Paris

I was excited about Paris. I mean it’s Paris, who wouldn’t be. But I was especially excited about this trip. The group of people I was going with were some of my favorite people. Also, as someone who grew up reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald and all the other famous early 1900s authors, Paris held a lot of expectation for me. It did not disappoint.

We all met late in the afternoon at our Airbnb, almost in the exact middle of the city. We were all coming from different places. I came from Switzerland, the girls from Prague, and another buddy of mine from London. While we were waiting for my buddy we found a bar and had some wine caught up. After my friend arrived, we walked the city for a little, but everyone was very tired and it was Thanksgiving so we got some food from a local market and made our own meal to celebrate at the Airbnb. It was a great meal, even though I burnt the pasta.

The next morning, we got to explore Paris. It is easy to see why Paris has been the inspiration and home of so many artists throughout the years. The streets are as chaotic as they are beautiful. On that first morning wandering the streets, we found the best baguettes in Paris, (according to Google) went to Notre Dame, a church nearby with stunning stained glass, and the Shakespeare and Co book shop.

After a late lunch, we spent several hours in the Louvre. Many hours. We still only saw a small bit of it. Then we had dinner. Dinner was good, the wine was better, the bill afterward …not so much. We lost track of time at dinner and had to race to the Eiffel tower to try and catch the last light show of the night. It was worth it.

The next morning, we got another late start. We rented scooters and scoot scooted all the way to the D’Orsay Museum to look at the pictures. There are a lot of famous paintings here including a few Van Goghs. Afterward, I strolled down some streets to grab some souvenirs, then I met up with the gang again to head back to the Eiffel tower to see it in the daylight. It is still very impressive in the daylight.

This was our last evening in Paris, so we decided to walk to the streets. The cold forced us into a Brassiere where I discovered spiced wine is a fine beverage. We also had a cheesecake that very well might be the best in existence. We spent the rest of the night wandering for a while before the cold overtook us and we returned to the apartment. We returned to Florence early the next morning for two more weeks of school.