Paris! Haw Haw Haw!

While waiting for the plane, my stomach started to do the, uh, Sammy dance. I ran to purchase the Imodium and by the time I was finished it was time to board- no time for a bathroom stop. I got on, I sat down, I stood up. I (ran) to the back of the plane and explained to the flight attendant that I really needed to use the bathroom. She seemed a little annoyed but didn’t put up a fight. I smiled and thanked her on my way back to my seat . I sat, buckled my seat-belt, thirty seconds went by, and I unbuckled my seat-belt, I stood up and (calmly) walked back to the back of the plane. I’m sure at this point, she (and everyone else I was passing) was thinking, “What is wrong with this girl, it’s a 50 minute flight.” I mumbled “I’m really sorry “ and proceeded to the bathroom. It was fairly embarrassing, but I enjoy sharing my bodily miseries for the humor value :p
The flight to Paris was short and (relatively) painless. We made our way through customs in a flash and unscathed by the border guards. We both imagined that French people would be stereotypically rude and awful, but it couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Everyone we met in France was incredibly welcoming and genuine. People were much friendlier about speaking English with us than most people in Germany and nobody looked down their nose at us like Miss UK did, that’s for sure.
We took a bus to our hotel which was AMAZING. Nick really deserves a standing ovation on that one. I of course had no idea where we were staying, so when we walked in and I saw their rates listed at 650 Euro a night (roughly $840) (+ 25Euro extra for a view of the Eiffel Tower) my mouth just about hit the floor. It turns out that Nick pricelined the hotel for just over $100 a night for the two nights. Priceline has been incredible to us more than once. If that doesn’t make you a believer, I don’t know what would. Because we had gotten barely any sleep the night before I really wanted to see if we could check in early so that I could sleep for a few hours (it was 9am at this point). The clerk was super friendly and great with us. He checked us in right away and gave us a room on the 15th floor, with a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower and of the Arc de Triumph. It was unreal. I was a happy (almost) birthday girl.
I dozed for a couple of hours and then got up and took a perfect hotel shower. You know the one. We originally planned to do a free walking tour of Paris, but opted to go to the Louvre instead. The trains in Paris were super easy to navigate and there was a train station conveniently attached to our hotel through a little mall, so getting places over the weekend was a cinch.
We decided to grab some food before walking through the museum because by that point I had made peace with my stomach and we were both pretty hungry. We had lunch at a typical French café and ended up sitting next to a couple from Philadelphia. We noticed that they had the Rick Steve’s guide book in hand, which is the same book that we have (and have loved) for Germany. That struck up some conversation and we talked about how surprising it was to us that the people were so friendly in France. They let us in on a little secret- you should never say “Hi” to a French person. To them, it’s like saying “Hey You”, so they tend to not be as friendly when greeted that way. This was advice that we followed all weekend and we never had a problem. Maybe we should have tested it out. Next time.
Back to the Louvre. Wow! You know, everyone always talks about how beautiful the museum is and I really thought, “How special can it be, it’s a bunch of paintings?” I’m not really into art. Not that I can’t appreciate something nice when I see it, but walking through art museums is a little dry for me, buuut I figured we had to visit the Louvre while we were in Paris. Man, there’s a reason why everyone always talks about it- it’s gorgeous, plain and simple. And HUGE! Apparently, it would take 9 months to walk through the entire museum and look at everything. I could have spent all day just looking at the outside of the building. It’s so ornate and regal looking. I was surprised because you can take pictures in the museum, without a flash, which was a rule that no one heeded nor enforced. The messed up thing about it is that when no one is allowed to bring cameras into the museum, those people who were flashing away will be pissed off about it.
The paintings in the museum were, of course, fantastic. For me, the best part of the museum was seeing the ceilings in the different rooms. How do people sculpt things on the ceilings? I feel like a little piece of humanity has died in that sense. No one cares about making things look nice just for the sake of it. I wish that I had a time machine, so that I could go back and meet the people who made those things. I’m sure it would make for some interesting conversations. Anyway, of course we saw the Mona Lisa, which was so tiny compared to everything around it. It looked so weird. More than the painting itself, I think the best part of that was the feeling of standing in front of something so famous and renowned. It was cool. We also saw the sculpture of Venus and Henry V’s crown jewels which were impressive, as one would expect a King’s jewels to be.
