Enchanté Paris, it was real!

We had a one week “reading pause” so I decided to do my reading in the city of love, Paris! This week was relaxing and riveting at the same time. Spending time with Melissa had to be the highlight. After almost 2 months in Morocco I couldn’t have asked for a better break that really allowed me to reflect on what I was doing while abroad.
Day 1- Monday
I left my house in Rabat at 4 am to catch my 9 am flight which was cancelled, then got rescheduled to an 11 am one, which was then delayed. Long story short, I met Melissa in Odeon, Paris at 6:30 in the evening. Seeing her lovely face and the warm Starbucks coffee in her hand for me, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The first night we ate at her apartment, talked for hours, and went to bed relatively early.
Day 2- Tuesday
Melissa not only had her regular coursework, but also had an exposé (big presentation) to prepare for on Wednesday so with her Paris Lonely Planet Guidebook I ventured out to the intimidating, chic streets of Paris. I decided I wanted to take this trip slowly. I wanted to explore the ambiance of Paris at my own pace.
I ventured out to explore the neighborhood, carefully watching my steps so that they could be easily retraced. I couldn’t have asked for Melissa’s apartment to be in a better location. Leaving her apartment and turning right I was in the middle of the St Germaine shopping district, so I thought what better way to begin my day than with French boutiques? Well actually it was more that it was freezing in France and I was not prepared at all so I needed a winter jacket. The styles were adorable and the prices ridiculous. After using my broken French with posh store workers and trying on at least 10 jackets, I found the perfect one that fit me perfectly and certainly in my budget! I put my jacket on, and walked out of the store feeling proud for accomplishing my mission so well!
Then I just wandered around the neighborhood more, again focusing on absorbing the ambiance of Paris and using my French with people. I sat down in a café. It is now my Parisian café because that is where I bought my first espresso and baguette sandwich. I sat observing the people passing by. It was exciting and I felt French, but this was the one and only time that I did that alone because of the ridiculous price. Regardless, it was checked off the list and I greatly enjoyed it!
With my appetite satisfied, I walked along the Seine which is the main river that cuts right through Paris. This is when I establish my game plan for exploring a city alone. Rather than planning things and using a map, I would just walk aimlessly until I saw an interesting building in the distance or a sign for something that I vaguely remember from my high school French class. So walking along the Seine I see this huge building to my right and thinking that it was a palace or parliament I walk in. Lucky for me, when I saw the massive glass triangles awkwardly placed in the middle of this classic building I had a déjà vu from the DaVinci Code and knew it was the Louvre! The building was closed for some event, but I walked around observing the awkward architecture. Then across the river I spotted another building that was gorgeous. In fact this is my favorite building in all of Paris. It’s the French Institute whose main function is to preserve the French language. I slowly retraced my steps stumbling upon gorgeous art galleries and other national monuments to Melissa’s apartment.
Again, this trip was about taking things slow and just exploring “tout-seul”. But too much time alone is a dangerous thing. So I was very excited to be meeting up with a friend that night. First I travelled to La Defence which is the Wall Street of Paris with its massive office building. Most impressive here is that I got there without getting lost. Thanks to my summer in Boston, I was able to figure out the Metro system surprisingly easily. In fact, there were a couple of times during my stay where I would stop to help a confused tourist or old lady that was staring blankly at the large map on the wall.
Getting off the Metro by Montmart was quite a surprise for me. Up to this point Paris seemed to be filled with rich white people taken straight out of Vogue magazine. Here one finds the less advertised Paris that is filled with culture and diversity (which also means more danger). I am very happy I got to see this neighborhood because otherwise I would have left Paris with a much skewed impression of Parisians. Anyways we climbed the steps up to Montmart, visited the cathedral and then sat and overlooked the entire city completely lit up, including the Eiffel Tour which I saw sparkling for the first time. This was as typical of a Parisian night at I could imagine, but I loved it and it was the perfect way to finish my first day in the city of lights.

Day 3- Wednesday: I packed my running clothes with me and this was the smartest decision I made during the trip. It gave me the chance to be in my own zone, relax, and explore all at the same time. Melissa suggested running through the Gardens of Luxembourg and they were absolutely breathtaking. Even though I had just woken up it was lunch hour so there were groups of people eating there.
