I love Paris.
This is not me... in case someone random is reading my blog and think I own a pretty dress in cold winter weather and have long brunette hair and not to mention really great posture. Just thought I should be honest after all my lying to you guys.
Paris is a place that I will visit again. Out of all the places I have visited thus far, I can honestly say I would come back. I loved everything about it. I blame American commercialism, Hollywood, and Disney princess movies. As our friend Luci said, "You can stay in Paris for twenty years and still not see all it has to offer."
From now on, these are my own pictures. The above 3 were clearly stolen from the Web brought to you for your own enjoyment. Anyway, Paris. Yes so our group decided pretty much the first few days we got to Europe that Paris over Valentine's Day weekend was the most logical trip to make ever. We were so right (duh). We had heard however, that Paris is very expensive. Yeah, no kidding. But thanks to the power of the Lord and all my mother's precious Bible Study ladies praying for me plus probably hundreds more back home (praying for "safety" is a nice way of saying "we hope you don't die"), my roommate and best friend on this trip, Beilzers (Hannah Beil) miraculously contacted her friend who lives in Paris and found out he would be journeying back home to Texas for two weeks and informed us we could borrow his apartment for the weekend. Oh hey about 60 euros saved (almost 100 bucks for you english people.) And this is where the blessings just started smacking us in the face. We arrived in Paris and found out the apartment was located about 3 steps and a hop away from the train stop. The apartment was the cutest and most quaint thing you could ever imagine. Her friend had two clocks up in Texas time and Paris time (precious.) He had an apartment on the top floor that had a gorgeous view. We had to do some major cleaning after we picked up our drooling jaws off the floor. It was great.
Check out this spectacular view. Our God is here and is real and is powerful and He shines His face in the tiniest little moments of my life. And it is truly lovely to see Him everywhere I go in this continent.
Oh so I forgot to mention: Lionel. He was a big part of the success of our Paris weekend. Lionel and Luci... we lylas them (lylas= love ya like a sister.) Don't ask... just keep reading.
So we walk (I took the elevator let's be honest here..) up to the apartment, get inside, and there is a MAN sitting on the couch staring back at us. At this point.... I see my life broadcast all over ever big media outlet or my birth rights being sold to Lifetime for a terribly made movie about my life (in which case I thought.. please cast Sandra Bullock for me.... please....) Anyway, we find out this guy's name is Lionel. He is one of Cole's (the guy's apartment) friends. His shower head is broken and he has work in the morning so he was staying the night. Lifetime movie out the window. Lionel and 6 young bright eyed college girls instantly became best friends. Lionel knows like 3 english words, mind you. But we were obsessed with him. Oh yeah and it was around midnight and we were starving so he took us to eat. We walked for no less than half an hour (I died inside) and finally found a cheapo restaurant. Duh we found a Turkish burger joint in a random suburb of Paris. Duh. So we all get some burgers and the Turkish guy knew how much us petite little American girls loved our ketchup so he dropped the bottle off at our table and we went to town.... We talk with Lionel... He works for an IT company and that's about all I got out of him even though we talked for about 3 hours. So we trekked back on our long journey back "home" and said goodnight to Lionel. We said "lylas" all night to him too which he LOVED and had NO idea what it even meant.. It's fine. Tired and full-bellied girls often think everything is way more humorous than anyone is ever gonna think it actually is.
I swear I'm getting to the description of this photo above. Long story short (I'm not even sure I know how to do a long story short.. I do short stories long so....)
Lionel brought us chocolate croissants and fruit and orange juice and at that point... I legitimately loved him like a sister. Lylas Lionel forever. He wrote us a sweet little note in his broken English and gave us his email (I think 3 of the girls emailed him the second we got back... creepy much?) Anyway, needless to say, we lylas'ed Lionel. Great start to the weekend.
Lionel bought us breakfast! Whoever said Parisian men were NOT polite and sweet clearly never met Lionel.
And then the highlight of my week. (That's a joke the whole weekend was... but I want to sound official..) The Eiffel Tower was humongous. It was so beautiful. I stared at it for about half a day. It was wonderful. It has been the backhanded star in so many movies I've seen that I was practically living my own little fairy tale the entire time I was there. Too bad every picture of me is super awkward all weekend. I forgot how to pose in pictures for 3 days on this trip. Fail.
Sassy hand on the hip. Who am I?
Ok so I won't lie... Paris was beautiful... but it wasnt colorful. There were no colors. Why? Because we were there in the middle of February... so thanks to awesome photo editing skills, this grass is now green and it's my most colorful picture of the weekend. Yes.
Lied once again. I've got to stop this trend. There were red berries on these trees so I snapped this picture. So yeah i have color photos. Ignore my "color" paragraph up there.
I'm putting this on here so my family will actually believe I am still alive and not some creeper just uploading pictures from google. But look at me... I look like a pencil. A stout pencil. I'm so awkward.....