After the Louvre, we had planned to walk through a neighborhood called Montmarte. We thought getting our picture painted by a crazy Frenchman would be fitting, but just as we were exiting the subway, Sammy struck again. Deeply submerged in conversation with Nico, I somehow managed to slip and fall (very hard) while walking UP the stairs of the subway. Yes, that’s right. Up the stairs. I really don’t know how I manage to do these things. Unfortunately, my right knee smacking into the pavement with no help from my hands to stop me was enough to bring our walking to a halt for the day. After that, we holed up in a mall for an hour or so and got a drink. The mall wasn’t your typical cookie cutter structure like at home. It was built in the shape of a cathedral. All of the stores were in a circle around an open area in the middle and the ceiling was made of stained glass. If you’re a shopper, it would inspire you to max out your Visa.
On Saturday night, Nick’s parents got us tickets to go to the top of the Eifel Tower, so that we could be there at midnight for my birthday. After some consideration we decided to go up, despite the over-crowded elevator and the really high point at the top. We counted down at midnight and had some fun taking pictures at the top. Even though it’s such a cliché, Paris really is romantic and beautiful. The tower has a light show every hour on the hour until 1 am. It lights up like a big sparkler for a couple of minutes which gets lots of “oooohhhs and aaahhss.”
On Sunday, we hit up Notre Dame, a little bit of the Latin Quarter, and we made it to Montmarte. We tried to get to the Catacombs, which is the place where they buried the dead under the streets of Paris when they ran out of space in the cemeteries, but we didn’t realize the line closed at 4 while the catacombs themselves were open until 5. I was a little bummed. We both wanted to see some creepy bones, but maybe in another life 
The restaurant that Nico found for dinner was incredible! “Le Train Bleu” was the place we went to for dinner, and I pray to the food Gods that I’ll be able to go there again someday. The restaurant itself was eccentric to say the least. It was in a train station and the sign for it was lit up in neon letters. It looked like a Johnny Rockets basically. When you stepped through the revolving doors, it was like falling through the rabbit hole. Everything in the room had gold trim, the ceilings were painted and sculpted just like those in the Louvre, and the staff was fully dressed in penguin attire, of course. We both ordered from the same set menu which included an appetizer, entrée, and choice of dessert or cheese. With each order you also got a half a bottle of wine with your meal. We started with some sort of sausage appetizer covered in a sauce made from deliciousness. Next, we got duck which I had ordered well done, while Nick opted for medium-rare. His was by far the better choice. Not that mine wasn’t incredible (because it was), but his was out of this world. With that, we got a side of whipped sweet potatoes, which were scrumptious. Neither of us really likes sweet potatoes. At Thanksgiving, I generally turn up my nose to them when my Dad makes them, but WOW- they were insanely good. For desert, I got some sort of Strawberry tart, while Nick went with the cheese plate. Turns out, I made the better decision there. He got three different pieces of cheese and one that smelled suspiciously of feet. I don’t think I’ve seen someone in so much pain before. Nick’s face turned bright red, as soon as he popped it into his mouth and I could tell he was struggling with all his might not to gag it up onto his plate. Hahaahaha.. That one will stay with me for awhile.
Also at dinner, Nick gave me another present from his parents –tickets to go see “Love Never Dies” (the sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera”) in London the next night. I was beside myself. I really love Phantom, so I was pretty ecstatic to find out we were going! After dinner we hopped on the Subway and took a quick detour to the Arc de Triumph, so that we could get a look at it at night. Talk about massive! I wanted to try to run into the middle, so that we could walk through it, but even at midnight, there was no way we were going to be able to run through 7 lanes of traffic. I wanted to get home, so that I could call my parents and show them the Eifel Tower all lit up, so we ran around the Arc, stopping once and a while to take some pictures. We must have looked so silly. Haha. We got back in time, so that I could call Mom and Dad and show them the skyline.
It was such a memorable trip. Nick really is the best <3.