France!

Whew. So, I know I'm really behind with this. But this post really intimidated me. So many pictures, funny stories, things to sort through. But here it is, finally. Anyways. On March 26th, I left Glasgow for Paris, France to see my cousin, Anna, who is living in Nancy. I took a train to Edinburgh, a plane to Beauvais, France then a bus to Paris. My cousin, Anna, was in Paris to meet me. She was in the train station. Wanna know where the bus dropped me off? Not at the train station, that's for darn sure. I got dropped off in the middle of a parking lot on the far west side of the city. Wanna know what's stressful? Being dropped off a bus on the west side of Paris, needing to be on the east side, and not speaking the language. So I called Anna and thanks to her map reading and a lot of me wildly gesturing at train maps while trying to speak French with subway employees, we eventually got me to the Metro. I had to take two different subways to get to the train station from where I was, and I had to walk over a mile to the subway station. So that gives you an idea of just how far away from the train station I was. Now, this would have been a pretty laughable adventure on any other day. But we had tickets for the last train back to Nancy for the day... and I made it with exactly 13 minutes to spare. Not something I want to EVER do again. In my life. Never. Paris is a stressful town. But we finally made it onto the train, and headed out to Nancy. Made it in (late because of some sort of accident) hungry enough to eat our own hands, so we headed straight back to the apartment Anna and her second cousin Ludovic shared. Made dinner, drank a few, chatted, caught up. After it was all done, it was a funny story, but it was horrifying at the time. I was so scared I was going to get stuck in Paris with all the rude french for a whole night (and yes, they ARE rude in Paris. I discovered that more on my way out...). Forget that!

Anyways. The next day, we walked around Nancy and saw all kinds of cute things. For whatever reason, I just loved the name of this street. We passed it a few times.

This was in the main square of the town. It looked like a giant had taken a big swig of melted gold then sneezed all over the square. Everything was covered in gold paint. Very pretty in the sunlight.

And of course, it was a gorgeous day. Sunny, bright, warm. Exactly the opposite of what I'm used to.

This is closer to the edge of town, by Anna's apartment. We walked along the river for a long time. It was lovely, and there were a bunch of swans in the river, too. So pretty.

We found this really pretty church while walking into town to get kebabs one night. We didn't feel like cooking.

The square is lit up at night. This seems like it should be some kind of official building or a museum, right? It's actually a hotel!

Mmm... kebabs... Yeah, I ate the whole thing, cause I'm a champ.

The next day, I had pizza for lunch. I ordered a cheese pizza. It came with cheese, yes. But it also had squares of potato and little curry bits (the yellow bits). Surprisingly delicious!

The outdoor-cafe culture of France is so wonderful. Almost no one eats inside. The whole restaurant is basically outdoors! Which makes sense, because the weather is so lovely.

One day (I was there a whole week, I can't remember the individual days...) we got churros and sat in the park to eat them. Lucky me, Anna caught a picture of me with my mouth full of fried dough (YUM).

This was the park we sat in. Gorgeous! We ended up falling asleep in the grass, and were woken up by two policemen jabbering on in French. We have no idea what they were saying to us, but they gestured for us to leave, so we packed up and carried on. Maybe you can't sleep on the grass?

Anna and I cheesing it up for the camera. :)

I got pain du chocolat, which is essentially a croissant filled with chocolate. Ohmygoodnesssogood. I could have eaten twelve more. Also, ignore the fact that my hair makes me look like a soccer mom. I got it cut after I came back home.

So, Nancy was amazing. Warm, sunny, lovely, nice people, great food. I would go back in a heartbeat. I left very early on Friday, March 30th (we got up at 5am!) on a train back to Paris. My flight back to Edinburgh didn't leave until 9pm, so I would have the whole day in Paris to myself. I got to Paris at about 8am, and decided to walk around a bit before settling down for some breakfast. Took the train to the city center and started walking. I ended up right next to the Louvre, which was HUGE. I had no idea it was such a big building.

Gratuitous shot of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background. So tourist, I know.

Oh, and again. Beautiful city, and I was there so early there wasn't much traffic around yet.

This is a bridge crossing the Seine. See all those things attached to the sides? Those are padlocks. Nope, I don't know why.

I got into the courtyard of the Louvre, where people were lining up to get in. It was a lovely morning, and I sat in the sun for a while, ate an orange and watched the sun rise up over the glass pyramid. Jealous?!

And to prove I was really there: grumpy-looking Taylor at the Louvre.

Pretty pretty.

This arch was on the other side of the courtyard. It looks a bit like a mini Arc de Triomphe.

I then walked through the garden that stretched out behind the Louvre and ended up at this fountain, where I sat and ate a madeline cookie that I had swiped from the apartment. Shh... don't tell.

This neat looking thing was by the exit of the garden. NO idea what it is. Frankly, I didn't know what a good majority of the things I saw that day were.

After walking around by the Louvre, I walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Now, that's a long walk, if you are unfamiliar with the terrain of Paris. It wasn't too warm, though, so it wasn't too bad, and it was a pretty stroll. Once I finally made it over there, I took so many pictures of pretty things that I needed a picture of something goofy. So here ya go:

It really is rather impressive in real life. You always hear so much about it... but it's really something else to see in person.

Gorgeous.

Here's a little video I took after this picture. :)

Then from the tower, I walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, which was another quite long walk. Really neat structure, though.

This was the closest I got to the Champs Elysees. It seems super busy and scary, so I just carried on my merry way after snapping a picture.

After seeing all the big sights I wanted, I walked back over to the west side of the city where my bus would leave from later on. I snuggled down into the grass in a park (in the sun... yum) and read my book. It was completely wonderful. I also got some lunch from a little pastry shop, which was cute, but the people working there were super rude. I guess I always thought that whole "rude Parisian" thing was made up... it isn't. I obviously cannot speak french, but I was doing the best I could under the circumstances. I clearly pointed to the things I wanted, was friendly and pleasant. And yet, the lady scowled at me and muttered under her breath to her coworkers. I mean, come on. You work in PARIS. A good chunk of the city's revenue comes from tourism. Not everyone speaks French. I was being clear in other ways. No need to be patronizing. Gah. Anyways. After reading, eating, drinking, sunning and lolling about, I took the bus back to Beauvais (horrid traffic), took a plane back to Edinburgh and a train back to Glasgow. It was super late on Friday once I got back, and it was all I could do just to drag myself in and fall into bed.

WONDERFUL trip. It was so much fun, and really interesting. I'm so glad I went. Love from Glasgow!