Pareeh, or Paris

On Sunday afternoon, we arrived in Paris to be met by my parents and Genia. So nice to see familiar faces (even if they were my parents'! Haha!)!! After jamming our luggage in the car, we were off to find our hotel in Paris. Though it took a while, we finally got there, said goodbye to the parents (a short but sweet visit) and went to the hotel. The hotel wasn't expecting three people, so they were thrown a bit off guard. They put us in a TINY room for the night, and promised to move us to a bigger room the next day. We said no problem and went up to the room. Little did we realize! Like other major cities, space in Paris is at a premium, and I was prepared for a small room. But not THIS small! It was tiny! A small double bed with a pull out type of chair/bed and a tiny bathroom. We thought it was funny, but it worked!

After freshening up we went on the hunt for food. Since it was getting late on a Sunday night, we headed for the restaurants near the Gare du Nord/Gare de l'Est which are open much later. We had a good dinner, making fun of Genia and all of her faux pas (the biggest of which was that she decided to wear sandals! In October! She was getting some strange looks!) and then called it a night.

The next morning we were off to see the sights. Our first stop was the boulangerie to get, my favorite, a chausson aux pommes (an applesauce croissant, yum!). Then, we took the Metro (subway) to the Trocadero. We made our way down the Trocadero (avoiding the pick-pocketers) to the Eiffel Tower. Since it was a blustery morning, we passed on going up the tower and continued on to the Arche de Triomphe. On the way, we passed the Liberty monument (?) which has been turned into a makeshift Princess Di monument. The monument is located right over the tunnel where she died, so this is where people come to leave flowers and notes, etc. On the way to the Arche de Triomphe, we walked along the Rue d'Iena, one of the more fashionable streets of Paris (so much so that this is where the 'houses' of Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy are located). After the Arche we made our way down the Champs Elysees. Little did I know what I was in for! Sarah and Genia are, how can I say?, BIG shoppers (ok most people are in comparison to me, but still). And since the Champs Elysees is basically one flagship store after another, well, I was trying to walk as fast as possible! At one point, though, the rain was coming down pretty seriously, so they managed to drag me into a couple of stores. From there, we decided to get some lunch and get out of the rain (yummy goat cheese salads and a plate of saucissons, yum!). After lunch, we continued down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, where we decided to go up on the Ferris wheel. Something I would not usually do if I were in Paris by myself, but still it was fun having a view of Paris for miles and miles around. We then continued on the Musee de l'Orangerie (where Monet's Waterlilies are located), but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. So we continued on to the Rue de Rivoli to the Place Vendome. We salivated at all of the window displays - Cartier and Van Cleefs & Arpels in particular - and then it started to rain again, and we were stuck salivating some more. Finally it let up and we continued on to Avenue de l'Opera, said 'bonjour' to the newly cleaned Opera House and then made our way back to the hotel. We made our way to our new room, to find that indeed it was bigger than the previous night's but not by much! Two twin beds pushed together and another little pullout chair/bed. Whatever, it worked out fine as long as we made sure that Sarah did not leave her stuff all over the room! We rested for a while before venturing out for dinner. As we had had a big (and pricey) lunch, we opted for something more low-key, a Greek restaurant where we had pita sandwiches. Cheap and good! Then we went on the hunt for a desert crepe for a certain someone with a major sweet-tooth, found one and had a good walk around the Bourse area. As a certain someone was still suffering from jetlag that was the end of Day 1 in Paris.

