Impatience

Hello!

I’m not, by nature, a patient person. I jump ahead of the conversation with alarming frequency and can’t stand the waiting period for nearly anything. When forced to wait for longer than five minutes for something I’m excited about, I get antsy. I squirm in my seat and fiddle with my phone– anything to attempt to occupy my mind.

I submitted my study abroad application a couple weeks ago, and the waiting period has begun. I won’t know if I got in or where I am going until November and the suspense is driving me mad.

The waiting period has found me searching for flights to and from various places in Europe; wondering if, wherever I end up, I can find a way to the places that are still drawing me in. An impossible task; I applied to seven (extremely) different universities in four different countries. I could end up at any one of them.

Waiting is keeping me from planning but it only fuels my desire to plan more. I have a burning desire to know when I’ll be back in Europe. When can I make the trek to France? When can I go to visit family in Scotland? Even more important: how much time will I have in the United States between finishing classes this semester and before I go abroad?

Waiting leaves too much time for thought; what if I end up at my last choice? My angst isn’t helped by the fact that I don’t really understand the application process.It’s a totally different experience from my last trip abroad, where I knew exactly where I would be studying for months in advance. Arguably, it wouldn’t be that bad; I will still get to go abroad but the sting of disappointment of not getting into my first choices would be all too real. What if I don’t get in at all? All the work and all the anticipation– only to be let down. What then? What if, what if…

I have no idea what to expect at this point. There aren’t other steps I can take to prepare for my trip until I know where I’m going.

There is something about the insecurity of anticipation that is particularly aggravating.

Until I know for sure, everything is out of my control. I am existing in a state of anxiety that I can’t shake off. The best I can do is focus on what I’m doing: school, work, and spending time friends. I’m trying to be present and engaged in what is going on here in Asheville, and trying to shake off my wanderlust with the promise of future adventure. It isn’t quite enough, at least not right now. It’s a shallow critique and a worthless complaint, but until I know SOMETHING about what’s next for me, this is where I am.

Battling my own impatience.

A bientot!

Aly

For the Treatment of Wanderlust

Hello, all!

I suffer from a chronic case of wanderlust. I am forever dreaming of the places I want to travel to, and I have a near-constant desire to pack up and go anywhere. This love of travel makes it unnecessarily difficult to fall in love with one place, with a few exceptions. I find myself daydreaming of places I’ve never been, thinking of all the adventures I could be having anywhere else in the world that aren’t where I am now.

For me, the solution to wanderlust involves either travelling in some manner or distracting myself from my desire to travel. Both solutions end up tying into each other, but here are some ways that I deal with my wanderlust.

For the Treatment of Wanderlust

1. 

   Explore local attractions. When was the last time you wandered around your town and had adventures? Have you been to all the touristy places? The places off the beaten path? Maybe try a new restaurant or go to a festival or something like that. Go to the cool local places like shops and galleries or museums.

2. Check out the travel section at the library. There are lots of blogs and books that talk about travel or travel experiences. It’s fun to read stories about someone else’s adventures and although it won’t cure your wanderlust, it will help you imagine you are elsewhere in the world. (You just have to use your imagination.)

3. Make something inspired by your travels. This doesn’t necessarily mean travels you have already had! Try making a playlist of songs that remind you of a certain place or experience, or making a photo album/collage of places you have been or want to go. Reliving some of those experiences can be a bit nostalgia-heavy, but at the same time, you may feel as though you are travelling again!

4. Travel via the internet. Back to the travel blogs with you! Have you checked out travel pictures on Flickr? Tourism websites with virtual tours? Google Earth? Learning or reading about a new place, or seeing images of an interesting place to try to experience it in a different way is one fairly easy way of travelling without even leaving your room!

5. Practice a new language. Experiencing a new language is kind of like experiencing a whole new culture! Why not explore the world in words? source: http://www.destination360.com/travel-resources/travel-books

6. Cook a meal inspired by a different culture. Try to cook a meal (maybe even from scratch!) inspired by a different culture or country! When is the last time you tried to make sauerkraut from scratch? Sushi?

7. Start planning a trip. Dig in for some research and start planning a trip. Even if you can’t afford it, it’s fun to think about how you could go somewhere you really want to go. How much would it cost for plane tickets? Lodging? What major attractions would you want to see? Figuring this out when you are suffering from wanderlust can help make it feel better– at least you are planning for a trip, even if you aren’t going yet!

How do you deal with wanderlust?

A demain!
– Aly

Aly en… Anywhere

Hello, all!

It’s getting to be that timea gain, where my wanderlust sets in and I find myself dreaming of new places to explore and beginning to plan what’s next.

It should come as no surprise to those of you that know me (either by reading this blog or personally know me) that I am an international studies major. At my school, this means that I have to have an “international experience”, which means studying abroad for at least 6 credit hours.

I don’t have any issues with the fact that I have to study abroad– in fact, I think it’s great that my program requires majors to study abroad, because I think the experience of going abroad is probably one of the most useful and necessary experiences to have as a student. Particularly in my major, it makes sense that they require it (or a similar experience).

My major worry is not how or why, but where. Having already fulfilled my dream of going to France, it seems a bit silly to try to recreate the experience or continue to lust after a country and experience that I have already had. That is not to say that it would be the same now, as a university student rather than a high schooler, but for various reasons, I probably won’t be going back to France to attend classes.

So where to, if not France?

This is the dilemma I am faced with this year, as I seek out where I should go next. There are so many places in the world to see, and even though I am focusing my search on Europe (after all, France is just a short trip away from most places in Western Europe), I find myself questioning this blog most of all. If I am not “en France”, as I have shaped my online identity since 2009, am I still “Aly en France”? I mean, I’m not in France now– but I maintain this blog, my tumblr, etc., under that username/title. It works; my near-constant longing for France and nostalgia for the places I have been is a bit ridiculous, even as time passes. My heart still remains “en France”, so far as I (and this blog) are concerned.

But wherever I go in the future– should my blog still be “Aly en France”? France is not the end of my travels; it was the beginning of a lifetime of wanderlust and dreams. It is still an important part of how I perceive the world and my identity as a person. But should my blog always reflect an experience I have already had?

What do you do with a virtual space that holds so many memories and identity you have taken on when it is no longer relevant to your current life?

Do you abandon it, as I have (at least on this site) until a time when you figure it out again? Or is it not necessary for the name to reflect reality?

What if I was just “Aly en Europe” or “Aly en America” or any other combination of place? Does my current reality need to be reflected in my online presence? 

