Eiffel Tower Day!

During our short stay in Paris the subject of India loomed large over our heads. The subject was ignored for the most part until we woke up on our third and final day in Paris. The conversation went like this:
"holy shit, we are going to India tomorrow"
"we need to eat a lot today"
I don't know why we were under the impression we would starve in India but we thought it best to shove as much food in our faces beforehand just in case. I also was feeling like I needed to eat something besides bread and cheese for a change. Bill found an American diner, run by actual americans, called BIA. That's short for Breakfast In America. We went, we saw, we ate enormous plates of eggs and sausage and drank gigantic mugs of American coffee. It was heaven.

After our big breakfast we needed a nice long walk, which was exactly what we got. We walked along the south bank of the river through countless neighborhoods, peeking in houses, imagining life if we moved there. Every wrought iron balcony, all the pretty girls on bikes with baguettes in their baskets, every breeze rustling the trees lining the tiny French streets, all produced little gasps of romance from my lips. Not to mention that Paris is full of really really ridiculously good looking people! Fashion week was approaching and models were out in abundance hustling with their portfolios to and from castings. I did not get to stalk Karl the day before as planned so I resolved to do so that afternoon, right after I got my bag bill had promised to buy me :)

But first we needed to conquer the Eiffel tower. As we approached the lawns in front of the tower we saw, and I'm not exaggerating one bit, 11 weddings getting photographed. I started laughing when I thought of the poor brides who must have thought "honey! Let's get our photos done in front the Eiffel tower! It will be so romantic!" and you show up and 10 other bitches are there ruining your day. I was ecstatic about just being there. It was a gorgeous day with clear blue skies and it was hot, I had shorts on at the end of sept! We opted to walk up the first two landings because the line looked horrendous and I wanted to work off all the cheese I ate the last few days. We stopped at the first landing, sprawled out on a bench and bill took a nap. I gazed over the Paris skyline trying not to think too deeply or philosophically about the moment, I just wanted to be present and enjoy.

We climbed up to the second landing, looked around, then we took the elevator to the top. My newfound fear of heights kicked in on the elevator ride because it is reeeaaalllllyyyy freaking high! I also laughed at the people buying €15 glasses of champagne at the top. Why? The glasses weren't even glass, they were plastic. Real classy guys! What was cool was there were markers around the top saying how far certain destinations were. Delhi was 6600 kilometers (4101 miles) ahead of us, New York was 5849 km (3634) behind us. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the distances we've travelled, and where we are going. We took some pics, hung out for a bit then went back to the second level, walked back to the first level and got some beers and sat in the cafe.

Our conversation turned to India again. I decided a long time ago to enter our India experience with zero expectations, which meant not thinking about it at all. The entire time we were in Europe we rarely spoke about India outside of making our travel and volunteer arrangements. We never speculated on what it might be like, we didn't discuss what we wanted to do (besides me saying over and over and over that I wanted to take an elephant ride) we really felt the whole experience needed to just happen and we had to absorb it. It's extremely dangerous to walk into any situation with preconceived notions about how you think it's going to go down. You will most likely be horrified/disappointed. When I was sitting in the upstairs of the Brooklyn conservatory on my wedding day with my parents I was downing champagne, sweating, fanning myself, I was so nervous and the magnitude of the event was really like, smacking me in the face, I uttered the phrase "this is happening" and that's been our motto for during this whole trip. This is happening. So pull up your panties and deal with it. (on a side note, I was nervous, sweating and fanning myself with happiness. I always down tons of champagne in the early morning so that was nothing out of the ordinary)

