After all, this is France!

The plan was to be up, ready and downstairs right at 7:00a when the breakfast room opened. We made it about 1/2 hr later. What was supposed to be 'American style' buffet, proved to be more of French interpretation with runny eggs and soggy bacon, and stuff to make sandwiches :) We then walked to the metro and just barely caught our planned train to Versailles. Phew!


We wandered (and followed some other tourists) to the grand entrance of Versailles. We arrived a few minutes before they opened at 9a, and demanded they let us in.


With just one other little group, we had Versailles all to ourselves! We grabbed our audio guides and began our adventure.


Beauty.

Magnificence.

History.

You know, I once played Marie Antoinette, so this was kinda like a home-going.

Could you imagine having an audience to watch you eat?

Remember this from my previous post? The original is at the Louvre!

This was from some side exhibit thing there but how cool is it?


Okay, so after the Palace, we walked to Marie Antoinette's estate to find that it didn't open for another 30 minutes, so we walked alllll the way back to catch our next train. We took it straight to Musee d'Orsay, and found a little cafe for lunch.

I accidentally took this picture before I realized I wasn't supposed to take them at all, which is a shame, even though I would have absolutely filled my camera with the amazing impressionist work. Loved it.


From there, we walked along the Seine to Notre Dame where I was extremely disappointed in the commercialism of the cathedral. Next time, I'm taking Madi's advice and just going into the smaller ones I pass as opposed to the well known ones.

We then popped into Shakespeare and Co and planned our next move. Metro -> Longchamp store -> Arc de Triomphe. Easy, right?

Well when we made it to the Arc, people were pouring out of the exits, and we didn't know why. It turns out there was some kind of military something going on, and it was closed for the thing. Oh well. It provided me with a valid excuse for not having to go up a zillion more stairs. I got some gorgeous pics (the sky was perfect) and we moved along.


Walking back, we stopped at McDonalds for some 'deluxe potatoes,' which are essentially potato wedges, and were served with 'creamy dip,' which was essentially ranch! YUM! I'd show you a pic, but we ate them far too fast. Someone tell the Benton's to bring them to the states.

We made dinner plans that night with my old friend from A&M Kellie Ann and her bf Forrest who just so happened to be in town the same time as us :) It was an absolute DELIGHT catching up with KA and getting to know Forrest and just hanging out chatting about life. It felt like we were locals getting together with friends for dinner...nevermind the language barrier with the waitress. Just lovely.

We then roamed Champs Elysses and had some vin chaud (hot wine), but that was after we passed this gem:

What could this be, you ask? Why, it's an Abercrombie and Fitch, of course! Which apparently is super dimly lit with super loud music, super expensive sweaters in 3 colors with half naked models walking around. Unbelievably hilarious.

From there we opted to check out Footsie, a joint I discovered online that is this stock exchange themed bar where drink prices change every 4 minutes depending on what's popular at the time. It's not the mega nightclub you envision, but a small, dark bar with tv screens displaying current pricing. We scrambled together enough chairs and sat around a small table and chatted and people watched. We had a drink and left, passing a guy sitting in a girl's lap on our way out (oh Paris!). We went back to the metro and parted ways. KA & bf were headed to Rome a few days later!

Another friend of mine from A&M, Jessica, was waiting in our hotel lobby when we returned. She's working in Dole as an English assistant at a school about 2 hours outside of Paris. Anyway, she and I walked to Monoprix (like Target) because I knew it was open until midnight and it was like 11:15p. We browsed and chatted and bought random stuff...to include the ridiculously glorious amazing delicious SPECULOOS! Jessica made me get it, and has now instilled in me an obsession with it. Google it. My life will never be the same. (Thankfully I've found it in the states!)

We went back to the hotel and I gave her the flavor blasted goldfish I brought her because she misses them, and we said our goodbyes. So good to see her!! Such a small world when I can meet up with 2 friends from uni on the same day. :)

I then packed while Haley slept. We had a 6:24a train to catch from a station across town...

Melodies so sweet through all the trees

My arrival in Paris was a whirlwind.

Had I slept? I must have, because here I was at CDG airport 10 hours later. Customs was a breeze at 9:45a, and I swear some gentleman thought I was French (or at least spoke it) based on my pronunciation of 'bonjour,' because he proceeded to talk to me in French (to which I pretended not to hear).

I had no idea how to find Haley, but there she was waiting for me past baggage claim. It was shortly thereafter I realized my 'train to hotel' instructions were on my laptop at home. Awesome. We maneuvered and talked to people and bought our 2-day, 5-zone Visite passes. Figuring out the metro became quite an adventure, and by the grace of God, a beautiful Parisian woman asked us (in English) if we needed help. We did more than we realized.

It was about 12p when we reached Hotel Rochester de Champs Elysses. We checked into our upgraded room (yay!) and reworked our itinerary to begin at Montemarte and visit the Arc de Triomphe later that evening.

Our train let us off and as we were exiting, we saw a line for the elevator. "How silly," we thought, and headed for the stairs. Little did we know, but soon learned, that there were about 1000 flights of stairs to the 'sortie' (exit). We did arrive at the same time as the elevator patrons so 2 pats on the back for that. We then walked to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur. Both ramps up to it were blocked by men who harassed us and grabbed our arms to get us to buy their bracelet things. We survived! And saw this:



A couple asked if we would like them to take our picture, and we in turn took theirs. Yay for identifying other Americans.


Dreading the walk down, Haley and I plotted ways to get buy the hustlers. I thought maybe we could run. Haley was going to angrily shout one of the few Czech phrases she knows: Merry Christmas. Ha! Some guys tried to approach us but guys from the other side said, "Leave them alone. Leave those babies alone." Ooookay.

We roamed Montemarte a bit and went in search of food. We settled on crepes from a vendor relatively near a metro we came upon. AMAZING!!


We then took the metro to the Louvre!


What is this?!



Here we are in the dungeon. Haley's picture came out way scarier than mine, but I think I conveyed my fear well enough.



There are many more pictures of the Louvre I will spare you, but it was lovely and I will definitely need more time next time (ehem..Julie...)
On to Angelina!

We didn't have enough room in our tummies to order the croque monsieur as directed, however we did order their famous hot chocolate and pomme frites.

Haley managed to insult every French person in the restaurant (including the ladies beside us who thought it necessary to let us know how "very American" it was to dip our fries in our hot chocolate). Some people just don't appreciate the salty + sweet combination! Our server brought us our check way fast (insultingly so), and when he found out we were from Texas, he associated us with Cowboys (the team? the profession?) and Walker, Texas Ranger. Lovely.

We then walked down Champs Elysees and browsed the Christmas market. The plan at this point was to pop into our hotel and grab our Tour Eiffel tickets, and go to the Arc de Triomphe beforehand. Wellllll we ordered up our complimentary bottle of wine, and before we even finished a glass, we completely crashed. Oops.
Thankfully, we awakened in time to (just barely) make our 10pm tickets.

It's really quite lovely at night, and on the hour, it sparkles. *le sigh*


As we were walking back to our metro, another souvenir guy tried to get our attention by saying "Shakira! Lady Gaga!" Hmm. I'm going to pretend I was Shakira. Back to the hotel to sleep. Early morn Friday!