Birthday in Paris!

In July, Matt and I were in Santorini, Greece discussing my decision to move to England. One of my stipulations for moving was that I wanted to spend my birthday in Paris. This was motivated, in small part, by Sex and the City but also because I didn't get the chance to visit Paris during my summer Europe trip.

We booked a deal with Eurostar trains which turned out to be a much more affordable way to go. We were scheduled to take the 9:30 a.m. train to Paris from London St. Pancreas. In theory, this should have been a straightforward journey from the train station near our house. The trains were all closed on Sunday because of engineering works and there was a replacement bus service that would not have gotten us there in time. Matt's parents really came through for us and picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and drove us all the way to the train station in London so we made our train in plenty of time.

I have the worst knowledge of geography. I argued with someone for a good 10 minutes in high school when they told me that Egypt was part of Africa. I was adamant that it was not in Africa but rather in the fictional country of 'the middle east'. It had escaped my attention that taking the train to Paris meant going underwater in said train. The only indication that we were underwater was that my ears popped but it was still weird.

We arrived in Paris and decided to take the Metro to the hotel instead of a taxi. After paying 1 euro to use the toilets we were on our way. We got off at our stop which happened to be inside a shopping mall adjacent to The Louvre. The hotel was around the corner from the shopping centre but thanks to my complete lack of internal compass we walked in the opposite direction. Luckily a friendly man cooking chestnuts on a stove in a shopping cart was able to point in the right direction.

Our hotel was beautiful even if our room was a little bit on the small side but with an enormous bathroom. There was a king size bed that was so comfortable. I've been pushing for us to get a bigger bed/new mattress but it won't really fit in our room.

After putting our stuff away in the room we needed food. We walked across the street to the Cafe Ruc. The menus are all in French so it was a real test of my French skills being able to translate and order. I followed the advice of trying to speak in French even though they always respond back in English. I was pleasantly surprised to find a veggie burger on the menu. This turned out to be the best veggie burger meal I have ever had. I won't go into elaborate detail since not everyone is as obsessed with food as I am but it was incredible! An excellent start to our first day in Paris.

I wanted to go exploring. The sun was shining and we were in Paris! Within a few blocks we found the tourism centre and got a much better map then the one in the back of my guidebook. While walking by L'Opera, the national academy of music, there was a band playing on the front steps. I stopped to listen and Matt reluctantly stopped too. I'm sure he was embarrassed by my dancing in the street but I didn't care. While we were stopped, a race or marathon or something of rollerbladers came by but were too fast for me to get a picture.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Sephora!! Only the best make-up store on the planet that doesn't exist in London. We also explored another shopping centre that was full of the most expensive, brand names clothes, shoes and bags that I have ever seen. And then the best discovery of all...Macaroons!! These are not the typical macaroons that I have eaten before (the chunks of coconut ones) these were amazing little bites of caramel and lemon heaven.

Our walked continued and I saw a sign pointing for Montmarte which I had read about and really wanted to see. To get there involves walking straight uphill and up numerous flights of stairs but it was well worth it (especially after the macaroons). The path that we took was through typical Paris neighbourhoods (and about a thousand bakeries) and some of the stereotypes of French people wearing berets, smoking, drinking and walking their small dogs were surprisingly accurate. We got to the top and walked through what felt like the French version of London's Covent Garden - a combination tourist, artist, bohemian area.

The Scare Coeur kind of looks like the Taj Mahal and gives a fantastic view of the whole city. I wanted to stay up there until after the sunset but it was getting kind of chilly and I didn't really want to be searching for our hotel after dark. Walking back, we took a completely different route and even with a map got very lost. After about an hour and unable to locate ourselves on the map, the consensus was that taking a taxi was the way to go. Turns out we were not really on the right track at all!

We were both very tired and decided that the hotel restaurant was the best choice. While the earlier meal I had was one of the best of my life, the dinner that followed was one of the worst! The menu was very French - full of game meat and cream sauces. Matt's stomach had been iffy all day so he wasn't quite sure what to order and went with Steak Frites and asked for it to be cooked well done (not the French way). There were two vegetarian options: a pasta one and a steamed vegetable one that I wrongly translated and thought came in a puff pastry shell.

Our food arrived...Matt's steak was not well done but instead was purple in the middle. My imagined puff pastry vegetable dish was actually carrots, zucchini and what may or may not have been potatoes in a plastic bag to show they were steamed. I filled up on bread and ate my vegetables cursing my menu selection. Matt could not eat any of his steak and only picked at a few fries. The waiter and manager were not really concerned that he had not eaten of it even though I tried to complain in broken French. When the bill came, I said that we were not going to be paying for it. The manager took it off the bill but then added in some other fictitious charge. I couldn't keep fighting so we paid the bill and left vowing to never return to the hotel restaurant.