Anyways, we finally made it to the ground after spending 3 blissful hours in the Eiffel tower. Now it was shopping time! We made our way up Ave George V, stopping in Balenciaga. Oh crocodile skin tote bag! How I wanted to hold you in my arms, sing soothing lullabies to you, carry you around New York with me everywhere I went. Too bad you were €15,000. oh well, another day. I have my whole life to get rich. Wait, BILL has his whole life to get rich. Yeah I like that better. and before I hear a lot of crap from PETA, I'd like to point out that I've never met a croc who DIDN'T want to be a Balenciaga bag, have you? I peered into Yves St. Laurent, pressed my face up against the glass at Gaultier, gazed into the window at Hermes for many many minutes while explaining who Hermes is to Bill. There was no point in going into any of these stores because it was going to make me want things I couldn't have. So we went to Louis Vuitton. And stood in line behind a bazillion Asians waiting to enter the store. Why do Asians always travel in packs of at least 35? can someone explain this to me?
I like Louis Vuitton and I'm actually quite fond of Marc Jacobs. I like the stuff he does for LV much more than his namesake line. I wanted something plain and discrete. I don't have a problem with the logo bags but they aren't personally my taste, no matter who the designer is. The problem is, it's hard to find anything in the LV store that doesn't have a logo on it. I finally picked out the black leather Mirabeau bag:

It was chic, timeless and beautifully made. I was slowly transfixed by the shiny silver hardware, feeling it's weight in my hands, the way it sat in the crook of my arm, I pictured dozens of outfits I could pair it with. I pictured a shelf in my non existent closet it could sit nicely on, nestled cosy in it's velvet bag. Bill loved it and started to signal over one of the salespeople.....and then I snapped back to reality. Buying an expensive bag the day before we were flying to India to volunteer with slum kids in Delhi was kind of an asshole thing to do. The cost of that bag could feed 10 kids for an entire year. Besides, what was I going to do with this bag? It wouldn't fit in my suitcase and what's the fun of buying something so fabulous only to have it shipped home and not see it for 3 months? Bill was really trying to convince me that I should have it but I put it back and walked out of the store, taking a raincheck for when we get home.

On our way back to the hotel we stumbled upon a full blown orchestra in the metro. I've seen a lot of things in the NYC subway, but an orchestra is not one of them. I love Paris. Even the metro is romantic!!!
After we rested up we went to Chez Francis. I know that is def a tourist spot but it has, undoubtedly, the best view of the Eiffel tower. We got a prime seat and bill let me sit facing the tower during our meal. He couldn't understand why I was getting so emotional during dinner but when we switched seats he exclaimed "ooooh! I get it now! Ask me anything, quick, while I'm transfixed by the view". The food was delicious, we got oysters to start and they were ginormous. Bill had a pasta dish and I don't remember what I had because the whole scene was too enchanting to remember all these little details. on the hour the entire tower sparkles for about 5 minutes and it really is the single prettiest thing I've ever seen in my life. We had finished our dinner and walked over to the river to catch the midnight sparkle and once again, I burst into tears. I had come a looonnnng way to get to this point. Not just physically, but this moment was a whole lotta years of emotional and mental growth. It took endless amounts of hard work, dedication and love and now I was finally able to thank myself in this amazing way. We were standing on the precipice, ready to dive into India and Paris was the most perfect place to send us off from Europe into the unknown. Bill commented that though Vienna was beautiful, Paris was alive. It certainly made me feel the most alive, excited, seduced and wondrous than any other place on earth.

Paris day 2

I woke up early and immediately exclaimed "WE ARE IN PARIS, GET UP!" I think bill was excited because I was so excited so we got up, got dressed and headed out with an ambitious itinerary. First stop was the pastry shop down the street where we got a chocolate croissant and some sort of cheesy bread thing with tomatoes on it. I know that the girl in the shop must have recoiled in horror when we asked for our stuff "to go" but were New Yorkers on a busy schedule. I've eaten entire meals walking down the street and in the backs of cabs. I draw the line at eating meals on the subway though, anything more than a bagel needs to stay off the train. I have, however, been witness to a girl eating an entire fried chicken meal complete with mashed potatoes on the subway but that's a different story.
Anyway, we ate our breakfast while we walked up a zillion steps leading to the back of the Sacre Coeur church. When we circled around to the front of the church our climb was rewarded by a stunning view of the city. We made an attempt to go into the church but as soon as we realized they were having mass we decided against entering. I am dead set against tourists being in churches while mass is in session. It's rude and obnoxious. This rule of ours has prevented us from going into a lot of churches on this trip but I just can't bring myself to walk around and stare and take pictures while people are praying.