The next day we were up early again, skipped the hotel breakfast and took the Metro to the Rue Mouffetard (Mouffetard Street). This street is very quaint and cute (the two most overused words when talking about Paris) and has a lively morning market and looks like what Paris might have looked like 100 years ago. We found a cafe and had breakfast on the street (cafe au lait, croissant, pain au chocolat, yum, yum, yum!). After breakfast, we were ready to go. I've been up the Rue Mouffetard a couple of times and though cute (and quaint), it never takes me more than an hour to walk the length of it. Well, with the two shoppers in tow it was a different story. Three hours! 'ooh, look at this, ooh look at that!' and on and on. FINALLY, I managed to tear them away (though I have to admit we did find one really cute (and quaint) store with all kinds of interesting jewelry). We continued on by the Parthenon to the Latin Quarter. After a few more boutiques, we grabbed some lunch (saucisson sandwich) on the run and continued to the Ile de la Cite. Our first stop there was the Sainte Chapelle, beautiful as ever. Then, we moved on to the Notre Dame, impressive as ever (and newly cleaned too!). After the required visit, we went around the outside of the cathedral to look at the flying buttresses (love that word!). From there, we continued on to the Rive Droite, past the Hotel de Ville (city hall) and onto the Beaubourg area. There we saw the Centre Pompidou (still as shocking as ever) and St. Eustache church with the Gaudi-esque fountain outside. We continued on to Les Halles and then onto Rue des Poissonieres (another pedestrian street with lively market action going on). From there we just made our way back to our hotel. The district we crossed on our way is known as the fashion district, where all of the vendors and lesser designers are located. We walked by hat stores, button stores, feather stores, fur stores, leather stores and every other kind of store that was in some way related to the fashion industry. Supposedly that very week was 'fashion week', when all of the top designers had their fashion shows, but this was a close as we got to it. No Marc Schekenberg sightings for us, boo hoo. Genia did manage to find a kids clothing store and bought an outfit for her future niece/nephew. And she did it all by herself - somehow making herself understood without speaking a lick of French except for 'Bonjour' (hello), 'bebe' (baby), and 'bien' (good, nice, pretty)! After a rest at the hotel, we ventured out for dinner, a not-so-good Chinese 'traiteur' (like a deli) (they were tired of eating French food) and then a leisurely walk for a dessert crepe. End of day two!

Day three began with a walk, much to Genia's chagrin. She was cranky without her coffee and was somewhat oblivious to the beauty around her. Our hotel was located at the foot of the hill were the Sacre-Coeur is located (the white marshmallowy cathedral at the top of Montmartre), so this was our first destination of the day. We climbed to the top of the hill, admired the view of the whole city in front of us and then made our way to the main square of Montmartre. This square is the most 'typical' square in Paris and as such is now run over by tour groups and the 'typical' artists trying to get their money. We avoided the artists trying to draw our sketches and sat down to have breakfast, much to Genia's delight. Afterwards, we continued through the Montmartre area with all of its cute and quaint little streets (so cute that there was a TV or movie production going on), down to the not so cute and quaint Place Pigalle area (where all of the can-can revues are located as well as the red light district). From there, we caught a Metro to the Rive Gauche to go to the Rodin Museum. Sarah went inside, while Genia and I just relaxed outside in the gardens (having been there again just recently). From there, we continued on to the Musee D'Orsay. Once again, I decided to stay outside (was there just 2 months ago) and let Sarah and Genia go in without me. I just hung out at the cafe across the streets, writing postcards, etc. Little did I realize how much Genia loved that museum! Sarah was done about an hour later, but another 2 hours later Genia finally came out of there! From there, we continued, walking along the Seine, crossing the river to the Louvre. We entered the Pyramid, just so they could an idea of it, but they had had enough museums for that day and we didn't go inside the museum (phew!). Since it was our last afternoon in Paris, Sarah wanted to go back to Champs Elysees and do some more shopping, which I wasn't too keen on. So Sarah and Genia went that way and I made my way back to the hotel by myself, just in case Ann was to arrive in the afternoon like we suspected that she might. Finally some time alone! I walked along the Rue de Rivoli, through the Palais Royal and a couple of very nice arcades, to the supermarket where I knew I could find my toothpaste (yay!), up to the Opera and finally to the hotel. Ann was nowhere to be found. Shortly after, Sarah and Genia arrived with their new purchases and we wondered what to do about Ann. Sarah was convinced that Ann would eventually show up, most likely at 4 o'clock in the morning, but she would get there. So we went to dinner, to Chartier - the restaurant to which it seems every Parisian takes out-of-towners for dinner. As busy as ever, we were seated with a stranger (an American it turns out), where we had a nice dinner but it was a bit strange trying to have a conversation with a stranger sitting at the same table. But the food was good, of course. Back to the hotel and still no Ann. There was nothing we could do, so eventually we just went to sleep.

No sooner then we had actually fallen asleep, the phone rings...it's Ann, she's in the lobby! Thankfully, the hotel guy let her come up and we made her sleep in the crack (of the two twin beds)! In the morning we were off to explore beyond the walls of Paris, checked out of our hotel (contrary to previous statements by the hotel management, we didn't have to pay a supplement, a third person surcharge (for Genia's four nights) or a fourth person surcharge (for Ann's one night)! Everything was square. Yay!) And so we said 'au revoir et a bientot Paris'!