La vie Parisienne!!!

Je suis à Paris! C'est formidable et le ville est aussi belle que je me souviens.

Excuse if my French is terrible. I've only been in France for 3 full days, I figure I've got til the end of the week for my language skills to kick into gear.

I arrived in the city of lights, the magical city of Paris, at about 5pm on Friday evening. Kevin came and met me with his friend Mark. So great to see my buddy!!!!

Sacre-Coeur my first night in Paris!!

It was also awesome to just be back in Paris. It's such a magical place!! We took the metro to Kevin's apartment, where I met his roommate Walter. Kev lives literally in the heart of Montmartre. Like, smack in the middle. Sacré-Coeur is a minute's walk away. It's amazing.

That night, we journeyed up the hill and saw Sacré-Coeur all lit up and beautiful. We ended up having dinner at a little pizzeria place, drawn to it because of the live piano music. I had an omelet du fromage. Ya protein. At one point during our meal the pianist played Clair de Lune and I knew my Paris trip had officially started. On our way out the boys requested he play the Amelie soundtrack, and he did.

first view of the Seine and Notredame!

That evening the boys taught me a couple new board games, and we finished the evening by actually watching Amelie. It takes place in the neighborhood of Montmartre, so that was cool and a nice little intro to the area.

St. Michel - our jam

Saturday morning, Kevin, Walter and I woke up and took a free walking tour like the one I took in Copenhagen. We hit up many of the main sites. We started at the Fountain St. Michel, which was very beautiful. Then we walked over to the Seine to check out a view of Notre Dame. I'm looking forward to going inside there this trip.

Next we walked down to the right bank of the river to see Pont Neuf. Our guide explained how all the random faces lining the brides were casts made from portraits made at the kick-off party for the bridge, of all the drunken guests. The original Facebook. Haha.

Pont Neuf with its silly faces

Next we walked through the courtyards of the Louvre. When we wandered past the fountains (by the pyramids) I got all sentimental for my time there with Kirst, Grady and my mom back in 2009. "We'll always have Paris"

We took a quick break at Starbucks, where I ordered my "moca blanc" in decent French. Up next was an ever so pleasant walk through the Jardin des Tuileries and a lesson in French history.

When the tour ended, we walked past the Obelisk and shopped the Champs Élysées. I bought a couple things at H&M and am possibly most excited about the bag they came in (with the address on it).

My goodness I love this city.

We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe at around sunset and took some nice photos there. Then we metro'ed home, where Kevin and I planned out our train trip around France. It's going to be amazing!!

Kevin and I went for dinner at an unreal crêperie in Montmartre. The set menu included a savoury crêpe, a sweet crêpe, and a glass of Breton kir. The savoury crêpes there were all "Breton style", which meant they were gluten free!!!

For my savoury I had one called the "Norvegienne" which was smoked salmon and creamed spinach and lemon and TO DIE-FOR!!! My sweet one, "Mont Blanc", was bananas, chocolate, grilled almonds, whipped cream and ice cream and I died again.

Back at the apartment, Kevin, Walter and I played a sweet game called Ticket to Ride (it involves creating railways in old school Europe), and got to bed later than we should have. The next day was the first Sunday of the month, which means essentially everything in Paris is free, so we planned to take on Versailles.

Stay tuned!