Monday, January 30, 2012

2 Days in Paris


Hopefully you enjoyed by blog post titles but I don’t think I will be witty enough to do a movie title for every trip! 

Today we started off by taking the metro to the start of the Champs Elysees.  We got out of the metro station and saw the huge ferris wheel right in front of us! There was also a crepe stand so we felt like we needed to buy some crepes.  Today I bought a sugar crepe.  It was way better than the banana one from the day before.  I think if you’re going to get crepes get them off the street.  They sprinkled sugar on it and wrapped it up in a nice triangle.  It was a really sweet and sugary but really good.  From the ferris wheel you could see all the way up Rue de Champs Elysees (Champs Elysees street) to the arc d’triomphe.  We walked the whole street stopping at shops that caught my attention.  Most shops are closed on Sunday but the big shops on Champs Elysees are open because it’s such a tourist attraction.  Also on this street we stopped for lunch.  I ordered a Hawaiian pizza and Eric got a pepperoni and peppers pizza.  I thought my pizza was so crazy looking I had to take a picture.  We sat outside eating our pizza and watched as people walked by (very Parisian of us!) 


It took us about three hours to finally reach the arc d’Triomphe (including the shopping and pizza).  It’s a longer street than I expected.  The arc was very cool.  There was the option to pay and go to the top but we had already gone to the top of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower so it wasn’t necessary.  It was nice walking the street and getting a picture with the arc.


After the arc we went to Le Marais.  I had only written down the metro station and we had no idea what to expect from this area.  As we got out of the metro station the street was full of roller bladers.  They were preparing for some race (I suppose).  Maybe it was roll for a cause or something but we weren’t able to cross the street until they moved.  We stood around really confused for a little and then the roller bladers were off.    We followed everyone else as they crossed the street and headed down some alleys.  We assumed that was the place to go.  Le Marais was where the Jews lived in Paris.  There were buildings with Jewish Stars and the farther down we got we found like 10 Falafel stands in a row, guys with tzitzi and kippahs, stores selling Jewish stars and other jewelry, people speaking Hebrew, and store names in Hebrew writing. 


It was a really interesting area with lots of really cool shops.  There was one store that sold phone cases.  There were gameboy designs, flags, denim cases, rhinestones, every crazy case possible but none that fit my phone L .  Probably a good thing because I would have gotten one and it was a lot of money for some junk.

By this time it was around 4:00.  We were getting exhausted and we had seen and done everything we wanted to.  We didn’t need to head to the airport until 7:00 so we still had a lot of time to kill.  We went to a café and got tea and a croissant.  I finally got a croissant.  I expected to have one everyday but never had the chance!

Finally to end the day, I bought three macarons (not macaroons).  I got chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry.  It was very different than I expected.  I want to explain it well and correctly. So it’s a cookie sandwich.  The first layer after the cookies is a soft gel type sugar.  Then in the middle is a crème.  When you bite in its hard like a wafer cookie and then gets really soft with the jelly and crème.  It’s pretty delicious.  I think my favorite flavor was the vanilla.  They were really sweet and probably shouldn’t have eaten all three but I couldn’t decide on only one flavor!


Overall, I had a great experience in Paris.  I did everything I wanted and more here! The language barrier was stressful and made me very happy that I am studying abroad in an English speaking country. 

I have three days of classes in London and then off to Ireland (Dublin and Galway).  Look out for more posts soon!

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