These are some of the questions I am struggling with while I do research about where would be the best place for me to go next. The challenges of international travel await, yet I am preoccupied with an issue of virtual identity, rather than the challenges of reality.

I’d love to hear what you (as a reader of this blog, however infrequent) think!

A bientôt,
Aly

June Vacation: Tours, Bordeaux, Pays Basque

HELLO!

Okay, so the LAST time I updated this blog, it was the end of May, and I was rambling about five months. I haven’t updated then because I have been INSANELY busy.

Since I last updated, I settled into living with Charlotte’s family in Fayence, which is a MUCH smaller town than Fréjus… so, basically, she lives in the country. I finished with school on the 28th, and then I took a train to Bordeaux on the 31st. I got back Tuesday night from Bordeaux, during a rather big storm in the Var.

**EDIT: it is now SEPTEMBER and this is long overdue. I am out of town this weekend and lack internet access, so I finally finished up this post with LOADS of pictures, so please enjoy. Sorry for the delay!**

Anyway, I have lots of things to talk about, and lots of pictures to share.

All the Frenchies! IN ONE PHOTO! (On my last day of school.)

Okay, so, my last week of school was boring and only 2 days long. I didn’t truly say goodbye to most of my teachers, because some of them had nothing to say to me or anything to do with my stay here, and others (namely, the english teacher!) are certain that we’ll see each other again before I leave! Saying goodbye to teachers I’ve only had for a few months was decidedly awkward, especially taking into account the unexpected bisous. I came out of school the second-to-last-day thanks to probably my most awkward experience ever… (no, really, despite my repertoire of awkward and or embarrassing experiences, that one was very awkward.)

Second to last day of school, after awkward goodbye, hanging out with Charlotte and Jean-Paul 🙂

Typical. We can’t actually take a picture without JP poking somebody.

Monday afternoon (Charlotte skipped SES in the morning to hang out with me), Charlotte’s dad, Xavier drove us to school. With frantic texts to the others that were already at school to convince them to come outside (they didn’t get the texts) to come see me, we dropped Charlotte off at school and I said goodbye. Shortly after, I was at the train station in Saint Raphael again, the one that always brings back bad memories, and waited for the train.

I’m still not that great with the trains—I looked at the wrong ticket and ended up walking all the way to the end of the platform, before double-checking and realizing that my seat was actually back by the entrance. Thus began the two-week-long vacation.

(Okay, I now realize how much time that will take to write up ALL THE GORY DETAILS, so I’m going to do this in MORE CONCISE and list-y form.)

BORDEAUX.

Arrived late Monday. Didn’t do anything of interest for a few days, just caught up with Any and Jeveta from the LAST time I was in Bordeaux. My camera was broken, so took it to “The Photo Clinic” to be repaired, where I was informed that it would be good to go the next Monday.

Left Thursday afternoon shortly after eating a delicious “composed salad” (recipe: corn, mungo bean sprouts, tuna-from-a-can, tomatoes, add in a bit of lettuce and there you go. Serve with Balsamic Vinagarette and fresh herbs. Dessert of FRESH STRAWBERRIES, nutella crepes, and homemade whipped cream. Yummm.) to go to Tours.

TOURS.

he train was late, of course (Train to go to Paris, have to get off AFTER passing Tours as it’s not exactly on the way… and then take a commuter train BACK to Tours. Complicated), because every train I’ve ever taken in France has been late, it seems.

Met my hosts in Tours, Dad’s friend Xavier’s parents. Francoise picked me up at the Gare and we walked back to their house. It was hot, and the small rolling suitcase Any lent me wasn’t very great for crossing a park.

Friday, wandered around Tours while Xavier’s parents worked. Took pictures with disposable camera, bought antique postcards, had a (second) run-in with a creeper. Fled and then spent time writing and reading. That evening, went to Amboise and wandered a bit. Saw naked statue of Leonardo Da Vinci. Took more photos.

The cathedrale

Medieval houses

The Grand Theatre/Opera (uhh.)

The Pont Napoleon (I think, I never actually figured it out on the map.) The Loire River (I ate lunch right here.)

Old street

Amboise

The statue of Leonardo Da Vinci sans clothes.

Saturday, went to Chenonceaux and LOADS of other Chateaux of the Loire. Very pretty. Followed tour guides speaking in English. Lots of schoolkids arrived. Fled through bigger garden, and talked to Francoise about how great of a place to run the grounds would be—final decision being that it would be unlikey for the women of Chenonceaux to run cross country. Failed at the maze, took pictures in middle, ate lunch, continued driving around and seeing the outside of other chateaux. Wished it would rain because it was hot and I was sore from walking around Tours.

Chenonceau! Of course, it was being restored.

Loches

The Chateau de Loches

This is actually Emmanuel Lansyer’s house turned free museum of his collection and works. It was pretty cool, the garden was pretty, and YAY AIR CONDITIONING!

…Same town? Chateau? Actually, I have NO IDEA what this is. I should have taken notes.

Sunday, it rained. Saw more chateaux. Toured Ussé, the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty. Took pictures with the Briend’s rather old camera.

The town of Langeais

Chateau de Langeais

Ussé

Inside Ussé, there was an exposition of old clothing. I took pictures of it all 🙂

This desk was inset with gold and ivory, and had 49 secret drawers. :O

And then, further on, there was a set-up of rooms themed around Sleeping Beauty.

Azay-le-Rideau

Chinon, which was also being restored. Not much to see there.

Street in Chinon

Monday, returned to Bordeaux and picked up camera. Apparently he had it fixed on Wednesday. Fail. Saw an interesting cow at Bordeaux Lac. Turned in my disposable camera after taking two silly photos with Any in the parking lot.

Any and her friend Monsieur le Vache.

Visited the Chateau de Cazeneuve, the chateau that I didn’t get to visit last time because it was closed. Saw a bat, but then the other tourists scared him away. Learned how to make Tiramisu, and then made a Cherry cake. Took a “Balneo” class at a spa, where I ran around in the water for an hour (Thursday). Friday, left for Pays Basque after Jeveta finished exams.

PAYS BASQUE.

Left around 2 Friday, dropped off Jeveta’s friend that is Basque at her house. She gave us chocolate and nougat, yum. Stopped in Biarritz and took pictures. Stopped elsewhere in Biarritz, took more pictures. Waved at the ocean and yelled HELLO to the USA (on the other side) and then screamed when the waves came. Mused that it wouldn’t be a good idea to fall on the rocks. It started raining. Got lost on the way to St Pée sur Nivelle, where Any knew a hostel owner.

