Wine, cheese, barets. Only in Paree.

---

June 30
We left London for Paris. After a long day of travel, we met up with our first Paris host, Christophe. He is a very funny, outgoing character, and I could tell it was going to be an interesting stay. Right away, he showed us his whole house and pulled out a map of Paris to show us where to go the next day. We didn’t get to bed until 1 am and we had to wake up with him and be out of the house by 8. Yay!

July 1
Tired and groggy, we walked around Paris. The first thing we did was find a park and take a nap. Right in the grass. Yes, we are living large here in Europe. After that, we had enough energy to walk all around the city. We literally saw everything in the span of a couple hours and a mile and a half walk. The Arc de Triumph, the Louve, the Eiffel Tower, and a bunch of other important buildings that I can’t really name off at the moment. But just know that we saw them all. That’s the important part. After some trouble trying to meet up with our host that night (the metro, the underground trains very much like the underground in London, was on strike, so all the lines were fucked up), we eventually found him. He was hosting three other couchsurfers with us that night, two siblings from California, Trent and Katie, and a girl from Ukraine, Katya. We all jammed in his little car and he took us for a ride around Paris at night. I thought I was going to die. Really. Parisian drivers are fucking crazy. There are rounc abouts everywhere, no lane lines at all, and you pretty much go and stop where and when you please. I was really scared. Anyway...on with the story. So here is my corny line for the day - I fell in love with Paris that night. Seeing everything at night is a totally different experience than during the day. All the buildings we saw during the day were now lit up, but it looked like it was almost glowing. The best part of the night was going to see the Eiffel Tower. It was glowing blue, not the typical white/orange/yellow, because of the Presidency of the Europian Union being in Paris now. I think. And every hour on the hour, the tower sparkles with white lights for ten minutes. It looks like its glittering. It is beautiful. There is really no other way to describe it. Amazing. That was the best night I have had in a very long time.

July 2
We woke up a little later today (8 am) and Christophe took Ari, Trent, Katie and I to the Castle of Versailles. He bought us a huge breakfast of pastries for 3 Euros a person. And all I can say is that the French know how to make some damn good pastries. There were sugary muffins, bread filled with chocolate or custard (sometimes both!), croissants, and other little amazing treats. We took them on the road and ate them in the gardens of Versailles. And shit, those gardens were huge. It contained a huge lake, 26 fountains (all decorated with statues and such), countless gardens within the garden, statues, flowers, trees, you name it. After we ate breakfast, the 3 other people left and Ari and I just stayed and walked through the maze of the gardens all day. That night, we all met up again and went to a magnificent creperie. First of all, I have never had crepes before coming here and I am saddened by what I have missed out on in life. They seem like simple pancakes, but they are so much more. And definitely very French. We had extravagant dinner and desert crepes and some hard apple cider. For dinner, I had a crepe with goat cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a really good sauce, and for desert…caramel and warm apples. We had a very good dinner. We all got along very well and everyone was hilarious. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.

July 3
Fuck me. We had to be out of the house at 7 am. We went to bed at 2 am. So, Ari and I went to another park. After our naps, we went to the Louve. We didn’t get to go in on the first day we visited it because they are closed on Tuesdays. Weird, I know. It was a magnificent building. I can’t really describe it, so the pictures will have to do the talking for this part. It was amazing walking in to every different room. Each room was a piece of art in itself, with paintings and statues and such all over the ceilings and walls. The place is HUGE. Its impossible to see everything in it in one day. We were told that if you spent 2 minutes looking at each piece of art, you would spend 25 years in the Louve. We only got to see some Egypian stuff, old Italian and French paintings (including the Mona Lisa, of course), and some Renesiance stuff. The Mona Lisa was ridiculous. So many people were crowded around it. After the Louve, we took the metro to another Parisians house because Christophe couldn’t host us anymore. As fun as he was, I was glad for it to be over. Going to bed very late and waking up very early was tiring me out a lot. And he does that shit everyday! I don’t know how he does it. So our new host was a 38 year old Italian guy named Luca. Arriving at his place was very much needed. Not only did we actually have a bed to rest in, but he made us a great Italian pasta for dinner. We also had some good bread, cheese, and wine (a very French thing). His French girlfriend, Karen, came over and we all had dinner and drinks together. They were a very fun couple. He even gave us some Italian chocolate for dessert with little messages in them. It was a great relaxing night.

July 4
While everyone was drunk watching fireworks, we laid around in Paris and relaxed. Staying at Christophe’s place really wore us out. But we did go out at night, to the Eiffel Tower to have cheese, bread and wine. It was a Friday night and the parks around the Tower were packed with people. I loved that the Tower wasn’t thought of as some tourist attraction that all the Parisians hated. They loved it. They regularly went to the park, sat and drank, and waited for the Tower to sparkle. So we joined them for a night.

July 5
For our last day in Paris, we went to the Montmarie, the area that the movie Amelie was filmed. It was a very beautiful area, with winding little streets, and it was away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We stumbled upon the highest point of the area that had a view of almost the entire city. The site was breathtaking. After this, we explored Les Halles, a shopping area, and went back to Luca’s place for dinner and drinks. This time, Karen cooked us a French meal. Duck, salad, and bread, along with another really good wine. She even brought us macaroons, an amazing French dessert. They are like little cookies, with a semi-hard outside, soft inside, and crème filling. They come in many different colors and flavors and they are like an orgasm in your mouth. After all this, Luca and Karen took us out for drinks at a bar on a very popular bar street. It was an interesting night, filled with fun talks and drunk French hippie women.

July 6
Karen bought us croissants and pasteries for breakfast. They even gave us tea and coffee. They were way too nice to us. I was very surprised because not all hosts are like this. At all. We were very spoiled and I loved every minute of it. Then we travelled to Luzern, Switzerland and met up with our next host, Tobias.

---