zach comes to visit!



Hotel de Ville



Sunday after I got back from Spring Break I was exhausted! I took literally a 6 hour nap and did some homework to prepare for class on Monday. I had a group presentation for my international Marketing class Monday and other than that I spent most of the day cleaning and wait for Zach to arrive! I was so excited to see him because I hadn’t seen him in over 2 months. I was going to pick him up at the airport but unfortunately he had to take a taxi because I had a midterm in my class. Luckily his phone worked so we were able to keep in touch and after saying hello we went to the market to get some groceries for the week and then off to le Centre Pompidou, which is a really cool modern art museum that has a movie theatre, restaurant, library and the building is so weird but neat.

 Unfortunately I didn’t do my homework so I didn’t realize that is closed on Tuesdays. We just explored Ile-de-la-Cite, saw the Notre Dame, Hotel Dieu, Hotel de Ville and walked around St.Michel for a while. In front of Hotel de Ville they were filming a WWII movie complete with soldiers, tanks, and everyone dressed in 1940s outfits.It was really cool and we watched for a while the whole process. I wanted to take him to an authentic French restaurant so we went to Roger la Grenouille, the same place I went with my family. He had a steak dish while I had some delicious lamb stew and tricked him into trying foie gras haha. He was not a fan but at least he tried it.  It was a great dinner and afterwards we just did some more walking around St. Michel. That night we just split a bottle of wine and stayed in because unfortunately he was experiencing some jet lag, its a lot worse than you think!

The next day I went to class and Zach was able to sleep in a little bit and then we decided to go to the Louvre. For some reason, it was only the first time I had been so it was nice to do something that I had never done before. On the way to the Louvre there is this street full of animal pet stores so of course we had to stop in almost every single one to admire the puppies.
it was so cute/depressing to see them, it made me miss Jazz and Wes! The Louvre was amazing too! We saw famous works such as Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Hammurabi’s Code, The Dying Slave, along with so many others. The museum was so huge that we actually got lost for about 45 minutes just trying to find one part. They had things such as jewelry and sphinx from 3000 BC to pieces of the Pantheon in Greece to 18^th century Italian paintings and pretty much everything in between. It was so much bigger than I expected and it is true that you could probably spend a couple days in there.

I enjoyed seeing the major sights of course but there was some amazing sculptures and paintings that I really fell in love with. It was really fun and we took some amazing pictures! Afterwards we explored the Tuillerie Gardens and Place de la Concorde. Zach wasn’t feeling very well so we ended up going back to my apartment. Unfortunately he became so sick I had to take him to the hospital which was not a very fun experience as I don’t know very much medical French. Somehow we got by and he was given some medicine and an IV and was feeling better by Friday luckily. Something I hope to never have to repeat but everyone was very nice and understanding of my limited French skills. 

Place desVosges



The next day we mostly hung out at the apartment because he was still feeling really sick, but it was kind of nice just to hang out and watch movies. We watched Hall Pass and then later that evening we decided to try to have a little picnic at Place des Vosges, one of the oldest and prettiest squares in the city.  We got some bread from the delicious bakery next to my apartment, and chevre au poivre (goat cheese with pepper) and a desert cheese to celebrate our picnic. We walked around the Bastille area for a little while to just to show him the sights such as the Bastille monument and the new Opera Bastille. It was a nice relaxing day after a long night at the hospital.

Friday we had a very busy day to catch up on some of our sightseeing plans. We started out with a bus tour from Saint Michel to over 50 of some of the most well known sights in Paris. It was great to see the Arche de Triomphe, Opera Garnier, Place de la Concorde, the Louvre, and some other cool things. We took some great pictures and it was nice just to sit, relax and see everything without dealing with the stress of the metro or walking around. After the bus tour we decided to walk through some of the vendors we bought some old magazines from the 1940's; I bought an Elle magazine from 1948 and Zach bought a really neat WWII magazine (in French of course.) We went to this amazing Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant that I went with my family after. Zach got this giant pizza and I got veal with lemon sauce. It was really nice to eat and have a glass of wine apres! Then we went to Luxembourg Gardens to walk around and relax for a bit. It was a beautiful day so of course there was a ton of people but it was really nice/romantic to sit in chairs near the pond.  We also got to see the French Senate as it is housed in the former Luxembourg Palace on the property.

