Today is the 1st of May and the French seem to celebrate May Day better than anyone! Since May Day in France in their Labour Day, of course nearly everything in the city is closes including shops, transportation, markets and restaurants (until the evening at least) and yet, everyone is outside enjoying the beautiful weather and day off of work and school. There are also dozens of worker and student protests going on all of the city with the largest one going from the Bastille to Hotel de Ville. Another lovely Parisian tradition on May Day is that on every street there are dozens of small stands selling bunches of sweet lily of the valley for the small price of one euro. Everyone is walking around the sunny city with tiny bouquets of lily of the ... read more

My dear friend Austin came all the way from the States to visit my in Paris for her spring break last week! It was at the perfect moment, I was just getting to that point where I was getting slightly homesick after being in a foreign country for 2 months... After meeting her at Charles de Gaulle airport and dropping off her stuff at my apartment we went to the 9th and the 18th to do some sightseeing and shopping. We went to the Palais Garnier (also know as the Opéra de Paris) and walk around the grand avenues that all lead to the enormous and beautifully decadent building from the late 19th century. For lunch we wandered through the narrow winding streets in the 9th and went to Chartier, a classic french brasserie at 7th ... read more

Ireland is the land of green rolling hills, an expansive literary history, castles and of course delicious pubs! This past weekend I went on my second European excursion to Dublin, Ireland which is about 1 hour and 15 minuets away from Pairs by plane. Even though Ireland is much more north than France the weather was surprisingly warm and quite sunny all weekend and made walking around the historic city extremely pleasant. It actually reminded me a lot of Maine, which I have been missing very much, with the smell of the crisp, coastal winds sweeping through the town, the old small town feel and the extremely friendly natives. After arriving very late in Dublin at the airport, we immediately went to our hotel in the City Center of Dublin (our hotel was in D2 specifically, ... read more

I went to the ballet at Palais Garnier also known at the Opera National de Paris, I saw Lifar, Petit, Béjart which was a three act ballet choreographed by the three named directors all which vastly different themes and styles but all beautiful and incredible. The Lifar ballet was titled Suite en blanc, Petit's ballet was L'Arlésienne and Béjart's ballet was le Boléro. I had very good seats on the first balcony in a private suit very close to the stage and right above the orchestra. The Palais Garnier is absolutely gorgeous, lush red seats, gilded walls, beautifully painted ceilings, marble floors, grand hallways light by chandeliers and magical statues lining a grand staircase. The outside is very extraordinary as well with huge, airy balconies that look out onto the busy street below and giant neo-classical ... read more