Paris For the Weekend!

This weekend, Jon and I met up in Paris to spend some time together. And it was absolutely wonderful!

We both arrived Friday but by the time Jon got to the hotel, it was a little late to do anything too exciting. So in the true French fashion, we went out for a late, late dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Haha. It was quite delicious. Afterwards, we spent some time walking around the Bastille area.

Saturday morning, we woke up early, ate some really delicious breakfast and set out for a day of sightseeing since I've never been to Paris before.

We began at the Eiffel Tower, which was incredible. It was entirely too surreal to be standing next to it. Unfortunately, the skies were kind of overcast making the tower a little less visible, but it was still amazing.


Afterwards, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees. Both were really neat. Although, I was kind of surprised by some of the stores we found. In addition to Cartier and Louis Vuitton, there was a Gap, Adidas, and Virgin Megastore. Not quite the upscale stores I was expecting to find, but neat nonetheless. We walked into the Virgin Megastore and I must say-- if the people around me weren't speaking French and everything wasn't written in French, I'd have no idea that we were in an electronics store in France. A majority of the music was American music. Although, that's not much different from the radio here. I hardly ever hear French music and I've discovered that the French absolutely love themselves some Katy Perry. Which I'm certainly not complaining about.


Then we walked down to the Louvre and the surrounding area which was full of gardens. It was really neat to see the Louvre, but we didn't have the time to go in and check things out. I think I might have to make another trip up to Paris sometime to do that. And the surrounding gardens were really neat. They were full of fountains (which unfortunately weren't on) and exquisite statues. We also checked out the Place de la Concorde on the way which has the giant Egyptian obelisk in its center. It's where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded. Which reminds me-- that's one thing I absolutely love about France. Every place you go has some interesting historical value. It feels incredible to think about the things that have happened at the very spot you are standing oh so many years ago. It's so neat. In fact, on a side note, there's an archaeological site called Entremont like 5 minutes up the hill from where I live. Before the Romans took over the area, it's where the Gauls set the roots for Aix so many years ago. I think it's incredible that all these neat historical places are so numerous and accessible.


After the Louvre, we grabbed amazing kebab baguettes (Greek kebab and fries in a French baguette) and Nutella crepes before heading to Notre Dame. It was absolutely beautiful! And we also got to check out the Roman ruins located under the building.

Then we headed back to the hotel to change into nicer clothes and grab dinner. Afterwards, we spent the evening walking around Paris and I even got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. So neat!


It truly was a wonderful weekend. I got to spend it with Jon and in Paris so it really couldn't have gotten much better. :D

And of course I have pictures! Clicky here and here!

One of These Things is Not Like the Others...

One thing I've noticed since I've been in France is that I do not fit in here. If you line me up next to three French women and play a game of "One of these things is not like the others..." you will immediately be able to tell that I'm the thing that's not like the others. And in all honesty, it doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I'm really kind of amused by the whole thing.

So let's take a closer look at this.


Hair. For one, I am probably one of 30 females in Aix with blond hair. And another 4 or 5 of these blonds are girls in my program. All of the French women have brown or black hair.

Shoes. Every French woman I've seen wears heels of some sort in black or brown. Whether it's a nice work shoe or knee high stiletto boots, there's always a 1.5 inch heel. At least. Then there's me. I wear flats everywhere. And depending on the day and outfit, they can either be simple black flats or silver sequined flats. Which leads me to another observation. Have the French never seen sequins before?

Clothes. You know how in the US, flaired or bootcut jeans are the main styles? Sure, there are some girls who wear their skinny jeans. But not many. Well here it's ALL about the skinny jeans. They're everywhere. Regardless of whether or not the people have the shape to wear them. Oh and my coat? It's a very fashionable black/blue/purple design. I get compliments on it all the time. But no way, you won't see anything like it here.

Facial Expressions. Do you smile while you're walking down the street, make eye contact with passerbys or say hello? Might as well brand "I'm American" across your forehead. Here, don't smile while walking, don't say "hello" because that's invading someone's personal space and lastly, don't make any eye contact. That is, unless you think someone is cute. Eye contact essentially means, I'm available and now we're boyfriend and girlfriend.

It's kind of crazy to see how even the tiniest details can set you apart.

Although I think my favorite experience is from yesterday. Yesterday, I took a walk with Lauren to find one of the local parks. She planned on running afterwards so she wore her running shoes, leggings underneath shorts and a longsleeved running fleece. Although with the looks she was getting, you would have thought she was walking down the street in a gorilla costume or something. It was highly amusing.

Obviously, the French just don't fully appreciate our hot American style.

Why yes, I am a genius.

I'm sorry but I have to take a minute here to gush about how incredible I am. I swear I'm not ridiculously egocentric. Rather, I'm very proud of what I just did and feel the need to share it with the world. Haha.

For the past few weeks, the girls and I have been trying to plan our Winter Break. We began thinking London, Dublin, and Paris. But then we realized those are countries which will probably be easier to go to either for a weekend or when we're older. So we decided to check out other places. We began thinking Prague, Vienna, and Zurich. But today, we finally decided on Munich, Prague, and Vienna.

Originally when we were planning our trip to Prague, Vienna and Zurich, we went to a travel agent to discuss prices. He told us 297 Euros. And that was fine with us.

Today, we went back to the travel agent and discussed Munich, Prague and Vienna. Let's just say it was quite a bit pricier.

We returned to school today a bit disappointed because nobody wanted to pay quite so much for vacation. So we decided to take it into our own hands and research buses, trains and flights to get us from place to place. After checking things out we realized we were doing incredibly well on prices. The only problem was that we couldn't find a way home from any of these places. Well, aside from 1400 Euro flights.

