Paris

On Thursday night (technically Friday morning) Shannon and I overslept our naps and nearly missed the last train to the airport. We made it by maybe five seconds, if that. Realized that in our rush to leave the house Shannon had forgotten her phone and I had forgotten my PIN so I wouldn´t be able to turn my phone on the entire weekend, which meant a) no watches or alarm clocks, and b) no way for Shannon´s friend Jennings to contact her. The hours at the airport were relatively uneventful, except that Shannon bought us ice cream bars to celebrate our trip that turned out to be enormous frozen marshmallows covered in chocolate. Yuck. Two hour flight to Beauvais and then a bus ride into a Paris traffic jam. Once we got off the bus Shannon & I realized we had no guidebook, no map, and no idea where we were. Oh well. There were more important things, like finding a cup of coffee and a crêpe. Wandered around until we stumbled onto the Arc de Triomphe and a crêperie. Then into the metro (which we were delighted to find working!) to find our hotel, Mary´s Hotel. When arrived discovered that I had made a huge error and booked the hotel for LAST weekend instead, so they sent us up the street to a different hotel, Voltaire Republique, that wasn´t nearly as charming and cost twice as much but the staff were very nice.

Day One was fabulous: spent hours getting lost in the 3e and 4e arrondisements before finally getting our bearings and heading toward Notre Dame. The day was wonderfully cloudy and drizzly. Shannon ate three crêpes and drank an unknown number of glasses of wine. I ate one crêpe and drank an unknown number of cups of coffee. We stumbled upon a fabulous little restaurant somewhere in the 4e arrondisement for lunch and I had a very good glass of wine and a plate of boeuf bourguignon over fetuccine. Wandered around some more, took pictures of Notre Dame, marvelled at how beautiful Paris is and how comfortable we felt there and how lovely the language sounds. Later we stumbled upon another fantastic restaurant by the Notre Dame for dinner and I almost died and went to heaven over my food. It was by far the best meal I´ve had in years. Friday was a great day for eating.

Day Two started off sunny but then became partially cloudy and therefore more beautiful in my eyes. Another day of wandering and admiring the beauty of the city and the sound of the language. We spent the morning visiting the outsides of the tourist attractions we´d already been in but didn´t have pictures of, the Tour Eiffel and the Lovre, and then met up with my friend Guillaume and we had a coffee and a nice long walk with him, and he agreed to say the "She´s a ho..." line for the record. So fabulous! For dinner went to an Italian restaurant by our hotel, where I ordered a sampler plate of three pastas that were all delicious but since I´d stuffed myself silly the day before I couldn´t eat much of it. Very sad. Then we met up with Shannon´s friend Jennings for a drink over on the Boulevard Monmartre. I ordered the hands-down worst margarita I´ve ever had in my life and headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep. Slept poorly because didn´t have a watch or an alarm and I was in doubt of the hotel´s wake up call system, but indeed we did get a wake up call at 4am.

This morning we almost didn´t find a cab in time and almost missed the bus to Beauvais, but we arrived at the bus station EXACTLY on time. Very exciting and also a mirror of the beginning of our trip. Once on the bus though, the voyage back to Madrid went off without a hitch.

All weekend long Shannon and I kept repeating: "We should´ve moved to Paris. We should move to Paris!" Paris is everything a major European city should be: beautiful, charming, full of interesting & intelligent people and lovely little cafés and arts and music and good food. There is variety and culture there. And it´s possible to go into a café or restaurant and not come out smelling like an ashtray, unlike in Madrid. Contrary to rumor and my expectations, 99% of the people we spoke with there were friendly and helpful and they even let me torture them a bit with my French. I felt completely at home in Paris. If I could live and work there I would. In a heartbeat.

To see more photos of my weekend in Paris, copy and paste this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21992&l=4a999&id=595126014