The Things I Learned In Paris

Last night, I unpacked and started one of many loads of laundry. Then, I slept for about 12 hours. I think I’m back on Kansas time now, though! What an amazing trip. I really felt like I saw so much of Paris, and had an awesome time doing it! So, I thought I would compile a list of what I took away from this trip.

The Things I Learned in Paris

Don’t get clothes out of the window display or off the mannequins, not matter how cute the item of clothing is. The store employees don’t really like that…and they will probably yell at you in French and make you leave the store. (Yeah, that happened...a couple of times.)

If you’re traveling with Hillary, you have to make sure every restaurant you go to has a cheeseburger and fries on the menu.

Never eat at the same restaurant twice.

Make sure you smile big and make “pretty eyes” at every single cute French man you see. This kind of distracts from the “stupid American” concept. Plus, the recipients really get a kick out of it. (Andrea and I pretty much perfected this one…)

Make sure you know where you’re going (and how to pronounce it) before you get into a cab. The cabdrivers don’t have much patience, and the smile and “pretty eyes” doesn’t always work for them.

Eat appetizers (“entrees”), big main courses (“plats”) and dessert everywhere you go, and drink lots of wine. Why not?? Calories don’t count on vacation, and you’ll walk it off later anyway. (At least that’s what I kept telling myself.)

Try something new at every meal. Veal, rabbit, lamb, escargot, “oeuf,” tartare…it sounds scary, but it’s probably delish!!

Wear your new shoes before you leave to break them in. (This lesson could also be called, “Listen to your mom when she tells you break in a pair of shoes.”) Or, at the very least, bring band-aids with you and don’t assume that Paris will have the same thing you can buy. Because they won’t, and you’ll have blisters after day one.

Drink more water than you think you need, even though wine is way cheaper. I’ve had an “apple juice” situation for about 10 days, as opposed to “lemonade,” if you get my drift.

Plan and map out each day (at least for the touristy stuff). It is very helpful to know where you are going, with train to take, and what streets you need to look for. It saves so much time! Then again, if you have a day to wander around and just look at everything around you with no time schedule, that’s fabulous too. Just make sure you know how to get home…otherwise, you’ll end up wandering for two hours after midnight, just to take a cab two blocks to home.

Take lots and lots of pictures. And don’t delete any of them. (That was our rule.) Label them in order, and go back and write the name of the place or landmark in the pic as soon as you upload them; otherwise, you’ll forget what it was called.

Don’t take classes while on vacation.

Buy Rick Steve’s Paris (or as Andrea and I called it, “Slick Rick”) and read it before you go, or at the very least, each night on your trip to plan out what to do the next day. And bring Slick Rick with you on your adventures. He has awesome trips, tips, and tours that are literally written out down to the steps you take between each site.

Get up early at least a few days and go all over the place. It sucks to get up early, but it’s worth it to get a few full days of sights in. But also…

Stay out until 5am at least one night. You may feel gross the next day (holy headache), but the dancing is worth it!!

Learn some French before you go to Paris. Always messing up “hello” get kind of annoying, even with the big smile and “pretty eyes.” (More than once, Andrea would go up to someone we needed to ask something and say, “Merci!” To which they would look confused and reply questioning, “Bonjour?”) Oh, and Spanish? While it is a foreign language, it’s not French, and more people don’t get what you are trying to say.

Write it all down, so you will always remember what you did, what you saw, and how much you loved it!! J’aime Paris!!

Last Night In Paris

For our last night, Bria, Hillary and I headed toward the Eiffel tower. We weren’t able to find a café close enough to it to actually watch it light up as we ate, but we caught the 10:00 show, and then headed to a delicious little place called Le Champ de Mars to eat. I had the salmon (again). It was very good! Not as good as I’ve had a few other times, but still very, very good. After that, we headed home so I could get a somewhat decent night’s rest before I had to get up and go in the morning.

Tuesday morning, I woke up fairly early, got ready and got the rest of my clothes packed. Holy cow! Lots to pack (more than I realized) and it was a very heavy suitcase. Hillary was nice enough to wake up and walk me to the bus stop—a good thing, since I wasn’t exactly sure of where it was. I got on the bus, made it to my terminal, stood in line forever and ever (no, I’m not bring back any food, explosives or small children) and finally made it on the plane. It wasn’t quite as big as last time, and unfortunately, we didn’t have our own movie screens to pick movies from. It wasn’t terrible…but it was a long 9 hours. I slept a little, watched TV and a couple of movies, and they fed us like three times. Finally, I was back to the States and in Chicago. Customs weren’t bad—and they didn’t find the coffee I had managed to smuggle in my checked luggage. :-) I had a loooooong layover In Chicago, then a short flight on a very small plane—only three rows of seats across! Yikes! And finally, I was home.

