Departing for Paris

Departing for Paris

Waking up at seven in the morning is only okay if you are doing it to get on a plane, train, or automobile. For me it was a bus to a train, then the tube to a train and then a train to a train to the flat. Where was I going you might ask? The city of love, Paris.

The train ride really wasn’t bad. I mostly just looked out the window and worked on and off until the train finally pulled out of the black tunnel under the sea to resurface on the French countryside.

Since my mother had come to visit from the States she was able to ask my cousins if we could use their flat in Paris. Seeing as the dad only uses the flat during the week due to his job in Paris (his family actually lives in Lyon which is about a two hour train ride so the flat is more so he doesn’t have to spend his entire pay check on just getting to the office). So to get there we had to take the metro from the train station.

The Parisian metro is hell. Don’t get on it. Get robbed blind and call a cab.

Well you could probably handle it if you didn’t have luggage.

First off, the ticket counter, yeah wouldn’t take either my mother’s or my cards, debit or credit, because the whole of Europe decided it would be fun to change the way you use credit cards which I still don’t understand but it essentially has to do with a chip and a pin number and the fact that you don’t swipe a bar code.

I think Europe just wants to be difficult.

So, since the machine decided it only wanted to take cash I went on a hunt to find an ATM, which was a lot harder than it should have been and I probably looked like a chicken with it’s head cut off frantically walking around the station looking for anything that could be a cash machine.

Finally, some cash was found. Nope, the machine only wants coins and of course ATMS only want to give you 20s. Feeling a little flustered I handed the bill over to my mother and this time it was her turn to go off and break the bill while I stayed with the luggage. While sitting on my mom’s big, red, bulky, plastic suitcase I noticed out of the corner of my eye that this man was staring at me. Do all I can to pretend like I don’t notice him he eventually comes up to me with a smile on his face and says something to me in French, which I don’t pick up at all. He could tell right away from the reaction on my face that I didn’t speak a word of French. He asks me a few question and then says, “Facebook?” I replied with a smile and a nod accepting the piece of paper accompanied by a red pen that he handed me and proceeded to write down a fake name.

I’m not going to lie, that did flatter me a bit.

Since the ticket machine finally decided to accept the money it was given (it should really learn not to be greedy) it was off to the metro or RER.

You know the term packed in like sardines? Well that only began to cover what it was like on this metro. Everyone was literally standing on top of each other trying to fit in this coach and the fact that both me and mother had suitcases, which both were not that bulky mind you made that experience ten time worse. Bright side however, we only had to ride it for four stops and when we did finally have to exit everyone in the coach helped me lift my suitcase over the crowd because there was no way I was going to make it off, I could barely wedge my body through the packed in people.

As it turned out my cousins flat is in a really nice area about a block away from the Pantheon and you can see the Eiffel tower over the buildings down the street.

Paris.

Dropping our stuff off in the flat my mother and I both realized that we need a break before we went out and began to wander the streets. It was about 4:30 so our plan was to leave at about six, walk around a little, look at the restaurants for a place to eat dinner and then sit in a café with a cup of coffee till we were ready to eat.

Basically we did just that.

We had dinner at this place with things really long name and of course you only pronounced have the letters. The food was fantastic, amazing, I don’t think I eat that much food in a week when I’m at school.

They do this thing in a lot of places called a fixed price, which means for 33 euros you get an appetizer, a main course, and a desert.

I had sausages of Lyon for my appetizer, which were these sausages, potatoes cooked to perfection, and a salad all drizzled with this I think mustard based sauce. Probably one of the best meals I have ever had and it was big enough to be an entre too.

Next was my main course and I chose lamb for that which came with these heavenly potatoes cooked with milk and topped with cheese that was still bubbling when the waiter brought it to the table.

Finally it was desert time and I had ordered this nougat ice cream sitting in a pool of warm raspberry sauce.

Best meal of my life and looking back on what I wrote I wouldn’t even know how to begin to find the words that would possibly start to give even the littlest amount of justification to how truly amazing it was.

Oh, just throwing it out there, I’m surprised they didn’t have to roll me out of the restaurant.

Walking or more waddling back to the flat I realized that the pure beauty of that meal was only just the beginning to the wonders I would experience in Paris.