Paris, again

As promised, the story of Christmas vacation continues. We left off on Christmas day, the day my family flew to Paris (for my second visit of the year). It's hard to describe the feeling I had when we arrived. I realize that I should feel more at home in England, because people speak English everywhere. But for some reason, coming back to France was like coming home. It's not that I'm fully comfortable with the French, or their manners, or their language (though I am making strides, I believe). I think that I've just mentally settled down (it took awhile), so for now, France = home. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true.

Anyways, we arrived in France and hopped on the RER so we could start our sightseeing adventures. Once on the train, I hear an all-too-familiar announcement. There will be perturbations au cause de la greve.... ahhh. There is another strike, on Christmas (it did fall on a Tuesday), and the RER would take us to the very first stop in the city and then we had to get out. Great. Of course they didn't mention whether, once in the city, any other metro trains would be there to take us the rest of the way to our hotel, so we had to ride in suspense, wondering what we'd find downtown. Of course, once we arrived, the regular metro was running just fine (thankfully!), so the day wasn't ruined. We changed onto a different line and continued on towards our hotel, located just shy of the latin quarter. The hotel, as it turned out, was probably the nicest place I've ever stayed in all of France. That's not because the hotel was that grand or anything, it's that all the places I have stayed are that bad. It was nice to stay in a proper hotel with a decent bathroom and without the Holiday Inn style setup.

We spent the rest of the day checking out Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame. Both were lovely, just as beautiful as I recall. Notre Dame had a wonderful Christmas tree outside of it (much better than the one in Trafalgar Square), and I think I took like 50 pictures trying to capture the beauty of it , but none really did it justice. Apart from these sights, we tried to take it easy on Christmas, if only because it was Christmas. I will say this though: later that night my sisters and I got yelled at by a rather angry Frenchwoman. To be fair, Mindy and KC were being really loud (like, really loud) in our hotel room at night, and the lady was trying to sleep. When I opened the door I saw this irate Frenchwoman in her pjs who proceed to yell at me in French. She was not happy. I apologized as best I could, and politely shut the door on her (if that can be done politely). The French don't like noise, esp after 10 pm (we had this problem with our neighbor at school, though she seems to have disappeared?). Whoops. :)

The next day we trekked out to Versailles. The weather wasn't great, so we figured we could just spend the day checkin' out the Sun Kings crib. While in line I sent a text to my friend Sophie whose parents live in Versailles. To my surprise she was at the palace as well, with her family, so I got to chat with her while we waited in the long queue. It was so random that she was there, and I'm glad we got to chat for a bit. Speaking of random, when we were in the palace this person (who I took to be some random French stranger) grabbed my shoulder. I freaked out and turned around only to see my good Chilian friend Irene! I thought she'd already left Paris by then (she was visiting with another friend from Chili), but I guess she hadn't. Of all the places to meet, Marie Antoinette's salon. Who'd a thought? It was really nice seeing her, passing along the usual Christmas greetings, and introducing her to my family. So yeah, randomness. Oh and the palace was great. The hall of mirrors was done being renovated, and it was superb. And I had an audioguide. What more could do you need?

Later that night we went out the Champs Elysee, which I had never before seen decked out with lights. It was stunning. The best part was the lights on the trees that looked like drops falling. It's hard to explain. So yeah, it was a good day.


Let me begin by saying that I although I rather like the Louvre (despite the crowds, is one of my favorite museums), we had already been to quite a few museums and such, so I'm not sure I (or anyone else in my family) was in the mood for it. We went anyways though, because its just one of the places that you have to see. Within the first 10 minutes Mindy got lost (it took us at least a half hour to regroup). No blame, it's easy to get separated in that place, but it did sour everyone's mood for the rest of the visit. One place we saw that I hadn't before was the Flemish wing, and I'm glad we did because I saw a familiar painting. It was the money changer and his wife, the painting by Massys, which is also the painting I took my art history exam on in France last time, and one of the only paintings I remember from that whole class! It was nice to go, but I think we were all getting kind of tired of statues and paintings and stuff, so I don't think we fully appreciated it.

And of course, no trip to Paris is complete without the Tour Eiffel. We went, despite the fog, and I think everyone was glad we did. Somewhere along the way my mom wiped out on the street, my dad purchased several cheesy Eiffel Towers from sketchy street venders, and I took just about a million pictures. But, how can you not?

During the trip, KC started practicing her French, sort of, and she took pictures for extra credit of almost every meal we ate. She did try new things, which was great (mussels, snails, fois gras, etc). And bathrooms were a nightmare everywhere we went, because you have to be in a restaurant if you want a decent one. This is hard to coordinate with 5 people, but we managed. We didn't do as much cafe-sitting as I would have liked, but that can get expensive for 5 people, esp when hot chocolate can cost upwards of 4 euros a cup. Overall though, I think it was a success.

Next up: Caen. And sorry I don't have any family photos up, those are on the family camera. So, yeah.