Day 11

So, to finish up last night, we headed to a delicious café that was over by the Opera. I had veal and penne pasta…it was very, very good! I wasn’t sure how it’d go, but I loved it. I feel like I have really eaten just about everything here that I’ve seen as weird or different. Except foie gras. I just don’t know about that…anyways, we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night.


This morning, I had to work on school work. Blah!! Hillary and Bria went to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre…I think they did the fastest tour of both attractions ever! They didn’t go all the way to the top of the Tower, apparently, and they only went to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. To each his own, I guess. I went and met them for lunch (I had an omlette and pomme frites) over in the Jewish Quarter. Lots of cute shops and boutiques. I finished up my shopping for the trip, finding a few last minute souvenirs and of course, a few purchases for myself. I think it’s time to be done spending the euros! I headed back home while the girls finished shopping. I was so proud of myself—I found my way home all by myself, and didn’t get turned around or lost once. Now that I finally know where I’m going here, I have to leave and head home. Isn't that always the case!

Now, I need to finish up my last paper that’s due for this week, and then tonight, I think we are going to eat a late dinner to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11pm. I’ve only seen it once, so this should be a nice dinner to end my trip. In the morning, I’ll need to head to the airport around 9:00am or 9:30am, and then I’ll be headed to Chicago and back home!

Day 10

Bonsoir! Today was a great day, even though the weather was a little cloudy and cool. No rain though, thankfully! Andrea packed up and headed to the airport this morning, so Hillary, Bria and I headed over to Versaille. It was gorgeous. The palace was unbelievable…so much wealth and beauty! Everything was gilded, ornate or intricately carved marble. We saw so many paintings, bedrooms, sitting rooms, war rooms, great halls…it was massive, to say the least. And I’m pretty sure the public only sees a portion of the palace. Took about 100 pics there, alone! The gardens were beautiful, and we got to see the fountains running after lunch. We ate at an adorable café in the gardens, then headed back to the metro. We made it to Champs Elysees just in time to see masses of people trying to catch a glimpse of the Tour de France. We pushed our way through and managed to get a few shots of the bikes as they whizzed by. They were so fast!! They did seven laps around the Arc de Triumph and there were a MILLION people lining the streets. It was pretty cool!


We headed back to the apartment to rest and get ready for dinner tonight…and of course, label pics and watch Fashion TV. Not sure what we are doing for dinner tonight, but I’m sure it will be delish!

Day 9

So, today was a little later than I usually start my days…wonder why! We all slept in pretty late, and Hill and Bria went shopping during the afternoon. Andrea and I stayed in and watched my new obsession, FTV: Fashion TV. It’s literally fashion shows, fashion shoots, and interviews with models and designers all day and all night. I have got to look into it for home in Kansas City. So we pretty much bummed around and napped all afternoon. Tonight, we met a friend of Bria’s for dinner at a very cool restaurant called Les Colchines. Very hip. It used to be an old movie theatre, and they were still showing movies on the ceiling as you walked in. Since Andrea and I hadn’t eaten all day, we were starved and shared a salmon tartare for starters, then split our entrees so we could try twice as much. I had the braised chicken with sweet potatoes and she had rack of lamb with green beans. Again, it was so good! I don’t think I could eat something bad in the this city. I’m also loving the baskets of bread that come at every single meal, every single restaurant. I think I shoved about 4 pieces in tonight. Holy carbs!


Andrea is leaving tomorrow, so I’m sad, but I think Hillary, Bria and I are going to take a day trip to Versailles to see the gardens and the palace. I’ve heard it’s phenomenally beautiful, so I am excited to see it and get more pics! Speaking of pics, I added a few more to update what we've done so far. I will have to send out a link when I get home and have all the pics added on Snapfish!

