March 2013 marks what Mollie and I are referring to as "MSM" (MollieSabrinaMarch). We're both living in Europe, but I'm in the northern part of Germany and she's in southern France, so we haven't had any opportunities to see each other until this month! She had break from school, so for the second week, she joined me in Munich for the weekend, and then we spent a few days in Münster, before heading off to Paris for a long weekend. We parted ways on Sunday, but my break starts the last week of March, so I'll be flying down to Montpellier to spend that whole week with her. Hence- MSM!
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| the start of MSM! |
I haven't blogged in FOREVER, and people are actually getting on my case about it (which actually means a lot- people are reading these posts!!) So as of now, I'm behind with my trip back home and to Nashville, Munich, and now Paris. Paris happened most recently, so I'll begin with that since it's in my head.
Mollie and I had an interesting journey to Paris- we called it an adventure. Until we got to France, ein Abenteuer, and once we crossed into France, une aventure! Our train left Wednesday night/Thursday morning from Münster at 1:15am. We had a four hour ride, switched in Koblenz around 5am, got on a regional train for about an hour, switched in another random town, then got onto another train in Kaiserslautern, and then finished the journey after about two hours on that train to Paris. The trip went smoothly except for our third switch sometime right before 6am, and I led us onto the wrong train and Mollie thankfully pointed out that our stop wasn't listed, and we dashed up and down the stairs to the neighboring platform and got on the correct train just in time.
I think that both of us have taken for granted the fact that we really do speak German and French and live in our countries, rather than just study as international students. When Mollie got to Germany the weekend before, the first thing she said to me was, "I can't understand anyone!!!" Once our train crossed into France, I could no longer understand the train announcer (granted, he did follow his spiel in French with a spiel in German and then in English), but I knew what she meant after that. I realized last week that this trip to Paris was my first trip since being abroad that I've been to a non-English speaking country. I traveled to Ireland during Fall Break, to England during Christmas break, and other than that, have only been traveling around Germany on long weekends. I guess in all that time, I've really taken it for granted that I can travel anywhere in any of these countries (England, Ireland, Germany...) and travel with ease and communicate with people. So for the first time in a long time, I felt that alien and foreign feeling of not understanding everything!
Granted, I've been studying French all semester, so I was able to understand quite a lot that I heard as well as read signs, and of course Mollie is practically fluent in French, but it was just a feeling I hadn't experienced in so long!
Anyways, arrived in Paris and made our way on the expansive and overwhelming metro to the apartment where we were staying in the 13th district. Mollie's mom worked with a woman, Grace, at Reuters, who recently moved to Paris last fall because her husband, Jean, picked up a two year contract at a lab in Paris. (The pair met on OkCupid- so many of my friends, both living in Germany and in America have created these profiles and now I'm super interested! Seems like it might work better than my usual methods of finding love in hopeless places ha ha haaaa) They had a guest room and welcomingly and warmly invited both Mollie and me to stay there for our three nights in Paris. Their apartment came furnished and we took advtantage of the numerous Paris guidebooks that were present. Grace and Jean were also just so wonderful- they had lots of coffee, and we had a lovely French style breakfast with them Saturday morning as well as a delicious raclette dinner that night, and they provided us with spare keys so we could come and go as we pleased. They also gave us wonderful suggestions on where to go for an amazing dinner and a beautiful park to visit. Grace is American and Jean is from French Canada, so we also all had great conversation discussing cultural differences between France, Germany, America, and Paris, as well as the funny and quirky and hard things about living abroad. We honestly could not have asked for better hosts in Paris.
Back to the story though- caffeinated ourselves at the apartment, checked out some guidebooks, showered, and then headed out to do some sightseeing! We found some walking tours of Montmartre, so we started at the bottom, but of course grabbed some pastries and quiches first to give us energy to climb up the giant hill, walked through the red light district and passed the Moulin Rouge, and then began our ascent up to Montmartre. It was quite a gray day, but a pleasant temperature, and when we got up to the massive church, the sun was beginning to set over Paris, and the way the city and Eiffel Tower were illuminated in the dusk was absolutely breathtaking. Say what you want about Paris- that it's a crowded, dirty, stuffy, touristy, dangerous, expensive (all things with which I would agree) but no one can deny the absolute beauty of the city.
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| Me in front of Montmartre |
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| Paris panorama |
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| Needs no explanation |
More climbing up and down the hill, an espresso break, and then we met up with Maggie and her sister Briggs who were also going to The Lumineers concert that night. We grabbed some food and drink to munch before the event, and then made our way to La Trianon- a beautiful theatre where the concert was being held. (I feel like I'm going to be overusing the word beautiful in this post- sorry.)
I'm not big into concerts and my music taste isn't very original, but when Mollie suggested going to see The Lumineers, I thought it would be a cool thing to do, and boy am I glad we did! The concert was incredible! The venue was quite intimate and The Lumineers are one of those bands that is just so much better live and really brings you into their music with them. The lead singer's voice is also really really good in a live venue.
After the concert, Mollie and I peaced out pretty quickly because we were in desperate need of sleep. Got back around midnight and went straight to bed. Woke up on Friday to a rainy morning in Paris. We ate some breakfast and drank some coffee, mapped out our day, and headed out to go walk around the downtown area and around the Louvre. We were doing a lot of walking and the rain was not brightening my mood at all, but we did stumble upon a really cool church- St. Eustace, right in the middle of the city. It was absolutely gorgeous on the inside and huge! There were only a handful of tourists roaming around next to the cold and damp architecture, but I'm glad we stopped inside.
