Shelby vient à Paris!

What a busy weekend!  My friend, Shelby, visited Paris with two of her friends from her program in Madrid, Spain.  I was so glad I got to show them around!  We will start with Friday.  Danielle and I stopped to get some bagels at this jewish bakery place.  They were basically croissants with poppy seeds on them. Yum.  Then we went over to Champs-Elysee and had hot chocolate at McDonald's and I tried one of their frozen macaroons, aka there is ice cream in the middle. They ran out of the good kinds, so I had the coffee flavored one but it wasn't bad at all!  We met up with Shelby and her two friends and walked towards the arc de Triomphe.  We went inside it this time and actually climbed it.  The view was breathtaking.  It was such a clear day and you could see the entire city.  I was so glad we got to do that, even though we had to climb a lot of stairs!

After that, they wanted to go to the Long Champ store, so we walked there.  It was all the way on the other side of Champs Elysée, but it was a nice walk.  Luckily, we got to the store just a bit before closing, so they were able to buy their bags! For dinner, we took them to the Fondue restaurant.  I couldn't believe that it was so empty when we showed up.  We didn't have to wait at all!  And the cheese was definitely better this time!  Well, actually it was probably the same but we were just dipping our bread in wine, instead of scooping the cheese at the bottom of the pot onto our bread...that explains why I didn't particularly like the cheese the first time.  We had a delicious meal, and then decided to call it a night.

I met the girls at the Louvre early on Saturday morning.  They were basically done when I got there, so we just took a bunch of touristy pictures outside and walked through the Tuileries.  It's going to be beautiful when the weather gets nicer!  Somehow, we walked all the way from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower.  What a long walk! But it was definitely worth it.  They especially enjoyed it.  We grabbed paninis outside the tower and I had to get a hot chocolate because it was so COLD.  Danielle met us and we headed over to Notre Dame.  After visiting the church, we walked over to this little island called ile de Saint Louis.  On the way there, we pointed out the lock bridge and took a few pictures.  I love that bridge.  And I almost died when a couple that had just gotten married pulled up and were putting a lock on the bridge.  The lady was still in her wedding dress!  So precious.

The island was such a cute little place.  It was filled of cute shops and cafes, but the only reason we went was to get Berthillon ice cream.  The best ice cream in Paris.  We sat in the tea room and all ordered our ice cream.  They aren't kidding.  It was delicious!  After enjoying the warm for a bit, we headed back out to visit Saint Sulpice and The Luxembourg Gardens.  Saint Sulpice was very pretty.  It is the church that is in the Da Vinici Code.  We walked through the church and took some pictures and then headed over to the gardens.  There were tons of people walking and running through the gardens, but the poor pond was frozen.  It looked so sad.  We will definitely be back in the spring when we can have a picnic on the lawn.

Next, we took the metro over to the Latin Quarter.  The girls wanted to try a baguette, a croissant and a macaroon, so we found a bakery and sat there for a while.  They really liked their macaroons :)  Who doesn't!? Then we went to dinner at Au P'tit Grec.  This time, I actually tried a sandwich crepe.  I had one with feta, salad and tomatoes.  It was so good and so inexpensive.  I can't wait to go back!  We stopped in a bar for happy hour after dinner, and chatted there for a while.  Then we walked around a bit more, even though it was cold and went back to the "cave" bar that Danielle and I went to a few weekends ago.  It started getting busy around 10:30, so we danced for a while.  The girls were tired around 11:30/12, so we walked them back to the metro and said our sad goodbyes.  The good news is that we will see them in Barcelona!

Danielle and I just walked around a bit more and got spinach pie at a greek place and then headed home for the night.  You encounter very strange characters on the metro late at night....let me tell you!


This morning, I woke up pretty late...woops, guess I turned my alarm off by mistake. But I still made it to church.  After church, I met Danielle by Sacré Coeur and we went to the highest point in Paris.  What a view!  It was even foggy today, but we still had a magnificent view of the city!  Even found the Eiffel Tower hiding between the trees!  The church Basilica itself was beautiful inside, but we unfortunately couldn't take any pictures. Definitely would recommend walking up the 2394823 steps to get there just for the view.  We tried to find this hamburger place over in that area, but it was closed today.  We stopped in this other place and had really good pizza.  Then we did a little souvenir shopping and I chatted with the friendly clerk.  He was amazed that I've only been here for 4 weeks and could speak French so well.  I liked that compliment!!  We found some crêpes and walked around by Moulin Rouge.  It was a nice and relaxing afternoon, but time flies by!