Paris and Paella!

Prepare for another novel...

We went to Paris this weekend. I can't believe I was actually there but I was. amazing. I decided to go ahead and start the blog post... i warn you. It will be another long one. haha.

So, we flew out on Thursday afternoon. Not a bad flight at all and got to Paris at about 7:30. Took a train into the city and found out hotel. The hotel was amazing and really cute. The couple who ran it was just precious. they really wanted to help us out and helped us find anything and everything we asked about. It was really nice. The room was precious! adorable! We had to go up an almost completely vertical set of winding stairs (pictures to come) and we had our cute little room (pictures to come).

The first night we went out and walked around to see where we were. about 5 minutes away from Notre Dame and about 10 from the Louvre (walking). I can't believe that's a true statement. soo.. we took pictures of them both at night and the seine river as well. ah! as we walked down the seine river we saw the Eiffel tower lit up and sparkling.. you can imagine my joy after the first night.

The next morning... Friday.. we got up early and got ready, I washed Laundry for Kelly and I- completely free. we didn't have to pay for the wash dry or detergent.. amazing... I really liked France at this point. Also, it should be noted that my pants fit again!!! We went down to eat breakfast. We were a little scared as the breakfast in Barcelona really wasn't up to par .. much to our surprise the breakfast in France was amazing. half of a bar of bread, strawberry jam, chocolate spread, butter, cheese, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, orange juice. amazing. it was really good. we took off walking found the metro stop (we had bought the 2 day pass the day before)and took the metro to the Arc De triumph. we took several pictures of it and walked around it a lot and then went to.....

THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!!!!!!!

I have to say...it's much more impressive than I thought it would be. we walked up to it and took pictures of it, took pictures under it and stopped in awe for a few minutes. we then walked down the lawn stopping at every point we could to take pictures of the tower or with the tower. We took pictures jumping in front of it (those took quite awhile- i have a pictures of Kelly kneeling in the street as we watched for traffic while one of jumped. there weren't many cars. and we weren't the only ones with cameras in the rode.) i also took some cool little "trick" pictures. looking like a I was touching it holding it kissing it hanging on it like a lamp post.. etc. All in all the fist day we spent about 2.5 hours at the Eiffel tour. haha. I think I'll probably have an album of just Eiffel tower pictures. :) If you could have seen us kneeling and holding our cameras in various positions to try to get pictures of us with the tower.. at one point all four of us were kneeling by one camera to get the eiffel tower and all of us in the same picture. I'm sure onlookers were amused. I had more fun than I can communicate trying to take pictures of Rhoda climbing the Eiffel tower. You'll see in a few days...

After the Eiffel tower we went to a nearby supermarket and bought peanut butter and baguettes and a drink to make peanut butter sandwiches and eat them in front of the tower. We have a small obsession...if you saw it you would too. I promise.

SO... we parted with our tower (it was our tower or the weekend.. in case you were wondering) knowing we would see it again the next night (we HAD to get pictures of it at night too...)

We went to see the Partner of the statue of liberty. She was small. very small. especially after seeing the Eiffel tower. but we took pictures of her anyway and wondered why she was so small. :)

We spent so much time at the tower we headed to the Louvre after the tower. It was free entry from 6 to 10 so we thought we should jump on that opportunity.. not many people can say they went to the Louvre for free. I can! haha. Then started the ridiculous picture taking part to. Us with the pyramid, the pyramid, the GIGANTIC size of that building.. you get the idea. we went in and.. I SAW THE MONA LISA. she's small too. but still impressive. we saw a lot of other cool stuff while walking around this monstrous building for 4 hours. I can't explain to you all we saw. (my camera died toward the end) but I'll be stealing pictures. Don't you worry. It was great.. we got lost as we tried to find our way out but we made it. and then walked to get crepes at a nearby creperie. I had chocolate and bananas. It was great. We went back and got to sleep for the following day.

Saturday,
we woke up and had the amazing breakfast again. it was really very good. and went to see The Pantheon in Paris (not the ancient one) and Luxembourg Palace. However, at the Palace... we encountered more action than expected. There was a couple (French I think) and He was sitting on her lap in a chair with a scarf over their heads... hmm. I guess he got too heavy or they got too into it because they almost fell out of the chair and decided to switch places. They put the scarf back over their heads and went in for round two (I still don't understand what the scarf accomplished) I have a picture of that too. :) OH the things I want to remember. The Palace was really pretty and really big. I enjoyed the rest of our walk through the park in front of it... trying not to get to close.

After the palace we went to Musee D'Orsay (across the street from the Louvre). It was smaller (thank God) and had a lot of artists i liked more. It was cheap to get into too (there are student discounts for things like that here...take notes American museums). I saw some Van Gogh things (He's my favorite) some Monet (bought a print of one of those) and a Renoir or two). I also got a picture with a polar bear statue. it was nice to walk through it and know we could see everything we wanted to see. even though the lay of the museum was kind of crappy haha. hard to figure out anyway.. for us. haha. lots of pictures from that too.

We went to get another baguette and make another peanut butter sandwich... we walked awhile and eventually started joking about God sending us a sign. He has a sense of humor. As we then saw a sign that was a bar of bread hahaha. oh that was funny. the funniest part was that we almost missed it. haha. we had our second peanut butter sandwich. :) I was in heaven.

We left the bread store and went to take our free tour at Notre Dame. We were there early and we were tired so we sat in Notre dame thinking about how cool it is that we were sitting in this place (we found out later it was from 1300 or so...old). we took some pictures. and then took our tour with a cute little french lady with a ridiculous thick accent. we spent about 20 minutes or more at each of the 3 doors explaining the significance and meaning of the sculptures of the three. IT WAS AMAZING! I learned so much about this building. about the sculptures and windows and stuff. I can't even begin to repeat it all unless I'm looking at the pictures. so each of the up close pictures of the doors hold some significance because of what she told us. My head hurt from soaking in the knowledge. :)

We went back and rested (Cameras needed to be charged...this is a problem since the night before we had to charge mine in the bathroom.. which is fine but the converter was too heavy.. so we propped it up with a big fleece blanket and a towel wedged between the sink and the wall...pictures of that too) haha. and then we went to eat at Hardrock cafe in Paris (YUP we went there) it was really good and nice to be in the environment. :)and it wasn't too entirely expensive. we left from the Hardrock and went to go to the Eiffel tower at night. we took a ton of pictures at night too. and it lights up and sparkles at 10 pm every night... HOW AMAZING!

It was beautiful.

We got another crepe after we waved good bye to the tower. Got up really early and took our plane back to Valencia. Kelly and I got home... threw our stuff on the bed and change clothes (the 40 degree in Paris to the 70 degrees in Valencia was quite the change). We went to the gigantic Paella at school. It was in street near the school and it was over a fire. it was great and the Spaniards were so welcoming and so nice and amazing. I just love the Spaniards on our street! haha. it was fun and the paella was amazing. A guy got up and sang and they acknowledged us being there. :)

So... Now... to put down a stereotype. The Parisians were SO nice! They were amazing. They were so helpful and so nice to us. they loved that I could say a few phrases in french (not enough to accomplish much) but it was just nice to see the real side of them away from what I've heard!

Just wanted to get that out..

so that was Paris.. an amazing weekend. I would love to go back to Paris and see everything again but i'm not sure I'll ever get that opportunity.. i'm glad we made everything of the trip I had!

Pictures are coming soon!