Parfait Paris!

("Perfect Paris"...about two of the ten words I know in French. It makes GG's parfaits that much more special now that I know it means "perfect.")

This weekend was absolutely awesome. Everything I saw and did was amazing, but I was most excited and encouraged by seeing one of my best friends at BC, Ericka! I got to stay with her host family in Invalides with a surreal view of the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) right outside their front door. Everyone's family and friends have been visiting Parma the past two weeks, so it was really great for both of us to finally see a familiar face!

On Friday morning, my friend Lauren (from my program) and I took the 5:21AM Parma train to Milan, which got in at 6:55. We sprinted across the Milan train station to try to catch the 7 o'clock bus. It knowingly pulled away from us as we stood outside with our tickets, so we had to wait for the 7:20 bus. The bus from the train station to the airport can take anywhere between 40 minutes and over one hour. We were really hoping for the former because our flight was leaving at 8:55! With God's guiding hand, as always, we made it through security, bolted across the airport, and got to our gate as the last 20 people were boarding. While I do not recommend this early of a flight out of Malpensa from Parma, especially not with only four hours of sleep in you, it is possible with a little running and a lot of faith.


(Sidenote: This has been a week of me realizing how counterproductive it is for me to worry. Friday morning I hopped on a train, a bus, and a plane with much less angst than I normally would have had in this situation. Because worrying wouldn't make the train leave on time, or the bus go faster, or the plane delay a few minutes. Even if we didn't make our flight, the worst thing that would have happened is I waste/spend more money...I'm still in Italy. I'm still living and breathing and enjoying God's wonderful creations all around the world. I'm still able to find joy in what's around me, sometimes even more so when things don't go exactly as I've planned them.
My mom my favorite verses to me in third grade, which continue to be probably the most important ones throughout my life: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~ Philippians 4:6-7)

Back to my trip. Friday was really rainy. While the movie "Midnight in Paris" claims that Paris is most beautiful in the rain, I bet that's probably most true in the summer and if you're wearing the proper shoes. Despite my blisters and fatigue, I still very much enjoyed the walking tour Ericka took us on. We saw Notre Dame and several other cathedrals, the Luxemburg Gardens, ate sweet and savory crepes (what I was probably most excited for in this city), walked along the Seine River, wetn into the bookstore Shakespeare and Company, went to a really fun dinner, and saw Sacre Coeur at night. We went to Les Refuge des Fondues for dinner, which was this teeny tiny fondue restaurant where you sit really close to people you don't know (some pleasant, some not as much), the walls are covered in people's signatures, and you drink wine out of baby bottles. I would recommend this to anyone around my age.

Rodin's "Thinker"

I caught up on some sleep Friday night, and we toured for around 12 straight hours on Saturday! Even though it was supposed to rain all weekend, it was sunny and fairly warm, which made everything that much more enjoyable. We went from Rodin's Museum (where I got to see "The Thinker") to Napoleon's tomb (the largest funerary space I've ever seen for such a small person) to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to climb the Tower, but the nice weather brought an insane amount of tourists out at that time. Tourists are the worst, right? So we climbed the Arc de Triomphe, "Triumphal Arch," a monument commemorating the lives of those who fought for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. There is a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the arch honoring a soldier from WWI.

We headed down the famous street Champs-Élysées and ate macaroons and drank hot chocolate at the esteemed La Duree. It was expensive but delicious and worth the experience! Then we went to the Louvre Museum, which would apparently take 3 weeks nonstop to actually look at every piece of art in this former palace. I was really struck by its enormity. Among other works, I saw the "Venus de Milo" and "La Gioconda," better known as the "Mona Lisa." When
we studied Da Vinci in my Art History class, we learned a lot about this portrait. It is a beautiful painting, but the reason it's so famous is that it's been stolen so many times. (Also sorry to disappoint anyone but her eyes don't really "follow" you. Well they kind of do, but the reason is because the vanishing point of the painting's perspective is in between her eyes. Many other painters have done this too. BUT it was amazing to stand in front of something so important). Lauren and I also walked Ericka down the Italian painters section of the Louvre and shared any knowledge we could give her on what we know about the iconography of the paintings or stories of the painters.

Best dinner ever

Crepes at the Eiffel Tower

(I'm almost done I promise). We walked along the lock bridge where couples write their names on a lock, attach to the bridge, and throw their key in the Seine. Paris really is such a romantic city, which was typified by the bride taking pictures on that bridge in her wedding dress. We got wine at Le Fumoir where Hemingway used to hang out, then came my favorite part of the weekend: dinner. I was at the peek of contentment at this cafe in Saint Germain. The girls and I got the best French Onion Soup I think I've ever had, a Caesar salad (finally something healthy besides a crepe and
baguettes), and delicious escargot. The food combined with the ambiance of the restaurant, the slow jazzy music playing in the background, the clarinet player outside, and the people I was with just made my heart melt. After this dinner, it seemed like the perfect time to finally venture to the top of the Eiffel Tower and get another crepe while we watched it twinkle at midnight. Truly amazing.