I've embedded links to websites and pictures throughout if you click on them!
Wednesday:
We got ourselves to our gate and onto our plane - so excited because we had two extra seats next to us. The pilot said they were having some technical difficulties making the AC unable to work so we should wait while they try to fix it. 2 hours later, covered in sweat and extremely hungry, the pilot deplaned everyone because they couldn't seem to fix the problem. Finally on our new plane hours later, we took off. The rest of the flight was swell.
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| On the first plane - pre-sweat |
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| On the second plane - not too happy |
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| our first lunch |
We then took the RER, which is a train, from the airport into Paris. On this RER, we saw people rolling weed into joints, and selling it to other passengers. That was interesting. Then we got on the subway incorrectly three times and took it (finally) to what we thought was the stop right next to our hotel, Place d'italie. It turns out Place d'Italie is the furthest stop away from our hotel (Look onthe right until you see an orange line with the number 5 on it and follow it all the way to bottom until you see place d'italie). We read the website wrong (the one we looked at originally was in French) and saw that we were supposed to take line 5 which runs from Bobigny to Place d'Italie but that we were supposed to take it towards Bobigny.... Anyway after we finally figured this out, and got lunch to feed ourselves and take a break from what was the monotonous work of dragging our >50 lb suitcases up and down multiple flights of stairs, we figured out how to get "home." Our hotel was right on top of the Porte de Pantin stop, as it said it would be, and we went in. Our room was perfect.
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| finally at the correct stop |
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| the 5 minute lights |
Thursday:
We woke up to an extremely loud and violent banging on our door at 11 am. The maids were supposed to clean our room and wanted us out! We told them we would be in that same room tonight and we could skip the cleaning becsuse we didn't know about it in advance. They shamed us for not having read the signs and said okay after they confirmed with the front desk that we would indeed be in that room again.
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| at the boulangerie with my pain au chocolat |
Finally, when we actually woke up and got ready at 1 pm (jetlag) we knew we wanted our first stop to be a Boulangerie - a place that sells breakfast items like croissants, pain au chocolate, etc. We found one down the street and purchased our 1 euro breakfasts.
We turn the metro to the closest stop near versailles (versailles is not in paris and the metro runs primarily in paris) and tried to walk to the versailles palace. Half an hour later, maps said it would still take us half an hour to walk there and we gave us (as we should have before we started). We thought the RER was out of the question as our RER tickets from the airport were 10+ euros and the metro ones are only 1. Then, we made the shocking discovery that if you RER within Paris, you can use the metro tickets - and heaven's gates opened. We took the tram and the RER to get to Versailles and boy was it worth it!
Once in Versailles we got Starbucks - which if you know anything about me and then think about jetlagged me, you can imagine how absolutely incredible this is. We walked around, and the highlight of our day was renting a canoe, and canoeing in the chateau de versailles for an hour. WHO DOES THAT? We canoed in King Louis' (all of them) lake. AWESOME! We got out and inquired about renting segways to segway around the gardens, but the shop who rents them was closed. We were very tired and began our long journey home.
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| gardens at versailles |
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| The window at starbucks - much different than US! |
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| gardens at versailles |
For dinner we went down the street to a schwarma place, and immediately became friends with the two men working there. They were so nice and complemented our French. We left and went home to get ready to go out. We looked up dance bars and took the metro to one of them. When we got off, we we in the scariest part of town I had EVER seen. We were above ground fro about 60 seconds before we said we gotta get OUT of here. We took the metro home and tried a different bar. That adventure ended the exact same way - two girls on dark streets at midnight is not a good call. So we were going home but we stopped at our schwarma place who gave us some tips on good, safe bars in the area.
That night we couldn't sleep because so many cars were honking. We saw and heard them while walking around but we didn't know why everyone was going nuts. Everyone was screaming and honking and yelling with flags flying out of their windows. We also didn't know what types of flags they were. Finally a nice woman let us know that Algeria won it's first game in the world cup in 33 years. That night, this was enough to qualify them for the top 16. Algeria used to be considered a part of France, so there are a LOT of Algerians living in France, and one can imagine how crazy this was.
Friday:
We woke up and again visited our Boulangerie. We made sure we were up and out before the maids came. We went right to Sacre Coeur - a very famous church in Paris. We walked up all of the steps (there are so many, there is a ski-lift type thing available for those who aren't able or don't want to walk). We sat and listened to a man play the harp on the steps up to the church, while we overlooked nearly the entirety of Paris. The sounds of Time to Say Goodbye and Avé Maria drifting from his harp and the view behind and in front of us was really too beautiful. We went in and were shocked to find out there was mass going on. We sat and participated in it for the duration of the service and it was SO COOL to attend a service inside of Sacre Coeur!!! Once in a lifetime experience! We walked all the way back down, after a little Sacre Coeur tour, and got bak on the metro. We went downtown (near the eiffel tower and all of the stuff most people think of when they think about Paris) and had lunch in the Latin Quarter. This is a part of Paris known for giving out cheap meals - ours was 3 courses for 12 euros. All of my courses were crepes (or galettes which are basically the same thing) haha. Very repetitive for me. We went to the lock bridge, bought locks, locked away our eternal love and threw the keys in the Seine River. We then got a tour from Pont Neuf (a famous bridge) all the way down the Seine and found out that basically the only reason why Paris has any monuments is because of World Fairs and the only reason that every bridge was built as a gift, a payment, or a monument. We then went to the Tuileries, where I thought I had never been, only to find out it was RIGHT by where my hotel was last time I stayed in Paris. However, at that time, I didn't know what the Tuileries were! They are the gardens that We sat by a large fountain inside the tuileries for a while deciding what to do. Though we had our hearts set on climbing the Arc de Triomphe, we were just too tired and had to go for a nap. We then went to, surprise surprise, the schwarma place for dinner. We sat outside and had the most amazing time talking and laughing. The men at the place gave us mint tea for free which came in a glass no larger than a shot glass - no joke. But it was delicious. We stayed up late that night and packed our suitcases for our journeys the next day.
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| view of paris from sacre coeur |
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| harpist at sacre coeur |
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| sacre coeur from the front |
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| locking away our love :) <3 |
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| the lock bridge |
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| tea served in a glass the size of my pinky! |
The next day I left Paris for Fayence where I will be for the rest of the summer. I am living and working at the Domaine de Fayence, a resort and spa type vacation home. Yesterday (Saturday) I got a tour of the facilities, unpacked and was told to rest up well. Today, I begin work!
I will continue to write to update you about my French adventures, though most will not be as detailed as those days in Paris. I am not sure if life will become more monotonous with a work schedule. Loving my time in the Blue, White and Red but really missing my life, family, and friends in the Red, White and Blue. Thanks for reading :)
