I returned from my long weekend trip to Paris this past Sunday night, and for the last 48 hours since my plane landed back in Deutschland, I have been trying to wrap my head around exactly everything that took place. All in all, my brain can only come to the same, simple conclusion: There's something definitely wrong with the French.
Now don't get me wrong, I did find Paris to be beyond beautiful, and even with its sometimes dirtiness, it still seemed to be able to present itself as elegant. But then again, I guess they same can be said for the French people too. I didn't really have any expectations going in, other than I would probably be amazed by their wealth of culture, (and not to mention their price-tags), and I also knew they had a reputation for coming across as rude. But with all that, I knew I would be in for a nice time regardless. I left the Köln-Bonn Flughafen (airport) at 6:30pm after a slight 20 minute delay. The flight itself only took about 50 minutes until I had landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where I was going to be met by Jessica, the other Au Pair that I went to high school with. After some slight confusion over where each other were, we were able to find each other and then headed off for the Metro to take us into Paris. The plan was to take the Metro into the city, change to an RER (which is another train system connecting Paris, whereas the Metro is pretty much just the Subway) which would bring us to her suburb and then put my stuff in the house, and then head back out into the city to meet up with some of her friends and catch a late dinner. After doing all that and chatting for a about an hour at her house, Jessica and I headed back towards the RER to take us into central Paris where we could meet up with the others. We met up near the Panthéon and sat outside at a small cafe. It was close to 10pm, so we were pretty much the only occupied table at the place. We all decided what we wanted to drink and eat and placed our order (or rather, we told Jessica who was able to tell the waiter in French). Along with our order, Jessica's American friend that also lives in Paris, Tina, decided that we should order a plate of Foie Gras as well, considering it is a traditional "French" item. It was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time I had every tried it. Tina and Jessica and Jessica's other American friend, Jennifer, (who also lives in Paris-working with the same company as Tina) all took the first few bites and commented about how it was pretty good. So I decided I would obviously try it as well, I mean, hello, I was in Paris, France! So I smeared some on the small piece of toasted bread it came with and bit into it. For those of you who don't know what it is, and didn't take the time to click on the convenient link I added, it basically is a duck or goose's liver that has been force fed (according to the standards of French law that actually governs it) to be extra fatty. It is then made into almost like a spreadable butter consistency. Okay. So after I tried it, I ate it all and said that it wasn't bad (obviously lying/trying to be polite). So go ahead and call me an "un-cultured" American, but whatever, I don't know who anyone thinks they are kidding when they say that like that shit. It's gross. The best way I could describe it, and I am being 100% honest here; is that it seriously tasted as if someone was able to turn the smell of wet dogs into a creamy-butter like spread and then smear it on toast. For real. I definitely enjoy really well-prepared and nice meals, and can appreciate the art of cooking, but I also am not one that is going to sit here and say I like something(okay, well, I did do that at the actual table..) just because it's considered a delicacy or whatever by the French. Screw those guys. You can have your wet dog butter, and I'll gladly stick with the German cuisine of wursts and beer.
After finishing up with dinner and paying our bill (my first hint at the Parisian prices: I had a nice garlic, olive oil and basil pasta dish that was 10 Euro, and oh cool, my beer.. which was probably only about 16oz or so was EIGHT EURO! Almost the entire price of my actual meal! And um, I live in Germany, where the beer is cheap and obviously the best in the world, and to be charged 8 Euro for a crappy beer just made me want to punch the waiter), it was pretty late and we all decided to call it a night and head our separate ways. Jessica and I made it back to her house, and stayed up until about 4 in the morning just talking/venting etc. about our experiences of living in Europe as an Au Pair. The next day we slept in (thank god!) and then headed out towards La Défense, which is the main business and economic district of Paris. There we walked into the nearby shopping area (pretty much looked like a much more crowded version of a typical US mall) to go to a bakery to pick up some lunch. Once we had our food and drinks, and after warding off the women that would come up with their children and say in English "will you buy him food? he's so hungry".. blah blah blah.. (take your fake sob story to gullible tourists lady), we headed back out into the perfect weather to sit on the steps of the Grande Arche (a large square like building in the heart of the La Défense district that lines up perfectly with a view of the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. We sat there and ate and talked some more. It was so nice to see a familiar face from Ohio that was going through a lot of the same things I am. I definitely think I talked more with Jessica in those 4 and 1/2 days, than I have my entire time living here in Germany. Seriously.
