Paris & Geneve!

I just got back from an amazing week of travel! I have lots to tell you:

Last Friday, we took the TGV (fast train) to Paris to meet Erin, Johnny, and Megan. First stop: Starbucks for some yummy vanilla lattes that we've been missing. We walked around the city, waiting for JR and Meg to arrive. It was drizzling a little, but we decided to walk instead of taking the metro. Two hours later, we didn't reach our destination - who knew Paris was so HUGE! The map made it seem so do-able. So we found L'As du Falafel - an amazing falafel place we ate at in spring '06...best falafel ever and the guys who work there are a hoot. Then we downed some chocolate fondue with fruit at a chocolatier around the corner (also hit that up in '06).


Finally Meg and JR arrived, and we all went to the Musee d'Orsay, got in for free because it was closing in 45 mins. The museum houses a lot of Impressionist artwork and is located in an old train station in the center of Paris. Sweet building, sweet paintings (love the van Gogh). Next, it was off to the Louvre where we were all underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa. Friday night we ate at a restaurant off of the Champs Elysees - fruity cocktails all around!

Saturday morning, we had a bangin breakfast at the hotel (props to dad for scoring the sweetest hotel in Paris). Then, it was off to the Eiffel Tower for the ride to the top! Lots of lovers crowded the tower on Valentine's Day. I was disappointed that I didn't see a proposal, so I proposed to Erbear and she said oui oui! It was quite chilly, so we headed to Angelina's, a fancy tearoom near the Tuileries famous for it's chocolate chaud. Best hot chocolate I've ever had - basically like drinking pure melted rich chocolate.

In the afternoon, we took the metro to Montmartre, the artsy district of Paris. We climbed the stairs to Sacre Coeur - a really pretty basilica on top of a huge hill. From there, we had a great view of the city. The sky was perfectly clear. Next, we walked around Pigalle, the red light district (more fun than trashy, home of the Moulin Rouge). A few sleazy people tried to seduce Junebug. Cute. That night, all of us lovahs went out to a romantic dinner back in Montmartre. We headed back to the hotel after (around midnight) after a tiring day.

Sunday morning we went to mass at Notre Dame. Meg and Junior fell asleep; Erin and I got high off of holy incense, but we all thought of you Ria! After, we explored the Latin Quarter where the Sorbonne University is - a very young, lively, cute place. Lots of small shops, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, etc. We then walked around Le Marais, the new hip district (lots of Jewish and gay neighborhoods there as well). Erin left us Sunday evening. So good to see that ball of sunshine. Sidenote: We're living together this summer in DC!!!

On Monday, we took the metro to the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where a lot of famous French poets, writers, etc are buried. In America, cemeteries are usually on flat ground, with rows of graves, and fairly uniform grave markers. French cemeteries have more variety in their appearance, and many graves have small house-type mosoleum things; feels more cemeteryesque. We saw Oscar Wilde's and Jim Morrison's (he briefly lived in Paris and overdosed there in 1971) graves.


We met up with Junebug and walked around the Latin Quarter and shopped some more.

Megs and I treated ourselves to yummy short grey leather boots. At night, we took a boat cruise on the Seine (the river that runs through and divides Paris). All the monuments looked spectacular at night! And we had entertainment - about 50 Irish middleschoolers on a schooltrip were on board. They were hiliarious - waving the Irish flag over the side of the boat, running around and getting yelled at by the French workers, cursing really badassly...we decided we all wish we were born in Ireland (shout out to Flannery and Herrity ancestors). The boat cruise was a lovely finish to a lovely long weekend.


Ella and I continued our week in Geneva, Switzerland. We arrived tired and hungry on Tuesday night. We checked into our hostel (the sweetest hostel ever - clean bathrooms, friendly people, hot showers, free cards for using public transportation) and walked around to find authentic Swiss eats...we ended up at Manana and drank Pina Coladas and ate burritos, woops! But it was delicious, and quite expensive (I guess that's exotic cuisine for them?).

I'm getting tired of writing, so I'll be brief on Geneva. We totally lucked out again with weather - it was perfect! The only problem - apparently lots of touristy things are only open from May-October, but we still found plenty to do. Reformation museum, Red Cross Museum, United Nations, Gardens, STARBUCKS (5 times), H&M (3 stores), good food, walks along the lake, movies (Revolutionary Road and Doubt - both really good but really intense!).


In Geneva, we made up for the not-so-good meals we ate in Paris. Examples of food in Geneva that we ate: cheese fondue at a really cute restaurant, 1/2 roasted chicken and potatoes and salad for 15 swiss francs (about $13), rich chocolate fondant cake with vanilla icecream, cinnamon roll at Starbucks, mozzarella tomato basil and oliveoil panini.

Lake Geneva was beautiful! Crazy Swiss people were even swimming in it in their Speedo's. The city was small, but I loved it! It had a much more laid back feel than Paris. Oh and we really wanted to see countryside in Switzerland, so we took the bus about 20 mins outside of the city, walked around for 15 mins, and got on the next bus back to Geneva. It was super cute though and totally Swiss.

Overall, I had an awesome week: good people, food, weather, history, shopping, Starbucks, family, sun, etc. The only down side - my achilles tendons are about to snap from all the walking (did we calculate like 10 miles one day in Paris?). When I hobbled out of the train station in Montpellier last night, I felt like I was home...a good feeling! It's nice to be back to my digs.