Weekend Away - Paris!

  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Monday, February 9, 2009

It's amazing how exciting the little things are these days! Our professional seminar last week was in the heart of Geneva, so we got to spend some time in town. We filled our day w/ some tastes of home. The first, MEXICAN food! Heck yeah! It may have cost us an arm and a leg and it may have had Gruyere cheese on it, but it was delicious! Afterward, we went to find the "American Store." It was just that, filled w/ American goodness - mac and cheese, pop tarts, wheat thins, Ben and Jerry's, etc. It was awesome! We took some Ben and Jerry's and headed down to sit by the lake. We walked around some more and then headed home ... all in all, not a bad day!

After two more excruciating days of class, Kieffer, Erin, and I headed to Paris. Friday morning we were up at 5:30 am in order to catch our 6:40 train to Geneva, and our 7:15 train to Paris. It was a little over 3.5 hours. When we got there, we met up w/ another Webster student and hit the ground running. We stopped by our hotel and dropped off our stuff, then headed to the Arc de Triumph. It's amazing that anyone ever got away w/ designing the roundabout around the Arc!

Arc de Triumph

 Then, we started walking down the Champs Elysee. This street is crazy expensive! They have all the trendiest cars, purses, jewelry, etc., not to mention a Hagen Dazs restaurant!

My New Car - You Thought the Bug Was Bad

OMG!

After we had walked for a while, we thought we should head over to the Eiffel Tower. We were really excited when there was no line, so we took the elevator up to the top. You can see just about all of Paris, and they have a diagram of what you're looking at, as well as how far away other countries are ... USA = 9,105km :(

View from the top

Me at the top

When we had taken all the picture we were capable of, we went back over to the Haagen Dazs restaurant. Ummmmmmmm, best idea for a restaurant EVER! We need more restaurants totally devoted to dessert in the US! We all got something different, and they were all delicious!

ICE CREAM

From there, we finished walking the Champs Elysee and went on to the Louvre. Friday nights at the Louvre are free for students. We made sure to see all the highlights - Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. We wandered around for a while longer, but our feet couldn't take another second. We called it a day and headed back to our hotel.

So Davinci Code

Mona

Saturday morning, although a little cloudy and for the sake of our feet, we decided to go on a bike tour of Paris. By the time we got to the meeting spot, it was misting a little, but we figured it would stop soon enough. About 20 minutes into the tour, the snow started to fall. This wasn't the happy, fully frozen snow that we see in StL. This was the hateful, sharp, partially frozen snow. It definitely made the day more interesting. We learned a ton of useless information and had a great time. We may have pneumonia by the end of the week, but at least we had fun!

Girls and I at the Louvre

Still snowing

Afterward, we drug our soaking wet, nearly frozen selves to the Musee d'Orsee. Little known fact: the museum's hand driers point strait at a counter top and are incapable of drying any section of clothing. We saw some great art, including several pieces we have at the Boyer household.

Later, we went to the Moulin Rouge. It reminded me of the Red Light district in Amsterdam ... extremely creepy!

Do you need a caption

Moulin Rouge

Afterward, we went to a restaurant we had heard about through Erin's friend and our tour guide earlier in the day. It was in a tiny room lined on either side by tables. In order to sit at both sides of the table, someone in your group has to climb over the table and sit at a both. They are essentially trapped there for the rest of the meal. Also, all the groups are sitting essentially on top of each other, so you get to meet some other people ... if you speak the same language. The only thing the restaurant serves is fondue, and it is most commonly known for the fact that it serves wine in baby bottles. Little known fact: fondue has a crap-load of wine in it and serving wine in baby bottles means that it goes down realllllllllllllllllllly fast. Result = really drunk!

Bottle Party

We'll never pass up cheese

The hotel we were staying at was very close to the Sacra Coeur, a beautiful church. We climbed a couple hundred steps to go see it. It had a beautiful view of the city, and the church wasn't bad either. After waiting for a while, the Eiffel Tower started sparkling. We thought, "I bet we can make it down there by the time it starts sparkling again."

Sacra Coeur Close Up

City o Lights

Soooooo, we headed back into town. It was awesome to see it close up! You can understand why people think it's so romantic ... I was with 2 other girls, so we acted like retards!

Creepy moon

Being awesome

Sunday morning we went to Notre Dame. Sunday morning isn't really the best time to go to Notre Dame as a tourist, but hey, we needed to see it. The church, as you might suspect, was beautiful. Much to our disappointment we saw no hunchback.

Notre Dame

The Altar at Notre Dame

We walked around the church too, in order to see the infamous flying buttresses. As we were walking we came across an awesome street band. It was a perfect fit for Paris ... they were really great!

Street Band

Then we headed alllllllllllllllllll the way back over to the park in front of the Louvre for the famed "Paris hot dogs." We were informed about their goodness from Amy, the lady who cuts my mom and my hair. My parents confirmed the rumor a few years ago, and I am here to verify once more that everyone should have one. We washed them down with some wonderful chocolate crepes, then headed to the train station, and back to Geneva.

Best Damn Hot Dog

Yummmmmmmmmm

This morning I took the Foreign Service Officer Exam. It's probably a long shot, but there's always my other bustling enterprise ...

Such an entrepeneur

P.S. Check out the album for new mullet/crazy hair pics!