Bonjour Paris!

Ah Paris, the city of romance. And I did find love in Paris...with gelato...and chocolate...and creme brulee...and chocolate mousse...and so many other delicious desserts! The food was simply amazing in France, even the sandwiches were better. In between the eating though, we saw some pretty amazing things!

I woke up at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday morning and had to take a train to Vienna and then a bus to the Vienna airport. I then took a flight to Paris where I met up with Molly. She waited for me for 5 hours in the airport (that's a true friend right there)! I of course cried when I saw her and it was the best thing in the world to see someone from home. The time from when I left Colorado to when I saw Molly was the longest I would go without seeing someone from home. I count Paulette (My Aunt Margret's friend who I will be staying with in Madrid for a few weeks) as someone from home even though I have never met her. Anyways, it was just great to see my best friend.

Side Note: While Molly was waiting for me, she said that three men asked her in the airport if she wanted to get a taxi with them!! For those who haven't seen Taken, don't. It's a scary movie about two girls who get kidnapped in Paris and it's starts by a guy asking to share a taxi...

So after getting all our things together, we were off to find our hostel! I unfortunately read the directions wrong and we ended up spending 20 minutes walking in the wrong directions. It was an hour and a half of metros, RER, walking and walking and walking to find our hostel! We decided we would take an airport shuttle when we left to get to the airport. But after finally arriving, the hostel was great! It had computers so we were able to contact our families and let them know we were safe, the decor was adorable and we had a female dorm (after my firm talk with the receptionist telling him that we HAD to have an all female room, no guys allowed).

We then settled in and went out to explore. It was around 8:30 p.m. by the time we went out and it was busy! This would never happen in Graz, everything closes at 7. There were people out walking getting food, gelato or just taking  stroll. There were cute French cafe's where people were sharing wine and just enjoying the atmosphere. We went walking around a little and soon we just stopped at a street vendor and grabbed some pizza, went back to the room to eat and then went to bed. We were both exhausted!

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready to head to Rouen, a suburb of Paris where Garrett's uncle lives (Garrett is Molly's boyfriend, my friend).We underestimated the time it takes to get to the train station and missed the train we were supposed to get on! Since we didn't have Joe's (Garrett's Uncle) phone number, we had to go back to the hostel, email him, and come back to the train station to take a later train. It was all worth it, Rouen was beautiful!

It's a smaller city but still big for me. We just got to walk around and see so much history. Rouen was used in WWII as a port for ships and supplies to be brought into France. The Seine river is deep enough to allow big ships to come into the city. There were bullet holes in some of the buildings and a lot of the buildings around the river were newer than the rest of city due to bombings and destruction when war broke out. Monet also lived in Rouen for a period of his life. Joe and his daughter, Emma, took us to have real French food called croque monsieur, a type of grilled ham and cheese but a thousand times better! I really loved it and afterward we had chocolate mousse and another kind of dessert that I don't know the name of. They were both delicious.

We also went to see Jane, Joe's wife at the opera house. She works as the head violinist and we were able to go backstage and see the behind the scenes type stuff. The opera also had a live crow in it and the crow even had it's own dressing room! It was pretty funny. I also got to see the bucket of food for the crow...that's one thing I wish I didn't see. The other cool place Molly and I saw was the restaurant Julia Childs ate at and that's how she decided she wanted to write a cook book. We also saw a place where Joan of Arc was killed, the tower she was kept prisoner in, and a burial ground where people from the Black Plague were dumped when they had died (I know that sounds harsh but I can't think of another way to put it!)

After getting back to Paris, we went out for dinner. My smoked salmon was not the best but luckily Molly shared her dinner and we got creme brulee afterward. I also had my first French wine and it was really good. They brought it out in a mini pitcher and we got more than I thought we would. However, you can't let good French wine to go waste can you?

Monday was our first real adventure day. We stepped off the subway to find we could see everything. Molly teared up a bit when she saw the Eiffel Tower and I was just amazed that we were actually here. We saw the Louvre, L'Orangerie Museum, the Tuileries, Arc de Triomphe, and so much more. It was the best way to get off the subway and the perfect first view of Paris. We then headed to the Tulieries and went to L'Orangerie Museum. We got to see some of Monat's famous paintings the the Tulieries are just some famous gardens in Paris. Both were beautiful and so much fun to go to.

After grabbing some lunch, Molly and I headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was amazing! Most cathedrals I've been in so far in Europe have been decorated from floor to ceiling. In Notre Dame, the entire thing was plain. There were stained-glass windows (Like the famous Rose Window) and some decoration in each alter area, but for the most part it was brick. There was also choir practice going on so it felt very spiritual while we were in there. I don't know to to describe the inside that well without showing you pictures. And since I can't seem to upload pictures onto this blog, you'll have to either google picture it or just go there yourself. I recommend going there, but you know, that's just me!

That night we took a boat tour by night on the Seine river. Everything was lit up and it was a beautiful view. We were given a little history about each building we passed and got some awesome night pictures.

Tuesday's Schedule-The Rundown.:
Sacre Coeur
Notre Dame Towers (yeah, with the gargoyles)
Dinner wtih Joe at Chartier

Sacre Coeur is beautiful! It's another cathedral on top of a hill and only 10 minutes away from our hostel. I really appreciate when the people working at the cathedrals tell you that you can't take pictures because it's a sacred place. Even though I'd like to share with you all the beauty of these churches and I'd like to remember them myself, I also like that they are holding true to what they were built for, a place to worship God.

Molly and I climbed up 285 steps to reach the top and my legs were dying! Obviously God was trying tell me something as I walked up, like "hey maybe you should trying some physical activity in your life." (It's not on the top of my to-do list.) Sacre Coeur looks a lot like Notre Dame in terms of decoration, it's just smaller. It was still fun to visit another cathedral.

We then went back to Notre Dame to climb the towers. That was an experience! We were so close to the gargoyles and the path around the top was super thin so we were pressed between the building and the rail. We also got to see the bell room and the bell. It looks just like the movie!! (You know, the Disney movie, Hunchback of Notre Dame) Molly and I took some great pictures and again it was an amazing view of the city. Definitely worth the money to go to the towers.

We hurried back to our hostel to get changed and then headed to dinner with Joe. He was in town for rehearsal of an upcoming show he was going to be in and invited us to dinner. I got roasted chicken with french fries and grated carrots. Apparently grated carrots are a big deal in France. It was pretty funny though at dinner, Joe asked if we wanted wine. He then proceeded to ask us how old we were and once he found out we were only 20, said "Oh so you can't drink yet? Okay nevermind!" and we didn't have any wine at dinner! Pretty sure the rules on drinking age in the US don't apply to France otherwise we broke the law almost every night! (Like I said, one glass of wine only people. And we had a different one every time. We just wanted to try it, we're not alcoholics!)

Well this is one of my longer blog posts. I know I still have 3 days left to tell you about, but our party grew by two on Wednesday so I'll leave that for Paris #2 post. Now go do something with your lives instead of reading about mine :) (I say that in the least self-centered way possible. Honest)

Au Revoir, 
Sara