Paris Moments and The Beginning of April - Weeks 12 and 13

Okay, you know when you're having a blast and you just pause for a second and you kind of take a mental picture and say wow, I wish I could just stay in this perfect moment forever? Yeah, I have those moments a lot. Some people would say that because I have them often it makes them less special but that's really not true. It just means that my life is rich with moments and memories that I'm making every second of every day.

I think a lot of things came into view when we passed into April. This is the month that all my things that I've been planning while I've been here start to take shape. I'm now on vacation and the Lecointre family and I are going to "Argeles-sur-mer", a beach town on the Mediterranean. After that, my track competitions start in May and then at the end of May I'm going to Nice, a city on the French Riviera with all my friends from STS, so that's really exciting. *sighs loudly with life satisfaction*. However, after that week in Nice, I have a week and a half left in France. I don't really know how I feel about this (more on that later). 

But anyways!! Onto my sort of surprise weekend in Paris. Elsa had proposed that we go and stay for a weekend with a friend of both our families, Bertrand. Because she didn't come with any organization, she just told her mom and she was good to go, but since I came with CIEE/STS, I had to fill out a form to travel/stay without my host family. To be honest, STS wasn't very fast about getting my request authorized so I waited and waited and finally, 2 days before departure, I had an answer: YES! I was so excited to be going to Paris, I told all my friends in the 20 minutes after getting the news. Fast forward to Friday April 10th, as I make a mad dash to the train station to catch my 5pm train (school gets out at 4:30pm). I make the train, but ten minutes into my trip, the train slows and then stops and someone comes over the intercom and says (in French, of course): "Sorry about this, but the train is going to be delayed about 50 minutes because of work on the tracks". GREAAT. I take deep breaths and try not to panic as I go over my itinerary in my head. I realize that I am going to miss my connecting train from Nantes to Paris. I call Laetitia, slightly panicked, and she reassures me that trains go every 30 minutes Nantes to Paris, especially on the weekend. I am reassured but irritated. I call Elsa and tell her and she informs Bertrand that I will not be arriving at 8:20pm like planned but at 9:20pm. When I finally get to Paris, Bertrand and Elsa greet me warmly at the Gare de Montparnasse with bises and hugs. We took the metro with our suitcases (always an interesting experience) and went by the Eiffel Tower at night, and it was all lit up and it was great!
We went out to a little Italian place and then we took the metro back to Bertrand's apartment. I think we got back at 1 am.
The first morning (Saturday), we got up very early (7am) and got breakfast (croissants, coffee and OJ) and then we headed out to see Paris. I am just going to say this now, but we were go glad that Bertrand was there because honestly, we would probably STILL be there if not for him ahah. We went to the Arc de Triomphe, did both sides of the Champs-Elysées, went to the Grand Palais, went to see Napoleon's tomb (well, the outside anyways), had lunch at a little Corsican restaurant and then did some shopping in the Galeries Lafayette in the afternoon. We went back to the apartment, hung out and then went to a Korean place for dinner.
Sunday: got up not as early, had the same breakfast of coffee, croissants and OJ. Took the Metro and saw the Eiffel Tower during the daytime. Coincidentally, this was the day of the Paris Marathon and it just so happened that we were at the Eiffel Tower just when the first runners started to come by. It was all very exciting and I think I could have stayed there all day, but we had other things to do. We took the metro from the Tower to Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Lock Bridge. Yes, we did buy and lock and lock it on. It was thrilling. After that, we went and got lunch at a "creperie" and then we walked around in the Jardin du Luxembourg. We got gelato and then it was time to go to the gare.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and I want to thank Bertrand immensely for having us and taking time to show us what a beautiful city Paris is.

A bientôt mes amis!

Cecilia

(pictures are on my Facebook because there are too many to upload here and it takes FOREVER)