Paris, Je T'aime!

Hello all! Sorry in advance if this post is short, confusing, overly long, or a bit off today - I'm tired! But when in Paris...

Friday I checked out of my hostel in Vienna and spent the day at Starbucks, waiting for my flight to Paris. It was a huge waste of a day, but let me relax a little, which is definitely a good thing - Paris has been crazy!

Saturday I spent the day with my friend Rachel who has been abroad since January! She spent last spring in Senegal and then chose to finish her french minor in Paris this fall. It was so great first to see her - it has been eleven months since I've seen her in person, but also so nice to see someone from school! In Copenhagen I don't live near any of the AU students, and only share one class with one other girl. Rachel and I talked about absolutely everything, and she was a great tour guide. Her view of finding things is to simply walk until you find something interesting. I, on the other hand, usually have the map flailing and stop at each street to see if I'm going the right way. But yesterday I let Rachel do the guiding, and we had an awesome day.

First we climbed to the highest point in Paris, Sacre-Coeur, and were ambushed by people wanting to draw our faces. My mom warned me about this. But Rachel was a pro (I was not) and gave all of them the hand. Quite classy, and it worked. I didn't realize until after we left how tall that part of the city actually is. That was a lot of steps at 11am.

Then we went to Moulin Rouge, which was funny because it's nothing like in the movie (no singing duet on the roof) but still really cool to see. Paris has definitely been a city where I'm caught off guard with how much I recognize and can't believe I'm actually seeing! After Moulin Rouge we went to Centre Pompidou (a modern art museum) because Rachel hadn't been yet and I didn't want to make her go to the Louvre for the millionth time! It was so interesting, the building was designed inside-out, so the stairs are on the outside. There were some interesting pieces, along with this amazing couch thing that we would have slept on in a second if we were allowed to. So comfy-looking.

In the afternoon we got hot chocolate at Angelina, by the Louvre. It was like melted chocolate in a cup. And there was fresh whipped cream. We went with Margaret, a girl in the same program as Rachel from AU. She was super nice, and we split an apple turnover (which was almost as good as the hot chocolate). They told me I have to try macaroons, and that is my mission for tomorrow!

For dinner we headed to a teeny chinese restaurant for dumplings and noodle soup. All together it cost the same as the hot chocolate, and none of us finished our soup. There was so much food! It was also great to see a part of the city tourists don't usually go to. It was like seeing the real Paris.

And that was my Saturday! Today I went sight seeing like an über tourist, and tomorrow I'm doing some more, so that will be another post. I had an amazing day with Rachel, even if we did wander around a little... we had time to talk and catch up. I can't wait to see even more of my friends this week, I can't believe I'm traveling around Europe visiting people for two weeks - crazy! Sadly tomorrow is my last day in Paris (I could spend a week here) but that means I get to see another city. My train leaves around 5pm, wish me luck!

Devon