Screaming about the waves, and then fleeing calmly. (Photos from Jeveta.)

Jeveta!

The hotel/hostel, dunno what it was because the bathrooms were communal?

Next day, found “little pigs” and gateau basque (which is REALLY good, and I have the recipe so :D) saw the Musée de Chocolat, Edmund Rostand’s house, and the Chateau d’Abbadia.

Musée de Chocolat – Chocolate art and various chocolate-making utensils. At the end of the tour, we got to taste some delicious hot chocolate, but honestly, it wasn’t that great as the chocolate-making demonstrations are only during the week and we went on a Saturday.

Edmund Rostand’s house- Typical Basque style. The woodwork on Basque houses is typically red or green, the colors of the flag, red being more traditional.

Since Edmund Rostand was a playwright and actor, his house features an exposition of costumes from one of his works.

The gardens were really great, however, we couldn’t see the full view from the front thanks to the tents. In front was the French garden, and the backyard was the English garden.

This cat didn’t have a tail, but he was sweet—and then he followed Jeveta and I everywhere until we went back to the car.

Typical Basque-style house.

Chateau d’Abbadia—it was really just a castle-but-not-really where a scientist lived. Or something like that. The library was AWESOME, but photos weren’t allowed inside (not to say that I didn’t sneak a few, until the employees became suspicious).

Sunday, saw St Jean de Luz, where we saw an orchestra and a quartet play. Then we went to St Sebastian in Spain.Saw lots of soccer supporters, partying before a game. Ate ice cream that wasn’t good, and then a drunk guy talked to us. Returned to France. stopped by Bayonne. Got a bit lost, but sang old songs very loudly with Jeveta in the car, as Any doesn’t have a radio. And then slept.

Port at St Jean de Luz

*Note: I may be confusing what day we did what here, but at the moment, I’m not recalling very well as I ONCE AGAIN, wrote nothing down. If I’m mistaken, then I guess it really doesn’t matter.

BORDEAUX.

When we got back, we went to over to Any’s friends (the Gauntiers) house (they live across the street) and ate gambas al ajillo, and then the gateaux that we brought with us from the Pays Basque.

Next day, went to Planete Bordeaux. Tasted wine the proper way (it still wasn’t good, and when asked what it smells/tastes like, my only answer is “Uhhhhm, wine???”). That night, ate lots of ice cream with Jeveta and Any and then toured Bordeaux. Found more cows. Took pictures and ran around vaguely idiotically with Jeveta.

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And then, went back to St Raphael by train but the train was cancelled in Toulon, where I was stranded until Charlotte and her dad braved the flooding roads (yayyyy, huge storms! and floods! D: ) to come get me. Went back to Fayence, slept for a very long time.

Any gave me two little recipe books—one of cookies & cakes, and another of I-don’t-exactly-know, so now I have recipes for French food, which I will be converting into American measurements (and English) soon. I’d be happy to share with you, once I figure it out! And for my friends, except some French cooking!

Since then, I’ve been here in Fayence at the Belliard’s. Charlotte and I have been busy, going to Frejus for multiple parties and seeing various people nearly every day of the week. It’s been INCREDIBLY hot and since the floods, the beaches in Frejus have been closed (they’re still closed until July 15th).

My mom is coming to France soon with my brother, and I’ll be back home in 10 days!

See you then, and I will try to update you guys on all my adventures in France and in Italy then.

-Aly

Trips to McDonald’s/Quick: 16

Day Six: Gare

28 Dec. 2009

Hello!

I promise that I’ll get caught up with my posting and fill you in on all the details of my overly-busy life! If you want to know all the mundane details, that is… and I assure you, I have plenty of those to share.

So, until I catch up (today is Day Eight Eleven), except posts like Day four/five; just PRETEND I posted this on time! 😉

D’abord (first of all), I’d like to say that le matin was not very interesting. Our NaviGo passes (for the bus and metro in Paris) had expired the day before, so our only form of transportation was our feet!

Dad had discovered that there was a Roman arena near our hotel in Paris, so after we had breakfast (some pastry; I didn’t like it), we walked until we found it. That was pretty cool; something so old (older than Notre Dame de Paris, I think), right in the middle of the city (MORE OR LESS; Paris is a very large city.) It was kind of like the “beautiful ruins” I told you about before, except these weren’t exactly ruins and they were incredibly old… I would still say they are “forgotten”, though. There weren’t any tourists (except for us, of course) standing around admiring it.

A few locals were wandering around; there was a small playground behind the arena, and small families with young children were there. It was otherwise empty, which I guess is a good thing because for once in Paris, we weren’t two of the hundreds of people. The emptiness allows you to imagine the arena not surrounded by buildings and instead, filled with throngs of people watching some sort of likely-inhumane entertainment. xD

Anyway, we continued walking past le Jardin des Plants, which apparently has a menagerie. Unexpectedly, looking through the the bars of the fence surrounding the park, trying to catch sight of les animaux is quite time-consuming.

We took pictures of some of them:

(uhhh… just kidding. You can’t really see the REALLY CUTE ANIMAL in it. Silly animals, walking around being cute where we couldn’t get a good picture of them…)

Eventually, we found a way into the actual Jardin! (I think. Again with the not knowing what something or other is.)

*about to sneeze*

Once we had made our way out of that small portion of the Jardin, we returned to the hotel to pick up our bags and walked awkwardly (it’s impossible to NOT walk like an ape when you’re hauling far too many things) to the bus. Soon after, we had arrived at Gare de Lyon, where our train was arriving an hour and some later.

Quick side note: When’s the last time you took a train? Not a subway/metro/underground/etc., but an actual TRAIN?
The only time I’ve ever taken trains has been in Europe, and if you never have… you should experience it sometime. The confusion, chaos, and everything… it’s quite fun and you don’t have to go through security like at airports! You don’t even have to arrive an hour early! (Thirty minutes will do just fine, if you can figure out the signs, that is.)

Right. So, after a longgggg wait, during which we ate gaufres (waffles!) for lunch, the platform was finally displayed on the screen (they only show a color, for which area of the train station a certain train will be in until the train actually arrives) and we struggled through the crowd to the near the front of the train (which is the farthest away, naturally), and found our car.

(hahaha at the guy next to me.)

(this wasn’t our train, nor was it even the correct area of the train station. I’m just throwing this in there because it shows a bullet train and the station.)

Our train was actually two trains connected together, near where I’m standing.

