Ahhh.. Pear-eeee

France is not my country. I don’t love it, let alone really like it. But allow me to digress (or is it regress? I don’t know. Im not a writer and my high school failed to educate me in English so Im not sure) Anywho… I got up at 5am this morning. Correction… my alarm went off at 5am. I got up at 5:10 or so. Probably a wee bit before. I threw on some clothes, slapped on makeup and tried really hard not to wake Alex. I think I did… or he moves a lot when he sleeps. One or the other! I was out the door at 5:25 or so and headed to the tube.

It was an easy and quick journey. There were more people than I thought on the train at 5:30am though! I was awake (surprisingly) and found St Pancras Station (I have to admit.. it is quite easy considering all you need to do is follow signs!) I went through security and sat in the lounge to wait for the platform. Soon enough Benedicte joined me and then some of the others. Soon our platform was called (number 10) and I followed the crowd to Coach 15 and found seat 62. Apparently someone somewhere loves me because I was one of the few people without a seat buddy. Phew! I was too tired to make small talk all the way to Paris! Instead I popped my headphones in and fell FAST asleep.

I woke as we were pulling into the station! We all headed to our hotel (literally a stones throw from the train station. I could stand at the door of the hotel and chuck a stone at the façade of the train station and it would hit the front!) It was nice to see a train station that wasn’t in Italy… it wasn’t Mussolini-sce. Instead it is a pretty, classical building. I like it! And the train station area isn’t sketchy. Phew!

We dropped our bags at the hotel and Isabel and I started walking. We had 5 hours to kill! We first found the Opera house (we needed to meet there at 3pm) and decided to keep walking. We found the prettiest garden and at lunch there. It wasn’t until after lunch that I realized that I was staring at a large glass pyramid… anyone who has read Dan Brown will know… it was the Louvre. Duh me. Then we headed to the Museum d’Orsay but the line was ridiculously long. We saw the tip top of the Eiffel Tower ahead and decided to walk there. Ummm…. It was QUITE a walk. When we finally did get there we sat in the park and people watched for 45 minutes. We still had time to kill and we were pooped already!

Eventually we moved and took some photos. Then it was time to start heading to the Opera house again. We decided to take the Metro… ew. Its like NYC’s. Dirty, sketchy and old looking. Not at all like the tube (the entire city is dirty btw!) We made it just fine to our stop (I almost fell asleep on the train. Im just not fazed by traveling anymore!) We saw some of our group there already and sat on the steps and waiting for Paddi.

We walked around the city with Paddi which was a lot of fun. My favorite part were the passage ways that were filled with cute little stores. (Like an arcade!) I wanted to browse in there for hours! He also walked us through the Gallery de Layaffte… we weren’t allowed to stop, which was good! I wanted every hat there! The gallery is a famous shopping place because of the ceiling. The best way to describe it… its like looking up into a Tiffany glass lamp shade. Pretty awesome.

After walking around with Paddi for an hour and a half, he ended the talk at a auction house. He had us go in… it was WAY better than Christies. You walk into Christies and its so stuffy and rigid. Here it was like a flea market, but better organized. There was a charm to it. I loved it! If I spoke French and liked Paris I would work there!

We were free after that so we all headed back to the hotel so we could get into our rooms. On the way back Isabel and I stopped at a grocery store and bought some snacks which included… a bottle of wine (1.31 euro), a wheel of brie (2 euro) and a bunch of fluffy, and sweet rolls (1.50 euro) Yum! Then we headed back, got our room and crashed for a bit.

Paddi had recommended a restaurant in one of the arcades that we had been in. Isabel and I decided to try that for dinner. We walked for 15 minutes back down there and it was CLOSED! Gah! We picked another one in the arcade and I think we made a good choice! For 12.50 we got a main, desert, bread and water! Sweet! I picked the… duck! It was what I came for after all. Im going to get it as much as I can here! For desert I had a HUGE helping (HUGE!) of tiramisu. I was one happy American in Paris! I will give Paris that… the food is top notch!!

After dinner we waddled back home, stuffed to the brim with French food! We crashed, showered and Isabel has gone to bed so I feel bad typing! I think that is all for tonight! The weather was good today (just cloudy!) but it is supposed to get better and better!

P.S me hugging a tree :)