Day 8

After drinking a few bottles of wine and champagne in at home Thursday night, Andrea and I slept in a bit before getting up. Bria flew in this morning and Hillary went to meet her at the bus stop in front of the Opera. Bria was anxious to see the city, so Hill took her out, and Andrea and I met up with them at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It was a very cool spot. We saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, and a few more before it started to rain. So, we headed back toward home. Bria and Hillary took naps and Andrea and I tried to get our pics labeled and in order. So far, we have about 800! After everyone woke up, we went to grab dinner at a very cool café. I had the salmon—so good! I think I have gained about 100 pounds on this trip because everything has been so delicious. After dinner, Andrea and I headed home to get ready to go out. We were super excited because we had seen a club pretty close to the apartment that looked super cool. We got all prettied up and met back up with Hillary and Bria. The club (called CAB) didn’t open until midnight, so we had a cocktail on the patio and watched all the clientele arrive. And, Andrea and I flirted with the door guys and they let us in for free (instead of the E20 cover). Always a bonus! It was definitely fun—expensive cocktails and loud house music. The dj was awesome though—we hadn’t heard any of the songs before. Andrea and I danced our booties off. Hillary and Bria left around 1, but we stayed until 4:45ish…we were dancing machines! We figured this was our one club night out, so we had to do it up. Then, we proceeded to come home and cook up some chicken cordon bleu we had picked up (frozen) at the market the day before. Always delish at 5am! After pounding a few bottles of water, we went to bed. Pretty sure I fell asleep before I could even turn my bedroom light off!

Day 7

Today was a PERFECT day! Blue, blue skies and white puffy clouds…it looked like a postcard! Andrea and I made it up and out the door only 15 minutes behind our schedule. Not bad! We headed to the Louvre, and were amazed at how LITTLE people were there. I’d say we only say about 50 people or so outside, so we were pumped! We headed in and started at the French paintings upstairs. There was no one in the galleries, so we got some great pics! Then, we figured we should venture down to see the “Mona Lisa” before too long and before too many people were there. We headed down through the crowds and got a few pics with the tiny, tiny painting that had about 200 people milling around it. After seeing the famous non-smile, we headed down through the rest of the wing, then headed back up to the top floor to see the rest of the paintings we were interested in until about 11:30am, when I hit a wall. I needed a Coca-Light! So, we decided to head to the next stop on our busy day: the Catacombs! This was one of the attractions we were quite excited about—underground crypts that housed over 6 million bodies that the government had dug up from graves and dumped underground. We wanted to see some bones! After eating a baguette-hot dog (ummm…SO GOOD!!!!), we stood in line for about an hour. The trip was totally worth it. We went down under the streets and after walking for a while (and getting more and more disappointed that we didn’t see any skulls!), we got to the bones. It was unbelievable! The skulls and longer leg and arm bones were arranged in patterns, lining the walls. We took some pics, but since we couldn’t use a flash, they were very dark. Literally, the skulls and bones were probably five or six feet deep along the walls, and were completely bones—no stone or cement! This went on for probably half a mile. Yowza! So we totally enjoyed that!


After the creepy Catacombs, we jumped back on the metro (mapped out perfectly by Andrea—we had a totally smooth ride!) and headed back to the Musee de L’Orangerie to see Monet’s Water Lilies. Beautiful! There were two or three entire galleries entirely devoted to Monet’s Water Lilies collection. Then, we went downstairs to the rest of the painting. We saw paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Rousseau, Untrillo, Soutine, Renoir, and Cezanne. It was a fairly small museum, but probably my favorite so far. The paintings were so interesting—we could recognize the artists or recognize the paintings. It had been revamped several times, and it was a small but modern building. Beautiful!

On our way home, Andrea and I stopped in a patisserie and picked up several pastries. She picked a raspberry tart and a blueberry crumble. I picked (fatty!) a chocolate tart and an apple crumble. OH MY GOSH! They were heaven. So delicious! We both ate every last crumb, then hit the market for bread, wine, gelato (yay!) and a few apples. Tonight, we’re just hanging out at the apartment, drinking wine and eating more carbs. Bria flying in tonight and tomorrow, and Hill is going to go meet her at 9:45am at the airport, so we figured a low-key night was needed. Andrea and I are thinking we might head to a cemetery where Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are buried. Very cool!