Next was the Louvre. Mollie's been inside, and I took a tour back when I was 13, so we just walked around the outside--in the pouring rain--but nevertheless, the museum square is always impressive. After that we walked across the bridges over the Seine, the ones that are covered in locks for love (again, Paris est la ville d'amour!) and then made our way to Notre Dame. I think the outside is the striking part of this cathedral- oui, the interior is impressive, but there are just so many tourists that it's kind of hard to enjoy it. Then a baguette break, and took a trip to the Pantheon, where a myriad of famous French people are buried. We were then going to go to the Eiffel Tower, but were absolutely exhausted and it had started raining again, so instead we headed back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.
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| Louvre |
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| Me in front of Notre Dame |
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| Pantheon |
Grace gave us a wonderful recommendation for dinner at a restaurant called Chez Gladines, which was some of the most wonderful food I've ever had! The atmosphere was also great- busy busy busy on a Friday night, with the aromas of fresh food and wine wafting through the air combined with sounds of conversations in every language. Mollie and I were with our friend Etienne, who was studying in Lyon while Mollie was abroad there and whom I therefore met when I visited her two years ago, but he just moved to Paris for an internship. The three of us joined a table of another trio- two Brazilian women and a French man. We all had a lovely dinner (not starting until almost 9, remember, because it's France!) sharing stories and jokes and just simple conversation. The bread and the wine were plentiful and my salad was absolutely delicious (I know that a salad doesn't sound too great- but this restaurant is actually known for its salads that have so many toppings).
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| Delicious noms |
After our bellies were full of food and our minds buzzed with red wine, we all trekked a bit to another part of the city where Roma, the other French guy, used to study when he lived in Paris, and we all sat at a bar and had a relaxing drink. This was the kind of night that reminded me why I love Europe so much and why I elected to spend another year of my life here. This harsh and depressing winter has honestly caused me to forget everything I love about Germany and about France and about this continent in general and its lifestyle- because it's honestly a lifestyle and culture that just works better when the weather is nice- just lots of strolling and eating and drinking and just enjoying life and everything around you. It's just hard to do that when the sun shines less than 100 hours the entire winter, the temperature rarely rises above freezing, and the air is dry and raw and bitter (I posted an article on my Facebook that discussed how this is the worst winter in Germany in over 40 years, if not the worst on record!)
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| Mollie, me, and Etienne having a drink after dinner |
We said Au Revoir to our new friends and made our way back to the apartment, a welcome trek to walk off all the calories we had just eaten. To bed again, and woke up on Saturday to share a lovely French-style breakfast with Grace and Jean. Both of them are so interesting, so it was really nice to just sit and chat with them about live and abroad and such. Got ready for the day and then headed to the Eiffel Tower where Etienne was meeting us. It was good we had another friend with us because we finally had someone to take pictures of the two of us! Before that, we just had pictures of each other in random places- just not the same.
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| Classy b&w |
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| très belle :) |
Saturday turned out to be just the most beautiful and pleasant day. The clouds soon parted to reveal a bright blue sky and a beaming sun. After the Eiffel Tower, we grabbed some picnic food at a grocery store and then made our way to a giant park on the outside of the city, Buttes Chaumont, and sat in the grass devouring bread and cheese and hummus and fresh strawberries, and all took a little rest afterwards. I was laying in just my tank top and told Mollie and Etienne how, without exaggeration, it had probably been five months since the sun had touched my chest and arms- it was a glorious feeling, and made me so hopeful and excited for the spring weather (just not going to think about my deathly allergies that will inevitably be part of that).
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| Buttes Chaumont on a beautiful day |
Strolled all through the massive park, just observing families and couples and friends all enjoying the beautiful early Spring day. Etienne was also quite a joy to be around- he was making conversation with everyone we passed or came into contact with and I think that helped brighten mine and Mollie's moods even more. After the park, we made our way to the famous cemetery, Père Lachaise, but unfortunately it had just closed, so instead we headed down to the quai and walked along the Seine to witness a miraculous sunset over Notre Dame. A perfect end to a day in Paris.
We parted ways with Etienne and went back to the apartment where we had a dinner of raclette...if any of you have been to The Melting Pot, it's kind of like that. You melt special cheese in this stove thing, and then drizzle it all over potatoes, veggies, meat, bread, etc. Divine! And of course an appetizer of fancy French bread and cheese and plenty of wine and great conversation--just another great dinner. Afterwards we were too full to move, and despite it being Saturday night in probably the most glamorous city in the world, we elected to rest our heavy eyes and tired feet for a restful night.
Sunday morning, after some wasted time dealing with my lost train ticket (it's quite a long story, and actually kind of funny, but I'll just say that after some minor panic attacks, all turned out fine!) we only had a short bit of time, so we went back to Père Lachaise, which turned out to be so much bigger than we realized, so we just kind of had to literally run around it and then leave-- unfortunately missed Chopin's and Jim Morrison's graves, but the cemetery was still very impressive. Dashed back to the apartment, shoved some sandwiches in our mouths, thanked Grace and Jean, and rushed to the metro, said goodbye until March 22, and made our ways back to Montpellier and Münster!
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| Just a small part of Père Lachaise |
All in all, an absolutely wonderful visit to Paris. Although I was welcomed back with snow and sub-freezing temperatures, it was nice to be back in Germany and a language I understand and to just have a week of relaxation. On Sunday I head to Berlin for the Fulbright mid-year conference and the day after that ends, I head down to Montpellier to spend the first week of my Easter break with Mollie and then head back up to Mainz to spend Easter weekend with Katherine. Lots to look forward to, especially the hopefully soon to be higher temperatures!
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