This is the Arc de Triumphe. My grandmother's maiden name "Viala" is actually inscripted in this building. Cool huh? ( I got lots of pictures of Viel, Vial, Valoise... but apparently the "Viala" is on the top part that I didn't go up to. Sorry mom.)
Tunnel between the Arc and the street. I walked around the entire circle of it trying to find a good place to run across.... You don't even understand... I tried so hard. Then this sweet old lady told me there was a tunnel and basically to not kill myself because there are car accidents every 5-7 minutes around the Arc and we don't want a squashed bug American girl out there too. Parisian old lady.. love her.
These are my friends from the weekend. Rebecca, Kristen, Luci, Hannah, Carissa, and Beilzers. Luci is my NEIGHBOR back at home in Waco and I saw her more in Paris than I have my entire time at Baylor. She is doing an entire semester in Paris. She had been there since January so she knew everything. She was a bajillion times better than any tour guide and led us around that city and could have done it blindfolded. She was such a great breath of fresh air and we seriously had the time of our lives traveling around Paris and going to so many sights all weekend: Champs Elysses, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Arc de Triumphe, Musuem Pompei (or something like that..), Latin Quarter, City Hall (i may be lying about that one), Notre Dame, Louvre, and lots of cute cafes and restaurants. Luci even took us a to a totally Frenchy restaurant as a girls night and I had steak and dessert and we just had so much fun with good conversation, laughter, and girl time. We went to the Eiffel Tower at night to watch it light up and it was magical. Luci and I took a billion pictures together but I didn't look good in any of them (I told you my photogenic nature took a weekend sabbatical) so the Eiffel is up here. If you cause a riot I'll upload more of my face... mom.
notre dame was so ornate. it was amazing. it gave me a crick in my neck.
does anyone else notice the guy holding his head in his hands? John the Baptist? Anyone freaked out? I wanted to cover all these little kid's eyes... Not a statute you should put on a church but by knowledge of history, listening to commoners never seemed to be a big thing to cross off on their things to do list.
All I gotta say is where is Esmerelda? The Hunchback? Good thing it was free or else I would have demanded my money back. (Jokes.)
Once again, why am I awkwardly bending over? I don't understand what I was thinking. Ah!
Little Luci wanted to be in this picture... check her our mid-bottom of the picture. So cute! She has a blog too... You should check it out: http://memoiresdeparis.blogspot.com/
Sympathy is supposed to drive us to put money in his bowl. It didn't. It did however drive me to snap a picture because the dog was cute. And because this is typical in all parts of Europe. Just trying to tell it as it is.... if you're offended just wait until my naked statue pictures in the louvre. woah buddy stop reading now. we are getting there....
Snapped a picture of an "N" for my little. Lylas.
We had an option of spending 18 euros to walk through the palace of Versailles or spend 0 euros on walking around the "gardens" of Versailles. Free please. This is Michael Goldstein. He is one of the few guys on this trip. I swear we love each other. We fight like brother and sister though. Still lylas him. He has a blog too... It's funny to read his and read mine and see how we are blogging about our experiences over here but they are worlds away completely different. Check it out: http://www.teampatterstein.blogspot.com
Goldie. God love him.
If anyone can guess what we are doing I will pay you 5 bucks. Ok we are being Asians. Because all Asian tourists do this. I'm not being racist I swear. They are just a type of people I've noticed EVERYWHEREEEEEE I go and I can't help but think how funny and different they are from me. Lylas Asians.
Hi mom! I'm having a great time here. Lylam.
After my photo shoot I was feeling a bit tired and unphotogenic (duh, I'm awkward remember?) It's a hard life to live, that of a model at a photo shoot at Versaille in Paris. I'm sure you can imagine.
Clearly, the Asian conversation is not over yet. We noticed this girl who pulled a little stuffed animal out of her bag and would plop it up on random bushes and take pictures of it. So bizarre. How do you explain this? You don't... because you're not Asian and you don't understand. I just take pictures of them taking pictures and call it a day.
I know you shouldn't believe me if I'm ever telling the truth or not but I kid you not... every single statute was covered up. Aint it a beaut?
Just walking along... we spotted her again. So.......
I creep on her and find out she is taking a picture of a cat. So naturally I take a picture of her taking a picture of a cat. What? Again... Don't ask. Just go with it.
In the middle of these "gardens" a gourmet chef is cooking really expensive food you can carry with you around and look at the covered up statutes.
I'm not really sure why but looking back on all my pictures I have creepily taken several of random little boys. I thought this one was cute....
Swan. Guess who I thought of? That's right.... Ludy. He loved swans.
During 20 degree weather in the middle of the Versaille palace gardens of course there would be a guy rowing a boat. This is Europe, guys. Stop questioning the happenings of my life.
Shoe commercial pic.
Artsy shoe commercial pic.