Day 6

On Wednesday, Andrea and I were super duper tired and we couldn’t get going like we thought. We hit the Louvre in the morning, but it was super packed. We took some silly pics of us “touching” the top of the glass pyramid in front of the museum, then decided that we didn’t want to wait in line for a museum pass. So, we headed over the Orsay to grab a two-day museum pass. We figured we could see the four museums it allowed us to see in two days. The Orsay was fabulous, but we couldn’t take any pictures. We saw several Monet’s, several Van Gogh’s (no “Starry Night,” but we saw his “Self Portrait”), a few Rodin sculptures. It was lots of art, not a million people. After we were done, we headed over to the Latin Quarter for a delish gyro and fries. Next, we hoofed it over to the Luxembourg Gardens. Hill met us a little later and we tried to find the Catacombs Andrea and I had been scoping out in our touristy Paris book. We had to walk a couple more miles to find the spot…it wasn’t as close as we thought! Unfortunately, when we finally got there, it was already closed for the day. So, we hopped on the metro and made our way back a little closer to home. Hill found a mall she wanted to shop around, and Andrea and I headed back to the Louvre. We made it around one wing with Ancient Egyptian and Oriental artifacts and art. The Egyptian exhibit had a ton of real tombs and an actual mummy, which was SO COOL! We were getting tired and kind of hit a wall at the Greek statues….so we started walking and made it to a café. Hill came and met us, just as the rain started to fall. Andrea and I decided to be completely French and order escargot and croquet monsieur. Yum! The snails were not as bad as I thought. They were very hot, very garlicky and buttery….kind of like garlic-butter oysters. And the croquet monsieur was basically a melted grilled ham and cheese. Can’t go wrong with that! Then, we went on search for gelato, because I have wanted gelato (ice cream) since I got here and have yet to have any. But no luck last night…sad for me!! We headed home and Andrea and I mapped out our trip for our next adventure the following day. Then, we headed to bed early since we’d need to leave by 8:45am to hit the Louvre!

Rest of Day 5

Tonight, we went to the Champs Elysees for some yummy dinner at a very cool spot called Madrigal and some light shopping (duh!). We also saw the Arch de Triumph and got some pics!

Andrea and I are planning a big museum day tomorrow, so it's to bed soon...check out the pics that are finally posted!!!

Day 5

Last night (Monday night), we just relaxed for a while, I finally finished my homework, and we headed to dinner at a delicious French restaurant. I tried my first “croquet madam,” and I loved it! Hill had some pasta, but Andrea’s was totally the best. It was a “salty pancake a fromage.” It sounded a little iffy, but it was basically a crepe (not sweet) filled with three or four types of melty cheese, including bleu cheese. Yum! I’m hoping that walking everywhere will burn off all these calories we are consuming, it seems, every time we sit down!

On to today……it was amazing!! By far one of the coolest things we’ve done. Andrea and I got up early-ish for us (7:30am) and got ready. We took the metro system (not as bad as I thought! Very clean and fairly easy to use) to the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral. It was amazing! I thought it was even prettier than the Notre Dame Cathedral. We hiked up so many steps…I’m telling you, I better come home with a toned bod! We got in trouble inside the church for taking pics and then not having our shoulders covered because we wanted to sit in the pews. So, we headed outside to climb up to the dome. It was a narrow, dark, scary staircase that seemed to go on forever again….but the views from the top rivaled the Eiffel Tower. Very beautiful. The sky was blue and had a few clouds scattered around…it looked like a postcard! And, the best part was that we saw a few nuns (in habit!) heading to church as we were on the top. I had never seen a nun in habit, and it almost seemed like a movie.

After heading down the hill from the cathedral, we started a walking tour from our very handy guidebook (thank you Dad!) with 21 stops. First stop was another church, the Church of St. Pierre-de-Montmarte. Nothing too memorable, but the next stop was a cabaret, the Cabaret de Patachou. This walking tour was partly touristy, partly residential, and it was definitely not like the place we are staying. Everything was cheaper, but some parts of the tour we walked through were a little seedier. There were a lot of cabaret-like places, or little cafes where famous people, mainly artists and writers used to hang out. We walked up to an artsy area where people were painting portraits and landscapes of Paris. Some of the paintings were adorable—they were of this little square where we were, and were of the actual flower shops and cafes. I wanted one (it would look cute in a bathroom or on a shelf), but didn’t want to haul anything around. We had lunch at a little café there—a pizza with a fried egg on top. It was actually delish! Also in this artsy area was the Salvadore Dali museum, L’Espace Dali. We went in there and saw some amazing pieces. My favorites were his take on Alice in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliette. After the museum, we headed toward the more residential areas and saw an adorable pink café named La Maison Rose Restaurant. The book said the food was terrible, but Utrillo, Picasso and Gertrude Stein used to hang out there. I liked it because it was ballerina pink with green Perrier umbrellas.

