Paris

So I thought I would blog my Paris experience before I head out to Liverpool this weekend! I've been meaning to add it all week but this week has passed like it was nothing!! Paris was amazing, I really enjoyed it but I definitely love London even more, and not just because they speak English!! :)



So Lucy, the French Society (F.S.), and I left for Paris last Friday night. We got onto a coach bus drove to Dover (finally made it there.. just at night!!) got on a ferry to France and then drove to Paris! What a LONG trip! I don't know if I blogged about being sick (I think I did...) but I was sick all last week from the flu or something. As soon as I thought I was getting over it... BAM! it comes back again :( I was doing good Thursday afternoon and all day Friday then once we get to France, guess what? Yup.. I get sick again! So my first day in Paris was awful! Very eventful, but still that yucky I don't want to do anything except sleep kind of day!



We arrived in Paris early in the morning (well early for Europeans) at around 7:30ish. I've been up about all night because I can't sleep in moving vehicles or anything like that :( No big deal, we're going straight to the hostel, right?? NOPE! We get to the hostel to find out that we can't check in officially until 2:30! So I don't get to take a nap until that afternoon! We end up going to breakfast at some cafe that was just around the corner. My first hour in France and I learned a very important thing about the French, they're very slow in service.. unlike the States or the UK for that matter. When they get to you, they get to you! :) Of course I didn't eat a thing, not like I could have kept in me anyways. Afterwards we get our Metro (tube) passes for the weekend. Thankfully we have the F.S. to help us with the French bit :) We then take a metro to somewhere... sorry I can't remember I was out of it!! We go on a boat tour of France see all the tourist stuff... well I should say everyone else did. I froze and tried not to fall asleep or get sick. Lucy took all the photos I wanted for me.. she even has picture of me leaning on her because I'm so tired and I don't feel good. After our boat tour we then get back on the metro and go to this open market for lunch. Lucy and I end up being by ourselves as usual, she gets lunch from a small shop and I watch her eat while I munch on cereal that my parents sent me.



After lunch, Lucy, Grig (our Greek friend) and I go to the catacombs. The sign tells you that it's pretty disturbing but I'm like I can handle this... and I did! It wasn't until we go to the catacombs themselves that I started think I couldn't!! Got some amazing pictures with people's remains (sounds gross and weird, I know). After the catacombs we go back the hostel, which I forgot to mention is less than 5 minutes from the Louvre. You have to walk past the Louvre to get to the hostel. How Jesus is that? At the hostel we check into our room only find out that we're on the top floor... 5 1/2 flights of stairs later we finally make it to the room and collapse. I think I slept for at least 4 hours!!

The F.S. was supposed to provide us dinner but they bailed out on us at the last minute. I learned that they are horrible with sticking to their word. Oh well! So Lucy, Lisa, Grig, John, Cory and I all go to dinner at this Italian restaurant next to the hostel. I know, I'm in France eating Italian. How crazy is that? Dinner was good. We ordered different pizzas and then shared among ourselves. After dinner everyone got ready to go clubbing except me. I'm still sick, of course. I fell asleep after they left at like 9:30 and didn't wake up until 7 or 8 the next morning. Got the sleep I finally needed to feel better!

On the first Sunday of the month all the museums are free in Paris and we so happened to be in Paris the first Sunday of the month! JESUS :) Lucy and I got up early to go to the Louvre when they opened at 9. We didn't leave until I think like noon or later. We then got lost coming out of the Louvre trying to find our way to the metro that we usually use to make our way to Notre Dame. Well we came out of the wrong way ended up on the otherside of the Louvre, which wasn't that bad. We ended up going to the cafe for lunch and we run into our first experience of someone who doesn't speak English. It was quite amusing!! She didn't speak English and we only know how to say "Do you speak English?" Looking back now its funny but at that moment it wasn't. Ordering was a bit difficult but we managed. After lunch Lucy and I then went to Notre Dame. We missed the first half of mass because we were late but we snuck in anyways. So I can say that I've been to mass at Notre Dame and had communion too. Quite interesting!! Afterwards Lucy and I get on the Metro to go take pictures of Arc de Triumph. Took a few pictures, almost got flatten by a bus (looked the wrong way.. well right way for the U.S. wrong for the U.K.!) and then we made our way back to the hostel for a nap. The F.S. planned for all us to go to dinner in the Latin Quarter but of course, guess what? They were late and when we did end up eating dinner it was like at 10 o'clock. Lucy and I had plans to go to the eiffel tower at night and see Paris at night (obviously) however the last lift to the top was at 11 p.m. We didn't make it obviously. But a group of us went to the eiffel tower after dinner and got pictures with it at night. Very pretty!! :)

Monday, our last day in Paris. Lucy and I got up to go back to Notre Dame and climb the stairs. Ugh..!! If anyone knows me they know how much I hate stairs! I have a bad reputation with stairs... falling down them and tripping up them. But we made it to the top after climing the 400 plus stairs!! :) The view from the top was amazing, of course. On the way down Lucy and I sang "Amazing Grace" to not think about the stairs, after singing "Code Monkey" first! It was quite an experience. After that we went to the eiffel tower! Stood in line for 45 minutes got on a lift to the second base stood in line again for another lift for another 30 minutes. Lucy and I have this thing that we just sing all the time when we walk or wait. In line Lucy and I start quoting Monty Python stuff and singing Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping, Brother John) after all we are in France! We finally make it to the top of the eiffel tower and we make a quick video to Lucy's friend Matt who requested on. We walked around a bit taking lots of pictures of the view :)

Aftewards we get on the metro to go back to the area that the hostel is in and the shopping. Coming out of the metro we take a wrong exit, even though it says exit in French and end up at the mall under the Louvre! Of course we find the mall the last 2 hours we're in Paris, how fitting? After geting lost trying to find the toilets we give up and just go get some lunch. We go to this cafe where of course our waiter doesn't speak English but we're already over that by now. We're sitting at the table writing post cards when these two older couples come and sit by us. At first I thought they were French because they were talking to us in French, the usual excuse me, pardon me stuff. But... as they sit down and start talking we notice that they're American as well. I say something to Lucy and the gentleman sitting next me goes "You're American". Lucy and I then explain that we're studying in England and in Paris for the weekend. All in all it was quite funny. Taught them how to use their American phones to dial out in Europe. FYI, you put a + sign in front of the number including a 1 for the country code!

After lunch Lucy and I go hunt down a post office only to find out its close. It has a sign but we don't read French! We then leave and do a bit of quick shopping and make it back to the hostel in time :) We left Paris on Monday at 5:30 made it back to Reading at 3:30, including the time change (Paris is 1 hour ahead of London). I wish I could say coming back wasn't as bad... but 2 hours before we made it to the chanel the coach door that had been opened after getting fuel refused to close. So our drive had to manually close it, but the coach's emergency signals are going off to let us know that the door is not closed. We ended up driving for almost 2 hours with this beeping and flashing warning light to let us know the door wasn't closed! And of course Lucy and I are sitting front row by the door... how ironic, eh? When we made it to chanel the door finally stopped beeping. Customs gave me a hassle coming back into the U.K. due to my American passport but not so American nationality... I was the last one back on the coach!

We then got back on the ferry.. Lucy and I just played cards and watched the dark sea as we floated back to England dreaming of London and our beds at uni. All in all, my Paris trip was quite eventful.. not mention very exciting :)