France Days 1&2

O kay then. Let's talk about my recent trip to France.

What we're not talking about today:
-I killed one of these in my room today and it was very scary.
-I just paid $700 for new brakes the other day and that was even scarier.
-I had a lot of errands to run today, but instead I baked brownies, took a bubble bath, and watched True Blood. I can't ever seem to leave the house.

I think it'll be easier to talk about France if I divide the trip up into days.

I signed up to go on the trip late, and didn't get on the same flight as Hannah and had to travel by myself.

I think international flights are fun except for the flying. I like how big the jets are.

Look! It's as big as a house. I sat towards the back of the plane by the window.


I sat by a college professor; her name was Ginny and she taught photography classes. She taught me a few things and adjusted my camera for me. She also didn't make fun of me when I took a picture of the meal we received. It's lasagna with salad, a brownie, and a cold roll. Look at how gross it looks! I didn't eat it because I wasn't hungry. I think it looks worse than it actually was.


The in flight movie was Tooth Fairy starring the Rock. No way in hell I was going to watch that, so I read my book.

Later on, the movie was Bride Wars and I may or may not have watched it. Heh heh heh.

I can't sleep on international flights. I don't know how people can. This one was eight hours and I was miserable. We arrived in Paris in the morning, so we were served breakfast as well. Croissant, raspberry yogurt and orange juice. I happen to love croissants.


After arriving at the airport I was transported by bus to our hotel to meet up with the rest of the group. I was so happy to see Hannah! This is the bottom floor of the hotel.


We shared this room with another girl on the trip. Our room smelled like someone walked around it and pissed everywhere. The bathroom floor was dirty and sticky. It was pretty gross. Also, the lack of towels and wash cloths frustrated me.


But who cares? We were in Paris! Our tour group joined together with another tour group from South Dakota. With no sleep at all, we hopped on the bus and started our tour around Paris. We drove around for a while and saw some of the tourist-y sites, then stopped at Fontaine Saint-Michel.


We had an hour or so to wander around, and Hannah and I took off to explore and grab a snack. Mmmm roasted chickens.


Gyros. Look at that lamb! Wait... look at that guy. He's looking at you!






Snack time. I can't think of a more perfect snack, on the first day of a Parisian vacation, than a crepe with Nutella. Can you?


Creperies are all over France. Here is the gentleman who made my crepe. He doesn't look happy.


Nutella. Oh Nutella, I love you.


Time to eat. I had high hopes for this crepe.


So good. If you only knew. The crepe was nice and cakey and not too eggy, and it was dripping with Nutella. Mmm. I shared this with Hannah, along with a shot of the strongest espresso I've ever had in my life. I definitely needed it.


Then, all fifty of our tour group visited the Luxembourg Gardens.


And later on, Notre Dame, right by the Seine River.










It was all beautiful, of course. It was time for dinner after that and we walked to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant close by. All of the restaurants and meals on this trip were pre-arranged. I requested vegetarian meals because I'm weird about meat sometimes. I did the same thing when I went to France in 2004, and it turned out to be a good decision. I was a vegetarian back then, though, and I'm not a vegetarian now. But I eat like one.

Anyway, we had a bread basket at our table full of dried out, old bread. We had a bread basket like this at dinner for the rest of the trip, and it was never served with butter. The French don't eat have butter with their bread? I don't believe that.


This was my very al dente pasta with some minced up vegetables. It was dripping with oil. I didn't eat very much because it was so bad. This was actually one of the better meals of the trip, though. :)


I think it was better than Hannah's. Hannah was served a tough, chewy piece of beef and some fries. I can't tell you how many times we were served fries and potatoes over the course of this trip. Did they think that potatoes are the only vegetables that Americans eat? I hope that's not true.




Dessert was better; it was actually pretty good. Mousse au chocolat.


We were all exhausted at that point, so we went back to the hotel to crash.

And that's days one and two! That was a pretty long post; I don't think the rest of my posts will be that long.