Paris

"Big Trip" number 1 is complete: Paris!  (My definition of a "big trip" is a trip that requires a plane ride.)

I went to visit my friend Lucie for the weekend.  Lucie lives in Paris, but she was an exchange student at JHS during my sophomore year.  It was so great to see her after all this time!

The weekend began with a very early morning coach ride to Manchester on Friday.  Then, after a train ride to the airport, a flight to Beauvais, and another coach ride, I was in Paris!  Lucie met me around 6pm, and we did a little bit of sightseeing on foot.  We wanted to go to the Louvre (especially because students get in free on Fridays after 6), but it had closed early for a French holiday.  The outside of it, alone, is pretty impressive, though.  We saw a bunch of monuments from afar.  We saw the base of the glowing Eiffel Tower, but it was so foggy that the rest of it was hidden.  Then, Lucie took me to see the oldest and most famous opera house in Paris.  It felt like we had stepped into another time period.  We got to go into the foyer, and we could hear the show going on inside the theatre.  Lucie told me that every dance student in Paris hopes to dance on the Opera stage.  After some more walking around, we headed to Lucie's parents' house in a suburb of Paris.  Around 9:30/10pm, it was dinner time.  The late meal time was definitely an adjustment.  Haha.  Lucie's dad and a few of his friends left for a week-long trip to Egypt on Saturday morning, so we had a celebratory dinner with all of them.  We had appetizers of olives, peanuts, crackers, and champagne.  The main course was lamb and veg with boiled potatoes and REAL FRENCH BREAD on the side.  After dinner, we had wine and cheese... Some kind of red wine and some kind of cheese that tasted kind of like gouda.  I don't remember exactly what everything was.  After wine and cheese, (yes, there was more.  I was spoiled rotten by Lucie's family.) we had apple cinnamon cake.  This cake is now way high up on my list of favorite foods.  Needless to say, I went to bed on a very full stomache.

The next day, we had more yummy food.  I had a croissant and a pastry with chocolate in the middle for breakfast.  Delicious.  Then, Lucie and I headed into the city to see the Notre Dame de Paris where Quasimodo lives.  Just kidding.  We did go to Notre Dame, though.  While we were in the queue to go inside, Lucie pointed out the hospital adjacent to the cathedral, because she was born there.  She said, "I'm Esmeralda!"  The inside of the cathedral is gorgeous, and the outside is amazing as well.  This was a holiday weekend in France, so queues for the main tourist attractions were even crazier than normal.  Because of this, we had to skip going up the Tower of Notre Dame as well as going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but we spent the time we would have spent in queues doing lots of other Paris activities.  Lucie kept saying that we'll have to do that stuff next time.  I would LOVE for there to be a "next time" in Paris.  (Allie, Eva, Jamie, I'm looking at you.)  After Notre Dame, we walked around the area.  Notre Dame is on one of the two islands on the Seine River.  Once we had explored the first island, we went on to the next one.  The island has lots of cute, french-looking shops and cafes.  Lucie pointed out Berthillon, the best and one of the most famous ice cream shops in Paris.  We would have gotten a scoop or two, but we were already cold enough as it was!  Our next stop was ballet class, but, first, we popped back to Lucie's house for ham and pasta with tomato sauce, and, of course, more bread.  The dance class we went to wasn't a typical ballet class.  It was a special master class where we did all the exercises lying on the floor.  I wish I could remember the name of the technique, but, alas, my French is not quite up to par.  Speaking of the French language, that's the language the class was taught in.  Luckily, the teacher demonstrated all of the exercises, and, whenever I really needed to be told something, Lucie could translate.  It was interesting to find that I could understand the gist of many of the notes from the way the teacher said certain things and the hand motions she used.  It also helped to have a semester of Hilary's ballet class under my belt, so a lot of the notes were familiar.  After class, we had a snack of a donut-like chocolate pastry and more apple cake.  Did I mention that I was spoiled?  Bellies full, Lucie, Lucie's mom, and I went up to the northern part of Paris to the Sacre Coeur Basilica.  It's a gorgeous cathedral, but the view from the cathedral draws just as many people as the actual cathedral.  Paris is sort of basin-shaped, and the Sacre Coeur Basilica is up on the edge of it.  You can see most of the city from the cathedral steps.  Amazing.  We walked back down the hill as the sun was setting.  The Moulin Rouge is fairly near by, so we made a quick trip over there to see if we could sense the lingering presence of Ewan McGregor.  Afterward, we took the subway to... bum ba da bummmm... the Eiffel Tower!  It's so pretty at night with all the lights on!  We walked underneath it and around a neighboring park to take in the lights of the Tour Eiffel.  We had a little bit of extra time before our next outing, so we stopped in a cafe for some chocolat chaud.  Is it just me, or does hot chocolate taste better when you're sitting in the heart of Paris?  Our last stop of the night was a boat tour on the Seine.  I was so glad Lucie had the idea to do this!  We got to see lots of Paris's landmarks with the tour guide giving the history of each landmark that passed.  The tour began at the top of the hour and lasted an hour, so we got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling both on the way out and on the way in.  When we finally got back to the house, we changed into PJs and had a lovely dinner of chicken in a cream sauce with diced, toasted potatoes.  I love French food.

On my last day in Paris, I woke up to toasted french bread with salt butter and apricot jelly.  We had time for one sightseeing adventure before I left, so Lucie, Lucie's boyfriend Max, and I head out to the Arc de Triomphe.  We DID get to go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  We were pleasantly surprised by how short the line was.  It's really cool to see all the streets coming out of the Arc de Triomphe round-about like spokes on a wheel.  We also had a really good view of the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais.  With the little time we had left, we took a walk on the Champs-Élysées.  For lunch, we stopped at Paul, a really nice bakery/sandwich shop, for baguettes.

Then, it was back to Manchester.  The Christmas lights are up in Manchester, which was fun to see.  I had some time before my coach came, but, as it was dark and I was plum tuckered out, I just stopped at Subway for dinner and then went to the coach station to eat the leftover apple cake that Lucie sent back with me.  :-)

A couple more hours of traveling later, I was back "home" in Coventry.

Laura

Notre Dame

Ice Cream Shop

Snack time!  Yum!!

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Arc de Triomphe

View from the Arc de Triomphe

Tour Eiffel