Magic and Coldness

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It snowed this weekend. You can't tell now, except for the fact that it is still freezing. Greta, my friend from UPS, came in on Thursday from London. She and two of her friends did the whirlwind tour and were gone again by Sunday morning. I spent the evening with them Thursday, walking the Champs-Elysees, eating chocolate and cream covered waffles, and walking more, but spent the rest of the weekend with my parents. They came back from Italy on Wednesday. They had a great time and I was happy to see them again. On Friday, we went to Saint Chappelle and then up to Sacre Coeur. Saint Chappelle is a chapel within an old castle built by Louis IX (Saint Louis) in the 1240s. It is one of the finest examples of high gothic style architecture in France. When the sun came out, the stained glass windows were amazing. The colors were beautiful. After a brief walk through a flower market, we got on the metro and headed up to Montmartre, the northern part of Paris. (Mont-martre=Mountain of martyrs) A long time ago, Saint Denis and two of his fellow priests were decapitated on the hill. Now, it is a maze of bazaars, boutiques, and restaurants. There were a ton of fabric shops, too. We paused on our ascent to Sacre Coeur to watch a guy try to swindle people with that game where you have three cups and one has something under it. One guy lost twenty euros cause as he was handing it to the guy the guy switched the cups again so the poor schmuck tapped the wrong cup. There were two plants there, too. They were betting like 50 euros at once. Clearly fake, according to my wise father. We stopped and had some yummy onion soup, listened to a pretty decent street performer singing American and Europop songs, and then went inside Sacre Coeur. Amazing and really unique.

Since I don't want to bore you all with all the minute details, I will just hit the highlights. Mama and I went to this amazing boutique Devon and I found a couple weeks ago. It's called the Night Shop because it's open from late afternoon until midnight. I got a cute shirt and beautiful dress. Mama bought a truly Parisian coat and then we met up with my dad for delicious pizza near their apartment. Sunday, we went to Reims, pronounce Rance (or as my dad says it- RANCKKBLEH) which is in the Champagne region of France. It was SO cold, but turned out to be completely adorable. They were having a Christmas village with a lot of little houses of vendors and Christmas decorations everywhere. We went to mass at the church, spent a good amount of time admiring the completely amazingly beautiful cathedral (where tons of French kings were crowned) , and then walked around the village. AND THEN it started to snow! I got some hot chocolate that was like liquid chocolate and we examined the huts full of specialty honeys, toys, and crafts. After a while, we heard music and looked around. It was a parade of Swiss German people and kids on humongous stilts! Unfortunately, we have no proof of this ridiculous series of events because the camera died, but I swear! It was like a movie!

Mama and Papa left this morning. I have less than a month left now. Tomorrow, IES is putting on a Thanksgiving dinner, which is very nice of them, although I'm pretty positive they won't be able to touch my family's excellent cooking.

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Photos

Sacre Coeur Basilica
The hill up to Sacre Coeur. It was completed in 1914 and tops the hill of Montmartre.

Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Reims
An image I found of the back view of the church.

The chapel windows
These were made by Marc Chagall in the 1970s after the originals were destroyed in the war.