I Love (the food in) Paris!

Well, as Gretchen said, yesterday was pretty much the most awesome day ever.  I knew we wouldn’t be able to top it, but today was pretty darn great.

We did lots of sight seeing around Paris, including the Panthéon, Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides, the Grand Army Museum, the Arch of Triumph, St. Chapelle’s chapel, and a few other things.  We also did some shopping.

Pillars on the outside of the Panthéon
So pretty inside!
Foucault’s pendulum
Rousseau’s tomb in the crypts at the Panthéon
Napoleon’s tomb
Part of the Grand Army museum
Les Invalides
Arch of Triumph
Eternal Flame
St. Chapelle chapel
Stunningly beautiful

All of that was great, but to be honest… the best parts of the day were meal times.  At lunch we went to a small café near the Grand Army Museum where both Gretchen and I had delicious chicken, mozzarella and tomato sandwiches.  Dave chose to eat the 26 Euro menu meal, which was 4 courses consisting of escargot, lamb, tiramisu and coffee.  Everyone else was done and he was still working on his first course, ha.  It looked delicious though, so I’m sure it was worth it.  Brendon and Luke ate nearly raw steak, but so far so good on the Salmonella front.

We ate dinner at Ratatouille, and it was hands down the best meal I’ve eaten while in France.

For an appetizer I had a tart with tomato, caramelized onions, and slices of eggplant with a small salad… SO delicious:

And my main course was salmon with pesto and rice… also completely delicious:

Gretchen enjoyed a large steak with seasoned potatoes as an entrée, and baked apple with vanilla gelato for dessert.  According to her, it was also delicious.

The nine of us spent 2.5 hours in the restaurant and I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard as I did in a really long time.  Dave gave a great toast that was something along the lines of “Paris… the city of light.  May we add to the ever increasing brightness of it’s glow” which was hilarious and awesome all at the same time.
Couldn’t have asked for a better group to explore France with than these people.

I can’t believe we fly home tomorrow… on the one hand I am sad that our trip is coming to an end because it has been so much fun, and I’ve really enjoyed experiencing another country with some extremely awesome people.  On the other hand I am definitely ready to be back in the United States, where I know the language and culture (though I’m not exactly thrilled for the loooooong flight that lies ahead.)

I must add a thank you shout out to Tim and Alex for being Paris tram champs.  That subway system is ridiculously confusing, and we never would have found our way if not for them.

To close, here is a Haiku about Paris written by Brendon:

The City of Light, Paris
Walking, seeking, foreign tongues
Twas most amazing

Topping the Best Day EVER.

Yesterday was awesome as MG explained, but today was amazing. The day was packed to the brim and overflowing with the beautiful wealth of Versailles and then the beginnings of our Paris journey. The day was extremely cold, but walking through the halls of Versailles in the morning provided the most beautiful shelter one could ask for. My favorite part of Versailles was the Hall of Mirrors and all of the historic Horse paintings. (Predictable, I know) The gold garnishing almost every surface along with the decadence of paintings, carpets, and tapestries was truly overwhelming. As I told one of the members from our group, “If I was a French peasant, I would ticked that my money bought this… but, I’m not, so this is awesome.” Here is a small, spectacular sampling:

MG with some goats

After Versailles we were given one hour to run through the city and find lunch. Our group of 9 successfully found a cute, warm creperie to sit down in. The creperie looked a little like a pirate ship on the inside- just a fun fact. (side note by MG: Gretchen took this to the extreme and made MANY comments/jokes regarding our ‘voyage on the frigid sea’  ‘walking the plank’ ect.  So ridiculous, ha.)  One of the funniest parts of this lunch was a mystery crepe ordered by 3 of the people in our group. The crepe was called the Grand Marnier. We though it had fruit in it, but when it came it appeared to be simply sugar and butter. Expecting this, the three each took huge bites… but it wasn’t just sugar. There was a certain, ahem, ‘kick’ to this crepe and in the words of one of the victims, “This smells like hand sanitizer.  My throat is burning.” Of course the crepe included a similar ingredient and we’ll let you fill in the blanks. Lesson learned- Grand Marnier ≠ fruit.

Doing a word search with a knife since there were no writing utensils.
MG’s crepe

Dave eating the Grand Marnier crepe

We rushed back to the bus and were off to Paris and its intimidating metro system. We began by going to the Concierge and Notre Dame. The Concierge was essentially a Castle Museum and was the place were Marie Antoinette was held before her execution. There was even a creepy display of mannequins acting out the scene.

Notre Dame was of course, spectacular, especially the rose windows.

While we were checking out the outside of Notre Dame, we found a playground with a seesaw. Super exciting until we realized that the age limit is 6 years, so we just pretended to sit on it.

If the morning wasn’t enough, the evening made this day one that we will never forget. The Louvre has been on my mind from the day this trip was a reality and today was the day to see it. I came in knowing that I couldn’t see it all, but I’d say our group gave a gallant effort. I could write for hours about this experience. Seeing painting after painting that I have admired for years was fantastic. I just couldn’t get enough. MG on the other hand was not as enthusiastic about halls and halls of Italian paintings:

(side note by MG: this is a slight exaggeration of my feelings.)

Of course we saw the Mona Lisa in all of her glory:

And took note of all the paintings of goats for MG’s sake:

The finale of our Louvre visit was our reward for enduring a day of cold- a snowball fight. Who can say that they had a snowball fight around the glass pyramid entrance of the Louvre? We can.

An adequate depiction of the chaos of the snowball fight

MG even admitted to loving this despite that fact that the experience included snow. (This means it was suuuper fun.) We were soaking wet after the fight, but we had one last mission for the night- we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up amidst the snow. Thankfully, our mission was accomplished and we had one of the most breathtaking views either of us had ever seen.

It was truly a night we will never forget and we still have a full day tomorrow! (Actually, I guess tomorrow has already started) We even topped off the night with warm, nutella crepes right in front of the tower.

It was too great for words. All I can say is Bonsoir!!

(Side note by MG: All Gretchen can say is Bonsoir, but I’ve got more.  You know how people usually end good (or really bad) stories with ‘and then I found 5 dollars’?  WELL, I legitimately found 5 Euros tonight.  FREE CREPE, WOOOHOOO!  Tonight was pretty much the best night of my life.  As I said on the tram ride back to the hotel, the only thing that could have made it better would be if there was a goat petting zoo under the Eiffel Tower.  One can dream, right?)