Paris: Days 2, 3, and 4

Day 2

After a very long and tiring day, I was excited to have a fresh start the next morning. I managed to sleep close to 10 hours which left me feeling far better than the day before, but still not great. I met up again with my friend Lily (after having seen her for a lovely dinner the night before) and she said she had a free guest pass for the Louvre on Wednesday morning with her student idea, which made our plans a no brainer. We headed over to the museum and I had forgotten just how huge the place is. Lily said she had heard some statistic that if you spent 5 seconds looking at every artifact in the museum it would take something like 24 days. However, we were only there for 2 hours. We then wandered the area and found what looked like a quick grab and go lunch place, so we went in there to purchase some sandwiches. When we informed them we would eat in, a man told us to come with him. We thought he was leading us to a different register to pay, but actually winded us through 3 back rooms and eventually to a table. Lily had a theater show to see with her program so we parted ways and I met up with another friend from elementary school, Ali, for dinner and we had a great meal catching up and reminiscing about elementary school times. 


Day 3

I woke up this morning, grabbed breakfast in the hostel with my hostel-mates, then realized I had no schedule for the day. With no map or plan for what I was going to do, I headed to the metro and took ligne 12 with no idea of where I was headed. I ended up at the cite stop and decided it was a good place to get off. I wandered around the area and saw Notre Dame in front of me. Upon entering, I noticed there was a service going on. Oddly there were 5 times more tourists than congregants and the lector was wearing tennis shoes. Not quite what I would have pictured for a service at Notre Dame. I continued to wander and found some adorable narrow cobblestone streets with restaurants and cafes lining the streets, each one looking just as good as the next. I decided I wanted to find the perfect place for lunch, which was too hard of decision so I ended up wandering for another hour. I finally chose a boulangerie with un sandwhich vegeterien and ate it in the rain overlooking l'hotel de ville in the chatelet neighborhood (although I was clueless as to where I was at the time). Tired and cold from all the walking in the rain, I headed back to my hostel neighborhood, grabbed un cafe and un pain au chocolat and read a french magazine on the U.S presidential campaign. The french love Obama. I was then planning on heading back to the hostel and relaxing but reminded myself I'm in Paris and should see all that I can. I headed in a new direction from the hostel and ended up in a quaint neighborhood with beautiful houses (shown in the picture above). I continued up some steep hills and the houses eventually turned into more perfectly Parisian cobblestone paths with little cafes and stores. The area was practically deserted and I thought I had found a hidden gem of Paris. I continued to wander around and happened upon this beautiful cathedral. 

I thought to myself how only in Paris would such a beautiful place appear so nonchalant. I then continued down the street only to see a sign with an arrow identifying the cathedral as Sacre Coeur. Whoops. I also hadn't realized just how much of a hill I had climbed until I saw this view.

I returned back to my hostel and found a message from Ali seeing if I wanted to join her and her friends for dinner at a well known fondue place. I met her in her neighborhood, where we walked 5 minutes to the Eiffel Tower where we saw it lit up and sparkling. She took me to her apartment and I met her host dad, a famous gourmet french chef turned food photographer. We met up with her friends and headed to the restaurant, La Revenge du Fromage. The restaurant was tiny, with two long tables with benches along each chalk-covered wall. The menu was prix-fix and included wine served in baby bottles, which looked like this:


Day 4
Today, I met up with Liv, a friend from Skidmore. We met at a falafel place in the Saint-Paul neighborhood (the Jewish neighborhood). I had been told by a few people I needed to try this particular falafel place (there were three more right next door). It was very good but unfortunately did not live up to the hype, so don't worry Jessie and Hannah, London falafel remains as my #1. Liv and I wandered around the neighborhood for a while and then she took me to the Pompidou, the inside-out building/cultural center. We went up the escalators to a beautiful view of the city. It helped me to get the bearings I could not seem to get (entirely related to not having a map). It was also some of the first sunshine I've seen since arriving!
 
We then decided we needed some macaroons. Liv insisted we go to a particular place rather than having the cheap imitation versions. For my first macaroon experience I had pistachio, rose, colombian chocolate, and caramel flavors. We enjoyed them on a bench on a bridge over La Seine. A perfect moment.

Liv and I parted ways and I headed out to meet up with Denis, a french teaching assistant from my elementary school who lived with us when I was in third grade. We hadn't seen each other since. We went to dinner and spoke entirely in french (something I didn't know I would be capable of...but it came back). The conversation was successful enough that we were able to understand eachother's humor. He then took me to what he thought was a Moroccan restaurant (but ended up being Algerian) for tea. We conversed with the animated bartender there, again entirely in french, where he tried to teach me some Arabic (uh oh...) and talked about the benefits of traveling and how he does not like when Americans automatically speak English to you and expect you to respond. We also talked about politics, where I learned some more about how the french love Obama.


Sorry for the enormous post, but those are all of the updates. I am now checked out of the hostel and now plan on enjoying my last day in Paris before the real adventure begins tomorrow! Talk to you in Morocco!!

Love,
Karin