Du vine rouge, S'il vous plait.

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I will remember this passed weekend for the rest of my life.

A few weeks ago, My host mom won a trip from Boursin cheese for 8 people to Paris. Valued at 12000€, the trip included 2 helicopter tour of the city (30 mins there and 15 mins back), a gourmet lunch with a menu prepared just for us in a castle, the night in a 4 star hotel and metro/tram tickets for the weekend. At first, the trip was scheduled for the weekend after I left, but luckily when we asked to switch the booking, it wasn't a problem.

So, early Saturday morn, Alison, Valerie and I, all crowded into the bathroom to get ready. Lipstick, mascara, and blush flooded in and out the door as we fogged up the only mirror in the house. We stepped out the door in all black heels and all black coats. Around 7:20, we picked up Alison's cousins from their apartment one town over and cruised into town towards the station. You know that feeling when you awake up with butterflies in your stomach and you know you're going on an adventure? If I could, I would keep that feeling in a glass jar.

The train station of Le Havre looks like the station in Munich, Germany, with it's glass roof and rough concrete flooring. We met up with Alison's brother and his fiancé on the train, and we all settled down for the two hours towards Paris. I was relieved to kick off my heels and cuddle up with music while the french countryside hurried along.

Paris hadn't changed since I saw it for the first time. The first time I traveled to Paris, I was in the forth grade so, I must have been 9 or 10. I remember the smell of piss and beer in the metro and the steady marble monuments. I remember looking at the Mona Lisa and thinking it wasn't that interesting. I remember the way the eiffel tower took my breath away and how it's massive base made me feel so so small. On the last few minutes of the train ride, I spotted it over a cluster of building in the distance and smiled.

We arrived and met with Claire, who was organizing the trip for us. I wanted to ask what her job tittle was because, she seems to be living the dream: booking all expense paid vacations, living in Paris, dealing with public relations and meetings; Seems pretty satisfying to me. We took two taxis across Paris to the Heliport. We got a quick briefing and took off over Paris. The city prohibits flying over the centre and eiffel tower for obvious reasons, so we flew around the outskirts of the centre and over the place of Versailles. We got special permission to fly next to the security district to get a view down on the most famous monuments. The whole time I was speechless and my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing. It's hard to describe how amazing it was, it was just, wow, euphoria.

We flew to l'Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, where we had lunch. Upon our arrival, everyone inside flocked to the lawn to take picture of us, and we felt like celebrities. The menu was created just for us, so I'll spare you the delicious details. With a quick calculation, we figured out that just the pre-meal drink was over 100€ for the 8 of us. After, we took a few photos for the company and then, hop! back into our chopper 😊 The flight back was more relaxing, but that might just have been the wine... Oh well. It was only 15 mins direct from L'abbaye to the Heliport.

We were to stay at a hotel with a spa, but that hotel had a issue with the online reservation so we switched to a different one close by. We ate dinner at McDonald's because, contrast makes a plot interesting, and Chloe (Alison's cousin who is 11) and I had a little dance party in our room around midnight.

All and all, it was one the most memorable days of my life, and the weekend wasn't even over. STAY TOONED for Paris Part 2 coming soon !

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