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June 19th 2010
Published: June 24th 2010
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After only a month since my stop-over in Paris to fly in for Hayley and Rachel's graduation party I once again found myself in gay Paris. And it was cold as sh*t...again. Seriously - mid-June and I need to wear a sweater and a jacket? Out of control. My overnight train from L'Hospitalet Pres-Andorre was painless, even my reclining sleeper chair wasn't too bad. The first day alone was rather uneventful - I did a lot of roaming and coffee-drinking, but managed to visit the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais after a failed attempt at the Institut du Monde Arabe due to renovations. Dedicated to the city's history, the museum is housed in two mansions and with its vast collection of art and artifacts traces Paris' history from pre-Roman times to the present. Finally that evening it was time to head to the airport to wait for Lou.

He arrived without delay on his flight from the UK after having traveled from New York on Kuwait Air - lol. We traveled back to our hotel and settled in before basically just walking along the Seine at night and seeing some of the city. The entire 3-4 days we were in Paris we were taken aback by how incredibly light it was even at 11pm. I swear it didn't get dark until 11:30pm.

Day two began with breakfast at Angélina, a famous early 20th century tearoom known for its hot chocolate and pastries. The chocolate a l'Africain is to die for - so thick and rich, and served with a heaping portion of whipped cream incase it isn't heavy enough for you. Lou had a delicious chocolate tarte thing with mascarpone and something else while I had the "Diva" from their modern collection. I must say it wasn't what I expected, but it was certainly fun - served in a cup, the bottom half was fresh-squeezed orange juice separated from the pastry by a disc of white chocolate. On top was a booze-soaked babka and some violet-infused jelly business.

Since we were right alongside the tuileries, our next stop was the Louvre. Though I really just can't get into art museums the Louvre is the Louvre, and it is a must for anyone in Paris. We spent some 4 hours there oogling everything from ancient Egyptian canopic jars to French Renaissance paintings. To be honest it was exhausting seeing so many works of art.

After the Louvre we began to search for a bistro or something for lunch after hitting up the Neo-Classical Madeleine church with its curious columnal structure. I couldn't pass up steak tartare, so that was an obvious choice for me. Lou kept it simple with his croque madame. The tartare was good, but a little too doctored with spices and whatnot for my taste - it tasted rather ketchup-y. I just wanted a plate of bleeding meat - is that too much to ask?

Through with lunch we returned to the Place de la Concorde with its Egyptian obelisk and then began to work our way up the Champs Elysses, eventually hitting the Arc de Triomphe. Somewhere along the way, while getting coffee, we had our first experience of someone not-so-clandestinely taking my/our picture. I'm not quite sure who they thought I was - the only celeb I've ever gotten is Randy Harrison from 'Queer As Folk' but I mean that came out over 10 years ago.

We later worked our way over to the Eiffel tower where we were bombarded by Africans selling every kind of piece of crap imaginable whether or not it related to Paris. Wind-up toy dogs? - check. Pink metallic Eiffel tower keychains? - check. I really don't understand who or what buys these things.

The weather this whole time was going back and forth between drizzly, cloudy, and pockets of sunshine, but once it started to actually rain we headed back toward our lodging. We for some reason didn't really eat dinner that day, instead snacking on these roast chicken and then beef flavored chips (good, but horrifying that this is what we did). That night after failing to connect with a friend living in Paris we decided to head out on our own after enjoying some Absolut I had brought from Andorra. We had some difficulties in finding our destination (read: we wasted an hour wandering the streets and not being able to successfully interpret the map) but eventually hit up two bars and a bar/club until around 4 or so in the morning. Stolen black jacket? Check! That was luckily the only trauma of the trip, but still it left me without a coat and cold in dreary Paris for the next few days...


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24th June 2010

that is all?
24th June 2010

I'm probably the kind of tourist that would buy pink metallic Eiffel tower keychains; they sounded interesting (just kidding). Grandma and Grandpa would be proud to know that you enjoy steak tartare, as they often enjoyed it. Where's a picture of you and Lou?
24th June 2010

I misss Paris! And you two! But steak tartare? I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that. It's HOT in NYC and I have no air conditioning. I'm such a hot mess when I get to work each morning. Anyway, hello! Come back to the U.S. soon and let's have wine and cheese :)

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