Paris: Part I

Little Baby in Paris

We wanted our trip to end with a bang so we'd end our journey in Paris. This portion of the trip would fall on my 30th birthday as well. How lucky am I to have gotten to celebrate my 30th rotation around the sun in the City of Light? Very lucky. Very very lucky! To this day, I still can't believe that it happened and I actually went there for 3 days. I'd been dreaming of visiting Paris since I was an itty bitty girl and that dream finally came to fruition.

Since our flight wasn't until two o'clock in the afternoon we got to sleep in and have a nice, quiet last morning in Copenhagen. We made sure the flat was just as tidy as it had been when we arrived then we had some breakfast. Since it was still pretty early we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood since we hadn't gotten to do that yet.



Our first peek at the Eiffel Tower. We got a little excited.

We got to see some critters including a some snails, bumblebees, lady bugs, birds and a gorgeous Siamese kitty in addition to a plethora of flowers. Even though I was very excited about Paris, I was sad to be leaving Copenhagen since we'd had such a lovely time there. After our little stroll we grabbed our bags and went into town so Melissa could send a postcard to her mum. Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a guy with two IKEA bags full of packages (must've been an Ebay seller) and an Australian woman who talked the teller's ear off. What should've been a 5 minute post office visit turned into half an hour and when we finally got out of there we'd just missed the train to the airport that would've gotten us there on time. Once again we got there late and had to haul ass through the airport. It was not fun times. If you know me well, you know that running is not my jam (I'm more of a fast walker) so it was a nightmare having to race through the airport again with my suitcase in tow. The airport had countdown timers painted onto the floor telling you how far you were from the gate and I remember thinking, "I CAN'T RUN FOR 3 MORE MINUTES!" I'm honestly surprised we didn't die. When we got to the gate I could see an Easy Jet pulling away and thought, "Welp, there it goes! We missed it!" but it was only pulling into the gate. We'd later find out that when our tickets said "no check in later than such and such time" it meant no security check ins past that time, not gate check ins so we actually had plenty of time and didn't need to kill ourselves running. -______-



I'd been waiting to take this picture my whole life!

Our flight was only about 2 hours so we arrived in Paris around 4pm, however, the airport was kind of far from the city so we didn't end up getting to the flat til around 6pm. Our host didn't think we were arriving til 7pm so he was napping when we finally reached the apartment. The flat wasn't as large as it appeared in the ad but it was cute and centrally located (we were literally a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower). As soon as we got settled we walked down to see the tower. It had started drizzling by the time we got to the park but we didn't mind. We were just so happy to be taking selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower! Everyone was taking goofy touristy pictures of themselves "holding" the Eiffel Tower so naturally I wanted one too. I did give myself quite the fright taking one of these pictures, though. Melissa was trying to get the angle right to look like I was holding the tower and I kept stepping back without really looking where I was going. When I did glance behind me I was ONE STEP AWAY from a 12 foot drop onto concrete! I'm surprised they didn't have a rail or anything at that spot and I wonder how many people have fallen off that ledge taking silly pictures. The fact that I almost fell and broke my neck would haunt me a bit for the remainder of the trip (and that I could've died the day before my birthday--yikes!)



A dream come true!

By this point it had started to rain pretty steadily so we decided to go look for something to eat for dinner. Melissa asked me what I had wanted to eat and I went, "Ummm..." and she said, "Just say it. You want pizza again." I TOTALLY WANTED PIZZA AGAIN! We found a pizza place right down the street from our flat that was pretty busy so we knew it had to be good. We got a little table for two and ordered another veggie pizza. I got to hear Melissa speak French for the first time that night and I was so impressed. She'd been telling me the whole trip that her French was rubbish and that she could barely remember it but as soon as she started speaking it I guess it all came back to her. I had to sit there in silence and just nod my head and throw in the occasional "merci". I had been worried since I hadn't practiced any French prior to the trip but I was able to get by with only knowing:

*thank you
*yes
*hello
*goodbye



Pizza my Heart

Everyone in Paris knows enough English to communicate with American tourists but I still wish I was able to speak French. I've just never had a brain for language (minus my mother tongue). While we were waiting for our pizza we spent the time drooling over one of the waiters. Since the place was so packed there wasn't much room to move around so every time he'd walk past our table his bottom would be inches away from me and I'd really have to suppress the urge to smack him on the butt. It was a good bum. We must've been annoying the two guy sitting next to us with our English jibber jabber because after about 5 minutes of listening to us, they got up and moved one table down. However, one of the guys continued to stare at me through his whole meal. Weirdo. Our waiter must've thought we were a lesbian couple because he brought our pizza in a heart shape. I did appreciate the cute factor but I feel we were cheated several inches of pizza with this shape :/ For dessert I ordered the tiramisu (my favorite) for my birthday eve treat and it was the BEST tiramisu I'd ever had. It was more of a pudding-like consistency than the cake-like version I've had at home. It was heaven and well worth the 8 euros. After our meal we waited for ages and ages for the waiter to bring the check. I kept giving him the stink eye but he still continued to ignore us. Finally we started putting our jackets on and I guess that was the unspoken symbol in France that you're ready for your check because he immediately brought it after that.



The River Siene

We walked back to the Eiffel Tower after dinner to see the lights and it was sparkly and beautiful but by the time I took my camera out it stopped! I guess they only turn the lights on every hour for 5 minutes after dark and I got my camera out at 9:05pm. Merde! So that's why I have no pictures of it at night. When we got back to the flat my feet were pretty tired from all of our adventures that day so I had another soak in the tub. We turned in around 11pm that night and went to sleep dreaming about VERSAILLES (and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fyi). My birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year and I would get to spend it like a Queen in the royal palace!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo,
Courtney