Wednesday was the day of Melissa’s big expose, so after her presentation and before her next class we had a few hours together and decided to visit the Mosque of Paris. I seriously thought I was in Morocco! Around the corner there is this café that we drank “atay” at with sweets. For some reason I am so intrigued by the Muslims in France. I don’t think that I would be comfortable being Muslim there, it’s just not as welcoming as the states. It’s hard to put my finger on what is so different.
Melissa went to class and I spent some time wandering the neighborhood, looking for the Arab Center of the World that I saw signs for everywhere. I stumbled upon another garden and an open air sculpture museum. The Arab center was just closing by the time I arrived, so decided to find the only shoe store in Paris that sells size 11 shoes according to a source. After taking forever to find this place it too was just closing when I arrived. I did spot a pair of brown boots in the window but didn’t get the chance to try them on. I was so tempted to bang on the window and beg the man in broken French to just let me super quickly find a pair of boots. Ive been looking for a pair since I was in Morocco and just spent two hours trying to find this place, but this was one of the few times while abroad that I withheld myself from doing something stupid. So I bought a McOriental sandwhich from McDo to refuel and then headed back home.
That night Melissa and I went out for crepes to celebrate her exposé being over and left the waiter an adorable acrostic poem as a thank you and said “Tu es …CREPE”. It took us forever to find a word for “C” so we used cool, but later felt stupid for not choosing “chouette” because it’s just an awesome word!!
Day 4- Thursday: By this point, I haven’t been really hard core about sightseeing. Instead my trip has consisted of my spending time relaxing and wandering aimlessly around Paris. I just haven’t really had the desire to see the main monuments. I would have been perfectly content spending another day without a plan but Melissa thankfully pushed me to come up with a plan and see the famous sights that people come to Paris to see. So this morning I left the house with an itinerary. The best way to get myself to do something is if I think I will regret not doing it in the future.
So I started off my morning with the Notre Dame which was pretty cool, a little too gloomy for my taste though. Then I tried to find St Chapel, which is Melissa’s favorite cathedral and couldn’t, so went to the next thing on the list which was to actually visit the Arab Center, which was a little disappointing but had a wonderful view at the rooftop that overlooks the city. When leaving I saw signs for the Bastille, which I remembered learning about in history class, but couldn’t remember what it was for the life of me! I even tried referring back to the guidebook but still couldn’t find it! So I just followed the signs, imagining a thousand and one different things it could be. It really is a comical feeling, following signs for about 30 minutes without knowing where you are going. At one point I expected to find something similar to the Gettysburg battlefield in the middle of Paris. When I finally arrived, it was a tall pillar in the middle of a roundabout I was trying to figure out which direction to go next before brilliantly realizing that I had actually arrived at the Bastille.
After this adventure I really felt like shopping so decided to head back to the shoe store. This time it didn’t take nearly as long, and I am really happy I went back because I found a pair of leather boots that I absolutely adore. They cost a ton of money, but I was really happy with them and now felt like I could better fit in with the chic streets of Paris, especially since I was wearing my huge Asic running shoes for my day of sightseeing.
That night I put on my boots to head out to the Musee D’Orsay. Here I realized that I actually LOVE museums at night. Thursday is the one night that it stays open until 10 pm. The building is an old train station converted to house some of the most beautiful pieces of art work in the world. My favorite piece of “art” in the museum was the building itself and this huge golden clock that was preserved from the train station days. Unfortunately most of Monet’s art was being lent out to another museum in Paris, but I did get to spend quality time with both Renoir and Van Gough. This was my first time in a museum by myself and boy is it quite the experience! I never realized how much I need to be talking in life! There were so many hilarious comments that I was dying to share with someone. Also when you’re in a museum by yourself you tend to observe the people around you so much more.
The feeling didn’t last too long, because I ran into one of my friends randomly in the museum! I was looking at a picture and heard my name. Convinced that I had gone completely mad, I turned around and saw Hind! Seeing her was quite the coincidence especially because she is studying in Belgium! Then while I was walking home along the Seine I ran into another kid from Penn! Two Penn people in one night! I feel like the older I get, the smaller the world becomes!
Even though I had to push myself to do the traditional sightseeing I am so happy I did and by the end of the night I felt so accomplished!
