October 17, 2012

Bonjour from Paris!!

Hey everyone! Wow. What a whirlwind of a trip I am on right now with my sister. We got into Paris yesterday early afternoon. The flight from Seattle to Chicago was ok minus the turbulence, then we hopped on to the flight from Chicago to Paris. I was a bit motion sick from the first flight and struggled with the 8 hour flight to Paris. The man in front of me crushed my knees when he leaned his chair back, the food was not applaudable, they didnt even have my dairy free meal. All was good though since they served us Chinese......on a French flight. We slept for 6 of the 8 hours. Not solidly and not for more than (at the most) 30 min at a time. When we began our descent into France, my stomach thought that would be a good time to be hurting an painful. Yay you dang acid. My sister forced me to eat something and I struggled putting a few bites into my mouth. But no up chuck for this one. Thank goodness. We were beginning our descent and yes friends, I cried. I shed 4 tears at the sight of French land, homes and cars. Happy tears obvi. Everything went well after getting from the airport to where we were staying. Quick change of clothes and it was off to explore Paris. We took the metro to Place dr Concord. Spotted the beautiful fountains (I call them the devil wears Prada fountains cuz I am just like that). We walked over to the gardens, and it was there, over by the l'orangerie where I saw Pierre, standing so tall and handsome like. He waved at me and I waved back it was love. We chatted--well more like HE chatted, I just drooled like a child who's tooth is coming in-- the sun began to set, when he took my hand and off we went, to a little cafe. Magic, pure magic.
......nah I lied. There was no Pierre. I'm sorry. But there was a beautiful tall structure that I am in love with that I spotted as we were standing by the l'orangerie. It is stunning. That piece of iron just wow. Never get tired of it. I was beaming when I saw it. And then 500 pictures commenced and we are back in bidness with the tower photos! Bam! My sister and I walked from Place de Concord all the way over to the Eiffel Tower, turning at random streets, smelling the sweet smells of freshly made baguettes and quiches. French men and women make conversation at little side cafés. The zipping (and honking) of cars and mopeds passing by. Ahhh Paris, you never cease to amaze me. I walked with my head up for most of the walk, I will never tire of the cream apartments with blue roofs and red chimneys. The little flower boxes outside sone of the windows, shutters that are slanting off the wall, and a little old woman walking with her trench coat and a bag of baked goods and market produce.

We made it to the Eiffel Tower while eating our first of many baguettes and pain aux chocolat. We sat on a bench and just stated in awe that we had made it and were in fact, in Paris. We went to go get something to drink from a stand by the park. I ordered in French, and when it came time to pay, we grabbed our money and the man quickly told us he did not take big bills. After some very panic stricken moments we figured out how to make it work and I apologized in French, to which the French man replied "no no no it's ok." Phewwwww! We headed to the tracadarro (which if you have never been to Paris, it is the view of the tower from the other side of the river) took some more photos and made our way towards the Champs Élysées. We walked down it and just took it all in. It was sunny weather yesterday and perfect for walking anywhere. After that, it was over to Rue Cambon, where, Incase you have no clue, is Coco Chanel's original store, the store where she lived above. We walked over there, and I began to get excited. We walked past a few windows and then, I saw it, a giant portrait photo of miss Chanel herself. I KNEW the doors to her apt had to be in there. Sure enough, there they were, in all their glory, the spiral stairs with the mirrored wall following the stairs all the way to the top. I got chills. Big giant fashion chills. It was amazing. And I died.
We decided to head back to our friends apt and regroup for the evening plans. We decided upon grocery store dinner treats and had fun picking out (and translating the labels for my sister) dinner for ourselves. Back to apt where we decided we were too tired to go out for the evening. Hit the pillow and we were out.
Today we woke up much later than expected. And I will write in my next post what we did. But for now au revoir, Bon soir. I'm off to sleep. Tomorrow is the last day in Paris.

Hope you're all doing well. :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So glad 'Pierre' was there to make you feel welcome. Mmmmm ...Baguettes!