Paris!

After taking the Eurostar and not even noticing the chunnel, we finally arrived in Paris!  It was easy getting to and from the Eurostar in London, but figuring out the metro in Paris was a bit more confusing.  We stood in line for tickets, only to find out that our credit card did not work there.  They have this new thing in Europe where all of their credit cards have a chip and the chip has a pin number, even if it is a credit card.  Awesome safety precaution, but not awesome when our card doesn't work in their system.  You would think that because the world wants to become more international and more global, that we would all have the same cell phone systems and same credit cards.  Oh well, we delt with it and got through the hassle of buying metro tickets.  After some difficulty, we finally found our hotel.  We put our stuff away, and decided to head towards a grocery store.  To be honest, it was a little scary at night.  A foreign town, a foreign language, and foreign people.  We headed to bed with some precautions.

Waking up in Paris proved to be better than the night before.  We got ready, and headed out to get a crossiant and cappuccino.  Well, I actually had a hot tea and organic carrot soup with a homemade crossiant, but who's counting.  For tomorrow, I have already scoped out the place where I want to buy my pain au chocolat (chocolate crossiant), and I am really excited.  After our breakfast/lunch at 12, we walked around to get our bearings straight.  We are definitely in a French neighborhood with many French people.... now only if we spoke the the language... we are trying our best!  Bonjour, Merci, l'addition se vious play, Bonsouir....however you spell those, but it is the best we can do.  I often think about how awesome it would be to study over here for a few months and really learn the language.  However, I wish I could do that for every language, and that would take forever!  Also, I would love to do it with someone else...any takers? 

Having to get one touristy thing out of the way, we made our way to the Louvre.  The magnificant building is incredible just by looking at it.  When you go in, you realize that there are so many things to see and do, and that if you really wanted to stay in there for a day, you definitely could.  We only stayed for about an hour, saw the famous but small Mona Lisa, the crown jewels, Nepoleon's furniture, and headed to one of Julia Child's favorite restraunts!  Au Pied Du Cochen.  She said that it was as famous then as it is now, so of course, it was a must!  We each had the onion soup.  Cheese melted over the sides, broth so smooth, and onions so little.  I also ordered the stuffed mussels au provancale, my mom had a few bites.  I thought it was awesome, it reminded me of escargots, yet it had a tomato broth and bread crumbs and butter.  I ate the whole thing!  After finishing the two dishes, we of course moved to dessert.  Profiteroles was on the menu, so that is what we ordered.  The overflowing chocolate was rich and delicious and the ice cream divine.  Full and tired, we walked back to our flat, comfortably lounged, watched Lost, did some journal entries, and planned a few things for the upcomming days.  After a few hours of relaxing, we headed out on the streets in search of cheese and wine.  Of course, we found it, and it was delicious.  Off to bed we go, awaiting another fabulous day in Paris!