Paris Part 1

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Paris c’est magnifique. All right that is about all the French I know, although after a day of being here I have to admit that my Spanish teachers through the years did an amazing job teaching me to understand romantic languages. However, I have also learned while it is an advantage to have studied Spanish and understand the language it is not so useful to be thinking in Spanish and respond to the French in Spanish. The Parisians are not so impressed by that.

That is right people I am in Paris baby – sorry for that bastardization of a Friends quote, I am currently watching the London episodes as I write my blog in Paris about Paris. Joanna – a fellow survivor of Chadbourne room 729 (aka my freshman year roommate) – is studying abroad here and has kindly agreed to be my tour guide. Joanna was raised in a small farm in the country of Florin, wait wrong story; actually she is a WI transplant from Boston who is amazing. Today was a luxurious, opulent, relaxed day. This morning we woke up without an alarm, (a luxury in and of itself) and I finished my painfully dull homework (an essay on quinone reduction in mitochondria and chloroplasts). But this morning was made fantastic by the event that will endear me to Paris forever.

I am of course talking about my first experience with Parisian food (well besides the Italian food I had last night in Paris). This morning for breakfast we enjoyed un baguette, un tomate, le beure, le chevere, pain au chocolat, and apricot-pistachio and caramel e sel macarons. Translation: bread, tomato, butter, chevere cheese, chocolate pastry, and apricot-pistachio and salted caramel macarons. Basically, this can only be described as an orgasmic experience. The baguette and the pain au chocolat were bought a small boulangerie (bread shop). The baguette had an amazingly light and crispy crust that melted into a moist and fluffy inside. When this was coupled with a lightly salted tomato and a piece of chevere cheese the result was indescribable. If this city could be defined by food, my breakfast would be the Eiffel Tower. In a city obsessed with decadent foods dripping with butter and soaked in wine, I appreciate the simple food bought for two euro at the local shops. It was refreshing and brilliant.

After feasting, doing homework and getting made fun of by Joanna’s French mother, we set out into the streets of Paris. According to my local expert Paris has the best transportation in the world. So we hopped on it – after spending 20 euro on a three-day pass – and made our way to the actual Eiffel Tower. In my mind the Eiffel tower was supposed to be this colossus, this great legendary thing. It was pretty colossal, but it wasn’t on the scale of the Empire State building. However, as blasé and apathetic as I seem about seeing it, I did actually kinda squeal with glee when we approached it. Disclaimer: I am cheap, cheap University student. We didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, it was 13 euro. After doing the wow I am looking up at the Eiffel Tower thing we walked down the Champes de Mars and saw a cute dog with a cone on its head.

From there it was back onto the metro and onto the Louvre. Oh my Gawd the Louvre. Luckily, Joanna has a student resident pass thing and was able to get me in for free – my student bank account was happy. We made our way through the statues of the Greeks (like have you ever heard of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle… morons) and the Egyptians, and the Italians trying to be Greek, and the French trying to be Italian trying to be Greek. Finally, we made it to the most famous thing in the whole complex, more than Monet, more than Renoir, more than Michelangelo. Bien sûr, I am talking about the Mona Lisa. She was small and in a glass case to prevent the flash photography of thousands of tourists from ruining her. I must admit the enigmatic smile was fantastic. I imagine a conversation with her would go somewhat like this: “Who are you” wherein she would of course responded “No one of consequence” wherein I would say, “ I must know” and she with her smile would curtly reply, “Get used to disappointment.” We moved on in the Louvre to several other exhibits including a model of Napoleon III’s apartments. Finally we finished our tour because, we got hungry.

We kept on with our prestigious line of work with a long and glorious tradition; that is being an American tourist. Although it is inconceivable, we kept it going with the free tourist attractions thing. From the Louvre we took the obligatory pictures with the pyramids and then headed out into the streets of Paris. But ironically this time I was leading Joanna. My ability to read maps and orient myself in a city amazes her and makes her believe that truly I have a dizzying intellect. Joanna is one of those people who look at a map to find the closest metro stop and then trace the metro to her next tourist destination. I am one of those tourists who walk around constantly stepping into the map to get the full experience. I also like to try to explain my ability to plot out places in condescendingly small words that you are sure to understand and tell my copilots, “Yes your very smart. Shut up.” Well in my amazingness I navigated over the icy waters of the Seine to the ancient amazing cathedral, Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was a sight to behold, and trust me I immediately compared it with Westminster Abbey. Although Westminster Abbey is grand, it feels more like a crypt than an actual house of worship, plus you have to pay to get in. Notre Dame however still holds the intimate feeling of a deeply religious place, and still inspires within me a spiritual reaction. Although I am not a practicing Catholic, I could not help but recognize the rapport of spirituality within its walls. The fact that thousands of people pray and have prayed in one spot makes my arms tingle. Add that to the slight scent of incense and the quiet hum of prayer and wow. I know that this section is rambling but I can’t really describe the experience of this monument. On one hand the beauty of the architecture, the stained glass, the vaulting ceilings, the ornate statues, the cool marble floor all suggested opulence. But on the other hand the simple, one mindedness of religion in spite of the overwhelming prevalence of tourists created a vastly difference atmosphere.

After walking though the cathedral we moved on to food. Mind you at this point it was almost 5 p.m. and I was ravenous. We stopped at a hole in the wall sandwich shop and got a quiche (me) and a sandwich (Joanna) respectively along with two Cokes and wandered around in the rain as we ate. Oh yeah it rained, it seems that wherever I go I am doomed to have British weather follow me. After getting pretty wet we decided that it was time to make it back to the 15th (the district that Joanna lives in) and regroup. Instead of heading back out into the drizzle, I spent the next 3 hours watching Friends and taking a nap, while Joanna frantically tried to write her Art History paper (in French). It was pure laziness, but if you haven’t got your health you haven’t got anything. Plus it agreeably passed the time between teatime and dinnertime.

A weird episode of 30 Rock later, we got up and ventured back onto the streets. Instead of having a destination for food in mind, we just wandered and ended up at a Sushi place. We had some fantastic sushi (tuna and salmon rolls with salad and soup) (yes I got the inevitable allergic reaction but it was still amazing) for 10 euro. We went back to get a bottle of wine and some chocolate (because chocolate coating makes it go down easier) for a late movie. Unfortunately, at this time there were no movies playing in a movie theater. So instead we settled in and watched a classic on the computer as I typed this blog post. Now here is the fun part, I have quoted the movie we watched 17 times in this blog; I challenge you to find the quotes and name the movie. Hint: your response to this challenge should be: as you wish.

So that is Night Zero and Day One in Paris. There are some cool pictures for you to check out and be insanely jealous of. See you later with the results of Day Two. I have a feeling it is going to be fantastic.

Love and Hugs,
Anna

P.S. I also quoted two TV shows, can you figure out which ones they were?

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Photos

Parisian Apartment
I swear the aristocats live there.

Breakfast
Oh my GOD!

Way over
Pretty sunset outside the plane

Joanna
On the street where she lives

My first macarons
Peach-Pistachio, and Salted Caramel

Real French Kitchen
Not a real French person though

French Street Performers
yeah they are there...

Joanna
don't really know what is happening here...