Blog: The Paris Edition

OK, so once again I have been the worst at keeping you all updated. My apologies. I have little motivation to do anything these days but be a beach bum, read trashy novels, watch DVDs, and go shopping. And of course, the occasional late night excursion with dancing included.

I am not even sure what I made mention of before this blog, but I am sure I didn’t speak at all of Paris, so we’ll make this a Paris-specific blog.

Going to Paree…
So, I forced myself to pack lightly, with the added inconvenience of 3 bananas, a huge water, and an extra pair of cute going out shoes, just in case, and to the train station I headed. My timing was excellent, because as I arrived at the station and purchased some Fig Newton wannabes for the journey, the train was also arriving. So I boarded the train and was quite happy to find that my row (all two seats) was all to myself. However across from me this lady had a dog that was an attention/head rub seeker that was so cute he earned lots of my attentions. The train was about 2.5 hours to Marseilles, where I had to get off and board another train headed to Paris. It was easy and convenient enough, but this time I was not so lucky in getting my own row…

The Not-so-subtle hint
So on the way from Marseilles to Paris, this lady shows up in the middle of the ride, claiming her seat is the one next to mine. Which was fine. Then about 20 minutes later as I am reading my book, she turns to me and offers me a mint. I thank her and say she is very nice for offering, but I really didn’t want a mint. So she insisted a second time. “No, thanks, I’m not in the mood.” But lady wasn’t having it. “Take one!” she kept repeating, to which I would politely refuse. That was until she literally took my palm and placed mints in it. After watching so much Prison Break I was half convinced I was just someone who needed to be knocked off via poison-laced orange mints on the train to Paris. That is until later when she took out the gum. I was still alive at this point (which caused my previous theory to lose some credibility), but this time she didn’t even offer the gum. She just literally threw it onto my lap. By this point, I was realizing I was just flattering myself with thoughts of being important enough to be assassinated. It was all just a matter of me having some halitosis (read: funky-ass breath). So I smiled, making sure to breath through my nose until the gum was securely placed into my mouth. And that was the adventure of my journey.

The First Night
I arrived in Paris, and then took the metro to my cousins’ apartment in one of the suburbs of Paris. The metro is quite similar to the NY metro system, except maybe a little cleaner. But it was easy enough to figure out.

When I got to the apartment only one of the children (Deborah) was there. I had not seen any of them in about 7 years, so it was quite crazy seeing her again. Conversation was a little strained in the beginning, but I broke the ice with my tales of how the thing I remember well about her was her love for Britney Spears back in the day. She vehemently denied said love, and then we had a common bond…our current disdain for an old off-the-mark role model.

After a little while, the two parents arrived home, and we sat and talked, and then had a dinner, which was delicious. Home cooked meals in France are so great because they are so rare (with the exception of my fabulous home cooked veggie burger delights). After dinner, the parental cousins (I couldn’t think of a better way to put that) took me out to do a little sight seeing. It was so thrilling to see Paris for the first time, and at night. I love nighttime sight seeing anywhere, but it’s exceptionally beautiful there.

So off we went to see the Eiffel Tower, the Opera House, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs-Élysées. We even stopped to get some (expensive) ice cream there, which was huge and delicious. It worked well with my new Kiwi obsession because it was coconut and lime ice cream with kiwis on top. Mmmmm. Fabulous. At that point, it was already after 11, so we made our way back to the apartment, where we headed to bed. It was a well-welcomed sleep.

To the Louvre
The next day the cousins asked me what I was most interested in seeing. I had to see the Mona Lisa before I left Paris, so I said I would really like to go to the Louvre. They were more than obliging, so the Parental Cousins and I headed out towards the museum. I never imagined how huge it was. I had a hard time with the Uffitzi in Florence, thinking that was huge and cumbersome and tiring…this was possibly 3 times the size. We left with good energy though, so the beginning was nice and pleasant. A little Egyptian art, a little Old Italian art, sculptures, paintings, you name it, it’s there.

I was getting anxious to see the Mona Lisa at that point, which was about the time we entered the Renaissance/Revolution Era painting areas. The way it’s set up (The Mona Lisa) is in a room, and to enter the room you pass by lots of overwhelming, and impressively huge tableaux (think Gericault, Gros). Then you enter the room with Miss M.L. and there is a huge wall in the middle of the room, clearly the centerpiece of the room, and so as I rounded the corner I had that excited feeling in the pit of your stomach where you anticipate something amazing. But WAH WAH, in comparison to the other paintings we had just passed, I felt like I had to squint to see it. It was disappointing L. My favorite painter is DaVinci, in fact, and I had always appreciated his other works more than the Mona Lisa, anyway, so my disappointment was quickly rectified when I got to see a few other paintings of his on the adjacent wall.

