French Fries and Frog Legs: Paris - Day 1

I'm channeling Sofia Petrillo right now.

Picture it: Thursday, July 21st.  A young American law student leaves her adopted English town with her two friends in tow.  Their destination?

PARIS!

We took the Eurostar, which is really a relatively stress free way to travel from England to Europe.  My ears always pop in the Chunnel, but I can handle popping ears much better than being groped at the airport or paying gobs of money for a normal sized suitcase.  I highly recommend the train to anyone traveling in Europe and wish we had a better train system in the US.

The French were surprisingly nice.  Seriously.  When we got to Paris late at night, we descended into the Metro, with only Sidney and me speaking a smattering of French.  We found the ticket kiosk with no trouble, but unfortunately, it was only taking Euro notes, not coins.  None of our cards were working and we were all so worried until this French man bought a book of ten tickets and sold us three individually for one Euro each!  So kind!

Anyway, we got to our hostel's Metro stop, Republique, and attempted to follow our hostel's less than clear directions.  These were the directions:

So, you'll need to reach the metro station 'République ' ( line 3,5,8,9,11 ). And follow the exit number 4 : 'Sortie rue du Faubourg du temple', the street which makes the corner with a shop named ' Habitat',( rue du Faubourg du Temple ) on the back of the statue. After one block walking on that street, you'll see a Mc Donald ( ! ) we are accross the street...

Seriously?  We went in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to be.  Wandering around  Paris, just three girls.  Not ideal.  We decided then and there that we would be cabbing it back home each night from dinner.  Luckily, we finally found the place, thanks to a kind (again!) French woman who asked a taxi driver where we needed to go.  We had a three bed room again, like we had in Dublin, with an ensuite bathroom.  So it was just us - yay!  The bathroom was not Mama-clean, but maybe dorm-room clean.  Not bad, but not barefoot either.  There might have been a minor mold issue.

The beds were ridiculous.  They were so squeaky.  Like, keep you awake at night with every wiggle squeaky.  At least it was just us three and we were all so tired, that we passed out.

The next morning, we woke up around 9.  We wanted to grab a bite to eat and then do the Eiffel Tower early to avoid the lines.  HA.  Anyway, my croque monsieur was delicious.  I am not a ham eater at home, but I always seem to eat it like it's my job in Europe.  Jamon y queso boccadillos in España, ham and cheese toasties in England, and croque monsieurs in France!  Yum yum!

After brunch, we moseyed on over to the Eiffel Tower.  We had to pause, though, to try out some of our favorite poses that we've learned from our Asian tourist friends.  I use the word friends loosely, because we've never actually talked to any of them, just admired their spectacular poses.

Barb leaps for joy!

Sidney hops in excitement.

The next several hours (seriously, like three or four) involved way too much standing around in line.  Luckily, I managed to snap a few photos in the meantime and even a breakdancer!

When we finally got our tickets and reached the middle level via the elevator, we decided to get out and take some photos.  Paris is just huge, as far as you can see - city.  My fear of heights didn't act up too badly, but I got a little dizzy when I looked up to take a photo of the top part of the tower.  

At some point, the sky started to look a little questionable, so we decided to get in line to go to the very top before it started to rain.

An hour and a half and a few rain showers later...we get to the front of the line only to discover they had sold us tickets for the middle tier only.  We had two options: 1) get out of line, go buy new tickets, and come back to the front or 2) get our souvenirs and get the heck out of Dodge.

We chose option 2 and decided to seek out some yummy snacks, namely: crepes!  I love crepes.  Really, I do.  I still have dreams about this mushroom crepe I had in a cafe in a square in Germany...

Where was I?  Oh, right.  Paris.

Our waiter thought we were funny and we thought the same of him.  He did take a photo of us (not so flattering of me, but c'est la vie) and even hopped in on one with Barbara!

Following our snack, we needed to do a little shopping to pick up some essentials we'd forgotten to pack.  On the way, we found Heaven.

Everyone says Laduree is beautiful and delicious and wonderful and you know what?  They're spot on!  I have never seen such a beautiful pastry shop.  It's the Tiffany's of macaroons.  I was so in love, even though I'd known about it for ages.  Take me back now, please!

Swiped from Barb's blog - I forgot to take a photo!

We found our essentials and decided to try to make it to Notre Dame before dinner.  It was around eight at night at this point but still very well lit.  Even though the church was closed, there were still tons of people around, making the perfect opportunity for Sid and I to show off another favorite Asian pose.

We walked around the back of the church and into the little garden behind it, with me snapping photos the whole way.  Such a shutterbug.  I'll spare you most of them, but let's just say that between the above photo and the below photo, I took around 40 shots.

After we said Au revoir! to Notre Dame, we went back to the hostel to wash Paris off our skin and change for dinner.  Sid's pal Gwyneth had suggested a couple of places, but unfortunately we could find none.  We finally ended up poking out heads into a cafe, and I asked in my meager French "Est-ce qu'il être encore possible...?"  I didn't even have to finish before the guy shook his head and said they weren't still serving food.  He did tell us to go to Cafe Louise, though, and oh my gosh!  What a recommendation!  The food, the service, everything was great!

I even tried escargot!  And guess what?  I really liked the flavor!  I could only eat one, though, because I couldn't get past the mental block of "There is a snail in my mouth right now."  Maybe if I hadn't had to yank it out of the shell myself?  I don't know.  It was tasty though, and I'd consider eating them again.  Sidney and Barbara liked them so much that they ordered another round!  After dinner, it was time for bed.  We were so exhausted, we didn't even mind the squeaky beds!

Coming up?  We take on the museums of Paris and Sacre Coeur!  Stay tuned, my friends!