!  In the end, the marathon plans fell through and we decided to go to Italy instead.  Surprise benefit: we had an eight hour layover in Paris and make a side excursion of it!

     Paris was amazing!  As if it wouldn't be, right?  We took the train (think BART) from the airport to the heart of Paris, and jumped off at Notre Dame.  I couldn't believe the detail of the stonework and all the stained glass windows. The doesn't even account for the breathtaking paintings twice as tall as I am. Truly incredible, and the pictures cannot remotely compare.

     After Notre Dame we had some lunch where we tried escargot. Yes, you heard me, we ate snails!  They were actually quite good.  I always thought they were regular garden snails that eat my flowers, but they are sea snails and they are a lot like eating a clam. Not everything can be like chicken, you know.   Somehow I ended up with deep fried salmon and french fries... all the way to France and I'm eating American food?  I skipped those and had mousse without guilt.  Chocolate makes everything better!

     The Seine runs right through the heart of Paris and has many pretty bridges that span it. At Point Neuf we followed tradition: Tony and I put a padlock on the mesh of the bridge and tossed the key into the water.  I like a little romance ;)

(Can you see the Eiffel Tower in the background on the left?)

     We also found many wonderful artists displaying their work, and I brought home a wonderful drawing/painting of the bridge where our lock is at. Call me a cheesy tourist, but I really liked it. And for 15€ I can afford to be a little cheesy!

     After lunch we walked to the Louvre Museum.  I knew it was big, but I didn't know how big.  This place looks like a palace!  It is three stories high, goes three stories below ground, and he underground continues for quite a ways for art to be stored underground.  Sadly, we didn't have three days to get lost inside, so we walked through the courtyard and shot a photo at the pyramid entrance and kept touring. 

(This is a panoramic of The Louvre from inside the courtyard)

     I wanted to make it all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, but it was further than I thought and we were suuuuper tired, (we'd been traveling 18 hours 

by then) and in need of a snack and some coffee.  We walked through this incredibly long park and eventually made it to a cafe for some espresso and water with no gas.  After that, we went back to the Notre Dame to shop at a store Alana and I had seen.  It was the very next train stop, so we walked instead.  Close, my foot!  It felt like we were walking forever!  After a little shopping we jumped back on the train to the airport, with just enough time for some dinner and board the plane. It was perfect!  Great food and great company and a wonderful time.  This was before we learned that our luggage was not in the plane, but I'll write about that in the next blog. 

     At the moment, I'm sitting in the living room of our apartment in Praiano, taking a break before we head out for dinner.  I had a nap in the patio (read: passed out while reading a book) and am now drinking coffee at seven in the evening. How different the culture over here!  I will delay posting since I don't want the world knowing that we aren't home, even though we have a house sitte. It's still creepy. 

    Au revoir!