Post Paris life? I'd rather be in Paris.

Post Paris Life:  It's not nearly as fun as In Paris Life, however, it's been a month since I stepped foot in the Paris airport and I can still see Notre Dame clearly, and smell crepes cooking on the street in front of my hotel.  How do I summarize my visit?  I loved every single second I was in Paris.  I've never experienced or seen anything like it.  To stand in a place with so much history, beautiful art and amazing food was a dream come true.  There is so much history there, it's hard to explain the feeling of standing in a palace built in the 1600's like Versailles or trying to explain how my heart stopped when I walked into the room where Monet's water lilies surrounded me.  But I'm going to try and give it a shot.  

However, I think it might be the longest blog on earth if I did it all at once, so I'm going to break it down by days with some pictures as well.  So, if you have time and are willing, here is the start of my adventures in Paris.

Day 1.  March 29th.  

My little sis S came to take me to the airport and send me off on my adventure.  I left my house on Thursday morning at 5am.  My flight to LA was at 7 and sometimes I don't have the best luck with airports so my sister made sure I was there on time.  My flights were easy and I went from Portland to LA to Amsterdam to Paris.  Note to self, flying on airline miles allows airline carriers to fly you around the world just because they can.

     This is what I brought with me.

 

 

Day 2. March 30

I'm going to break my previous statement and do 2 days in this blog because let's face it, my trip to the airport was not that exciting!  I woke up about an hour from Amsterdam.  The Amsterdam airport is so clean and easy to find your way around.  There are tulip bulbs at every store!  I went through customs with flying colors and got my Amsterdam stamp in my passport.  My first stop in Europe was...drum roll please...Starbucks.  Seriously?  But there were no other coffee shops in the wing of the airport I was in and I needed coffee!  After drinking my Americano and vowing to avoid any US stores for the rest of my trip I got on the plane to Paris!

I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport which is HUGE, but I just kept walking and somehow found my way to the tourist counter.  I purchased my museum pass in my first broken attempts at French.  Turns out after 6 years of not speaking French I was rusty.  From there I made my way to the RER, which is the public transportation train.  My hotel was a half a block from the RER stop, so it took me straight there.  I got off the RER at the St. Michel stop.  It is amazing how far underground you are on the RER and Metro so me and my backpack headed up the multiple sets of escalators to the exit.  I walked out on the street and tried to get my bearings.  There were people walking everywhere and I couldn't tell what direction I needed to go so I just kept turning around and then I saw Notre Dame.  There it was across the river and this was the first of many times my mouth dropped open in complete amazement.  I figured out where I was and walked around the corner to my hotel, the Hotel Du Mont Blanc on Rue Huchette and checked in.  My hotel was on the border of the Latin Quarter and St. Germain neighborhoods, the Boulvard St. Michel separates the two.  I was literally in stones throw of the St. Michel Fountain!  My room was the definition of TINY! 

 

St. Michel Fountain 

 

 From here, I decided to go and explore around my neighborhood.  I just started to walk down the street that follows the river.  I found Shakespeare and Company book store (the 2nd version of it, the original store was bombed in WWII).  Seeing Shakespeare and Company inspired me to do some of my Latin Quarter artist walk that was scheduled for another day.  I walked by Picasso's studio, George Sands house, a hotel where the Beat Poet's stayed, found a statue of Voltaire, and the Institut de France which houses the oldest library in France.  They wouldn't let me in the library, but I snuck under the barrier to take a picture.

 

Shakespeare and Company!!

Voltaire

Picasso's studio

 

  After this I started to get a little light headed and so I went back to my hotel area and decided to eat dinner.  I ate a croque monsieur (which is a ham and cheese open faced sandwich).  After eating my food and people watching for a while I realized I was incredibly tired and it was only 6:30.  My jet lag had set in.  I went back to my hotel room to plan my day but ended up falling asleep before I could even open my backpack.  I slept until 2am when I woke up ready to start my day and realized it was still the middle of the night.  Thank goodness for benadryl which always makes me fall asleep.  

That's the end of my day 2 but there are so many more adventures to share.  Reading what I wrote transports me back to Paris...this girl from a tiny town in Idaho on the trip I've wished for all of my life, wandering the streets of Paris in complete awe.