When we found our seats (after dumping our excessively huge bags on the storage racks), we discovered that they were taken! Luckily, the guy sitting there spoke English so we could communicate the mistake. Trains are confusing like that; there are multiple cars with the same seat numbers, and sometimes, like with our train, there are two different trains and you have to pay attention to know which one you SHOULD be on. xD

Finally, we started moving; through the beautiful French countryside, heading to Nice. There wasn’t internet on the train, but they had outlets, so I wrote the Day Four blog while on the train, which took up most of the ride when I wasn’t staring dreamily out the window, listening to music on my iPod (Owl City, probably; I’m only a little obsessed), or watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 🙂

The entire ride, Dad was trying to get a picture of the trains that would pass us. It was rather funny; he’d reach across me, holding his camera near the window, just waiting for another train and then jumping when one passed before finally trying to take the picture. He mostly just watches the countryside, though; this time, he was talking a lot to the people across from us, who seemed to be playing musical chairs, as there were three different people that sat in those seats at different points in time. Apparently they (the two women whose seats were actually across from ours; the other one was this guy although I don’t know why he was sitting there) live in a town near mine.

The sky got darker, and at last, we arrived in Saint Raphaël, the town next to Fréjus, where my host family was waiting to greet us.

I admit, I had no idea what they would look like, but I guess Dad knew or they knew or something, because when we reached the end of the escalator at the main entry, they were standing there waiting for us and smiling. Immediately, they took the suitcase that Dad was hauling (the heavier one xD), and gave us bisous. (That was unexpected, though it shouldn’t have been.)

[I will explain bisous more later on in this post or another, but what you need to know is that bisous are the air-kisses on either cheek.]

We all piled into their car (a Ford Focus) and drove to their house for dinner. Nathalie (pronounced “Natalie”), my host-mother, was worried that I would be picky, but I’ve kind of promised myself (and my dad) that I would at least TRY everything. Nathalie’s daughter, Alexandra, came to dinner as well—she was on holiday from university in Paris, where she is studying to become a translator (so she knows French, English, Spanish, and a little bit of Russian). Quentin acts just like a younger brother; in fact, I think he would get along really well with my “other” little brother, being Molly’s brother Christopher. Olivier is a bit of a goofball; he and Dad get along with signs and broken phrases.

Anyway, it was nice to finally meet them, and it looks like (from here) I will get along with them quite nicely.

From the top left: Nathalie, Olivier, me, and Dad.

-Aly

Day Five: M’O

27 Dec. 2009

Bonjour!

This was after we got out of the Musée; as always, it was windy.

Sorry for the delay in posting! I think I’ve figured out a more efficient way to do this and add pictures (Windows Live Writer)! (Granted, it was my mom’s suggestion via Skype. And it does work, because my last post was written on Live Writer. It was much easier than putting in pictures and dragging them up and down the post on Blogger. IT EVEN LETS ME ADD ACCENTS! xD

[Sorry, I’m a bit overly enthusiastic about it. It’s making my life easier, so hopefully posts won’t take me hours to write anymore…]

Medusa!

Anyway, dad and I finally made it INSIDE Musée D’Orsay (vraiment this time!) [Vraiment = truly but I think they use it for “really”, too.] The line was already long, despite the fact that when we arrived it was only 10:30 (it opens at 9:30). To waste time (and since we hadn’t eaten yet), we had “brunch”” yet again. [More crepes and FINALLY some hot chocolate with WHIPPED CREAM. Except it’s more expensive that way, and it’s called something different. Chocolat vinneois, I think; I forgot to write down what it was.)

By the time we were finished with brunch, the lines had passed the boundaries and people were squished together as the line wrapped around lampposts and past people selling more hot chestnuts. (They’re everywhere! As are the people selling miniature Eiffel Towers.) We waited in line for thirty minutes (maybe more), but at last, we made it INSIDE the Musée!

We wandered through all the open exhibits—many are closed or moved because they’re renovating. We saw the Impressionists, Post-impressionists, and a few other styles that I couldn’t name but Dad probably could. HA, NEVERMIND. He just handed me the map/guide.

*Ahem* (I’m about to quote the map.)

“From November 2009 to Marche 2011, the museum will be carrying out major renovation work on its museographic areas, leading to the closure of level 5.
During this period, your visit will begin on level 0, where you will view the large realist paintings of Courbet and the first works of Manet, Monet, and Cézanne together with impressionists and postimpressionists, sculpture collections (Carpeaux, Daumier…), as well as paintings from the 180s and 60s (Ingres, Delacroix, Degas…).
This continues on to level 2 with the masterpieces of French and Belgian Art Nouveau, foreign schools of painting, symbolism (Homer, Burne-Jones…), and naturalism (Gervex, Lhermitte…).
Lastly, there are two temporary exhibitions showing: ‘James Ensor’ and ‘Art Nouveau Revival’. To keep informed of what’s happening in the museum during the renovation work, go to www.musee-orsay.fr.”

(*whew*. Good thing that was in English.)

I’m glad we gave ourselves time to look through everything! We were there from 11:30ish to 2:45. I discovered an artist I had never heard of but I liked—Armand Guillaumin.

Those are two of Guillaumin’s pieces behind me. Pretty, right?!

The Van Gogh, Monet, and Degas exhibits seemed to be the most popular (you should recognize those names. Well, maybe not Degas, but the first two… If you don’t recognize the first two, then we have a bit of a problem!). The temporary exhibit about James Ensor was quite popular—he was a Belgian painter, and he was really quite egotistical! He painted 112 self-portraits, if that gives you any idea… in one of them, he was Jesus! xD (oh, artists…)

The painting behind me is Van Gogh’s Portrait de l’artiste.

We don’t remember what this painting is called (Le Bal?), or the artist that painted it. But it was REALLY detailed.

Dad actually knows some of the famous paintings that I didn’t recognize, but he took pictures of me in front of them anyway.

Notice how awkward I look.

We thought this was cool. Don’t remember the artist or title, of course.

One of the statues. Some of the statues were really funny… naked boys frolicking. *is slightly immature* xD

I thought this statue was cool (artist: Degas); the skirt she’s wearing and the ribbon on her ponytail are real fabric.

I had to take a break after seeing everything on the ground floor; I was inspired and exhausted, so I sat down in the statue gallery to relax. I really liked the Impressionist/postimpressionism; I like the softness of the paintings. Some of the more “fantastic” pieces were particularly interesting (like the Medusa painting near the beginning of this post; the artist that painted that had these great colorful pieces!) I wrote some and people-watched, which I feel is a fine way to spend time in an art gallery.

(I also attempted to take a picture of the really awesome clock.)

