I went to France! (Paris edition)

1:09 PM

Yes! That's right!

I. Went. To. France.

For two weeks! Only I went in the beginning of April (oops).

So what. I'm writing about my trip almost two months late but who cares. All that matters is I am writing about it.

On the 2nd of April I got up bright and early and went to the airport. This began the beginning of a wonderful adventure. I flew to Chicago O'hare Airport, then to Frankfurt Germany and then into Lyon! When I arrived in Lyon I was SO exhausted. Here is a recap of the events that followed as recorded in my phone;

Thursday April 2nd 
 
10:00am 
Get off the plane. Find baggage claim and wait there for my bag. Walk out of the 
airport to find Abby waiting. Yay! 
Walk to the train station and purchase a ticket. Abby helps people with their 
tickets. 
Walk to the train and put my bag down. Almost miss the train! 
10:45am 
Ride the train to vaulx-en-velin. Get off and walk .8 miles to the apartment. 
11:00am 
Get to the house and carry the bags up 4 flights of stairs and get to Abby's 
apartment. Fix the room and unpack my backpack. 
12:30pm: 
Take a well deserved nap. 
3:00pm: 
Get up! Get ready. Had to figure out Abby's toilet and how to flush it (pull 
the knob up). 
3:30pm: 
Walk .5 miles to the Dia (store). Buy some groceries and taste my first baguette! 
C'est delicious! 
4:15pm: 
Arrive at Jonas' school and wait at the gate. Go get him from class. Meet Jonas 
for the first time. He was smitten and said my name so cute! 
Go and pick up Lucille a block away. She said "hello" to me in her cute accent. 
We walked back to the house together. 
5:00pm: 
Get back to the apartments. Go to Tourvielle's home. Abby showed me the rooms 
and started laundry. 
5:30pm: 
Play a game with Lucille and Abby. A castle game. Abby won. 
6:00pm: 
Play a cockroach game. Read a book to Lucille in French, she read to me in 
English then Abby translated the English story to French for Lucille.
7:00pm: 
Start preparing dinner. Purple carrots and couscous. Have a drink with Grenadine 
(red) syrup in it for dinner. 
8:00pm: 
Gilles came home. I didn't understand one word! Hopefully it will get better but 
he tried to speak English to me and if not Abby translated. 
9:00pm: 
We are so exhausted after this long long day. Time to get my things put away 
and then off to bed.  
10:30pm:
Write Payden an email. We are hungry. We ate some Thom cheese (it tastes 
like provolone), and pieces of baguette with Speculous spread. It's got the 
consistency of peanut butter but tastes like cinnamon/caramel. Soo yummy. 
I need to buy a few jars to bring home. 
 
Friday April 3rd 
 
7:35am
Wake up! I slept all through the night. Literally. Through Abby talking to 
Connor and everything. 
8:30am: 
Leave for school. Say good morning to Lucille and Gilles 
Ride a bus to the metro and take the metro to town (hotel de ville) 
9:15am: 
Arrive at school (late). I didn't understand anything and was asking Abby 
questions on what words meant. 
10:00am: 
Get kicked out of class for talking. 
10:30am: 
Explore Lyon. The old buildings, the fountain with mermaids squeezing fish, etc. 
11:30am: 
Eat lunch at Le Piazzia Papa. Pizza with pasta noodles on top! So yummy! 
12:00pm: 
Get ice cream and head to the metro. 
1:30pm: 
Go to Abby's doctors appointment. Find a super cool church. 
2:15pm:
Head back to the apartments. 
3:00pm: 
Get home. Get the mail, Payden's package got here! A few hours before we leave 
for Paris! Oh the luck we have. 
5:00pm: 
Play chess & checkers with Lucille. She's a cheater with checkers. Met Marriette 
and the grandparents. 
7:00pm: 
Have pasta for dinner, pack and shower. 
10:00pm: 
Get on the train to Paris! Yikes, we got on the wrong train car. Last minute, 
we ran to find help but didn't have time to get to our car. So we get to ride 
first class!!! For about 20 minutes. 
2:00am:
finally get settled into our hostel. Payden texts me! Yay! It's been 2 weeks 
since I heard from him. Get to bed by 3:00am
7:00am: 
Get breakfast (baguette, butter and hot chocolate). 
8:00am: 
Get on the metro to town. Start at Arc de Triomphe. Walk toward the Eiffel Tower. 
11:30am: 
Go up the Eiffel Tower! Get ice cream and eat it at the top. I asked Abby to be 
my maid of honor. She presented me with a gift from Payden (engraved locket) 
1:00pm: 
Head to the museum and through the gardens at the Eiffel Tower. See my first 
naked man, Abby lost 50 euro in a gambling game. 
2:00pm: 
Get crepes for lunch. Not my favorite. The man got into an argument with us. 
3:00pm: 
Arrive at the military museum! Rush through because we dont have time. 
4:00pm: 
Walk through the park with Abby and see so many French people out playing soccer 
(football?)
in the field and across a really pretty bridge. (I forgot the name).
5:30pm: 
Accidentally find the Obelisk Place de la Concorde on accident and have to get 
on the metro. 
6:00pm: 
Go see the Paris capitol building/town hall 
6:30pm: 
Go to Notre Dame and watch some dancers outside. 
7:00pm:
Go to the "Love Lock" bridge and put our locks on together. They're on the South 
side,down the left stairs and on the 4th section next to the bolts. 
Feel free to go find them :D 
 
 
 And that is all I have documented on an hourly basis.

The next day we went to The Louvre bright and early in the morning and the history is so amazing in that building. I could spend days exploring it. After that we went to Montmarte and spent that day at Sacre Coeur and went shopping and had a wonderful time. 

We spent the rest of the time in Lyon. Most days consisted of exploring in the mornings then watching the kids in the evening (Abby is an Au Pair).  I am going to write more about my time in Lyon another day. 
Here are some photos;  (some of these photos are from Lyon but most are from Paris. All are from my iPhone. Maybe I'll get around to posting ones from my DSLR someday too!) 





 
 My first macaroon ever. 
 
That is all for now friends. All I can say is this was one of the best experiences in my life and I'm so fortunate  to have had the opportunity to travel to this beautiful country. I miss you Paris and maybe someday we
will meet again!
Au revoir.

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1 comments

  1. i'm so jealous! paris is my dream destination. i'd love to go there someday. looks like you had an amazing trip so far!!!

    ReplyDelete

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