We kept walking and saw Paris’ only remaining vineyard, complete with rows and rows of teeny tiny grapes growing on the vines. Andrea and I decided we wanted to get married here (not to each other, of course!) and decided we’d look into that. Next, we walked by Renoir’s home and a cute little park with a statue of St. Dennis. The legend was that St. Dennis was sentenced to death by the Romans for spreading Christianity. They were walking him up to the top of Montmarte to be executed, but they were tired, so they chopped his head off where this park is now. St. Dennis’ body rose up, grabbed his head, and continued walking for three more miles. So now, they have this lovely statue of St. Dennis, holding his head out, while children run and play around it. Kind of morbid, but they looked happy. Then, we continued to a crowded street and saw Picasso’s studio and Van Gogh’s home. We also found some super cute little shops to bop into (imagine that) and some beautiful flower shops. They had tons and tons of orchids, and bright blue roses!

Finally, we made it to the seedy part of town…and the Moulin Rouge. We couldn’t go into the theatre, but we got to see some of the pictures and accessories (think rhinestones, feathers, heels and headdresses). Looked like it would be quite a show! This was definitely the racier area—there were “love shops” (if you get my drift...), peep shows and all sorts of nonsense all over the street. This area was called Pigalle, or “Pig Alley.” By this time, it was 4pm, our feet were tired, and we still had to navigate the metro home. Luckily, the man at the window down in the metro was very nice and very helpful, and we made it home with no problems. Actaully, everyone I’ve met so far has been so, so nice, and really not rude at all. I think it helps that Andrea and I are always smiling like idiots and trying to use the French phrases, although we’re butchering them terribly. Half the time, Andrea is speaking Spanish, and though I’m not sure why, it sure is hilarious. Now, we got home, organized our pics, and are resting until dinner. I will try to post pics while we are here, but it takes forever because you have to load them one by one. If I don't get them done while we're here, I will get them up whe we get back!

Day 3 & Part of Day 4

Well, the picnic idea didn’t quite work out, but we managed to have a fabulous time at the Eiffel Tower anyways! Chris headed home to Kansas City early yesterday morning, and Hill’s foot was bothering her (it was black and blue—poor thing!), so Andrea and I made the trek over to the Eiffel Tower on our own. It was a beautiful day—probably about 75 or 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We just looked to the direction of the Tower and started walking. We walked by the gardens across from the Louvre, and saw all the fountains, statues and old men sun-bathing. So funny! It was like people laying out at the pool, just around a huge fountain. Then, we just kept heading toward the Tower, cutting through an adorable residential area of apartments and markets (E1 for a Coke! Unreal!) and finally hit the crowds of people around the Eiffel Tower. The lines were so long…just curving around and around. We decided to grab a bite across the street at a café on the river. Delish! We both had salmone with ratatouille, and split an order of pomme frits. Then, we ventured back over to the massive structure and found that the line to climb the steps, rather than take the elevator, was much, much shorter. We grabbed our tickets and headed up. Forty-three flights later, we were at the second viewing deck. Amazing views! It felt like we could see all of Paris from there. Until we went up to the very top. Beautiful!! We spent pretty much the rest of our day there, just looking and taking pics. We also saw some crazzzzy people up there, but nothing compared to the view. After we headed back down, we spent more time on each of the viewing decks. And after the long climb up and back down, we hiked back home. Lots of walking, so we’re hoping our legs got nice and toned up!
After we got home, Hill was feeling a little better, so we went out to grab dinner at an Oriental noodle place. It was very good—not so French, but they sure can stir-fry some noodles! After dinner, we walked down La Rue de Opera right by our apartment since fatty over here (that would be me) wanted some gelato. Instead, I settled for E12 of candy from a street vender. Ha! My sweet tooth still loves the bonbons a Paris! :-) Then we headed home, and I had to work on homework. Which I still need to finish before the end of today…not so fun!

This morning, we woke up to hammering and drilling…must be the end of the weekend and back to work for everyone else. This morning, Hillary and Andrea went to the market and picked up a delicious lunch of baguette, mozzarella, turkey, tomatoes and Andrea whipped up an avocado salad. So good, and much cheaper than most of our meals! Since it was much hotter than it has been (85 or 87 degrees), we just walked around town and shopped. I found a great bookstore that had a fabulous coffee table book of Paris Vogue covers. Loves it! We also went into the Opera, which was beautiful but closed, so we just hit the gift shop and peeked in at the foyer. It’s very close to the apartment, so we’re hoping to see it later. Now, we’re back at home just relaxing…Hillary and Andrea are having a glass of wine while I work on the last of my homework (for this week). Bummer for me! I’ll have to get it done quick so I can join them…au revoir pour l'instant!