I failed, but Dad succeeded. So that’s the awesome clock! 😀

I think we both started getting really exhausted towards the end; we breezed through the 2nd level. We did stop to take a good look at a couple things.

Like this; it made us laugh. Actually, I still find it rather funny.

I’ll let you interpret this one for yourself. There are twelve naked men in this picture. (This was right next to the painting pictured above. )

The Art Nouveau Revival and Naturalism exhibits weren’t that exciting, but I did learn that Art Nouveau Revival has some elements of eroticism… which was not so subtle in some pieces like a table that hade a not-very-clothed mannequin as the base. [Note for the confused: Art Nouveau Revival is the style associated with the 1960s—the often psychedelic patterns and colors, I guess. The cover of the Beatles’ album Revolver is an example of the style.](You just learned something, didn’t you?)

This was in the Naturalism exhibition. That is, indeed, a toilet. Shaped like a fly. Gotta love art… xD

Having seen everything we wanted to see and glanced through the exhibits we weren’t so interested in, we finally left Musée d’Orsay and headed over to Père Lachaise Cemetary (of course getting there was far too complicated). Late lunch was from a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant because we like Vietnamese food and Dad is on a perpetual search for the PERFECT spring rolls. (No, really; we had these great spring rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose with family friends back when I was a sixth grader and he still hasn’t found spring rolls that are just right.) [And it was delicious, but the porc (pork) spring rolls > crevette (shrimp) spring rolls> poulet (chicken) spring rolls.]

The Père Lachaise Cemetary is the most-visted cemetary in Paris; Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, and lots of other famous people are buried there. The tombs are really intricate and pretty; it’s hilly there, so you see all these moss-covered tombs, some with flowers, but many looking forgotten, with cobblestone lanes surrounded by bare trees… it’s really beautiful.

We had just entered; I’m not very good at looking solemn.

This captures the atmosphere of it quite well. Isn’t it beautiful, though?

Dad in front of Jim Morrison’s grave, looking properly sad.

Oscar Wilde’s tomb. It’s covered in kisses. Lipstick apparently stains stone…

Chopin’s tomb is also quite popular to see.

Edith Piaf’s tomb; I’m not very good at looking sad so I’ll not put that picture of me trying-and-failing to look sad. So yeah. Happy at a tomb…

QUICK! Distraction!

We think this is Pissarro’s tomb; it’s so very gaudy, and Pissarro’s tomb was supposed to be around here but we forgot whose tomb we were looking for. xD

Okay, so that’s enough about the cemetery. That’s all we did then; dinner was McDonalds (fail, I know) because that was the ONLY THING open on our street that looked edible (surprisingly) and was cheap. On the bright side, we didn’t get food poisoning! 🙂

That is all. Hope you had an equally marvelous day!

-Aly

P.S. Today’s Day Six. Again with the late posting. But we haven’t done much today, since we’re currently on the train to Saint Raphaël.

(ACTUALLY, since I couldn’t get on the internet to post this last night, today is DAY SEVEN. We’re currently in Fréjus and we met my host family last night :D)

Day Four: English with French Subtitles

26 Dec. 2009

Hey!

…Right, so this is the post I should have written a day ago! 🙂

[I’ll write it as though today was still the 26th! Don’t get confused about the verb tenses, then. I HAVE WARNED YOU.]

As I mentioned previously, we were planning on going to the flea markets, Musée D’Orsay, and the Eiffel Tower today. {See? That’s where you act like I posted this on the 26th. ONWARDS.} You should have guessed by now, but Dad and I are not very good at planning, so we did not actually accomplish all of that.

However, we did make it to the flea markets! We went to “Les Puces de Paris: Saint Ouen” (“The Fleas of Paris: Saint Ouen”), which is supposedly the largest flea market in Paris. It includes a huge antiques and furniture marché (I keep typing marché instead of market, so I give up. Marché, marché, marché) and countless (really. 1, 2, 3…57…) clothing booths.

In this case, I’m grouping anything that isn’t furniture and/or antiques in with “clothing”, so interpret that loosely. There were booths with chaussures (shoes) and other accessories like wallets, purses, small trinkets, prints, small sculptures, post cards, typical tourist-y junk, and lots of booths with leather jackets.

Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about clothing and such to say if anything was authentic, or if it was stolen (not even kidding). The fakes (of which there were many) were fairly well-done—for example, we saw no less than four stalls selling “Converse” shoes in all sorts of designs and colors, and the tread and boxes and everything looked pretty real to me (and I have a pair).

They had boots for as little as 10€ (YAY EURO SYMBOL! Finally found the Alt control. Geez…); some were cute but nothing was particularly unique, so I didn’t buy anything (I may regret that later, I kinda lovelovelove boots and I’ve been wearing mine nearly every day). [Whoa, that was very ADD.] Anyway, I didn’t buy much.

{Notice the careful wording. “not much” = ONE THING. JUST. ONE.}

The furniture/antiques market was ASTOUNDING, though! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many antiques in such great condition! Some were insanely old, too (then again, Europe in general is old). Everything we saw was veryyyy expensive, but much of it was high-quality, if you ever happen to want a quite-expensive-in-Euros antique something. xD

[Sorry I don’t have any pictures of ANY of that! We really didn’t take any!]

After we got bored of that, we began our search for a cell phone for me. Fnac.com (except they just call it “Fnac”, and that’s pronounced “F-nack”. As in the letter F, nack.)We finally found one (a cell phone, that is) for as-cheap-as-possible. It’s really simple; a tiny Samsung flip phone. We tracked down Mobiho (that’s the name of a cell phone company, just so you know.) SIM cards (that wasn’t easy, I tell you!) so I can call the US for 0,19€/min, but incoming calls are FREE so YOU COULD CALL ME.

(I have a calling card to call my family, but we don’t think it’ll work. SADNESS!)

Unfortunately, the SIM card is only 8€ of calls for now, and each SIM card has its own number attached, so my number will change every time I have to get a new SIM card. I know, confusing and problematic.

Fnac is what you would get if you combined Barnes and Noble and Best Buy and then translated it into French. So, not only did we find my cell phone there, but I bought Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban to read. It’ll take me months, but it’s my favorite of the Harry Potter series so I’m looking forward to reading it in my favorite language. And we got an alarm clock—the buttons are all in English, which makes little sense. Not that I’m complaining!

After we dropped off all of our “loot”, we headed over to the Musée d’Orsay, but decided not to go in since we didn’t have enough time to fully appreciate the art. BUT WE ACTUALLY MADE IT THERE THIS TIME, so we did better! Rawr!

