Ever tried french fries in France?

Once again I have been travelling… and to where you’ll never guess (well, unless you know already)- PARIS! Since I have 3 day weekends EVERY weekend, I decided to make my way up to Paris. Well actually this has been planned out for months so it wasn’t really last minute like I made that sound. I have a friend/family in Paris and since it’s relatively close to me, well, why not visit? Add I have to tell you, it was a MUCH needed visit. 

My plane left Malaga on Friday morning at 7am so I had to head down to Malaga the evening before. The night day I had to leave the house (my friends’ place) at 5am... and that was an adventure in itself. I had set my alarm for 4:30am, I even set 2 alarms, and what happened? Neither went off. Great. I’m lucky enough to have a phone where you can set the alarm to only go off on certain days AND since I never work on Fridays, my alarm was set to NOT go off on Fridays. Of course I forgot to check that. All ended well though because I was awoken by my friend (who I stayed with) because the taxi company had called, they were waiting downstairs. So I threw on my clothes and managed to ring up a 25euro taxi bill (normally less than 15) since they had to wait…great way to start the trip.

THEN I was at the airport and realized I had forgotten to check if I had my passport with me. Luckily, I carry my passport around with me most of the time so I had it with me- VERY lucky on that too. After all that I got threw security and waited for the plane to arrive. Now let’s get to the good stuff…

Paris. I arrived at 9:30am (2.5 hr flight-nice!) and had to find my way into the city. My friend had given me some great instructions so it wasn’t too difficult to figure out (she had class so couldn’t come to pick me up). I made my way over to the train and headed into Paris. I ended up meeting my friend almost exactly when she got out of class, at noon. Yes it took me that long, I got lost and the subway staff had very limited English…but in the end I made it! And it was all good, or should I say, AMAZING from there. Since I hadn’t seen this girl in years we had a lot of catching up to do. So first stop, McDonalds, for some food lol. I mean why not? The rest of the day was spent shopping, wandering the city and visiting some of her friends. All of while schlepping my luggage around (since my friend’s place was outside the city) so I got some great exercise that day!  

That night we headed over to her friend’s place for a girls night of snacks and drinks. I think there were about 10 of us, all French speaking girls (minus me) so I stayed pretty quiet that night. Some of them did speak some English so we had some brief convos. Either way though, I just enjoyed listening to them talk, because I think French is just beautiful (that and Italian), and understanding bits here and there either from similar words in Spanish or just the sheer facial expressions and reactions of the girls. I should also mention that we had some fantastic appetizers/snacks though out the night such as little toasts with tomatoes, cheese and herbs or cheese and peppers (toasted in the oven). My favorite though was a little toast with a slice of goat cheese topped with some honey and toasted in the oven. I WILL be making that again soon. And of course my friend had made some great dessert- tiramisu! The whole get together was just too cute! We had the opportunity to go out that night but I was just slightly exhausted from being up since 5am (although I did sneak a nap in on the plane). It was probably a good idea not to go out because we didn’t even get home until 3am. Needless to say, it was a long, French-filled day. 

The next day was much more “touristy”…kinda. We started our day around 11am and had a long list to accomplish. Although we ended up seeing more than was on our list (just because it was on the way) we didn’t end our day until about 1am or so. Let me go ahead and dive into the details for you…

First stop we made was getting a bite to eat. After taking the subways and everything we made it to a restaurant called Leon de Bruxelles (Leon of Brussels) where they have some very tasty seafood. Apparently the mussels are what most people order and they have all sorts of “flavorings”. Mine was something like mussels with mushrooms, onions, sour cream and parsley. My mouth is watering now from just talking about it…yum!

I should have taken a picture myself but forgot due to my excitement of being able to eat the food…so here’s a pic from the internet that looks like what I had:

After lunch is where the Paris touring really began. We first headed to the big library called Centre Georges Pompidou. It’s supposed to be very artistic looking on the outside although I thought it looked like a factory. Apparently during their busy season (maybe during finals) there is a line that almost wraps halfway around the place…I can’t even fathom the idea that people would stand in an hour long line for a library. Obviously though, there are people who do it- lots of people. Next was the Sacre Coeur: a big church at the top of a hill. There are something like 200 stairs you have to go up to get there…we weren’t quite that ambitious though so we got some pics and left. We did see it though! 

Next, we made our way down the hill and strolled our way through the “sex district” and over to the Moulin Rouge. I mean the whole road leading up to the place was all sex shops and stripper lounges…I guess I should have expected that. We went during the day but I’m told that the area is definitely something else to see at night…I can only imagine. After getting my fill of images of naked ladies we headed over to the Louvre. 

