Paris. Where do I begin? It is the city that I've wanted to visit since I was 5 years old, in kindergarten and just learning how to say "bonjour" in French. Yes, I know I went with my parents (which was amazing, of course), but this time, I got to explore it, and trust me. It didn't disappoint.
I arrived on Thursday night, prepping myself for another round of interviews, mercifully in a taxi from the airport paid for by my wonderful parents. The hostel was the worst I've been in so far, called the Aloha Hostel, which provided my room with ONE outlet for SIX people (some rooms had 0 outlets). I'm sorry. WHat? THat is actually INSANE. I got in after my plane had been delayed for an hour and a half out of Geneva, and so I had already had dinner and was pretty much just ready to not worry about any of the nonsense hostel crap going on around me and go to bed. I had interviews to conduct the next day, and I was meeting a friend from elementary school (who is studying in Paris) to head to the Sorbonne to do them.
Friday morning, I woke up and spent 3 hours trying to un-lose myself in attemptint go get to Pré Verre where we were going to eat lunch before heading to the University. It was ridiculous. I ended up accidentally going in the ABSOLUTE OPPOSITE DIRECTION of where I needed to be going, and, again, thanks to my wonderful parents, got in a cab and went straight to the restaurant.
Apprently this place is pretty well known; it has a 13.90 euro lunch meal consisting of wine and some type of starter and an entrée, don't ask me to explain what it was, and coffee. It was really good, and teh two of us had a chance to catch up after a few years of not seeing each other. She goes to Bryn Mawr, and the last time I saw her was her graduation party, so this was a really nice opportunity. From here, we went to La Sorbonne, which was beautiful if slightly confusing, and began to try to find 12 people to interview. It was freezing, and we ended up being there for 4 FREAKING HOURS begging for people to help us out. Not only that, but my favorite pair of black pants got an gigantic rip in the crotch, and so I literally waddled around for the better party of the interviews with my not-so-fluent french and my not-so-happy attitude of being freezing, stressed, and nearly pantsless. At last we finished. Ohmygod I've never been so happy for anything to be over. We only encountered one horribly rude girl, to whom I wish good luck whenever she needs to do interviews, I hope you never come across anyone with your own horrible, snooty, snippy attitude.
After, we rewarded ourselves to a dinner at a cute café near the University, getting hot wine and dessert of crème brulée to top it off. It was great. It was relatively late, and so we parted ways and I went back to my dank, one-outlet hostel to await the great fun to be had in the next two days.
Saturday was incredible. It was everything I'd ever wanted to do in Paris and more. We went to the Louvre and saw some fantastic artwork, including the Mona LIsa (of course) which was actually bigger than I thought it was going to be, since everyone adn their mother has told me it was TINY.
We got some photos by the pyramid, and wandered through the Tuileries (totally casual), and made our way backward to see Notre Dame. We had to cross the Seine, and almost got pick-pocketed while crossing teh Pont Neuve. Ugh. Clever people pretending to be helping the mute and deaf. Wow, that is low. The line to into the Notre Dame was ENORMOUS, so we sat outside and shot some photos, and then opted to go find SHakespeare & Co. For those fo you who don't know, that is the place where the "writers of the lost generation" hung out when they were in Paris during teh 1920s; this includes Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Joyce, and Stein among many others. We saw original books, typewriters and rooms. It was incredible. While I was there, I obviously needed to buy something, so I got "The Ocean at the ENd of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman (I highly suggest EVERYONE read it, it was fantastic) and I got "The Great Gatsby" for my tandem partner's 18th birthday, since he really wants to improve his English. It's an American classic from the place where ideas were born, so I felt it was quite fitting. I spent so much money there I got a free tote bag....woohoo?
We left there and wandered back down past the Louvre, pausing to take some pictures on the Lock-Bridge (it is literally a bridge covered in thousands of locks......it is VERY impressive), and we went towards the Champs Elysées where we bought more hot wine and stumbled upon a GIGANTIC Christmas market. It was awesome, and I heard so much Frank Sinatra singing Christmas music! Wonderful! When we finally reached the beginning of the shops, I paused to get a picture, because, why not? and we set off to find a Christmas gift for mom (very hush hush) and to go to Ladurée, the Macaron place which I DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DEFINITELY knew I wanted to go to. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. I got some Macarons; 2 Rose, 1 Violet, 1 Chocolate, 1 Orange cream, 1 Pistaschio. Amazing. That s*** went immediately onto instragram. The inside of the place was beautiful; guilded with paintings and rich colors. It was straight out of the 19th century. We were going to wait to get into the tea room, but the line was too long, so we headed to the Arc du Triomphe instead. As we couldn't easily cross 50987520934867 lanes of traffic, we just took pictures of it from across the road and headed home to settle in. Sunday, we planned to do some homework and finish up our Paris tour.
By this I mean go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Sunday morning, I got up and did homework, and in the afternoon went to meet my friend after buying an adorable Christmas book for my Godson. We headed straight to the Eiffel Tower, took a ton of pics beneath it, and got in line to head to the top. And oh my god. THe view of the glittering lights of Paris was absolutely mind-blowing. We were at the tip-top looking down over the Champs-Elysées, the Seine, the Arc du Triomphe, and everyone in the city. It was beautiful.
After spending about 40 minutes up there, we headed down and went to a café for Chocolat viennoise (aka hot chocolate with a TON of whipped cream) to wait for 8:00 pm which was the next time the tower would light up and glitter. We made it, and I took a video. It was beautiful; the entire tower just looked like it was covered with diamonds.
Leaving the Eiffel Tower, I reflected a little bit. I had done everything I'd wanted to, and it was literally my childhood (and adulthood) dream come true. I had been to Paris. I had seen the mythical Tour Eiffel, l'arc du Triomphe, champs elysée, le Louvre and the Notre Dame. I'd done everything. You see, being in Europe, I've realized that my greatest fear is that of these places, these wonderful places that I've only ever dreamed of going to, would lose their newness, just as Geneva has. BUt for Paris, this feeling was much stronger. I've now done everything, seen everything I wanted to. It was the fulfilling of a dream I've had since I was five years old. It's just done now. What is there to replace it? Nothing, really. I've experienced the city of lights. Now, if I ever go again, what will I feel? Will it be SO breathtaking ts time? Or will it be just a little more dim than the glittering city it was this time? I don't know. But I felt like a small part of me, which has been attatched to me for 16 years was lost that weekend. It was bittersweet, somehow. I have never been so thankful for an opportunity; a chance, like this. But I can't help but be a little bit sad that this dream, this chapter has come to an end, and I now need to fill it with a new dream. Will I be able to live here again? WIth a fulbright? WIth a job? Do I really want that? I don't know. I will need to think about it.
But for now, I went to Paris. I saw the City of Lights. I went to the top of teh Eiffel Tower, and I lived out my dream. How many people can really say that?
This trip was truly the one that made me the most thankful for being abroad.
xoxoEdie