There were lots of statues and mini-ponds as well as trees, fountains, and everything in between. I never realized how big it is until you walk from one end to another, which we did. But it was fun :)

Following Luxembourg Gardens we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower, but first we made a pit stop to the Musee Cluny which is a medievil fortress/museum. The outside is almost as cool as the inside! Then we walked through Champ de Mars and Ecole Militare and then decided to go up to the second floor of the tower. Since it was such a beautiful day, Champ de Mars was packed with people, on picnics or riding bikes or even playing with their dogs. Being exhausted from a day of traveling, we took the elevator. It was great to be able to show him some of the best views of Paris. The line to go to the top was really long but going to the second floor was plenty high enough for me. It was close to sunset so the city really looked amazing!

Finally after all that sightseeing we were hungry for some food. We went on the Champs Elysee to one of my favorite restaurant chains in France"Leon des Bruxelles." I had some amazing mussels Ardenaise style, and Zach had a burger since he is not a seafood fan. We had some Belgian beer as well which was delicious. We were pretty exhausted but we walked around Champs Elysee for a while, looking at shops like the Mercedes-Benz store, Louis Vitton and the Virgin Megastore.

Luxemburg Gardens

Saturday was the last day that Zach was in town so we wanted to do a lot of visiting around Paris. We started with going to Les Invalides, which includes Napoleon’s tomb, Military hospital and a couple military museums. I had never been inside so it was nice to be able to see everything. We went to the WWI-WWII museum which was one of the best museums I have actually ever been to. I have been to a WWII museum in the US but this one put a whole new perspective on the wars.



Montmarte at night



France obviously was a major player in both but they were so devastated in terms of buildings, people and way of life. They had uniforms, weapons (which Zach loved!) photos and some amazing memorabilia.  It was really awesome and I really learned a lot. For example, I had no idea that France had many of its colonial powers fight for them in both wars. 

It was really cool to see military uniforms and memorabilia from the fighters from Senegal, Madagascar, Indochina and many others.  One of the things that kinda disturbed me the most for pictures of the German occupation of France, including some of the road signs with German names and a picture of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower! But I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Paris.  After seeing that museum we went to the Eglise de Les Invalides, which houses some of the remains of France’s most famous military heroes, many of them I wasn’t familiar with. Of course, Napoleon had a giant tomb in the middle of the church and it was a very impressive setup. It was a beautiful church with a giant organ and intricately decorated high ceilings. After exploring the church and seeing the resting places of heroes such as Foch, and some others we decided to go see the Opera house which was very pretty from the outside. The Opera from Phantom of the Opera is actually based on that opera and yes, it does have an underground lake! We then went to Galleries Lafayette, which is one of the most famous “department stores” in the world.

Galeries Lafayette

It is full of all of the designer brands in an amazing 7 story building, including Hermes, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Tiffany and Co, and many others. It was amazing just to walk around and see all of the super expensive designer brands. Zach bought me a Longchamp bag as a present, since they are so popular here and I am a big fan. It was so busy that we had to wait in about a 15 minute line just to get in the store! While walking by Tiffany and Co, I wanted to look at some of the diamond rings and found one that was €300,000. Wow!

After some shopping we went back to my apartment for a quick nap and then we were off to Montmartre. It was nighttime when we got there so it was packed with people. We went inside Sacre Coeur, and it looked so beautiful all lit up, and right after mass. Since it was a Saturday night the stairs leading up were full of people, drinking wine and singing and having a mini picnic. We then walked to the artsy area of Montmarte where there were many artists try to sell their work, along with street dancers and singers. We were kinda hungry so we decided to get some gelato (not as good as in Italy but still amazing!) and then make our way down the hill to eat some fondue at Les Refuge de Fondue aka the baby bottle wine place with my friend Valentina.

posing with our baby bottles!

 It was really fun and we met some many really cool people… it helped that Valentina spoke Spanish to them since they were from Argentina. We ate waaay too much cheese/ bread/meat and drank a little too much wine haha.  We spent about 2 hours there and we were going to go a really fun club called Showcase, but me and Zach were really tired so we just decided to go home… especially since Kelly was landing at 6:15 the next morning. I had an amazing time with Zach and he had a great time (other than the hospital visit) as well, especially for his first time in Europe!

Kelly’s plane actually arrived an hour early at 5:15 so she took a taxi to get to my apartment.  I brought Zach to the train station at about 9:15 and it was a pretty sad moment for me L I held it together though as we said our goodbyes because I knew we would see each other soon.