Fall Break Part 3: Paris

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When I got on the train to leave Toulon, it was night. We had assigned seats. There was an old Chinese man sleeping in mine. I didn't bother. The train ride was dark and uneventful.

I got to Paris and got a cab. The cab driver was super nice and talkative because he was practicing his English. When he dropped me off, he asked if I was married.

I couchsurfed the first night because I didn't want to pay for a place to stay from 11:30 pm to 7:00 am. No thanks. Before you all freak out, here's how it works. I put out a request on the website that I'm looking for a place to crash. I can seek out people and send them personal requests and/or people respond to my request. The people who responded had no references. The people I sought out had a bunch of references, and I always check to make sure that some of those references come from women. They did. I ended up staying in this guy's dorm room, which wasn't optimal considering it smelled like college boy and there was a couple from Holland snoring on the floor. Between that and the excitement about being in Paris (!), I didn't sleep much. I woke up at 7, thanked my host, who had slept in his friend's dorm room to make room for all of us, and peaced out.

I walked until I found a metro and the successfully took it to a stop near Ile Saint Louis where I was to meet mom. I got there about 2 hours before I was supposed to meet her, so I stopped in a brasserie and had a lovely breakfast of coffee, croissants, and a soft boiled egg. Outside I could see Notre Dame. Behind me was the Eiffel Tower. I sat there thinking, "how is this my life? How is this real?" Then I got Wifi and THE RED SOX HAD WON THE WORLD SERIES. HOW IS THIS MY LIFE. SERIOUSLY. I'm pretty sure I just sat at my table grinning like an idiot for about 10 minutes. When I left, I found the hotel and proceeded to have a second breakfast. Aka more coffee and another croissant. Seriously, the bread in France. Forever.

Then Mom was there! And I was in Paris with Mom! The first thing we did was go up to the hotel room, shower, and nap. Then we wandered around and went in all the adorable shops on our little island. The cheese shop reeked of cheese. It smelled so stinky and amazing. For the rest of the weekend we loved walking by the cheese shop. We stopped for a snack of escargot and espresso. Then we went to the Pompadou.

I feel like this museum needs its own entry. The Pompadou is basically really effed up modern art. Or something. The outside of it looks like the builders forgot to put walls up. It's basically just pipes. Once we bought our tickets we went to what was apparently an important exhibition. One of the first things we saw was a statue. And the head was covered in bees. LIVE BEES. NO. Thankfully, it was nighttime and the bees were sleeping. Because there was no glass to keep us from the bees. Or the bees from us. When I realized they were alive I almost peed myself. Then we walked inside and there was a giant pile of pink sand on the floor. Because, art. The rest of the museum was essentially weird fetishes and untitled...art. Mom and I went around titling everything. At one point, Mom walked into a room and simply said, "That's it. I officially don't 'get' art." There was also a "piece" that was three blank canvases on a blank wall. WHAT EVEN.

After that we were both confused and disturbed. So we decided to eat a lot of foie gras. Which we did. French onion soup, foie, and wine. Yes. Then we went to bed.

The next morning Dad woke us up at 10:30 when he walked in the door. Mom slept until 10:30. Believe it, people. It happened. We let dad sleep while we got breakfast. Then we woke him up and went to the Musee D'Orsay because it was raining and cold. We waited in line and people watched for about an hour and a half, but the museum was so worth the wait. It's an old train station converted into a museum. Gorgeous. Everything was titled. Thank god.

We hung out at the hotel for a while, walked around a little bit, and then we went out to dinner. It was pouring rain, but the place we went (after getting lost for a bit) was super adorable and small and cozy. It was near the Eiffel Tower (but we couldn't see it), and the chef and the waiter were super sweet and great. The food was amazing. I had squid ink pasta. And unbelievable wine.

The next day it was relatively nice out. Dad had gone out for a walk before I woke up, so he had a whole plan for us. After breakfast we went to do a hop on hop off tour, but on a boat. Batoboat to be precise. Of course, you have to say it like 'BATOBOAT. THE BATO OF THE BOATS." We spent the whole day talking about how we wanted to see the boats "batoing." Har har. We saw botanical gardens, we went to the Louvre (not inside), which was really cool. I had no idea it was situated inside of a giant palace thing that's more impressive than the pyramids. We saw some more palaces, and the Eiffel tower. That thing is huge. Enormo. Really really cool. We didn't go up because I would rather see things than wait in line for things. That pretty much took up the whole day. That night we went to another unbelievable restaurant. This place would break all kinds of American codes. There's 10 tiny tables crammed into this place, and if you're sitting in a booth and have to pee, you have to move the whole table to get out. But the food was incredible. Food and wine in France are my favorite things. Ever.

On Sunday, Dad left for Vienna. Mom and I had big plans to go to some choir thing at Notre Dame. She woke me up at 9 after yoga, and I had a huge headache, so we ended up taking a nap for an hour and a half. Then we walked around Notre Dame and went into this really cool chocolate shop. We went to the airport that afternoon and flew back to Budapest. Uneventful flight. When we got back to the airport, it was POURING rain. Because mom was there. And everywhere she goes, it rains. True facts.

And that's it for France!

Au revoir!

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Comments

[Di]

Love it!
Love seeing you and your Mom in Paris!