At that point, I was getting exhausted. Room after room after room of tons of art. It was incredible to realize the vast amount of art that is collected in one place, but it was a little overwhelming at the same time. By the time we left, we all agreed that our feet were in dire need of some rest. So we returned home where we all relaxed. And that night I went out with Deborah and her friends to dinner, where Benjamin (another younger cousin) met up with us on his way home from a mini vacation. It was crazy seeing him 7 years older, too. But quite nice, at the same time.

Zee Boat Ride
So there are these boat rides in Paris, that I actually learned about in my French classes growing up, called the Bateaux Mouches. They take you up and down the Seine, while a prerecorded voice details all the sights you pass along the way, which was a lot. It was so relaxing and beautiful. And the weather was unexpectedly beautiful and hot. It was the perfect means of doing sight seeing that day.

Versailles
After the boat, we all headed over to Versailles, which was also pretty exciting, since it’s something I also grew up learning about. Once again, it was massive, and there was assloads of walking to do. But it was worth it. It’s basically a ginormous castle, with the gardens, and fountains, and rooms plastered with huge paintings, and mirrors, and Liberachi-esque bed decorations. Being able to walk through a castle and seeing many of the rooms, and walking through it in a fluid manner makes it easier to grasp the area in entirety. It’s hard to describe. But often when you see historically relevant rooms of castles, it’s a replication of one room amidst a bunch of other unrelated things. But this was access to the whole thing at once. I remember standing in the middle of one of the ballrooms imagining how amazing it would be to get my dance on there in a big dress with a bust, as opposed to my 10 euro H&M dress in the middle of a bar. Amazingly, it was difficult to comprehend.

We made our way through room after room, and I don’t think anyone was too disappointed to see that we came to the last room. We were all so tired and drained, and the prospect of just lounging around the apartment for a couple hours before dinner was more than welcome. Which is what we did, before heading to a Chinese restaurant. I missed good Chinese food. It doesn’t really exist in Nice. French don’t do spicy well, though. I asked them to make mine extra spicy, and it was hardly spicy at all. I silently forgave them for that, though.

After dinner we headed home where they were playing Spiderman on TV. It was quite amusing watching it in French, though. The dubbed voices were so not like the original actors’ voices. But it got me excited for Superman 3, which comes out here the 1^st of May J.

Au Revoir, Paris!
The next morning, quite early, my cousin dropped me off at the train station where I soon boarded a train back to Nice. It was all smooth sailing, but I was quite tired. But that’s when the guy next to me decided to start talking to me. He was nice, though, offering me his newspaper, and then his cell phone PDA thing to read the current headlines. But then it came down to him showing me pictures on his laptop, because as it turns out, he had a business where he sold clothing in St. Tropez, and wanted opinions on his designs.

Then about 2 hours in, we got word from the conductor that the train was making an unexpected stop because there were people on board that didn’t have tickets and they needed to be kicked off. So that stop turned out to be a 40 minute one, which severely cut into the 45 minute connection time I had between trains.

So when we finally got into the station in Marseilles, loads of people started running to the other train. It was a little unnerving, a little frustrating, but also a little funny at the same time. And I had my own row again, so it was all worth it in the end. And that was how I came to be back in Nice again with the memories of a lovely weekend in Paris.

The Visitor
Yesterday, Nahal, a friend that I knew from Rutgers (we were in French classes together) who is now living in Paris, came to visit me in Nice. It was really nice to have someone new to show around and do stuff with, because it’s fun playing tour guide after being the little puppy dog in Paris for the weekend. So she came yesterday at around 4, and then we headed downtown to get some dinner. We got some pizza, and then came back to the apartment to get ready to go back downtown again. This time in style, though.

We went downtown and she became the honorary “Dancing American” for the night. But, like always, we got the bar dancing. Sapna and I really need to get paid as entertainment, and getting the patrons up on their feet. And Nahal deserved a cut of that last night, too J.

But that’s what we did last night, and then today we woke up a little later than expected, but ate some breakfast and made our way to the beach, complete with a stop at a bookstore, and a couple clothing stores.

Once we got to the beach it was glorious, though. We just sat and relaxed there for a couple hours, getting our tans on. Then for the first time in a looong time I went full on swimming in the sea. Before today it was always way to cold for me to make it all the way in, but today I forced myself to suck it in and go for a swimmy swim. And it was well worth it. There is little else that feels as relaxing as floating or treading in the sea/ocean. But the sun and swimming also wore me out, and so after dropping off Nahal at the train station and making my way home, I was more than ready to take a little delayed siesta.

Which brings me to now. Tired and bored, but all out of sleepy juice. At least I have a nice tan to compensate for the horrible bags that are surely going to be under my eyes tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope you are all well. I hear the weather in Jersey took a turn for the better, which I am pleased to hear. It’s well deserved after your mini ghetto-style monsoon.

I miss you all very much, and can’t wait to see you soon!!

Bisous,
Dina