To Paris, With (a Positive Feeling That is Not) Love

Anyone who knows me, knows I have a severe lovelike/hate relationship with France. One of the worst problems with France is so many people go there with high expectations. However, France isn't as great, romantic, or wonderful as people think, especially since most people's experience of France boils down to one city: Paris. This will be my third time in Paris, and I have corrected my previous errors and have come with very negative expectations. When things went wrong, it was to be expected. When something was nice, it was nicer than I anticipated, so I was quite happy. Don't get me wrong, Paris does two things amazingly that I love.

1. Crepes (and other pastries)
2. Versailles

Please note: Anytime you see this type of sign...it doesn't mean they will actually speak to you in English. It is more of a general statement that they understand English and will willingly communicate back to you, but not necessarily in English. Parisians generally like to pretend they don't speak English, and will *not* speak to you in English. What happens is you point, attempt words in French, and try to interpret what they are saying back to you in French. Maybe since I'm older or I now speak a second language, I feel like I was able to understand a lot more French that before. Go me! I also learned how to properly ask where the toilet is, instead of just saying "Toilet?" and trying to look confused.  #pointofpride

Day 1: We took the (super early) high-speed train from London to Paris, and I quite enjoyed it! No surprise, as I always prefer a train against a plane if the timing makes sense.We checked into our hostel, which was right around the corner to the train station, and went out for crepes before our tour. Now, I've been on a number of the Sandemans Free Tours throughout Europe, and I would highly recommend them. However, this may be the first time I've been genuinely bored during a tour. This is surprising because I'm a huge nerd, and I always stand at the front of the group to soak in as much learning as possible. France and Paris have such rich and crazy histories, but we didn't hear much about it. Towards the end of the tour, it started getting cold and rainy. Plus, the tour guide was a Londoner who openly admitted to preferring Paris, so there was obviously something wrong with her in the first place.

We bought umbrellas from a street vendor. Erica's lasted about an hour before she broke it when she was swinging it around. #badluck There was a weird ball being hung in the middle of the Eiffel Tower, which is really distracting. The guy who took the picture was a construction worker, hence the Eiffel Tower being decapitated at the top. #guillotine

I'm not even sure what's going on here, but I love it. 

Day 2: After Sacre Coeur, Saryah wanted to check out a cemetery. This led to an epic journey of trying to find a toilet, eating yummy pizza, and eating even yummier pastries. I will dream of that raspberry tartelette for the rest of my life. We found the cemetery, but there was only this bridge over it. We were about to begin a search for the entrance, but Saryah said "nah. This is good. I'm happy." I made her take a photo as proof we were there.

We were trying to find the metro and accidentally wandered through the red light district #oops

We decided to separate for a few hours because Erica wanted to see the Louvre, Saryah wanted to see the impressionist paintings at Musee de Orsay, and I wanted to go see an old church. Personally, I think I made the best choice, because I love old buildings more than art. However, I found this awesome painting at Saint-Sulpice. I have seen many old churches. Seriously. I've seen A LOT; I really love them. I have never seen them have a painting depicting Jesus Christ and God as two separate and distinct beings. I believe God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three separate and distinct beings with one shared purpose, to help us return to live with God and Christ again. I was so happy to see that in the church!!! 

This is the view I found walking out the east side of Saint-Sulpice, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I did filter, because I wanted to make sure this photo came alive as much as the real view did for me.  I made it back to the hostel about half an hour later than we planned, but so did we all. We all arrived within 10 minutes of each other being late. #greatmindsthinkalike

Later that day we were walking around trying to find some food, and it started pouring rain. I think the best part was while we pulled out our umbrellas from our bags, the Frenchmen scattered like little ants. It was pure panic and chaos for the next few minutes. #giggles

Day 3: We debated this thoroughly last night. One of the most beautiful things about Versailles is walking the gardens and seeing Marie Antoinette's little cottage. We checked the weather last night and the forecast said 20% chance of rain in the low 70's. Saryah and I put our umbrellas and jackets in our purses for the next day, while Erica put her jacket and umbrella in her backpack...the same backpack she checked into luggage storage for the day. #badluck We hopped on the train and as we were travelling, we saw that we were travelling towards dark and ominous rain clouds. As soon as we walked off the train, it started to rain. Erica was wearing a white shirt. #badluck We decided to look for an open shop, but nothing was open so early. Instead we popped into a bakery to get some yummy food to bring and hide in Starbucks. We stayed in Starbucks for about an hour before we decided that we didn't want to go to Versailles in cold rainy weather, but I insisted we at least go and take pictures in front of Versailles. The picture above is a representation of Erica's bad luck for the day.

Since Versailles was a bust, we went back to downtown Paris with plans to eat lots of pastries. When we arrived, the sun came out and it became a beautiful day! We decided to stand in line for Sainte Chapelle, which was highly recommended to Erica. Evil Saryah with her student + EU status let her in for free. (This also happened at other museums where she was allowed to bypass the lines and just walk through). I had to pay. The stain-glass was EXQUISITE! But it was a little pricey just to walk into one room of stain-glass. We wandered around, played in a park, and saw the Statue of Liberty.

mini Statue of Liberty!

We then went our separate ways, as Erica and I headed to Ireland, and Saryah went on to Italy. But first we ate more pastries! But seriously. Our diet during out three days in Paris consisted of crepes and French pastries. #noregrets