Sacre Coeur Church

We descended the stairs in the front of the church and wandered around what appeared to be the garment district of Paris. More and more the city was reminding me of New York, even the fabric shops looked the same; but somehow more charming because, duh, we were in Paris!

Feels like home :)

We stopped at a cafe before we got on the subway and learned a valuable lesson. When in Paris, don't order cafe au laits sitting at a table. They will charge you €4 per cup. Standing at the bar will only cost you €2. we rode the metro back to the Arc de Triumph and began the long walk down the Champs Élysées to the Louvre. On the way down I had full intention to stalk Karl Lagerfeld outside the Grand Palais but we somehow missed it in all our excitement, well, my excitement about shopping later on in the afternoon. Bill had nonchalantly mentioned that Paris would be the perfect place to buy me a designer bag, this really got the wheels turning in my head, but more on that later.

We took our time walking through the gardens that lead up to the Louvre. It was unusually hot that day and I was working up a sweat taking pictures of every flower, every fashionable lady and every painter with their easel on the sidewalk. We stopped to get sorbet at a little ice cream cart and I almost melted with happiness. I was eating sorbet! Outside the Louvre! IN PARIS!

The museum itself is really crammed full of every kind of art you could ever want to see. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, it was a lot smaller than I had pictured it to be. There were also a lot of paintings that had some pretty erotic stuff going on. I thought all these catholic renaissance painters were very anti sex everything. The art tells a different story people, and it's quite dirty. Out of everything we saw, my personal favorite was the Nike of Samothrace statue. It is displayed so dramatically in the museum it's hard not to have a sense of awe when looking at it.

After spending about 2 hours in the museum we were done. There is only so much beautiful stuff a person can absorb at a time. We have done a ton of museums on this trip and the Louvre definitely ranks at the top of the list.
Fortunately the Louvre also has a Starbucks attached to it so we went in and made another video to add to our growing "Starbucks around the globe" series. While I sucked down a mocha-caramel-frappe-venti-espresso something or other, I marked the Chanel atelier on the map so I could stalk Karl at his place of business. There was also an Apple store nearby so Bill checked his email to see if his old college friend who lives in Paris had wrote back to us about meeting up later. She had and we were meeting at six. This gave us about 2 1/2 hours to kill so we headed out and towards Notre Dame.

On our way to the church we walked across one of the bridges where the lover's locks are. We thought this was something that had been going on for years and were astounded when we found a lock that had 1961 on it. We later found out this is a fairly new thing people have been doing and the lock we found meant the couple had been together since 1961. Ooooooohhhhhh. It was still tres romantique and I did get a little teary eyed thinking of all the proclamations of love happening in that spot over the years. When did I turn into such a pathetic shitty sap? Our friends dad (same friends dad from tangier) told us that "Paris will make your heart sing" and it was. It was singing a fucking opera at this point.

Bill on the bridge

Notre Dame was nice. In my opinion St. Stephan's in Vienna was more impressive. Notre Dame is reeaalllyyy dusty. There's literally a blanket of dust on everything inside. It was kinda sad and a little gross. I know the catholic church is not hurting for funds, I've seen the Vatican, so why can't they hire a cleaning lady? That's all I got out of seeing it. Dusty.

We met Francesca in one of the many tiny covered passageways that litter Paris. I forget the name of the place but it was soooo French. It was a tiny little place, with a couple table outside and maybe four inside. They specialized in organic French wines and little plates of cheeses and meats. Francesca happens to be a wine expert so she choose something very delicious and we got the mentioned mixed plate. This was the first thing we had eaten since breakfast so I was hungry. More cheese and bread! We were in Paris!

