Childhood dream completed: becoming Madeline

Bonjour, all! This weekend I had my first out of Italy European experience, travelling to Paris, France to visit my dear, dear friend from Northwestern, Rebecca. It was a pretty quick expedition, as I arrived on Friday afternoon and was gone by Sunday morning. However, what this trip lacked in length, it made up for in general loveliness and fun.

Friday, Oct. 5th

 After a long journey that is not worth much mention (except the headache that is Ryanair is, even if just barely, worth the low prices. It wasn’t all that bad, and all of the Italians I was with were really enjoying themselves. I swear there was either a huge family vacation on this flight or Italians really are just amazingly friendly with strangers).  I landed in France at Beauvais airport, which is about an hour and a half from Paris. My first impression of France? Well Beauvais smelled like ham. Or canned cat food. I get those confused sometimes. And the only restaurants I saw were McDonalds and Buffalo Grill. So…. I wasn’t too heartbroken about boarding the first bus out of there. As we got closer and closer to Paris I got more and more excited. I mean, it’s Paris after all! Everything started to seem charming. I would look out the window and think “oh my gosh, the way those greens of that grass field go together is so French!” Ridiculous. Anyways blah, blah, blah I navigated my way through the streets of Paris and the metro and finally made it to Rebecca and my meeting spot where she greeted me with a huge hug and a perfectly warm pain au chocolat. Knew we were friends for a reason. It was blissfully flaky, soft, melt in your mouth delicious. First dessert of paris was a raging success.

We then wandered around, Rebecca guiding me along as my cynical “there-is-no-way-Paris-is-as-amazing-as-it’s-cracked-up-to-be” attitude quickly melted away and the wonders of the city enchanted me. We walked through a garden (the name of which escapes me now. I do remember the French word for garden though. Jardin. Boom. JARDIN DES TUILERIES. there it is. nailed it.) and made our way to the Lourve where we took touristy pictures sat and chatted/stared into each other’s eyes for a while. 

This is embarrassing, but relevant. 

Then we saw Notre Dame, went to Shakespeare & Co. (English bookstore that I want to live in) and walked some more along the Seine until our hunger got the better of us and we headed back to Rebecca’s apartment. Which, by the way, it just lovely! Full of knick-knacks, flowers, colors and food, it was everything a quaint French apartment should be. After dinner, we met up with two of Rebecca’s friends at some steps overlooking the Eiffel tower. We chatted, took pictures, drank wine and basked in the beauty for a while. Only once were we interrupted by an extremely drunk Czech wanting to go to a “discoclub”. Not sure if it was his level of intoxication or lack of English skills- but whatever it was, it made for a very hilarious conversation. They sent him off in the right direction and we went back to our classy activity of drinking wine straight from the bottle. Totally acceptable. 

                                         

 

We then headed to Urgence (imagine that with a French accents and it is more like urrr-shahnce), a medical-themed bar they had been wanting to go to. Apparently, it is all the rage in Paris to drink out of a baby bottle, and since this place was definitely on the hip side, they followed suit. They had mickey mouse on the side. It was kind of weird and creepy and 100% enjoyable. Finally we headed to a club, the Mix, for “Miss Latina Night’ in which ladiezz were free. Who could pass that up? Apparently no one because when we got there the line was huge and it was going to take waaaay to long to get in. So we walked around looking for another option. “Pizza Pino” ended up being the winner. And, man, what a winner it was! Although we spent 12 euros on a cheese pizza (I tried not to rub in the fact that here in Italy you could get at least two for that price) we  walked away with a sack of twenty free rolls and great memories of our waiter and the “big boss man” flirting with Rebecca.

Saturday, Oct. 6^th.

Super-tourist mode: activated.  My fingers are going crazy. I am going to start using bullets.

•         Luxembourg gardens. Beauuuuutiful! It felt so “fall” the whole time in Paris but there were also some beautiful flowers and greenery. There were some adorable kids racing boats in the pond (French children are, at the same time, perfectly adorable and bat shit crazy) along with many people doing some hilariously serious photo shoots (Rebecca and I included). We topped it off with a Nutella crepe from probably the cutest place I have ever seen. Stop one? Success.

Rebecca getting photobombed by one of those cute French kids

This is what happiness looks like

•          Eiffel tower. Lots of tourists. Lots of French people. Lots of steps. Lots of euros for one water bottle. Lotzzzzz of beauty up top. Stop two? Success.

•          The Morais. This is the Jewish quarter in Paris, the neighborhood which Rebecca claims she would live in if when she moves here on her own. I can see why. It had a very cool vibe to it. There were lots of interesting people and shops to see and, most importantly, falafel. OH MAN FALAFEL. One of the better decisions I have made in my life. It may have been raining, it may have been the messiest thing I have ever eaten, causing us to be pretty much silent for the ten minutes it took for us to gobble it down, but this falafel made everything in life wonderful. The falafel itself was so good- warm, crunchy on the outside and full of comfort on the inside. But THEN they served it in a pita wrap with at least 10 different veggies and sauces and turned something good into something amazing. Thanks, “authentique” falafel. Stop 3? Success.

•          Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It was raining real hard and we only had one umbrella. We decided getting some macaroons and éclairs to go and snuggling up on Rebecca’s couch was a better idea. I stand by this decision.
•  Nuit Blanche. So there was this event in Paris Saturday night called Nuit Blanche, which translates into something about being nocturnal and “white”. Going into it we were unclear about what the event was. Leaving it we were maybe more unclear. Basically, all over the city there were various art installations and places like museums and libraries, etc. were all open all night long and free. Rebecca’s aunt kept describing the event from years past as “intellectual”. All right. We saw some very interesting things including a exhibit on mannequins, vintage Chloe collections, fire breathers and some famous Parisian monument lit up. Oh and a very intense duel between a French man and woman. It was frightening. Basically all we could say afterwards was “well… I guess the French are pretty passionate”. Final stop? Success.

Two hours of sleep later I departed for the airport (thanks again to Rebecca’s aunt for driving me to my bus stop!) and made the 6 hour journey home and crashed.

Merci, Paris. You did me well. Très well. (I learned a lot of French this weekend).

Ciao, ciao! (going back to speaking Italian after a weekend free of it was not easy. And classes start tomorrow. Here goes nothing.)