After we finally decided to move on, we took the metro to famous Champs-Élysées. This is the main street of Paris, which is home to tons of restaurants and cafes, theaters and of course, all the designer boutiques. While walking past the giant corner store of Louis Vuitton, I noticed a long line wrapping around the building. That's right ladies and gentlemen, tourists from around the world were actually waiting in about a 2 hour line just to go into a store and spend ridiculous amounts of money on handbags that have an ugly design on them. Incredible. After romping up the Champs-Élysées we came to the famous Arc de Triomphe with the giant auto round-about going around it (my mother would have a panic attack just looking at this thing, I am sure). I asked Jess how many "lanes" there were going around the Arc and she said roughly about 8 or so, but of course, nothing is marked. Cars just honk and point and drive. It really is completely lawless. Jessica even told me about how her host dad had explained to her that apparently years ago, insurance companies all over France stopped insuring the area. So if you are in an accident on this crazy round-about, tough shit, it's coming out of your pocket. After admiring the Arc for a bit we decided to walk back up the Champs-Élysées the way we came and find a nice cafe to have an espresso (sooo French of me, no?) We found one on a smaller street off the main one so that it would be over-crowed, and also wouldn't have the "tourists prices". We each had an espresso and again just sat and talked for about 2 hours about life and our experiences. It was a very nice, french moment :)
At this point it was getting later, and Jess and I had realized that we were pretty hungry. We then left on a quest to find a delicious, but not super expensive dinner. We got on the Metro again to head to a different part of town, where Jessica said we would have incredible views of the Eiffel Tower. We came out of the metro stop to a nice intersection which overlooked a long stretch of grass with the impressive Eiffel Tower behind it. It was about dusk at this point, so the tower was now lit up with it's golden accent lights, and looked absolutely stunning. It's such a surreal feeling looking at the Eiffel Tower for the first time. I mean, here is this famous structure-maybe the most recognizable in the world-that I have seen countless times in books and movies, and there it is. Standing with all its glory right in front of me. Absolutely breathtaking. After standing there for a few moments to let me take it in, we were back to our mission to fill our stomachs. We walked a little bit away from metro stop that we came out of, to again, try to get away from the places that cater to tourists, and therefore are less quality and higher prices. (Jessica again told me that her host dad had explained to her that it's a big problem in Paris especially, that restaurants etc. rip off tourists by having higher prices, but serving them sub-par food because they don't think they'll know the difference, whereas if it was tried on a local, they would be able to tell that the quality is lacking. So rude.). We finally settled on a small cafe life place and ordered our meal. We ate and then, staying in French tradition, ordered espresso for afterward. We hung around a little but longer until it was almost 11 or so, and decided we should get back to the metro to get a train home. Once again, we took the Metro to the RER and then the RER to the suburb of Paris that Jessica lives. We arrived home close to midnight. That night we again stayed up late just talking. I can't even begin to describe how nice it was to just have good old fashioned 'girl talk' again, with someone that knew the same things I was going through, and not to mention someone from Columbus. We ended up talking until about 4 in the morning when we realized we definitely needed to go to bed.
We slept in on Friday morning, which was fantastic! We didn't really have much of a plan for the day, and so we decided to take the trains back into Paris and just walk around some more. We had to be back at the house by no later than 6 or so, so that we could both be ready and back in Paris by 8 to meet up with Jessica's friends again to board our "party boat" for the night. First we headed for the grand cathedral Notre Dame. We looked around, took a lot of pictures (although we didn't go in, because the line to get inside was UNBELIEVABLE. Probably a good 2-3 hour wait, and with out tight schedule, we just didn't have that kind of time), and then decided it was time for some lunch and Jessica really wanted to take me to this famous falafel place located in the Marais District. We found ourselves in the heart of the beautiful Marais District and quickly found the L'As du Falafel that Jessica had been talking about. It looked like it was about to start raining so we opted to sit down and eat inside instead of just taking it to go. We went in and I was immediately greeted by countless pictures of musician Lenny Kravitz. I asked Jess what that was all about and she said that apparently Kravitz had dubbed this place "best falafel in the world" and visits every time he is in Paris. So they have tons of his pictures everywhere. If you ask me, it was a bit on the creepy side, but whateves.
**Part Deux and Trois located in September (I know, I suck at life).
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