So this is the Louvre. This was a sneak peak into a room where random statutes were being worked on. Before entering the Louvre I really thought I was going to assume my snobby artsy critiquing facade but I just became a little 6 year boy and giggled at every single naked statute I saw. I was so ashamed of myself.
This was my view for about 20 minutes of the Mona Lisa. Perms are not in anymore. Get with it honey.
Mona. She's so great. Kinda small. Hidden behind lots of glass. And it was kinda rude of them to put her on one wall and a masterpiece of a wedding feast (I think) on the other side. It kinda overshadowed her. But nonetheless, I stood there for the amount of time I thought any typical snooty artsy critic would.... turned my head side to side.... squinted at it... rubbed my chin... and then ran off to snap funny pictures of naked statues. Again, very ashamed.
Notice: the race of people snapping pictures. That's right, I just so happened to get behind an Asian field trip. Photos to commence.... obviously.
All snooty critic comments aside, this was my favorite piece of art in the entire Louvre. I loved it. I would love to have it in my home one day. No seriously.... I'm a great barterer. I really really really loved it.
Carissa and I sitting on a bench to study the art. What else would we be doing?
Naked people alert. Yep.... they. are. naked......
Oh yeah this was second place in my book of favorites at the Louvre. It was magnificent. So intricate... So beautiful. Well done painter man's name I cant pronounce or spell even if I tried.
Loved this painting. Came in 3rd place. It reminded me of a mother's love for her child. Very innocent and lovely. Made me miss my family.
Typical.
Ceiling.
Field trip. Naturally.
Oh shoot I forgot her name... I'll edit this post one day and put in her name when I feel like googling it. Anyway, she's naked. And famous. Hurrah.
Normal. Naked man by a tree with a lizard on it. Normal.
Oh little boy, I feel your pain. Epitomized what I was feeling at that moment. (Creepy picture of little boy number 2.)
I got tired of taking pictures of naked statues. So I took a new approach. It was much more entertaining. Little less giggling though on my part.
There was a random hearth in the Louvre that had a big "H" above it.... so I pranced my way over and got a picture. You're welcome family. Representing the Hucks no matter where I go.
This. Freaked. Me. Out. Look close and and you will see a little baby hand in the back of this woman statute. Um what? Ah I don't get it. Art is so weird.
Look at the line into the Louvre. I'm not gonna tell you what the majority ethnicity is in that line. But I bet you can guess.
Ok so we decided to go this cemetery that I had seen in the movie, "Paris Je'Taime." It's all about random happenings all around Paris and this couple goes to this cemetery because the girlfriend wants to see Oscar Wilde's tombstone because he made her laugh. She almost breaks up with boyfriend because she thinks he is too serious. But in a last attempt effort, he says something funny and makes her laugh and I think they get married or something. Yeah so just to preface, that is not what happened to me in this cemetery at all. We walked around and I couldnt decide if it was beautiful or creepy and eerie but I landed with creepy beautiful. I took lots of photos.. hence below and Oscar's tombstone was a fail and was really ugly and had this guy on it with wings... You'll see it in a sec. This is the largest cemetery in the entire world. Probably a lie but my feet believe that false fact. It was so big... I walked for probably 75 miles inside. We also tried to find Edith Piaff and Jim Morrison's grave but after Oscar's we peaced out and found a place to rest our feet.
A member from Pink Floyd is buried here. I think. Rock n Roll n graves n Paris.
As I'm walking around minding my own business, a BLACK CAT walks in front of my path... IN A CEMETERY. Let's not dwell on this any longer.....
Um this entire tombstone is defaced. Apparently lots of people wrote on it long ago because there were rumors that Wilde was gay but then there were lots of lipstick kisses all on it so maybe that was after the rumors and defacement and probably in the hippy era. In case anyone is wondering, I kept my lips to myself.
the movie made it seem much cooler....
Shakespeare bookstore. Apparently Hemingway refers to this bookstore in "The Sun Also Rises" and used to visit here all the time. I have this thing for bookstores.. so I was totally assuming the artsy fartsy art critic facade but for real in a bookstore. It was magical.
Glimpse of our friend's sweet little apartment he so graciously let us borrow.
Even in Paris, I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength. Thanks Awanas for instilling in me little bible verses that I memorized. I didn't read it in French even though I know no one actually thought I did. It's fine.
Ah this bedroom was so lovely. See that little corner over there by that air conditioning unit? Yep... my body slept there in a sleeping bag on the hardwood floor for 3 nights that ever so kindly gripped my back and made me hug the wall. Fond memories. Cheap memories.. so good memories.
Below: making sure the girls wrote a kind message to Cole after I wrote mine. Lead by example... even in Europe.
Love the Paris blog. You had great pictures... Not gonna lie I was a little jealous of yours! But anywho, very good read- you made me wanna go back! lylas Marls : )
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