So instead of doing homework tonight, I worked on our plans for Winter Break. And this is why I'm proud.

• I found a way to get from Vienna to Aix which seemed utterly impossible.
  
• I found all of the cheapest/most reliable buses and trains and put together a complete itinerary.
• And finally, I completely beat the price that the travel agent had given us. Both the expensive one and the 297 Euros one from when were still planning on Munich/Zurich/Prague.

Alright, time to get working on that homework I put aside. Goodnight all!

I got to touch the Mediterranean Sea! Not even kidding.

Hi! I'm sorry it's been so long, but it has been quite the week. I'll quick go through some of the highlights.

• I had my first creeper experience which the girls and I found completely hilarious. Lauren, Caitlin and I were sitting outside of the Office of Tourism eating ham and cheese crepes and some fluffy, happy guy walked up to us. He looked at me and was like "Are you American or are you English?" I responded that I was from the US and he exclaims "Quelle belle americaine!" Or "What a beautiful American!" We couldn't stop laughing for two minutes straight.
  
• On Friday night, I had the girls over to watch L'Auberge espagnol and eat Nutella. Because that's what we do. I have a feeling it's going to become a weekend tradition. But I'm completely OK with that because it's so much fun and really nice to be able to hang out.
• Today I bought my train ticket to Paris! Jon and I are going to meet up there in two weekends!
  

Now for the really exciting stuff. This past weekend, the program took us on an excursion to Nice, Monaco and Cannes. It was AMAZING. I have fallen in love with the Mediterranean Sea. I never want to leave it.

Nice was incredible and by far my favorite part of the excursion. We walked through the market, climbed up the mountain through the Roman(?) ruins, grabbed lunch from the market and picnicked on the beach for most of the afternoon. It was incredible. The hike up the mountain was quite a doozy, especially in my flats and falling down pants. (I'm sure it was quite the site to watch me.) But it was completely worth it. I'm posting pictures so you'll be able to tell for yourselves. It was really neat because in addition to the ruins, the top of the mountain had a playground and was swarming with families. Afterwards, we grabbed fruit and Sacco, a specialty food of Nice that's essentially a chick pea crepe, from the market and picnicked on the beach. The sea was so blue and the sun felt wonderful. I could have sat there all day without moving once. But eventually, we decided that it would be a good idea to check out the town and grab some gelato before getting back on the bus.




It was still too early to head to the retreat, so we went to Fragonard, a perfume factory, where we got a tour and learned all about how perfume was made. Get this. The person who creates perfumes is called a "nose." They go to school for 3 years learning about different smells and how to distinguish them. Afterwards, they do 7 years of practice, putting their noses to work before actually creating any perfumes. Then they get to work. The only downside of this is that they can't drink, smoke (not that it would bother me), or eat spicy food. Count me out of that job! No spicy food? Poor noses. Oh, and even cooler about this place? It was seated at the bottom of a hill that housed a Medeival city. If we would have had more time, I completely would have climbed that hill.

After the tour, we headed to the "retreat," which I've decided is just a nicer name for a hostel. Because it's precisely what it is. Although, it really was pretty nice-- it was clean, had showers, only five people per room, they fed us, set up a discotheque for us in the evening, and it was staffed by cute German guys with adorable accents. After dinner there, which wasn't all that bad, we headed into Monaco for a little bit. This place is incredible. We saw the casino at Monte Carlo and in the distance we could see the palace. There were video cameras and police everywhere. We walked down a street and there was Chanel, Hermes, Bvlgari, Ferraris, you get the picture. I don't think I've ever felt more out of place in my entire life. Haha. But it was an experience that I'm glad I got. I'm just sad it wasn't light out. I'm sure I would have gotten some incredible photos if it had been. Then we went back to the "retreat" and decided to head to bed while everyone else got drunky drunk and danced at the discotheque. But we were some of the only people who seemed to be in good shape the next morning, so I'm not regretting that choice. I saw a shirt ruined by wine and heard stories about vomitting in top bunks and lost shoes. So I think I made a good choice. Also, the view the following morning was breath-taking. I think you'll agree when you see the photos. We were right on the sea, about two minutes outside of Monaco.




Sunday we headed into Cannes, home of the famous Cannes Film Festival. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed in the Auditorium. It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't large, and it wasn't even all that clean outside. I mean, it's still awesome that I got to go there and see walk on the same ground as some amazing celebrities, but I wasn't wowed as I had expected to be. (BTW, update: I still haven't run into Johnny Depp yet. But I still have over three months. Also, apparently Brad Pitt and (M)angelina--oh how I despise her-- have a house in or right outside of Aix.) After checking out the Auditorium, we climbed ANOTHER mountain. It was really neat and completely made up for the Auditorium disappointment. On the way up the hill, we stopped by this building that at one point housed the Man in the Iron Mask. You know that movie with Leo DiCaprio about the French king who has his twin imprisoned and forces him to wear an iron mask to conceal his identity? Yeah, I was outside of one of his prisons! Also, if you're into The Count of Monte Cristo, we were able to see the island that inspired Dumas when he wrote the novel. At the top of the hill, there was a museum that had African, Native American, and ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek art. It was really neat. And there was a tower we climbed up which gave us an amazing view of the city. Afterwards, we grabbed panini for lunch (I swear I have panini at least every other day for lunch-- it's soo good!) and then sat on the beach. It was nice because this beach was more sandy, whereas the beach in Nice was more rocky. After a nice afternoon on the beach, we headed back to Aix and were greeted by sunshine. It was nice considering the fact it's been rainy for the past two weeks straight.




Well, now for the fun part! Pictures! I have three different albums. Clicky: Nice is Nice, Nice is Nice, but Monaco is Exquisite, and Retreat is Just a Nicer Name for Hostel.