At last, we walked/ran/rode a bus for two blocks over to the Eiffel Tower. It’s basically required that you take far too many pictures there, but here’s some of the far-too-many pictures that WE took! (and when I say “we”, I mean “Dad” because I’m too lazy to take my pictures off my camera right now.)

See? I DO HAVE MY OWN CAMERA!

I like this picture because it looks purple. xD

Slightly idiotic expressions are my trademark.

Dunno why there’s dustiness in this one.

You can tell by my expression that this is take 4. Also, it was very cold. xD

The lights were flashing on the tower so you can actually see us well!

As expected, the lines at La Tour Eiffel were long and by the time we got to the first floor (we walked because it was cheaper and we thought it would be more interesting), it was already dark. Then again, it gets dark early here.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the views! (We didn’t get any higher than the 2nd level because we figured that once you get that high, there’s really not much else to see but a further-away view of the same things.)

Montmartre.

Sacre Coeur. Blurry; I think my picture was less blurry but this camera has a better zoom.

The lights turned on while we were on top of the 2nd floor 🙂

See? Same, just higher.

I confess, I don’t know what this is, but I like the blur. I think it looks cool. xD

La Seine

Once we returned to the ground, it was dinnertime, so we took the bus over to Odeon, where we found a tiny Italian place, and had escargots. That shouldn’t need translation: SNAILS! Yum. They weren’t as good as last time, but still good 😀

After we were happily full, we went to see Pas si simple because the lines at the theaters playing Avatar were too long. It was still in English, but it had French subtitles, which definitely weren’t exact. (The title itself is an example of this—pas si simple is literally “not that simple” in French, but the title of the movie was actually It’s complicated.) The French seemed to enjoy the French references… “it’s so very… FRENCH!” xD

{It’s funny; but it had a lot of filler but the cast was well-cast which probably helped it a lot.}

So, that was day four!

Hopefully that made up for my lack-of-post due to Skyping my twin! 🙂

-Aly

Day Three: Fêtes de Noël

Hello!

So, I really hate my keyboard right now because every time I try to insert an "e" with a circumflexe, it’s like: "Navigate away from this page?" NO. DO NOT NAVIGATE AWAY FROM THIS PAGE. *gnashes teeth* (Souhm, there probably won’t be any accents in this post since my computer, Gandalf, is being quite annoying. Sorry!)

ANYHOW!

I know a lot of you were jealous about the fact that I got to go to Notre Dame de Paris for midnight mass on Christmas. Don’t be. If you have EVER been to a Christmas Eve/Christmas service at any church, then you probably have a good idea of how it works. You should understand that going to Notre Dame for Christmas mass isn’t an original idea at all; Paris being the hot spot for tourists that it is, there were maybe-thousands of people all crammed in there.
 
We got there at 9:20 or something like that (potentially earlier), but all of the seats were already filled. We crammed along the sides with the other seat-less people. Standing room only; I should have worn more comfortable shoes because I was definitely shifting the ENTIRE time. If you plan on doing something like that, ARRIVE REALLY EARLY. It’s insane. Take ANY seat possible, even if it means sitting apart from your group. There’s this whole "Introduction to Christmas" photo montage with French speakers (all pre-recorded), and English subtitles, followed by music from the Choir.

  

I wish I would have known to stand along the sides because people get up and leave every once and a while, so if you were right there, you’d be able to grab the seat before anybody else could. They had security people (maybe? I’m not sure; they were wearing bright orange and blue. We decided that they must be the new Musketeers– this one guy had an AMAZING goatee and pointy mustache! :O)

“The Snuggie Choir” is what we called them. Don’t they look like they’re wearing Snuggies?!

 I edited this picture so you could see the big screen during the Christmas story part. You can tell that we’re off to the side, instead of in the main part of the cathedral.

Anyway, we could kinda-sorta see, and they had monitors set up all over (they were filming the service; you can watch it on TV here), and we took blurry zoomed-in pictures. I don’t know if any turned  out well, but here’s a couple just in case.
 

This is the arch-bishop in his hat.

  This guy is reading something in French. He is not the archbishop.

  The archbishop finally took off his hat! That’s him; he has ANOTHER hat UNDER the pointy hat. (I should really learn the technical names for these things.)

(The Archbishop wears this pointy hat, which is amusing (it shows that he is the arch-bishop, not just another priest); they wave around a lot if incense, which we think makes it seem a lot more important. We left before communion though, because at that point, there wasn’t any more pretty singing, just rather monotone French blessings or something.)

 Incense!

We got back to our hotel room around 1:something, but of course, we didn’t go to sleep until later. Amazingly, we woke up before 11 today! YAY! (9:30, actually, but we didn’t actually get anywhere until almost noon.)

We did end up going to Montmartre today; we wanted to see Sacre Coeur, and Simone (the "New Paris" tour guide from yesterday) had informed us that Montmartre is the stereotypically charmingly French part of town, so that moved to the top of our list. Besides the fact that last time, we didn’t go here, so it’s all new to us. Montmartre, for those of you unfamiliar with the layout of the city, is the highest hill in the city. It offers panoramic views of Paris, and has lots of stairs and cute little streets. The movie Amelie (I still haven’t seen it, grr!) is set there. We took the Metro to somewhere near the bottom, and climbed a tiny little staircase to the side of Sacre Coeur.

Wandering towards the "touristy" section, you are basically swarmed by artists with giant clipboards, telling (not asking) you to stop so they can sketch you. I’m not sure how much that costs, but we made it through the crowds of them by saying "Non! Non!" and shaking our heads until they stopped following us. They’re certainly enthusiastic. We considered it for a moment, but knowing that they would over-charge and it really wasn’t necessary (even for the experience), we continued to decline. Besides the fact that we were hungry.

