Paree.

So I never told anyone about my Parisian adventure.

Here's the long and short of it:

After spending time in Chartres with Charlotte we took the train to Paris to meet up with her friend Amanda who is living there. That night we went on a pub crawl that started in Monmarte right in front of the Moulin Rouge, classy classy. I spotted a Buffalo Grill (same name and logo as the restaurant where I worked last summer and fall) in the area and that gave me a laugh.

The next morning Charlotte was my little tour guide... we started at one end of the Champs-Elysees at the Arc de Triomphe and walked all the way down to the end, to the Louvre.

I was only there for three days, and they say you could spend an entire week in the Louvre, so we didn't bother going in. A museum that size is daunting, I'd rather go when I actually have a little more time to look around. Plus, Charlotte's been. Surely I'll be back in Paris at some point and go there!

So we continued walking around and made it over the Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.

We actually ran into a fellow Millsapsian on the way to the Latin Quarter! As we walked by this guy I heard him quietly say, "Charlotte??" He's a couple of years younger than us so he's still at Millsaps but spending a semester in France. He remembered Charlotte from French class. Weird!

We had coffee at this cute cafe next to the Shakespeare& Co. bookstore, where I got an old copy of Brideshead Revisited. Very cool.

Amanda met us up later for dinner and we had a very French meal: appetizer of escargot and then fondue! It was delicious and quite the experience. I've had escargot before, so it wasn't too much of a shocker to be eating snails. But the fondue was different... we had a mini cauldron of oil to cook meat and onions on skewers, and a mini cauldron of cheese for the bread.

Diggin into a snaily. Interesting tools we had to use.

Amanda and me eating fondue!

The next day was BEAUTIFUL weather... still cold, but at least it was sunny and clear skies. I was surprised how much colder it was than London. Wasn't expecting that one. I went to Sacre-Coeur and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Then we went to the Catacombs. Soooo apparently way back when, the cemetaries got to be too full (ew) and they were condemned for sanitation reasons. So what did they do? Dig up everyone's remains and dump them together in a place underground, of course. Later on they decided to arrange the bones in some sort of order so they might be nice to look at and open the place to tourists. Go figure.

Charlotte being silly in the tunnel leading to the Catacombs... (it was NOT this light! so much creepier in real life)

Me in front of some of the remains... eeeee! Did I mention we did this on Valentine's Day? Yeah.

Next we went to see the sweet little miniature Statue of Liberty that the US gave France, and then to the Eiffel Tower. It is soooo pretty at night! Like I said, it was Valentine's Day, so there were beaucoups (see, I know some French) of couples waiting in line to get to the top of the tower.. awww, how romantic.

You can barely see me, but I'm there.

My last day in Paris we went to Musee del'Orangerie (no idea if I spelled that right!) It's close to the Louvre, but much more manageable for just an hour and a half of browsing. It has two rooms of Monet's waterlilies and then other great impressionist pieces downstairs.

Soooo lovely! This one above was my favorite.

After the museum we went to famous Angelina's for lunch and the richest hot chocolate you have ever tasted in your entire life. It was delicious but ooooo boy it was like drinking a melted chocolate bar or something. Then we went to Galeries Lafayette to have a gander and then did a little rummaging through some vintage stores. It was a ridiculously quick trip for such a tremendous city but I'm amazed at how much we managed to see and do. It was looooverly and I hope I get to go back sooooon!

xx