Omelet du Fromage?

I went to Paris for the first time this past weekend. I had been two France two years ago for Penn-in-Cannes (which was a stupendous experience), but had only spent a few fleeting moments in Charles de Gaulle in a mad dash to make my connecting flight home from Nice (well, as much of a mad dash as you can make when in an aircast).

Anyway, here's the collection of notes I made over the course of the weekend:

10/10/08
"Oh what a day -- unexpected and frustrating at times, but still pretty cool. Got up at 3:45 AM to catch a 4:30 taxi from Murano to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Arrived at Prestwick around 5:15 (it was raining, big surprise).

Check-in was very easy, took at most a minute, since it was so early that there was literally no line. Ryanair is so budget, our names were handwritten on our tickets.

I'm beginning to think that British candy bar companies only came up with about 5 unique ideas and just rebrand them with a catchy title -- what's the difference between all these caramel, nougat and cereal bars? Mars Planets vs. Galaxy Maltsers vs. whatever else they call them. Interestingly, I have seen white chocolate Twix, which I should try.

The flight was fine, and I actually slept a little. An adorable but surprisingly loud 2 year old girl sat behind me. Xixi was in the aisle, I was in the window seat, and the girl woke both of us up several times with her vocalizing. Paris-Beauvais, the airport we flew into, was covered in fog, and after trying to land several times, they had to divert the plane to Lilles Airport, with the promise of buses back to Beauvais. As it happened, Lilles is 2 hours away from Beauvais by bus, and then another hour to Paris. They also said there was a direct route to Paris, which turned out to be a shuttle to the train station at Lilles. Never mind the fact that the shuttle bus couldn't fit all 250 people on our flight, and the company only sent one. And the fact that the train tickets were 55 Euro (or 37.50 for students, as we found out). Xixi and I shared a cab with two other women from our flight to the train station.

The train station looked very familiar -- I feel like I've seen it in a movie or something. I tried to read Waverley on the train (since I was supposed to finish it by Monday) but passed out again. We finally got to Paris around 2 PM, arriving at Gare du Nord. After struggling to figure out the metro system, I caved in a bought a cheap guidebook from a newsagent. Xixi and I found the route to the Eiffel Tower, and headed over.

We got a fairly cheap lunch at a brasserie across from the metro station, indulging in our first honest to goodness French meal. Xixi got a cheese platter and I got a savory crepe (makes me think of Penn, oddly). She also got chocolate fondant for dessert. Mmmm. We trekked over to the Eiffel Tower, but unfortunately the top was filled to capacity, so we could only go to the second floor. The view was amazing, and I took many, many photos. Actually, taking tons of pictures was pretty much par for the entire trip. Link below.

Another trip on the metro, with several switches to get to the Latin Quarter, where the hostel was. We stayed at the Young and Happy Hostel, where Jacqueline lived for a couple of weeks a few years ago. It was clean and fine, though I'm clearly too spoiled to live the backpacking life for too long. At the hostel there was an advertisement for an airport shuttle for 17 Euro a person, which seemed like a pretty good deal. But it turns out that's a lie, it's only for CDG and Orly. Beauvais is so far away it would cost nearly 100 Euro. So we ended up taking a shuttle for much less from a far away metro stop on Sunday. Took a little longer, but it was significantly cheaper.

We had dinner near our hostel (kebabs) and walked around the Latin Quarter before we got some dessert (I had creme brulee, Xixi got chocolate mousse). I would say on the whole I ate very well while in Paris. After more strolling we headed back to the hostel, where we were surprised to find most of the beds in our room filled with sleeping people, even though it was only about 10:30. Apparently they were all as tired as we were."

10/11/08

"Accomplished a lot today, basically all I wanted to do. Fell asleep right after writing last night -- tried to read some Waverley, no use. I guess I'll have to finish it tomorrow. Since I went to bed so early, woke up before my alarm at 7:50. Got dressed and headed downstairs to get the breakfast included in our stay at the hostel. Breakfast was a croissant, mini baguette, orange juice and the option of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate as well as the choice to have cereal. I forgot how much bread they consume here. I had coffee for the first time on this trip -- so much better than the stuff they have in Scotland, even the cheap stuff the hostel serves. After breakfast, we headed out to the metro at Place du Monge, and over to the Louvre.

We got to the Louvre at 10, and there was almost no line! It was very easy to get tickets, and we saw the Mona Lisa with very little crowd. Also saw the Venus de Milo, Dying Slave, among a variety of other works. I almost saw the Code of Hammurabi, but got separated from Xixi in the Egyptian section (she went to the bathroom, and I waited on a bench on the other side of a large statue, but she didn't see me sit down, and so went on without me). She had my cellphone and my wallet (ask if you want a full explanation), but I had checked my backpack, so I could use the international calling card and a payphone to call my cell and told Xixi to meet up at the information booth under the pyramid.

While waiting for Xixi I ran into Corey Feldman, a kid I went to Hebrew school with, who also goes to Penn and I had Hebrew with freshman year. What are the odds? He's in Tel Aviv, on break now and visiting Paris. Crazy.

After finding each other again Xixi and I walked all the way down the Champs de Elysees, saw the Arch near the Louvre and the Arc du Triomphe. Had lunch at a cafe on a street off of the Champs, had a salad for the first time in months. They gave me frites, too, which was a little odd. Later on we got ice cream -- vanilla caramel brownie, mmm. After we got to the Arc we took the subway down to Notre Dame.

I'm absolutely in love with Notre Dame. I kept having flashbacks to Disney's Hunchback, but honestly it was overwhelmingly beautiful. I love Gothis architecture, I only wish I had gotten to take a tower tour. In fact, we almost didn't get to go in -- there was a demonstration of some sort around the corner, and police in riot gear showed up and closed the cathedral. We then walked all around the isle and tried to go to Saint Chapelle, but that was closed early, too. On the plus side, when we walked by Notre Dame again, there was almost no line, so we got to go in right before mass at 6:30.

We had dinner at Cafe du Esmerelda -- duck confit with (once again) frites. We walked around some more, found a patisserie (chocolate eclair for me, brownie for Laura and a brioche for the next day, which she accidentally squished in her bag, :(), and headed back to the hostel. We're watching the World Cup Qualifying match between France and Romania now."

10/12/08

"Up at 9 AM, free breakfast again. Xixi and I walked around the Latin Quarter, got chocolate to take back at a local chocolatier (white and milke with macadamia nut) and a raisin baguette at a patisserie (for lunch). Laura got a proper brioche and a cute chocolate ghost with mixed chocolates in the middle.

Then took the subway over to Porte Maillot, caught bus to Beauvais (about an hour long ride) for 13 Euro. Easy check-in again, real tickets this time, and easy security check. But our flight was delayed by (you guessed it) fog -- the first flight of the day had to be diverted, so all later flights were pushed back. Finally got on plane, easy ride home and after a bus and subway and walk to Murano, finally got back to my room. What a trip!"

Here's the photo album again. Kudos if you made it all the way through this post:

Two Days in Paris