Spring Break in Paris

And let spring begin...

So we have been in Paris since Saturday, but today it finally hit me that this is where I am spending my spring break.

Saturday

We arrived here by train at 12:47 pm and wandered around for about an hour in attempts to find our hotel. This was a painful experience because I have too much luggage, one big suitcase, one smaller one, a backpack and a purse. The suitcases roll, but after hauling them around for that long, I was in a lot of pain. But we finally did find our hotel, the Hotel Bervic, and it's relatively decent. Not too pretty, but serves its purpose. Has a double bed and a single bed for the three of us and a bathroom. And the receptionist guy was really nice, he hauled our heavy bags up the spiral staircase to the third floor for us, and gave us chocolate when we were sitting in the lounge using the internet. So can't complain.

That night we ate fast food for dinner, because it was close, and went to a grocery store down the street. Basic necessities: bread, cheese, butter, apples. The rest of the night, we stayed in, we were exhausted. Went to sleep at about 11:30 and woke up about the same time the next day. Can't beat 12 hours of sleep on our first day of spring break.

Sunday

After our late start, we ventured down the street about a half an hour to find a flea market on Cligancourt that my Mom wanted us to visit. It wouldn't have been that bad of a walk, except for the fact that it began pouring raining about half way through. Besides the rain, we had to push through tons of people because the street was filled with food vendors selling fruits, vegetables, and meats. It was interesting to see that type of market though, and think about the fact that this is how these people buy their produce for the week. At home, I'm so used to big grocery stores that I find it strange I guess.

Once we found the flea market, the whole mood of the day increased. We stopped in the first little alley way that had a canopy over it and ate our sandwiches while looking at old furniture. We started laughing about how drenched we were, and the oddness of the place we were eating our lunch. It's all part of the experience I suppose.

We walked up a few of the small roads of the market, I bought a small gift for my Mom, and then we left. After that, not much else happened because of the bad weather. Later on in the day, we were hungry, so were forced out again. The grocery store wasn't open, so we found a pizzeria and ate. Wasn't too expensive, and was good. I stupidly asked for a box for my food, which they did, but I left it there. I hate that I do that all the time.

Monday

Our plan for Monday was to see the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge, both of which we did. What we didn't realize is how short of a time that would take. We first went to the Sacre Coeur, which is in a neighborhood that consists only of hills. I have never been to San Francisco, but I feel like it is similar. We walked up the numerous stairs to the church, took pictures, and went inside to see the chapel. It was beautiful. After that we walked around that area, looking up and down streets. The Moulin Rouge was the next stop, which is on a road that is full of really bad stores. I guess I should have made the connection between the Moulin Rouge and sex shops, but for some reason I didn't expect it to be that bad. There were soo many of them, and really creepy men standing outside of the shops or the strip clubs trying to get people to come in. So basically, we found the Moulin Rouge, took a picture of it, and got out of that area fast.

So back up the treacherous hills we went, back to the cute neigborhoods of the Montmartre area. We wasted a few hours walking around. At one point, we sat on a bench by a garden in a residential area and watched a French film crew shooting a scene for a movie. It didn't seem like a big production, but it was still fun to see. After that we ventured off to find the Montmartre Cemetery, which was underneath a major bridge and branched out so much. It was a very large cemetery, with small roads branching out everywhere. It consisted of only stones, not much grass, a few trees. Rachel kept spying cats sneaking around, and we took a lot of pictures of them.

When we were done looking around the cemetery, we re-traced our steps back up the the Sacre Coeur area. Instead of actual dinner, which was the original plan, Jenna and I bought Nutella crepes to enjoy. They were fabulous! However, after that we headed back towards our hotel and to the grocery store to buy dinner. The rest of the night we stayed in again. The area we are in isn't bad, but doesn't seem like a place you want to wander at night. So we had a Glee marathon, while eating desserts. It was actually really great, and I don't feel bad because we had such a good day out and about Paris.

Tuesday

Today was rather productive. We left the hotel at about 12 in pursuit of finding the hostel that we will be staying in from Wednesday-Sunday with the other girls from our "upstairs family". It is about a 25 minute walk from where we are now, but in a better neighborhood. It looks like a good place, at least from the outside. I guess we will see tomorrow. We ate our lunch on a bench around there, and then went to a metro station to buy a five-day pass. The woman at the information desk there was so great to us. She didn't speak much English, but helped us through the whole process. At one point she even brought up Google translate on her computer and translated her sentence so we would understand. She also came out of her booth to help us purchase the tickets from the kiosk, while telling us in broken English to watch out for pickpockets. We thanked her several times and then used our new passes to take our first Paris metro ride. And it wasn't that hard, there were a few times of confusion today about it, but mostly we figured everything out. Thank goodness for Rachel and Jenna being good with maps, both metro and road.

The metro here is much less modern and clean then the Tube in London, but we will get used to it. I don't think I appreciated how wonderful the public transportation in London was until today. When we were there I did love it, and found it helpful, but after seeing this, wish France was at the level England is.

Anyways, our main visit of the day was to the Eiffel Tower. It was a great feeling to see it again. I loved Paris so much the first time I was here with my Mom and Joe, and being back is nice. I took the girls to the park me and my family had gone to before, by the fountain, straight across the road from the Tower. We sat there for a while, took pictures and took it all in. At about 4, we headed back, taking a train, then a metro to get to the station closest to our hotel. We made another grocery store run, buying chocolate croissants and dinner food. I had a ham and cheese sandwich and a small container of pasta salad. Cheap dinner, but good. Tonight we don't have much going on, all of us finally catching up on pictures, journals, and guess what...blogs, haha!

Tomorrow we have to check out of our hotel by noon and haul all of our bags to our hostel. Lizzie will be here in the afternoon, so we need to meet up with her at some point, and then Charlotte and Kelsey will arrive tomorrow night. It will be nice to all be together again. It's only been a few days, but it's been strange not seeing them all the time.

That's all I have for now, will try to update this is in a few days when more has happened. On Sunday, the 6 of us fly to Pisa to spend a few hours there before getting on a bus to Florence. Classes in Florence start Tuesday, after an orientation on Sunday and Monday. Should be fun!

Much Love from Paris!