PARIS

Paris is pretty cool, enjoying being in a city again.  I got here Wed. evening and went to my friend Jessamy’s place who was letting me stay for a couple nights.  We were able to hang out and catch up, then we met up w/her bf- Laurent went for drinks then to this INCREDIBLE French restaurant.  It was exactly what you would have expected for French cuisine to be like.  I had le confit de canard. Unbelievably delicious.  After dinner we went home to bed. 

View of the tip of the Eiffel Tower from Jessamy's apt.

Jessamy and Lorrain

The next morning Jessamy and I grabbed pain au chocolate and croissant beure and went shopping!  It was the second day of Les Soldes=Major sales in France.  They only have 2 of these throughout the year, so everyone takes advantage of it.  I HAD to go to Mango to see if they had this coat that I originally wanted, but was plus cher pour moi.  They had it, and I bought it, I figure it’s the end of my trip, all I have to do is carry all my new shit home!  Haha, well, my backpack will definitely be bursting, but it will totally be worth it.

Le Jardin des Tulleries

People put locks on this bridge when they are in love, and throw the key into the Seine!

Street artist, Space Invader

The following day I decided to check out the Musee D’Orsay.  Pretty cool, was neat seeing their special exhibit on Jean-Léon Gérôme bc he was inspired by the Middle East, and Egypt, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve been there!’  It was cool seeing all this stuff I had seen only months before.  Looked at a bunch of art, some Gauguin, Seurat, more Van Gogh, and some really cool Musa style furniture.  If only you could take pictures! 
At first, coming into France, you feel like an outsider as I‘ve heard, ‘if you are not French, you will never be French.’  Which is so true, it’s kinda like a secret club that you have to be born into. But after being here for a couple days it becomes more comfortable, and it’s kinda fun to practice my French!  I understand a lot more here than I did in Germany!

My host and friends w/dinner

After spending 2 nights at Jessamy’s, I didn’t want to be too much of a bother and had a couch planned out.  Went and met up w/Maxine, nice guy.  He had some friends over and we had a traditional French meal, bread, cheese, sausage, and vin rouge.  Yum.  After, we went to a friend of his’ place for a party, I got to meet all kinds of French ppl and had a good time.  The only thing really obnoxious about Paris and most other European cities is that the subways/metro stop running at a certain hour.  Definitely puts a damper on your night.  But we avoided that by crashing at the place where the party was.  Unplanned couch surfing!  The next morning we ran out and grabbed a bunch of pain au chocolate and some other delicious baked goods and had breakfast w/the kids who lived in the apartment. 

le parc

Took a mini tour of the city on our way home, checked out a really cool park, le parc des buttes chaumont.  Came home and slept.  That evening I was going to meet up w/Jessamy and a girl she went to school with a long time ago back in Hawaii.  We were meeting at this wine tasting place, I made it there and wandered around and then this girl comes up to me, ‘Suzie?’ haha, oh yeah, this was Abby and Jessica, really cool girls.  We hung out and chatted until Jessamy finally arrived, we did some wine tasting which was nice, but pretty much used the time to talk.  After we went out to eat, and then home.
It’s Sunday today, which means everything is closed!  But I’m going to go on a free tour of the city, the New Europe tours, I love them!  It’s great learning a bit of history and interesting facts about the place you’re in.  Also, I need to figure out how to get to Strasborg tomorrow…

outside the Louvre, and the bubbles

at Montmartre

Au Revoir, Paris

Took part of the free tour, on a GORGEOUS day in Paris, then met up w/Jess and all at Montmartre. Perfect day to check that out.
Made it to Strausborg, now time to check it out!