Paris

Pictures: 1) with Sophie in front of the city hall in Paris, 2) on one of the bridge in Paris, 3) yes, this is the original Van Gough, 4) in the Musee D'Orsay (old train station), 5) on top of Montmatre, 6) Notre Dame, 7) check out my sunglasses, 8) Amine with his dinner, 9) eating the fabulous food, 10) night in Paris






Our first night in Paris our host Sophie cooked pasta for us and then walked us around her area - by Notre Dame and through the Jewish quarter and past the city hall. It was a really lovely night and we enjoyed her company. She was a bit sad because of a recent breakup, so I like to think we made her day a bit brighter.

We went to bed fairly early and the next morning we figured out how to walk to the Musee D’Orsay. We got a little lost on the way, but a nice French man who could tell we were confused just by looking at us pointed out the way. We walked past the Louvre and could see the Eiffel and the Arc D’Triumph in the distance. The museum was 5.50 per person and worth every penny!

Orsay is situated in a converted train station that is absolutely beautiful. It has a huge clock inside and out and beautiful ceilings. They also hold the best impressionist art collection I’ve ever seen. Monet, Manet, Rousseau, Degas, Van Gogh, Sarat, Pissaro and many more! This is the home of Van Gogh’s Starry Night but unfortunately it was on loan. I was very disappointed. Also, you were allowed to take photos in this museum, so I got some really good ones of some of the famous works.

After the museum it was raining out, so we went to a café near the Louvre for lunch. The waiter had a crush on Lieselotte and afterward gave us his number and asked if we wanted to go to a jazz bar with he and his friend that night. We said maybe, but never ended up meeting up.


When we finished eating we met up with a CSer named Amine. He was studying in Paris for 2 months on a scholarship from Algeria where he is from. He’s studying film and doing a documentary on tango dancers! It was raining and cold when we met, so the three of us went to a coffee shop and chatted. I told him all about my experience with tango and the three of us chatted about politics and school etc. He was very nice and talkative and invited us for dinner the next night at his place (well, the hotel where the school was putting him and his classmates up for the 2 months).

After we left Amine we met back at Sophie’s apartment at 6:30 planning on going to her sister (the original CSer who we’d planned to stay with) for the night. However, Lies and I decided we’d like to stay in Paris an extra night, and Blandine wasn’t sure she could host us both nights, so after discussing our dilemma with Sophie, she said we could just stay with her for the next 2 nights as well along with a key to her apartment. I was worried that Blandine would be sad, but she was very busy anyway so it wasn’t a problem. We met Blandine for dinner at 8 pm though and got to know her a little bit over some yummy Thai food. I had steamed white rice with eggs, peas, and shrimp.




We left Blandine’s around 10:45 and took a bus through the lit up city until we got to the river. From there we walked along the river taking pictures of the beautiful sights until it started to rain, then we walked to the jazz district and found a little jazz bar. We couldn’t actually go inside the part with the live band because it was full, but the bar was nice and we just sat and chatted and watched the rain. We left pretty late (around 1 am) and walked back to Sophie’s. Luckily, she’d given us a key so we didn’t have to worry about when she’d be home or awake etc.

We slept until 11 on Thursday and then slowly got ready, not leaving until about 2. First we went to the main train station to book tickets to Toulouse for Friday; however, all those trains were completely booked. Not having another choice, and not wanting to be on a train all day to Barcelona, we decided to go to Montpellier instead for a night. It is sad that Lieselotte won’t get to see her cousins who live in Toulouse, but it couldn’t be helped and Montpellier is supposed to be beautiful. Figuring all this out took a very long time, and by the time we were done we went back to Sophie’s to look up hostels in Montpellier. We couldn’t find anything that looked decent with a good price, so we posted an emergency couch surfing request on the CS Montpllier sight and then left to meet Lies’ friend Jessica who is studying in Paris.

We met her in front of the Sacre Coeur (which is a huge church on top of a hill that overlooks Paris in Monmatre). The view from the top was amazing and (thank goodness) the weather was sunny, though not hot. When we got there we listened to some singer/guitar players playing Wish You Were Here and then we went into the church and looked around. Back outside there was a violinist who was so amazing! Lies gave him money and I took a picture of her sitting next to him. While we waited for Jessica we listened to him play while we looked out over Paris and watched a newly married couple pose for photos. It was really wonderful.

Jessica had worked with Lies at Benetton and also graduated from UNC. She was very nice and we walked around the area a little bit, then went to a restaurant where we sat outside and had snacks. From there we took the metro to another nice area where Lies and I bought playing cards and then walked to the Notre Dame again. The sun was hitting it just right, and we got some great pictures. Jessica left us from there to finish a paper, and Lies and I went back to Sophie’s (picking up some wine for her on the way). We said our good-byes and thanked her before heading to dinner with Amine at 9. He met us at the nearest metro stop and then brought us to the hotel where he was living. He’d almost finished cooking, but while we waited we enjoyed the view and the breeze from the balcony and chatted about music.

Dinner was amazing! It was some sort of rice dish with tomatoes, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, and beans. He also made a salad of avocado, cream cheese, tomato, tuna, green pepper and some sort of olive oil or pesto sauce. For dessert we had a parfait of fruit, chocolate mousse, cream cheese, and fruity yogurt. Everything was absolutely amazing!! He doesn’t even use recipes either - everything is just invention. Wish I could cook like that!

We left at 10:45 and enjoyed the metro ride back very much. The new metros have a glass shield on the front and if you sit up there you can see the lights pass by as you are inside the dark tunnel and in some spots even feel wind on your face. It is so cool! I said it felt like an EPCOT ride, and so on the way back we sat there with our faces up against the glass. I tried to restrain myself from making vroom vroom sounds. :)

As we transferred metro lines on the way back to Sophie’s, we were on a very long moving walkway (it was a big station). All of a sudden I hear Lieselotte behind me whisper in my ear “That guy just grabbed my butt!” She wasn’t sure if he was trying to get money out of her back pocket or what. I looked at him and he was a really creepy looking man, probably homeless, who kept reaching out for Lies, and then started coming toward me. There were other people on the moving walkway, but it was still a creepy. We started walking faster and he was following us and Lies was saying, “Si vous ple, No!” By the end we were seriously speed walking and got off and practically ran to the next escalator we had to take, not looking back. We ran up the escalator stairs and jumped in the middle of a group of standing people, but kept running when we got off. I don’t know why we were so worried, but I had been freaked out ever since Jessica told us a creepy story earlier. When we finally made it to the other metro we jumped on and sat down, panting. It was sort of laughable after the fact - that we were running so frantically from a homeless guy when there were so many other people around.

Back at Sophie’s we packed up and got ready for bed, but we had to set our alarm for 5:30 am because our train left for Montpellier this morning at 6:57 am. EW!

Now we are in Lyon waiting for our connecting train to Montpellier. I slept very little on the first train so I am very tired. We haven’t heard anything about CSing in Montpellier yet, so hopefully we’ll be able to find a hostel when we arrive.