Brunch (Breakfast. At lunchtime. Same thing as brunch? I think yes.) was on Montmartre, in this little cafe, Au Petit Creux de  Montmartre. I had a crêpe chocolat et boule de glace, which was a crêpe filled with chocolate with a scoop of ice cream on top. The fact that it was cold is forgivable due to the fact that we once again had chocolat chaud. (It wasn’t that good this time, but it came with SUGAR CUBES so that’s okay. :D)

 
After brunch, we wandered awhile, up and down the streets, attempting to avoid the busy areas, which we ultimately failed at. We ended up in a tiny square with artists all set up, painting and sketching and selling their pieces. All of it was unique, and so pretty, too! Unfortunately the REALLY neat ones were out of my price range. 😦
 

 
Finally, we walked up to Sacre Coeur and wandered inside. It’s free to tour the inside and the crypt below, but you aren’t allowed to take pictures in the Basilica itself. I got snapped at (literally) for resting my feet against the back of a pew. (This was after I was sitting like that for no less than thirty minutes) Dad sketched a picture of one of the columns, near the top of the dome. We paid the ten euro for both of us to climb the 300 steps to the very top of the dome. We had some issues with the ticket machine, but luckily the people behind us were patient. 😀

It was REALLY windy at the top of the dome, and I was freezing up there (seriously. Bad wardrobe decision is NOT to layer on Montmartre). When we finally descended the stairs (luckily, Dad didn’t break a foot this time…), we bought more roasted chestnuts (yum) and tossed some coins to a dude playing Coldplay songs. He was really good; you could hear him all the way up at the top of the dome and we wondered if Chris Martin was on vacation… xD

 
As we passed the famous stairs (and the escalator-thing on the side of the hill… errrrr… I don’t remember what it’s called… >.<), we stopped to take a picture but we were intercepted and cornered by these two African men that basically conned us into buying these "friendship bracelets" that they made on our fingers. They kept saying, "Hakuna Matata! Timone and Pumba! We like Americans!" and all these other things. When I referenced the actual song from Lion King, though, they had no idea. Everybody wants to sell you something… but we eventually escaped (not without paying far too much, argh!) and obviously got lost on the way to the Moulin Rouge.

In this picture, you can tell I’m holding roasted chestnuts! Behind me is the Chris Martin guy. xD

You must be getting tired of me just standing in pictures.

*acts silly* Dad: *fails at taking a picture*

We didn’t get any closer than this, because right after we snapped this picture, we were cornered by those two guys.

  This is the last working moulin (windmill) on Montmartre. “Moulin De La Galette.”

 Rue Lepic.

We got confused; this is NOT the entrance to the Moulin Rouge.

I was debating whether or not to dance around. I didn’t, mostly because I felt awkward 🙂

Once we had taken enough pictures of the Moulin Rouge, we took the Metro to this modern park, called Parc de la Villette, which was designed by an architect named Bernard Tschumi. I wasn’t that interested in the park at the moment, largely due to the fact that I was hungry (I know, lame excuse, but this always happens me! I like art and such but when I’m all grouchy due to hunger, I just can’t appreciate it.) Dad was pleased that he finally got to see it though; he wanted to last time but he was vetoed by the rest of us.

It started sprinkling, which ruined the sunny, breezy, and chilly day that we had been enjoying. (*sarcasm*; why won’t it just STAY WARM and DRY in Paris?!) At that point, we just went back to the Hotel.

After we rested our feet for while, we headed back out for dinner at Le Petit Marius, which is this rather-expensive fish restaurant near the Champs-Elysees. Dad’s meal freaked me out a bit; I mean, who wants their food to be LOOKING BACK AT THEM?! Eugh. I had cod, but that was really bland. It looked nice though! The mashed potatoes were delicious, though. Oh, and the appetizer, too: more salmon and creme fraiche (fresh creme sauce; I’m an idiot for not figuring that out before).

 Ewwww.

 

Once Dad finished eating, we wandered around the streets, "window shopping" as much as we could with all the shops being closed. Some other random tourist (from England, I think) came up to me asking if I spoke English (in French, of course); I think she may have thought I was a local? (She asked if I knew were a Pharmacie was… I didn’t.) At least, that’s what I hope she thought, because that would be SO COOL. xD

From that point on, we just strolled (you don’t walk on the Champs-Elysees; you stroll and pretend that you have enough money to buy something) up the Champs-Elysees. Eventually, we wandered into a brightly-lit drugstore, because the shops on the Champs-Elysees are supposed to be unique, exclusive, and… not-common, and does a drugstore not sound common to you?

 

  Publicis drugstore.

Well, upon entering, we discovered that is was not, in fact, common. They had Marc Jacobs bags, a bookstore (since when are there bookstores in drugstores?), a wine cellar (no joke), a pharmacie, an electronics/generally cool technology/random thing shop, a deli, and a bar. We bought some water ("no gas"/ “sans bulles”) and some French books (err… sort of. We bought some "phrase books" because they’re funny, I’ll talk about one of them at a later date because I have my own copy. I also bought The Tales of Beedle the Bard in French, because I don’t have my own copy anyway and I would like to read it. I’ll let you know how THAT goes!)

And now… we’re back at the hotel room! Not much else to say for today. We didn’t make it to the Musee d’Orsay due to the fact that we want to actually experience it, but tomorrow we’re going to try to go the the flea markets in town as well as the Eiffel Tower (despite the fact that we’ve already been there. SHH! We’ll try to go during the DAY this time!).

Anyway, I hope you had a very merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel from France! 🙂
-Aly

P.S. "Fetes de Noel" is Christmas Day in French; literally, Feast of Christmas.

Day Two: Marrons Chauds!

Le Grand Palais

Hello!

So, “Day Two”; day one being yesterday, since the day was spent on a plane/arriving/sleeping/eating, most of which actually happened in FRANCE! (Therefore it counts.)

Today was pretty eventful, if you ignore the fact that Dad and I completely disregarded the alarm clock we set on my running watch. It’s just our luck that the only clocks we have in our room are my computer and our watches. We don’t have an alarm clock in here, and we both neglected to consider that his phone WOULDN’T work here, so we can’t use it as an alarm clock. We definitely meant to wake up at 6:30, but ended up sleeping until 10:something, and didn’t go anywhere until it was nearly noon. Again, whoops.

Waiting for the train. (My hair is in the beret cuz it was still wet.)

We managed to make our way over to Châtelet-Les Halles via Metro, which is the train station underneath the mall. The mall (“centre commercial”) is called Forum des Halles, which is 4 (maybe? I didn’t count…) stories of shopping. I swear the idea is to trap you in there and make you shop for the rest of eternity. Luckily, WE ESCAPED (after going in circles)!

It’s really cool, though; there’s escalators all over, and a maze of hallways leading to all different stores. H&M, Pimkie, Gap (go to France to buy American clothes? Yes. Of course! It was REALLY BORING in there though, and the sizes were even more confusing than everywhere else. Fail.), and other stores. What’s really cool about Les Halles is that there is this courtyard-like area, not that we actually went out there since it was wet. xD

I’m not sure what that building is behind me, but it looked cool.

See?So very modern!

We ended up at H&M, mostly because I recognized the name of store, and although it is in the United States, there aren’t any near home. They had some pretty strange things in there, I have to say. There were far too many pairs of sparkly leggings (some multicolored) that were no more than leggings COVERED in sequins.

