France: Paris

On to the city of love! We hustle to our new favorite train station Zurich HB and board the train to Paris. It is a 4 hour trip and we have assigned seats with a little table between us. I dive into A Long Journey Home aka Lion but the book and watch the country side zip by me.

Before you knew it we were rolling into France and looking for the subway to get to our airbnb. Gosh to I love major cities, you could feel the energy and culture just from the stop. All of our credit cards did not work on the machines so we had to wait in line at a terminal because the train was only 8 euros for all 3 of us and we only had 20 notes. Onward we go boarding double decker subways that only take us 15 minutes to get to our stop Challet Les Halles, the largest subway station in the world. Makes me upset that New York didn’t consider double decker subways. The L train would be so pleasant.

We climb the 4 flights of stairs to our airbnb quickly change because again we are sweating in the 70+ degrees and run to find lunch. There is an adorable crepe place on the corner. From there our first destination was obviously the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to see it as the sun set and then turn all sparkles. As we walked the river Seine, we took in the culture and the gorgeous language.

As we get closer and closer we keep finding the Eiffel Tower peaking out from the buildings. We finally enter the park and see it in the field. It feels exactly like the Monument, but 100x more beautiful, in DC with the mall running across in each direction and gorgeous museum at the end of the field. Makes sense considering Lafayette designed most of DC.

Some men were selling champagne with cups and wine openers for 20 euro. God bless commercialism. We snag a bottle a cheers as we take in the view. Sounds of facetime connection calls fill the field behind us as everyone calls to brag. As the sun sets the skyline changes and affects the colors of the tower. It is amazing.

After we witness what feels like the finale where the Eiffel Tower blinks with tons of flashing lights we find a pedi cab to take us home so we can still have the best views. We are ready for dinner at this point and head over to the restaurant on the corner. Soon some local beers and a Vietnamese salad are ordered and we sit back and sing along to some early 2000s rock. I am loving the international delay on American music.

So its Saturday night and we are in Paris. I am so ready to see this night life. We tuck Stasia into bed and Kelsey and I head out to explore. We bar hop for a bit at the cutest little places. Every bartender is more gorgeous than the last, maybe its the language but I think our bartenders need to try harder. We end up at a place called Thirsty Mad Cat and slam into a wall of heat. I haven’t been in a bar like this in years. We dive in and head to get some screwdrivers. Both equally adorable bartenders are so confused on why we want orange juice and vodka but they serve us with smiles.

We spend the next couple hours singing along to Hakuna Matata, the Pokemon theme song and we do the Cotton Eye Joe. That dance was my OBSESSION in 8th grade so I am on cloud 9. We meet some Parisians, who don’t believe I don’t speak French… add that ethnicity to my ever growing line up, and dance the night away. We head home at 2am looking forward to our less than 5 hours of sleep before we tackle Versailles.