low country margaret: Paris

Enjoying a croissont au beurre on the Pont Neuf over the Seine

I'm in love. My first visit to the city of lights went beyond my high expectations, making it my favorite so far. Of course it didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely, uncharacteristically clear, sunny and warm for late March. The city flows out onto itself in good weather for some serious street strolling or mid-afternoon wine sipping on one of the foot bridges crossing la Seine.

Lizzie, whom I know from growing up in North Carolina, is studying in Heidelberg, Germany this semester. Her spring break worked out so that we could plan a trip together. Oh boy!

Lizzie, enjoying a sumptuous mousse au chocolate blanc dessert

Back in middle school when I met Lizzie, I started taking French classes. My wonderful, eccentric teacher, Mme Page, made us penpals with French students in our year studying English to practice writing letters to each other. My pen pal's name was Christine. We were in 8th grade, I think, when we started to exchange letters. Mme Page organized a trip in the spring with the class, taught by a French woman Mme Page was friends with, where the French students would come visit for 2 weeks. We organized the exchange and Christine stayed with my family for two weeks, going out to the Outer Banks for a trip, as well.

We got along really well and ended up traveling to Chicago together one summer later in high school. I hadn't talked with her in several years when she found me on Facebook about a year and a half ago. Science!

This is my first time in Europe, and so I wrote to her to tell her that I was coming to her continent, and she offered to host me at any time, so I had the chance to travel to Paris for 5 days with one of my best friends from home with my penpal from middle school. It was the best. We stayed with Christine for 3 nights and then Couchsurfed with a lovely Parisian master's student, Olivier, who also lived in the 18th arrondissement. We cooked him risotto and had a great time wining and dining with a few of his ridiculously French friends who chain smoked the entire night while listening to jazzy Parisian radio. Excellente.

Margaret, Christine, and Lizzie in the Montmartre flat

The wrought iron balconies all over the city were really stunning

First French snack, a Bordeaux red and crusty baguette
with stinky cheese!
Parfait!

Margaret & Liz at Basilique du Sacré Coeur -
Christine's flat was about a block away from this stunning
church in the 18th arrondisement

View of Paris from Sacré Coeur in Montmartre

La Seine
View of Pont Neuf and l'Ile de la Cité

Thought of Jacob, of course.
He was infatuated with Paris, and I know he would have loved it oh so much.

La Palais du Louvre and the Grande Pyramide -
It's free for young people 14-26 Friday from 6-10pm!

The Louvre is huge! Like, multiple football fields huge

Arch in front of the Louvre museum leading to
la Jardin de Tuileries

I think the French have an arch fetish... or maybe just Napoleon

The crowd in front of da Vinci's La Jacond
It was pretty funny seeing this, considering this small painting
was in a room surrounded by enormous oils that seemed forgotten
by most of the people in the room vying for a place in front of the Mona Lisa

Museé du Louvre

OMG TARTS

Cute lil rainbow car

Street art vendors lining the river

French royal palace at the Jardin du Luxembourg,
acres and acres of prim beauty

Jardin du Luxembourg

Big ol' head at Jardin du Luxembourg

View of la Pantheon, once an abbey and a Christian cathedral,
during the French Revolution the revolutionaries had it converted
into a Pantheon celebrating French intellectuals like
Curie, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and Zola

Blue sky showing off at Université de Paris

Oui, oui!

Watching the sun set on Paris from the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower -
You can see the hill of Montmartre on the horizon in N. Paris

Bye bye, sunshine!

Paris at nightfall from the very top!

At Versailles, le Roi du Soleil, Louis XIV's play pad

Royal chapel, Versailles

Famous Hall of Mirrors, Versailles-
30+ enormous chandeliers ... a bit excessive??

Green and gold wall design, Versailles

Louis was quite fond of this gorgeous pink marble

Basking in the gardens by the Grand Canal, Versailles

Le canard de l'orange et crème fraîche

Christine cooked us quite the French dish - duck with green beans!
Though I do label myself as vegetarian, I do it more for
environmental reasons, so when I'm traveling I've decided to be
flexible in terms of trying local specialties in an effort to
experience the Real Deal when traveling, as well as in certain
situations to avoid offending anyone's cultural sensibilities.
The last time I "broke" my vegetarianism was in Holland to try
the traditional raw herring and onions ...
Christine's duck was much tastier.

Lizzie & Notre Dame

Beautiful prints all over the walls and ceilings in Notre Dame

Museé d'Orsay
Once a train station, now an awesome art museum housing the
French national collection from the 1840s to 1914 -
Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Manet, Gauguin,
Van Gogh, Matisse...amazing

Hôtel des Invalides & Napoleon's tomb

Catacombs - wicked cool,
props for the recommendation, Shirin

Piles of bones from millions of old Parisians 20m underground -
When disease broke out in the 1780s, thousands of graves
were exhumed and the bones relocated to an old quarry in S. Paris