They had some truly bizarre jeans too; patchwork jeans, jeans with no less than 50 zippers or studs, jeans that were actually leggings that looked like jeans (whaaaat?), shiny leather (hello, 1980s) pants, and in the men’s section, they had jeans that had paint all over them! (My comment: I bet *insert name of relative that paints* has a pair of those! FOR CHEAP!) They had “man-pris” (Capris! For men! Apparently quite popular… I still can’t convince any Americans of that, though), which are still very amusing.

Did you know that Levis are like… DESIGNER jeans?! I was unaware of that fact. You could buy some and say they’re the hottest style in Europe now! You could even call them your “Parisian pants”! :O

So, after that, Dad and I went to lunch at this little cafe; Café Etienne. The waitress didn’t understand much English, but with my feeble attempts at speaking French (this is what happens after five-ish years of français in America; you still can’t speak it fluently!) and dad’s ridiculous gestures, we managed to get by. Lunch ended up being an hour or more; the waitress kept wandering off, but the food was good (especially the fries. *insert pun about the best french fries being French*)!

I’m not sure if this is standard, but les toilettes were co-ed. Each one was this tiny toilet with it’s own door and motion-sensor light so you had to move or else you’d be stuck in the dark. Awkward French bathrooms are funny.

This is the bathroom in our hotel room. Typically small.

By then, it was raining harder, so we braved the wind to locate a place to exchange our dollars for euros and finding a BNP Paribas, the bank I’m allowed to withdraw from here. The teller told us directions to a place to exchange our money, but we of course got lost and ended up going to the Banque de France; the gendarmes let us in, and then we discovered that it was basically the Federal Reserve of France. For future reference, the people in there are quite nice and didn’t yell at us for being stupid Americans who don’t know where to exchange money.

The courtyard behind the entrance to the Louvre.

Quite by accident, we wandered into this little hallway of the Louvre (not the musée, but the building said “Louvre” on it so…*shrug*) that had a currency exchange. Now I’m not carrying around $5 US anymore, yay! Unfortunately, that was about 3,31 (, = . as far as money; odd) euros (when I figure out the alt-command for that symbol, I’ll use it. Until then… EUROS), and as in any city, 3,31 can’t get you ANYTHING. [Actually, you can get postcards for cheap! YAY! Or give money to the street performers! Like the accordion guy!]

We wandered a bit more until we were in front of the Louvre, and took pictures. (I’ll include some, including one of me making a completely ridiculous face!) Dad decided that I shouldn’t be the only one with pictures taken of me, so I have a few of him, too.

~~PAUSE FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE. (Pretend there is music here to make the time pass more quickly. In fact, here (it’s a French Christmas carol–– “Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle”)!~~

*weird face* (I think I was saying “AHH! My hair! Don’t take a picture of that!”)

Dad: “There’s never any pictures of me…”

Dad wanted a picture with the policemen-dudes, but we were afraid to ask since they had guns.

The entrance to the Louvre from the side (and behind).

After we decided NOT to go to the Louvre since it only had an hour more while it was open (it definitely takes longer than an hour to tour it), we wandered through le jardin du carrousel et le jardin des tuileries, and stumbled across a “Sandemans” tour, which is a free walking tour in English! Each tour lasts about 3 hours, and takes you to well-known monuments. The guide is usually a student living in that particular city, and they love the city.

They know lots of little tidbits about the city and monuments; though the tours don’t actually get you into monuments and such, they are a good way to get to know your way around and figure out places to go. Sandemans tours (such as “New Paris”) are in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Jerusalem, Madrid, and Paris. I highly recommend them if you go to any of those cities (we’ve taken the ones in Munich, Berlin, and Paris). 🙂

With the tour, we wandered through Place de la Concorde, where the obelisk stands where people were guillotined during the French Revolution, through some of the Christmas market along the Champs-Élysées and to le petit palais and le grande palais. We learned some interesting things about World War II and one Nazi general who basically saved the city (Hitler wanted him to destroy Paris, rather than let it fall to the Allied forces). Apparently, the French don’t like to acknowledge that this general (or the Allies) were the main reason that they regained Paris. (SHH! Don’t tell them I told you!)

Christmas market & our tour group.

Behind me: Place de la Concorde and the HUGE ferris wheel.Can we *not* be hit by cars? Please, dad?

After the tour ended, Dad and I wandered back through the Christmas market. We bought marrons chauds, which are roasted chestnuts (I should have guessed what the name was, actually: “marron” is the french word for ‘chestnut’ and is often used as ‘brown’, and “chaud” means hot… so, hot chestnuts); you can’t get those in the US because chestnut trees are basically endangered, which is sad because they are YUMMY! A bit sweet, but soft; the flavor is different than that of any other roasted nuts. (-_- if you’re laughing at that)

After that, we had some chocolat chaud, which was definitely a treat– it was a lot more substantial and rich than the kind we make at home with dry mix. I have no idea what they did to it, but I was quite pleased! It didn’t even have MARSHMALLOWS or WHIPPED CREAM! *gasp*

You can’t see ’em, but I’m holding a small cone-thing of chestnuts. (I dropped some later, whoops.)

(Oh, right! I forgot about the fresh smoked salmon! I think it was called saumon norvège, and it came with crème fraîche et salade [which is really just a large piece of lettuce?] on a baguette. I still don’t know what crème fraîche is, but it’s quite good.)

By then, it was raining pretty hard, so of course we chose to walk to across the river to a Metro station. And we got lost. And ran in circles. And rode two different buses, and three different trains, as well as walked through the same block far too often. We agreed that being lost in Paris is a lot more fun than being lost anywhere else; for one, despite the rain and generally miserable weather, Paris is still “The City of Light.”

Pont something-or-other. La Tour Eiffel in the background.

Finalement, we found our way back to the hotel. I guess that’s the end of Day Two, since I consider Messe de Minuit part of Day Three (even though we got there at 9:something). So, you’ll hear about that later today after we have MORE adventures!

Montmartre et Musée d’Orsay later today! (with far too many pictures, of course!)

Speaking of pictures… here’s a few more! YAY! 😀Behind me is the National Assembly. (This is where we began to get lost)We don’t know what this building was, but it was so bright that we figured it must be something special.

Place de la Concorde and the Ferris Wheel from the other side of the Seine.

Un bateau mouche (I don’t know what they are ‘en anglais’).

Merry Christmas from Paris!
-Aly

P.S. If you haven’t figured it out yet, you can CLICK on each picture to see the full-sized version! 🙂