Now if you don’t already know, the Louvre is a HUGE museum, so big that it would take you over a week to see the majority of things in there. It’s where they keep the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and over 380,000 other objects and 35,000 works of art. This place measures 652,000 sq ft! I told you its huge! So even though this place is so amazingly famous and I’d love to explore it, I simply decided it wasn’t something I would do…on this trip ;) I instead was more interested in spending time with my friend and exploring the whole city of Paris- and I’m glad I made that decision because we saw so much and had a blast! We did check out the shopping area, it’s like a mall, which is located at the end of the Louvre. They had some really cool items at some of the shops so we left there quickly in order to not spend all our money. We headed back up (because the mall is downstairs) and into the sunny, warm weather and headed over to the Tuileries gardens. 

Before actually getting to the park/gardens we had to cross a huge road and pass by the Concorde (just a tall statue looking thing). That is where my friend pointed out a really famous hotel called the Hôtel de Crillon where many celebrities stay when visiting Paris. And what an amazing location it had! After we finally made it across the street, we strolled through the park. It was absolutely beautiful with all the spring flowers and amazing weather. I couldn’t have chosen a better weekend. As we meandered our way through the park we saw some people lined up along one of the main pathways…and they were giving massages! So I sat down and got my free 10minute relaxation massage (that’s what they called it) and I was beyond relaxed after that. Also, just to point out how small the world is, we found out that the guy who gave me my massage has a brother living in Seattle. Apparently everyone knows someone in Seattle…probably because it’s an amazing city ;) You go Seattle! 

Anyways, we kept making our way down the park in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe. The first stop we made after leaving the park was at the Laduree. This place is famous for their maracrons and for a good reason. In case you’re not on the up and up, Macarons are little cookie/pastry that started their fame in France but now can be found all over the world. To me they look like small hamburgers in different colors but I swear to you they taste nothing like a burger. I had actually never tried one before and quickly found out how delicious they are! If you visit Paris, GO to this place. Beyond their macarons, they serve some amazing desserts. We actually sat down and ordered some desserts before moving to the next site. Check them out:

some of the macarons I bought

my delicious chocolate treat!

my friend's cream pastry

The 'crust' was soaked in rum and then cream was placed between the layers...yum!

After stuffing my face with chocolate heaven, we stopped by none other than Louis Vuitton. Now I’m not big into fashion brands but I have to admit that they had some beautiful purses in there. Even though I wouldn’t ever cough up the money to buy one, they were fun to see. After getting our fashion fill for the day (well at least for me) we snapped a few pictures of the Arc de Triomphe- good timing because the sun was going down- and then to the apartment of my friend’s friend.

That night we just relaxed, ate some ham and cheese crepes and listed to some music. It was a great ending to a very busy day. 

The next day we were able to take it easy since we had done some much the day before. We woke up and were out the house by 11am. First stop we made was the EIFFEL TOWER! That was fun, but mostly because it’s something you just have to see when in Paris. It was big and looked just like the pics so we didn’t stay long. We didn’t go up the tower this time, maybe next time I go to Paris…because I WILL be back. 

There, we met up with my friend’s boyfriend and went to go find some lunch. We headed across the river in search of food and walked across this plaza area that outlooks the Eiffel Tower. I was told that right next to that plaza area are some buildings with apartments inside AND they use them as an exhibition or something like that. Every year they have a different designer come in and design the apartments. I’m not sure who has access to the apartments but I’d love to see that! Back to our food mission: Trying to think of places close by (because we were starving!) we went to the Hard Rock Café. I know it’s not French food but now I can say I’ve been to the one in Las Vegas, Orlando AND Paris. Yay! The food was the same as in all the restaurants so no big surprises there.

After lunch we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Since it was Sunday they even had a service going one. We were still able to visit the inside even with the service happening but we only walked through the back area (or front?) of the cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful and even more special with the service happening but, since I’ve seen lots of cathedrals and churches in Spain, I wasn’t blown away by the cathedral. Nonetheless though, it was amazing. Now I just need to learn more about the history of it!

The rest of the night was pretty tame, we headed back home, ate some more crepes :) and watch Salt (the movie). The next morning we had to be out of the house by 10am in order to be at the airport around 11:30am. The whole day was just spent travelling...1:30-4:00 flight, bus to Lucena at 7:30pm and arrived back at 9pm. I did have some time to go shopping while waiting for my bus in Malaga but that was about it. Now I'm home and just so glad I made my way to Paris this weekend! I'll be smiling all week about it.

I still need to catch you up on last weekend (the one before Paris) but I'll do that on a different post. I've been getting really behind due to all my travels and that’s not about to change. Next week begins our Semana Santa (translates to Holy Week) which is basically Spring Break and my boyfriend will be coming to visit- FINALLY! We are going to be all over so I will try to keep you updated as much as possible. In the meantime, enjoy your own life :)