I have returned from my weekend trip to France, and it was an absolute blast!!! Here's the play by play:
Hannah and I woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the 6:00 AM bus to Madrid from Toledo. Once we completed that leg of the journey, we were on the metro for about an hour, getting from the train station to the airport. Finally, we arrived at the airport, made it through security, and found our gate. The flight was not very noteworthy, mostly because Hannah and I were both in deep comas before the plane even pulled away from the jetway. We landed in Paris refreshed and ready to take on the French capital city.
However, we didn't really take into account the huge language barrier, since neither of us know any French with the exceptions of please, thank you, hello, and good-bye. Therefore, navigating the airport was a bit confusing, and we spent probably a solid hour before orienting ourselves. We finally figured out that we had to take a combination of a train and a metro in order to reach our hotel. Once we figured that out, we assumed it would be an easy journey, but we had a little trouble finding the appropriate metro line after we had arrived at the correct station. I decided to take it upon myself to ask a cashier at a newsstand, but I didn't want to be a presumptuous traveler, simply assuming that everyone speaks English. Also, I ruled Spanish out (for whatever reason, I guess because we were in France), and instead resorted to the international language of charades. I pointed to the metro station on our map and then put up 4 fingers to signify the 4 line of the metro. I was a little nervous as to how he would choose to respond, but surprisingly, he returned a message via charades, by pointing left, down, and then right, and putting up 4 fingers. Once we completed that caveman-like interaction with signals and grunts, Hannah teased me immensely, but we managed to find the metro and arrived at our hotel with no additional problems.
After checking into our hotel (which consisted of the man behind the desk asking if I was German, based on my last name, and then asking which candidate I voted for after finding out I am from the US), we decided to forage for lunch. We found a little cafe but could not communicate what we wanted, so we again resorted to charades, pointing and grunting until we had Diet Cokes and sandwiches. Thankfully, shortly after lunch, my friend Kate, who is studying abroad in Paris for the semester, met us and rescued us from our world of confusion. She took the lead and was an immense help, since she could speak to people while we looked confused. We went to the Eiffel Tower, which was amazing, of course, and rode the elevator all the way to the top to see the beautiful panoramic views of Paris. We then took the stairs back down, pausing for some sweet jumping pictures. Like 99% of French people take jumping pictures on the Eiffel Tower, so I am essentially sure that we did not stand out as tourists while snapping idiotic pictures of ourselves on a historic monument. Trust me.
After the Tower, we enjoyed the traditional French treat of crepes. So so so yummy. We then headed over to the Louvre to become cultured and other stuff like that. We saw the Mona Lisa, talked about the Da Vinci Code, and everything else that people are supposed to do while spending time in the Louvre. Oh, and we also took more jumping pictures outside the famous pyramid. I think there is a slight chance that this time we looked like tourists, but a big part of me still says no.
Once we finished with the Louvre, we met one of Kate's friends for some Mexican. Surprisingly, Mexican food in France after spending a long time in Spain is very delicious! After stuffing ourselves on the most multi-cultural burrito ever, we called it a night, since Hannah and I were pretty much zombies by this point in time, and we had a long Saturday ahead of us.
We woke up on Saturday with the intention of meeting Hannah's Parisian friend Chloe. We encountered a bit of a snafu at the metro stop, since we needed to buy tickets and the line was full, of course populated largely by people who had never attempted to operate an automatic ticket machine before. After spending an excruciatingly frustrating 40 minutes in line, we finally got the tickets and hopped onto the metro. Chloe, like Kate, was pretty much a godsend, since she knew her way around the city, and we just had to follow behind her. We started our day having croissants in the Luxembourg Gardens, watching cute little European children in their cute little European clothes do cute little European things, like play with sailboats in fountains. After the gardens, we headed over to the Pantheon, where Napoleon is buried. We then walked all the way over to Notre Dame, and of course Hannah and I had thought ahead to bring Notre Dame t-shirts to wear while taking dorky pictures in front of Notre Dame. They were pretty much the highlight of the day, no lie.
Chloe then took us through a part of Paris with a ton of modern art, before we hopped on the train to ride back into the center of the city, so we could see the Arc de Triomphe and walk down the Champs-Elysses, gawking at all of the ridiculous stores. For lunch, we headed to one of Chloe's favorite cafes and had fruit smoothies. I obviously couldn't read a single word on the menu, so I told Chloe some basic food items that I like, and she took it from there. I ended up having a mixed plate of turkey pitas, chicken and goat cheese pitas, curry chicken, and french fries. Overall, I was pretty impressed with myself for being that adventurous, and relieved that I liked what turned up on my plate!
After lunch, we then took the metro to Monmarte, the artists' district of Paris, and took in the views of the city from Sacre Coeur, a famous church in Paris. We decided to have crepes...again, and rested for a bit, since we had basically walked our poor little feet off. After our break, we headed over to see Moulin Rouge, which is in a neighborhood in which about 90% of the businesses are related to sex in some way, shape, or form. Finally, we headed back into the center of the city to see the Opera, and then went into the Galeria Lafayette, which is like a mall on absolute wealth steroids. The stores in this mall were totally unreal, with one floor having Prada, Dior, Chanel, and Armani next to each other. Needless to say, we suffered from a bit of sticker shock! For dinner, we met Kate and another of her friends for crepes, then headed back to the hotel to rest. Hannah and I went back into the city to see the Eiffel Tower at night, which was so pretty and a great way to end the day. We spent some time in Kate's apartment, which was GIGANTIC, especially compared to the housing sizes in Spain. After a few hours, Hannah and I took the metro back to our hotel, and were able to enjoy the spectacle of a drunken French man standing on his seat, yelling French phrases until another French guy, with a joint in hand, walked over and started making out with him. It was quite the experience, to say the least...
On Sunday, we woke up and headed back over to Notre Dame to go to mass. Technically, you're not supposed to bring luggage into the Cathedral for security purposes, but we had no other option, so we smuggled ours in. We were on edge the entire mass that we would be kicked out, but that never happened. Instead, the ushers scolded Hannah for taking a picture before the mass began and for having her shoe resting on the chair in front of her. In case you were wondering, I was the picture of perfect behavior, minus the luggage smuggling, so no ushers reprimanded me. Jill: 1, Hannah: 0.
After mass, which we didn't understand, as it was in French, we met with Kate for lunch and had a super yummy and super satisfying meal, topped off with a deliciously rich chocolate mousse. Once we finished lunch, we hopped onto the train, got to the airport, had our flight, rode the Madrid metro, and made it to the bus station with about 4 minutes to spare to catch our bus back to Toledo. It was quite the whirlwind weekend overall, with a lot of time traveling from point A to point B, but it was so so so worth it. It was great to see another country, since I felt that I needed a bit of a break from Spain. However, upon my return, I definitely felt a sense of returning home, and I am confident that now I appreciate Spain even more, since I know its ways, its customs, and most importantly, its language!
Love from Spain,
Jill
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