Days 1 & 2

Ok, so I'm going to try and remember everything we've done so far! Day 1 was kind of a hot mess...Andrea and I figured we had been up for 40 hours when we finally went to bed! After we got here, we unpacked and changed, then Chris and Hillary took us to a cafe they had eaten at before. I learned to order any meat I wanted well-done, otherwise, it comes red and bleeding! Then we walked around the area we are staying in and saw all the important places-the shopping! Tons of cute boutiques and cool stores. After shopping, we went home and changed, and went to dinner at a great Thai place. After several glasses of wine (and being mocked by a group of French people in the restaurant), we went to a very fun bar that played American music over a techno beat. Loved it! Andrea danced the "YMCA" with some random guy from Australia or New Zealand who we called "Apollo Dos" because he looked like Apollo Ono, according to Andrea. So, after closing that bar down (and drinking, oh, probably like 3 bottles of wine a piece), we headed home. Andrea and I went to bed at about 4am local time...and woke up the next day at like 2pm! Ha!

So, day 2. Yesterday, we went to "lunch" around 4, and I enjoyed an E8 Coke. Delish, and totally helped my hangover. :-) Then, we walked around the Louvre gardens and courtyard, then made our way to the Latin quarter. Lots of touristy spots and souvenirs. We went to a Latin café, because Hillary wanted chips and salsa, but could be found. After a kind of random dinner of cheese slices and bread (not what I thought it would be—I’m finding out that’s kind of the story of my life here!), Andrea and I walked around and found a very cool artist who only used spray paint to create these awesome paintings. We also found a lady who made beautiful jewelry from stones and wire. She would take one long piece of flat wire and bend it into a ring shape, then curl it around the stone. Very cool! We also made friends with two gentlemen who either owned a café, or were trying to get people to come into their café by flattering them and offering American girls free drinks. Ha! Done! They were very nice. Actually, I’ve been surprised at how nice everyone has been here—not so rude as I had heard. The men are especially friendly to us. Andrea and I figure it’s because they’re shocked someone is looking them in the eyes and smiling at them, a habit we both have. In fact, on the way home, we met a couple more French boys who could speak pretty good English and were hilarious! I wasn’t sure if sarcasm or American jokes would translate, but they got it. They cracked us up.

We had quite the adventure on the way home—Andrea and I were thinking we could make it back on foot, as we had walked the area all day. After a few hours, we finally figured out that all of the public maps we had been trying to figure out were upside down (I wish I could figure out which way North is!!), and we called it a night and grabbed a cab. Our projected 30 minutes to make it home ended up taking oh, about two hours. Oh well, cest la vie, right?? (Plus, we saw some wild Paris nightlife, and scoped a few cool places we can go.)
Now today. We set our alarms last night to wake up at a decent hour (10am—that’s 3am Kansas time!) and are thinking about taking a picnic to the Eiffel Tower. Se magnifique!

Finally Made It!

Bonjour! After a long journey and a rough morning (long story short-I vaccummed up my phone charger Wednesday night...who does that?? No worries though--I got a new one!), I got to the airport and on my flight to Dallas with no trouble. I met up with Andrea and we boarded our flight-much more comfy than my tiny plane to Dallas, but still not really built for tall people, we decided. It wasn't too terrible-we watched a few movies (by the way, whomever told Miley Cyrus she could act in The Last Song did her a serious diservice), ate some decent dinner, and tried to go to sleep early...even after a Tylenol PM, it was tough to get comfy! Plus, the rather large woman sitting next to me decided to drink no less than 8 glasses of wine...seriously. Then, after dropping a bottle on my feet, she passed out (snoring and everything!) with about an hour left on the flight, when everyone else was waking up. Yeeeeah. But, we made it through the airport okay, found the right bus, and met up with Hillary and Chris! Hooray!!

The apartment is adorable, and it's almost unreal to be in Paris. The streets, the buildings, the architecture...even just walking down the street in the neighborhood, you can see all the culture and history. Very exciting! Hill and Chris are going to show us the neighborhood, even though it is like 5am our time. Oh well! Cest le vie!

Three Days To Go!

I'm so excited to go to Paris! Since I've never really traveled outside of the counry (the Bahamas on a sorority spring break trip really don't count!), this is extremely thrilling for me. Today, I'm doing laundry and getting ready to start packing...it will be tough for me, the well-known over-packer, to get everything into just one large suitcase. Two weeks is a long time!! And you need lots of options. But I'll make it work...

Check back soon for updates and pics from the "voyageur du monde"! Jusqu'à la prochaine fois!