After catching up over the bottle we headed out with the intention of getting drinks at another cafe. Instead Francesca ended up taking us on a private tour of pretty much the entire city. We went from cute neighborhood to gay neighborhood to the Jewish neighborhood to the tourist neighborhood. We saw museums, parks, monuments, statues and fountains. We saw it all. It was great having someone who knows their way around to explain all the cool little things we never would have found. At 11pm we were all exhausted and decided to part ways. We went home and I watched a French soap opera on tv until I fell asleep.

Day 90: Je t'aime......

Leaving Tangier was an exercise in patience. There are two gates at the airport and it took FOREVER to check in, get our passports stamped and go through security. Why is it that every single human being in line had a major problem with their tickets/papers?! We didn't have time to eat breakfast and we were both very hungry so we ended up buying a crappy sandwich on the plane and split it. Then tried to sleep and couldn't...but a couple hours later we were in Paris! I've been dreaming my whole life of Paris. Ever since I was a little teeny tiny girl I dreamed of coming to the city of lights. The romance! The intrigue! All the beautiful women lounging around, nonchalantly smoking cigarettes and purring softly in French, making fun of American tourists... What's not to love?
We had directions from the hotel and got on the bus, to the metro, to the 18th arrondissement. When we were reading reviews of the hotel we booked online we were shocked to see that some people actually posted that they thought "the neighborhood was a little dark for my taste". Do people actually live their lives with thoughts like this? That's a whole other issue, but we really didn't think anything of it. The neighborhood was vibrantly ethnic which was a refreshing change of pace. The first comment I made when we got on the metro was I was so happy that Paris was a city that actually had different kinds of people in it. I was beginning to think I was in the twilight zone when traveling through Europe because everyone looks the same! Finally we were in a city that had some diversity.
We stayed at the hotel Ramey, it was clean, cute and the staff was very nice. We crashed for a couple hours and woke up famished. I had remembered seeing a pizza place between the metro stop and the hotel so we went back there to eat. I know, you must be thinking why would we eat pizza in Paris. Because we were beyond starving. This is always what happens, we get up early on the days we have to travel, eat almost nothing all day and then it's 6pm and I'm ready to gnaw my own fingers off so I don't pass out and we eat at the first place we see. We were greatly rewarded for this decision though. It wasn't really pizza, the dough was fluffy and we got Brie and blue cheese. I love cheese, I could eat cheese morning noon and night (which is what I did for the next 3 days) so this was a slice of heaven.

After dinner I did a little laundry in the bathroom sink and showered and got ready to go out. We were still really exhausted. I think 3 months of travel were catching up to us all at once, unfortunately, in Paris. I could tell Bill was especially beat so we decided just to go see the Arc de Triumph that night and then come home and get a good nights sleep.
We got to the Arc around 9. We had rode the metro to The Victor Hugo stop which was a little too far but I didn't care, we were in Paris! We took our time walking past numerous shops with me oohing and aahhhing along the way. The coolest thing we saw was a chocolate shop that had a life size orangoutang completely made of chocolate! It was the moment I knew I could love this city forever.

We walked over to the Arc and spent a lot of time admiring it, walking through and around it. The city was all lit up, we could see straight down the Champs Élysées in both directions. As we were walking around the Arc the tip of the Eiffel tower popped up from behind some trees. I started exclaiming " ooooooo! Oooooooo! Ooooooooo!" It was the most magnificent thing I had ever seen and I immediately burst into tears. This also, in addition to the cheese eating, would happen many times in Paris. When people ask me about our time there I'm going to say that I cried and ate cheese. Best vaca ever. Bill was a little confused as to what was going on and when he tried asking me about it but I was speechless. He followed that by reminding me that I hadn't even seen the whole thing yet. It was at this point I think he knew I was going to be in the best mood of my life for the next couple of days and it was, in turn, making him really happy as well.
We wandered down the Champs E as far as the Louis Vuitton store which I let out many more ooooohhhhhs and ahhhhhhs at the goods in the window, then we got on the metro to go home. We went to bed and I dreamed of Eiffel towers and fancy leather handbags, all the things a girl could ever want in life.

-Claire