samedi 30 juin, 2012

Currently sitting in the gardens of the Petit Palais, at an outdoor café with a Coca Zero. It is breathtaking here!

I am grateful for a relaxing day, as for some reason, this week has been very go go go for me. I haven’t even had time to paint my nails (and if you know me, you know how significant that is.)

Fortunately, this week has been full of lots of really great things. Monday night, I got to cross something from my Paris bucket list off: sitting on a blanket on the Champs de Mars under the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of wine, cheese, a baguette, and the sunset. I went with my friend Alissa, and we actually climbed the Eiffel Tower before our historic picnic! That's right, climbed. Not elevator-ed. 

Champs de Mars, seen from top of Eiffel Tower

The next evening, Alissa and I met up again to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe—something that I didn’t even know was possible. That was definitely the best view of Paris I have seen so far: you see the Champs Elysees, leading to the Place de la Concorde at the end. You see the “Etoile” (“star”) from up there—a bunch of streets meet together at the Arc de Triomphe, making a star shape. You could also see the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (making the trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower a bit underrated—you can’t see the Eiffel Tower up there!).

The view of Paris and the "Etoile" from the top of l'Arc de Triomphe

I have found myself becoming very interested in French History. Through my work, I am now working on a tourist guide of the 8^th arrondissement, so I have been doing research on many of the iconic places here. There is so much history here, and I find it so interesting because I know almost none of it. Still looking for a good book about the history of France..let me know if you have any recommendations!

I found one called Paris Brule-t-il?, which looks really cool. “Paris brule-t-il?” means “Is Paris Burning?” and that’s apparently what Hitler asked one of his commanders on the telephone after giving the orders to burn down Paris in WWII. Fortunately, a German commander refused to burn what he saw as the most beautiful city, so he surrendered to the French. Paris was saved.

Hootie Happies:

• It is Paris SOLDE season! Which means that there are sales everywhere. Legally, stores are only allowed to have sales 2x a year: for 6 weeks in the summer, and for 6 weeks in the winter. Throughout the 6 weeks, the prices continue to go down, but there are less and less items. Ergo, I got a pair of sunglasses, some black flats, and a cute shirt—all for 30 euros. That was my high of the day.
• After telling my coworker I took a nap in the Jardins de Palais Royale, he said “I gather you like to sleep?" “Why?” “Well it’s not the first time you’ve mentioned taking naps.” What can I say? I take after my mommy.
•  I applied for a job at the FBI this week. Yup.
• I got to take a day of work this week to tour around the 8^th arrondissement—to visit museums, restaurants, and monuments for my tour guide. Tough life, right?
• Tuesday evening, before going to meet Alissa for the Arc de Triomphe, my shoes busted. And I couldn’t walk without them falling off. Unfortunately, all of the stores were about to close. Equally as unfortunate, the incredible sales were going to begin the next day. Desperate for comfortable shoes, I bought sandals at Gap. Silly Jennifer wore black tights that day, so let’s just say that I got more than a few stares from Parisians for the rest of the night…