Paris is a city which I could fall in lo ve with. Falling in lo ve for a city requires one to live there for a little while, to live it, to live every corner... And I am completely sure I could fall for it, completely.
I got here by myself from Israel, after a night of no sleeping, got to the hotel, left everything and went for a walk and some food; because let's be real, 'I am in Paris!'.
Knowing that I don't really communicate french, but I know the basics --I mean I know enough to survive good in France-- I got to a little place near and ordered food in french, because there is a big percent that don't or won't speak other languages. I got then to la Bastille and after kept walking long enough and then waited for my friend Marc, whom I haven't seen in something like 6 or 7 years. (yeah it all feels like a reunion kind of adventure.)
We went to have dinner at a walking-distance-place. Now let's state that even if you know a language, reading food menu is extremely difficult --that was the toughest part in Israel-- so not really speaking that much of french makes it even harder. So he tried to explain the full extent of it, but that was complicated, and he told me we should get the 5-course-experimental menu (he hadn't been there ever either) and a bottle of wine; and not really knowing anything I accepted. It was a very interesting dinner, because I am not the kind of person that goes out and tries random food, I usually order the same things I like, and then not actually understanding what was I eating, was a whole different adventure. I still have no clue to what did I actually ate, but I drank wine. :) It was a great experience and food was good, but the company was great, we got to catch up and all.
To keep this reunion kind of trip, I went to have breakfast with Israel --whom I went to collage in Mexico with-- and a friend of his, more catching up, fun fun fun.
Then... Irit finally got to Paris!!! :)
So we went for a walk, just to Champs Elysee was the idea, but we ended up at the Eiffel Tower, catching up and walking around. Beautiful night!
Next day couple of days we spent them walking all around Paris. And we saw Marc again!...
Here are some fun stories.
On Christmas night, walking around Notre Dam, there were many many people and it was all very beautiful, so we entered the mass, and it was so incredible, peaceful and holy --for the lack of better words--.
On the first night we decided we wanted a hooka and so we ask the waiter of the delicious restaurant where could we go, he writes down the subway and the street and explains how to get there; of course finding a place you don't know in a city you don't know it can get difficult, so after walking around a bit we enter a little shop and we ask the guy there if he knows how to get there, and another guy who was there shopping with another woman says he knows the place and he can walk us there, it is too close. So the woman is shopping for hats while we are all talking, they spoke English --the guy is French and the girl Rumanian-- so after she picked one we were all walking to the place and we were all getting along well, so they stayed with us for the hooka. And those are the first strangers we meet. We saw them the second night to go have some drinks --shots of absinth, vodka and a lemon thing-- good night. Next day Irit wakes up and starts panicking about finding her purse, which is not anywhere in the room, I tell her to check inside her luggage a thousand times but she never did, so we are trying to get in contact with the embassy and all, but 7am on Christmas day is a bit tough. So we go up, planning our attack plan to see where she could have left it and all, so she opens her bag to grab some clothes, and Voila! the purse is there; then it took us a half an hour of laughing to be able to relax for a bit.
Same day and continuing with this reuniting with friends, my good friend Kevin --from my California life-- who was also in Paris, met with us for lunch and walk around and got to the Eiffel at night.
So we made plans with Kevin to go to the Louvre the next day and then to Montmartre.
The Louvre is a beautiful building but my favorite room was the one with the animals carved on the pillars. We saw the Mona Lisa, and the interesting thing here is not the painting, but the people and them trying to take a picture with it, it is funny funny funny. And then we kept walking it all.
Beautiful sunset at Montmartre. After getting some food, we were walking and I got some caramel covered with chocolate, delicious! so by the time we got to the Moulin Rouge, Irit says I was having a sugar rush, but I call it 'Rushing into Sugar' situation, and so Kevin and me were playing with the camera and the Moulin, here you have some proof, you can imagine how fun it was!
Le Château de Versailles
How many people do you need to get to Versailles? An Italian couple (italian and french speaking), a french couple (french speaking), the Chinese-American guy (chinese, english and little italian) and two mexicans, the blonde (spanish, hebrew, and some english) the other one (spanish, english, enough hebrew, and little french). And the group (the french couple separated at some point from us) I would like to call "La Torre de Babel".
Blessed the tourists got into the wrong train and at the next station got out, thanks to the Italian figured out how to get on the right way and had to go back one and take another train, finally on our way to Versailles. So we started talking and here goes the difficult-kind-of-funny thing, the 2 groups italians-chinese/american/mexican dont really have a language in common, so we had to use charades and every language. We had to make a line to buy tickets while they already had theirs, after about an hour she comes running looking for us and gives us her ticket --there is this cool thing that people younger than 26 don't pay for attractions or are cheaper-- so she took us in front of the entering line, and so we walked it all, together, charading and of course taking pictures --two photographers on a group it makes it a slower one, but with better pictures haha! So that is how we meet the Italians, a really cool couple, with whom we went later to get food and drinks at night.
Leaving Paris... This is where the plot complicates itself, see December 28 is like April's Fools day in Mexico, since we woke up Irit kept insisting she wanted to play someone a prank and I kept saying no no, let's not do that, but she wanted one. So we went to have lunch with Kevin and walked around Champs-Élysées for our last day in Paris for this adventure and so with this and that we finally make it to the Gard du Nord and.... we are 8 minutes late and our tickets are non-exchangeable... so after looking at options we decide bus was the best one, so we traveled up and down the stairs through all the metro connections, with all our luggage and finally to the station, and after waiting in line for a long time they tell us there is only tickets for the next night, so not having many other options we get them and find a hotel. This is how Irit got her prank for Día de los Inocentes!
The next we went to the Cemetery where all this great people are buried, but the only grave you can really find is Jim Morison's one, because it is very popular, there are flowers and graffiti around and all that. Everybody else that we tried to see (Nadal, Melie, Moliere....) so it was disappointing.
Now being all concerned with time and all we got an hour an a half early to the bus station... and finally left for London, but that is another story.
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