Where's the Eiffel Tower?
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2007
1
5
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Paris,
France
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The teachers are all interesting and diverse. My French teacher is very young and a very cute little French girl. She's probably in her mid-20's. She doesn't speak very much English, but she understands us very well. Hopefully this will be the best way to learn French. Geoff is the creator of this program and he is pretty good. He speaks French, but he is a Brit. Hans Van Berendonk is from the Netherlands and is a typical business man. He's very tall, and loud, and you can just Tell he is a business man. His English is very good, he also speaks Dutch, German, French and I don't even know what else
View from Sacre Coeur
. He does mix up some English words, for example, one of the first things that he said to us, Maybe I learn you something (meaning that he will teach us something). He is really interested in emerging economies (such as Russia, China, Brazil and India) as well as Ecology and the environment. He is very knowledgeable. Mr. Barrier is from Canada, I think around Ottawa since he always asked me about that specific area. He is a really nice teacher. Its nice to have another Canadian around though, but he has lived in France for over ten years. Madam Vaisse is from France and is also a business women. Her English is also pretty good. So after a hard week of classes it was time to party for the weekend. We wanted to go to Monaco, however our plans didn't work out. Thursday night started pre-drinking at Katie and Victoria's house as per usual.The nights end up being pretty random here. Maybe nights are random anywhere, but especially here since not everyone speaks the same language and everyone is from a different background.
So obviously, we went to La Goulais after our pre-drink. Thursday night is karaoke night which in France pretty funny. First let me describe this pub to you. Its typical pub style, random stuff on the walls, wooden tables etc. There are a couple of tables shaped like a ship in the middle of the bar, then there is a room in the back with some benches and again tables...behind that is a room with a couple of pool tables and a decent patio outside, complete with bar
Doors of the church
. The main bar is always surrounded with the regulars, older French people, usually men. Karaoke night brings out lots of people. The bars here do get pretty smokey, which is such a change for me. Apparently though that will stop January 1, 2008, when you can't smoke in bars anymore. I wonder how the French will take that. One of the regulars always brings his dog. Its a huge German Shepard. He is pretty chilled all the time, and he doesn't bite or go crazy or anything. Another one of the locals brings a rat. It just sits on his shoulder. I think that is soo bizzar, but lots of the French girls seem to find it interesting, so maybe its his way of getting girls.In regards to the karaoke, most of the songs are in French. Surprisingly a really popular one is "In the Jungle" en Francais. However, they do have their American songs. Queen, We Are the Champions, Oasis- Wonderwall, Bryan Adams (woot a Canadian)- Summer of '69 and then a ridiculously amount of U2. There are some others but you get the picture.
So we met up with some French people and decided to head to another bar. Shooters. We walked here, had a drink and then were invited to another club in Vichy called Nikita. Now, this bar is a little fuzzy to me, and I don't really remember the details. All I can really tell you is, some trannys work there, there's a stag and some couches. The bartenders that were working at Shooters also came to the club when the other one closed. They were giving Kate, Chelsea and I free drinks all night, (from what I remember)
another view
. The next day I was completely taken out. Kate and I slept all day, watched some movies and went to bed really early.
So Saturday we decided to go to Paris for the night. We caught the train in the early morning and coincidentally met up with Naz who was also going to Paris to meet a friend. He lived there during the summer working on an internship and had some time before he was meeting his friend and decided to show us around a little bit. Paris is suppose to have the easiest Metro, but it seemed really confusing. I don't think I would be able to find my way around that thing. He took us to Sacre Coeur. The area isn't the greatest here, for example, you can find people selling D&G sunglasses, belts, and wallets on the side of the road, lots of Gypsies again. Then there are the guys that start to make a bracelet on your arm and then ask for money. Its a little scary but if you ignore them, its not so bad.
The view from this place is spectacular! It's at a higher point than the rest of the city so you can look down on everything. The cathedral itself is very nice, similar to all the other churches that I have seen in Europe so far.
After that Naz had to leave us and Kate and I were starving so we grabbed a quick lunch somewhere in the touristy area. We then walked to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs de Elysees, and all the way to Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter. By this time we ate some delicious crepes and looked for a place to stay that night
the stairs of the catherdral
. We ended up at a discount motel paying each around 25 euros, so it wasn't too bad. Then Mac Dos again, lol Kate's favourite. We bought some vodka and peach iced tea and pre-drank in our room. We were dead tired, but damnit we were in Paris and we were going to party if it killed us. This vodka drink is my new favourite thing to drink...I always get it. So delicious. That night we partied in the Latin Quarter. Crazy fun. Its the area where the students party, so there are tons of international kids and lots of French ones as well. Its this never ending series of alleys with little touristy shops, small restaurants and kebab stands, and of course, many many bars and pubs.
We picked the most pumpin place that we could find. Free to get in which was great, but the drinks ended up being like 10 euros each. Hella expensive, but they were kinda fancy drinks, like sex on the beach, daiquiris etc. Fruity and girlie. Just how I like em. The beer was just as expensive so I didn't feel so bad.
We danced a bit, drank our drinks and it was onto the next bar. Here we met a group of guys and they bought our drinks for the rest of the night. They were pretty cool, older, but they weren't creepy. They were there for the rugby world cup. They were from Ireland and England and had just gone to the game. They said it was great. Their one friend was super creepy, but I avoided him and ended up talking to some fashion designers from Chicago. They were pretty cool
Sacre Coeur
. They were on an all expenses paid trip to Paris for some show, and they bought the rest of our drinks for the night. They were pretty cool. They said that they were the only straight male fashion designers at their convention. The one kid was Polish and a wicked dresser. The other kid was brown, and hilarious. So it was about 5am or so and Kate bolts outta the bar. Whenever she gets intoxicated she likes to run home, so we ran home. I kind of like this since it sobers you up. Makes for a fun trip home from the bar. Kate had kind of a rough night, and a rough next day.
We finally made it out of our room around 12. Grabbed some paninnis for lunch, delicious and cheap. It was only like 3 euros for the sandwich and a can of coke. Our mission today was to go shopping and see the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately most of the stores were closed on the Sunday in the Latin Quarter, well the stores that we wanted to go to anyway.
So we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. On what seemed like a forever journey, we made our way from the Notre Dame, along the Seine River to the Eiffel Tower. This was seriously the never ending walk. I totally didn't think that Kate was going to make it. So funny, I just kept telling her we were almost there so she would keep going. Finally, when we were about 2 minutes from the thing, I'm like Kate, were seriously almost there, don't worry. She starts freaking out, like where is this thing, I don't see it anywhere blah blah blah. Literally, this giant 320 meter high tower is next to us. I like tell her to look to the left and its right there. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.
But we were finally there! It was so exciting. I enjoyed a delicious crepe, obviously and she ate a nasty looking hot dog. The French, well all of Europe for that matter don't really get hot dogs.
After that we were so dead, we didn't want to wait in line to go up, and we headed on a bus to Gare de Lyon and came back to the Vich.