The next day we slept in and went for a late breakfast. I had planned for us to go on a free walking tour. The same company runs tours all over Europe and I'd been on the ones in Dublin, Edinburgh and Tel Aviv. The tour guide works for tips alone and takes you through the central city and provides random facts. Our tour guide - Gabi- was from New Zealand but loved Paris and was actually a really great guide. It was a 3.5 hour tour so we covered quite a bit of the city. We walked along the river, through gardens, The Louvre (only the outside), and saw the Eiffel Tower and Le Arc de Triumphe but not up close.

When the tour was up we were right by the Champs Elysees. I can now admit that in my ignorance, I for some reason thought that the Champs Elysees was near the water rather than a street with expensive shops. Its quite a posh area where you have to pay a euro fifty to use the toilets. We stopped for snack/drink before heading to le arc de triumphe. This cafe was the location of Matt's giant beer! I had a smoothie. We spent the next hour resting our feet and watching people go by.

We walked up the street, checked out a few shops and got to the end of the road - Arc de Triumphe! It looked amazing and huge up close. I had heard about the round about that went around the monument but it was unbelievable to see in person. Round abouts scare me to begin with but this one is twelve lanes with no markings and an accident every 30 minutes. We stood and watched for awhile but thankfully didn't see anything happen other than crazy driving and loads of honking.

That evening we walked about 10 minutes from our hotel and found at leas 15 restaurants. We chose a small one that turned out to be an excellent choice. The waiters were so nice and offered to translate any part of the menu that we didn't understand. This offer had not been made anywhere else that we eat. Over dinner I pointed out that many tourists come to London or other English speaking countries and don't expect the menus, signs to be in their language so why do we, as English speakers, want other countries to have English everything? I also wondered how English got to be the universal language and that most countries learn English? I was glad that I at least have a basic understanding of French and was able to read and translate signs and menus. I also enjoyed that the French couldn't understand Matt's accent for once!

The next morning I woke up very excited to celebrate my birthday! Although Matt told me that I woke him up in the middle of the night by punching him in the ribs and then accused him of waking me up. I have no recollection of this happening...

We went out for my birthday breakfast. Normally, I would be going to Denny's to cash in on my free birthday breakfast but this year a few changes to my typical birthday traditions had to be made. I did order a crepe at breakfast but the waiter forgot to bring it out but did try to charge us for it. I wanted to get going so I decided there would be another crepe opportunity later in the the day. After a quick stop to buy some new sunglasses, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower. It was 16 degrees out, sun in the sky and it was my birthday in Paris - I was smiling all day. I also started jumping up and down when we actually got in line to walk up the Eiffel Tower. There is an elevator but the line up for it was at least 3 times as long. I decided the stairs were a good option since my love affair with bread while in Paris had been fairly intense.

We made it to the second landing and had an amazing view of the city. The whole time I just couldn't believe that I was actually on the Eiffel Tower, in Paris on my birthday. It was very surreal. After taking many photos and attempting self portraits we headed back down the park in search of crepes and ice cream. We found them and hung out on a park bench, enjoying the weather. We knew we needed to make our way back to the hotel since we had to get ready for our Paris by night tour and the Moulin Rouge!!

I wanted to go back to the Cafe with the amazing veggie burger for an early dinner before the tour. It was just as good the second time. We met up with our tour group which was a bus tour of the major Paris attractions which are all lit up at night. I chose to go on this tour because it had discounted tickets for the Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, I was extremely tired from hiking up the Eiffel Tower earlier in the day that I fell asleep on the bus! I was awake for a few parts and did get to see the Eiffel Tower lit up and a few other monuments. My eyes just would not stay open!

I was thrilled when we pulled up at the Moulin Rouge. It was very clear why our tickets were discounted since we had a table at the very back of the theatre/restaurant. We shared a table with a few other people from the tour bus (an american couple and a woman from Australia). They were really nice and thought that I was hilarious so obviously I liked them.

I'm still not quite sure what I think of the show. There was singing, dancing, bright costumes and a whole of tits and ass. I knew it was a topless show, that's how I lured Matt there in the first place. It sort of felt that the whole show was built on challenging the costume designer to provide the least amount of clothing but most amount of feathers and sparkles. There was also a juggling act, a strongman/woman couple and a ventriloquist. There may have been a story line to the whole show but my French wasn't quite good enough to follow. It was more for the experience that I wanted to go rather than the music/dancing. I'm so glad that I went though.

When we got back to the hotel I checked my e-mails and facebook messages. As much fun as I had had that day, a part of me was still a little homesick spending my birthday so far away from everyone so I called my mom and dad for a quick conversation. Finally I went to sleep knowing we had to be up early-ish to make our train.

Our final breakfast was my favourite one and served to further confirm that Matt eats to live while I live to eat. He just doesn't appreciate things (like the selections of peanut butters and jams on our table) like I do. We shopped for a few souvenirs and then made our way to the train station. We got there just in time to miss the train since I had completely mixed up the train times and thought we left at 12:47 but actually we were supposed to leave at 12:13. They put us on the next train at 13:04 so it turned out alright.

And that was Paris! I really want to go back since there is still so much left to see.