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  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Friday, September 5, 2008

Greetings from the city of light and love, Paris.  My travel companion, Casey, and I, arrived here early Tuesday morning after a long flight from Seattle.  It was an adventure from the moment we stepped on the plane from our connection in the Twin Cities, as we quickly realized that almost everyone around us spoke French, and I realized how quickly those two quarters of French at college have slipped from my mind. After looking around the sea of French chatter, I turned to Casey and said, "Here's to two and a half months of feeling very, very stupid." : )

When we landed after a sleepless flight, my travel buddy and I quickly discovered that neither of us had looked up directions from the airport to our first destination--the hostel in Paris where we would be staying for the first couple nights. We wondered around the airport until we found the train station, then wondered around looking for a map of the train system, then spent 5 more minutes looking for a ticket machine.  After the ticket machine rejected our American visa cards, I embraced my shamefully small French vocabulary to save the day.  In an attempt to ask a woman at the ticket counter "Could we please have two ticket, one-way tickets on the blue line to Paris," I managed to squeeze out these three words in French: "Please. Two. Blue." We soon hopped on the metro to Paris, and I was quite pleased with myself.

Since then, Casey and I have embraced our tendency to get lost. It has actually become my new preferred mode of exploration. We jump on a metro that will put us in the general area surrounding a notable monument, get off, then wander.  Along the way we have found some amazing cafes and bakeries, as well as a number of quaint parks and gardens.  I had no idea Paris had so many hidden patches of flora and park benches!  They've become my favorite part of the city. Whenever we happen upon a garden, we stop, pick a bench and do some people watching. Casey usually ends up falling asleep, and I pick up a book or my journal. 

Amid all this wandering, we have managed to experience all the big sights in Paris--Notre Dame, the jardin du tuileries, the louvre, the Pantheon, the jardin du luxumbourg, the eiffel tower, the arc de tromphe...  While we did pay to spend a day at the Louvre (I loved it), we do not spend the extra money to go to the top of the monuments.  Perhaps because we don't spend the extra coin to see the sights as many other tourists do, and because we usually "happen upon" the monuments amidst a longer walk rather than heading straight to a sight then departing for another, Paris has been much less "touristy" than I expected. 

To be honest, I didn't think I would like Paris much because I expected it to be such a cliche, touristy city.  However, I've been enamored by the narrow, winding streets with their tall apartment buildings and iron gates, the quiet gardens, leisurely cafes, and stylish people. Everything beyond the typical tourist traps have captured my heart. And really, even the tourist hot spots have proven worthy of their fame. I cried when I entered Notre Dame, simply stunned by the beauty of the place and astonished by the fact that people could make such a surreal, breath-taking structure.  In the Louvre, I tugged at Casey's sleeve, pointing out the original paintings that I've studied time and time again in my classes throughout college. 

I like to think that I've experienced Paris like the Parisians do, as much as I can.  These amazing sights are simply a part of the stroll I take each day, just like them.  Oh, to be a Parisian and take these gardens and lofty monuments for granted!  I wonder if I take the beautiful sights around me at home for grated, too.  

I love Paris, and we still a a few more days here.  And I haven't even begun to tell you about the food. The food deserves its own blog entry.  The food entry is to come...

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