Day 5- Friday: Despite my attempt for the third day to wake up and start my day early, I woke up at 9 and didn’t actually leave the apartment until noon again. But that’s the wonderful thing about being on vacation! C’est pas grave! I started off my morning heading over to La Defense to get lunch with a friend, which was a ton of fun and then I headed over to the Arc de Triumph and walked along the Champs Elysee. Of course I took my time shopping and was probably most impressed by the H&M there. My next plan was to go towards the Eiffle Tour, because I remembered them being close. My strategy? Look up at the sky and walk towards the tour. Talk about a fail…I couldn’t spot it anywhere so I kept walking along the Champs Elysse, and saw this huge museum and walked towards it and found out that it was the Hotel de Palais that is currently borrowing 57 of Monet’s paintings from the Musee d’Orsay. I thought of going in but decided against it. Then I saw this huge building with two gorgeous golden columns on both sides, and walked towards that. I would be such a good tour guide because I then spotted the Eiffle tour! It looked pretty near, took me at least 30 minutes to walk to, but worth every step. I decided to climb the steps, something to mark off my bucket list, and spent about 3 hours reading the historical plaques, drinking coffee at the café, and pondering. My favorite part is that on the second level there are these plaques that point to all the monuments around the city and give you a brief history. Walking around, overlooking all of Paris was probably the highlight of my trip. Of course, knowing that I marched up all those steps made it that much sweeter.
Then for dinner I had a delicious spinach galette (popeye) with Melissa and then we headed over to the Louvre which is open until 10 pm on Friday nights. I decided then that I only enjoy museums at night. Seeing the pyramids lit up against the backdrop of the classical Louvre was breathtaking. Despite me not having much interest in visiting the museum in the first place, I was extremely excited to see one of my homegirls…Mona! We quickly found her and I can confirm for everyone that if you stand on one side of the hall and walk in a semi circle to the other side her eyes will follow you! In fact, I did it twice just to make sure. The good thing about going that late at night is that the hall was relatively empty. On our way back we had the most delicious gelato ice cream of my lifetime, and that is saying A LOT!! The lady made my half vanilla, half Nutella small cone in the shape of a rose. It was beautiful. And delicious! I have a feeling we will be returning once again. It was a formidable typical Parisian Friday night, spent in the wonderful company of Melissa.
Day 6- Saturday: I got up early in the morning to go for a run along the Seine. My last run before leaving Paris and also the last bit of time I would spend wandering the streets “tout seul”. Along my run I came across the St Chapel, which is one of Melissa’s favorite places in Paris. I always try to find it whenever I am in that area and never do. That morning I was just running aimlessly and I see this line of people all waiting for the church to open. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to go home to shower and change and then come back. But when I did, following the EXACT same steps I couldn’t find it, end up searching the whole neighborhood, ask people and no one knows (which was probably due to my pronunciation) and then when I thought I found it, I was actually in St Germaine. So…its still a mystery what this church looks like and I guess it gives me a reason to go back to Paris!
Lulu and Nancy arrive a little later, and the four of us go out for Pizza. Catching up with them was priceless but it was very ironic that we were all sitting there together, half way through our semester abroad, pretty carefree. It was a reminder that our semester abroad would be over before we knew it.
Then we went shopping, and I tried to show Melissa where I bought my jacket from, and even though we were in the neighborhood, passing by all the same shops that I had also gone into, I couldn’t find the store! It felt very Harry Potter-ish.
This was our day to celebrate Melissa’s birthday! So we went out to dinner to the restaurant of her choosing, Tex Mex, and ate delicious Mexican food. Then we tried to find this café that I walked by earlier that week that had live jazz. It looked like a lot of fun and had this very Parisian, laid back environment. You guessed it, I searched and searched, almost 30 minutes and couldn’t find it! Finally we gave up the search and on our way to a random café we stumbled upon it!! Finally I had some luck in Paris! It was well worth the search and worth me not finding the previous two locations. The music was phenomenal and we had such a wonderful time together. The perfect way to spend my last night in Paris.
Day 7- Sunday: This is my last day in Paris. I feel like I have come to know the city well and my French has improved infinitely. Most importantly, it was priceless to spend time with friendly faces. While I had aimed to wake up early and walk around I decided to sleep in with everyone else, take it easy and pack my things. We had a skype date with Haein and Eli in Beijing over quiche and tarts.
Then it was au revoir paris! Possibly one of my favorite vacations in my life was coming to an end, but I was excited to return to Morocco and finish off my semester, taking advantage of all the unique opportunities I had now come to appreciate much more!
Enchanté Paris, it was real!