Paris, Paris, Paris. What a wonderful city.
When we first arrived, we met up with Naomi’s friend Ziyi, an extremely smart law student. I call her the Human Encyclopedia because she knows everything! We went to the Eiffel Tower, where Sophie and I had a baguette battle in the Parc Champs de Mars. I then started my long awaited macaron crawl. Our first stop was at Fauchon. The café was pink and girly. I thought it was very “Sex and the City”. The macarons were okay, a bit expensive because we sat down. We actually wanted to start the crawl at Laduree, but we sort of lost our way in the city. We ended up finding Laduree and it was packed; seriously packed. The macarons at Laduree were good. In my opinion, they were better than Fauchon’s. I really wanted to go to Pierre Herme, but we were tired and Ziyi had class. So we went back to the hostel to rest and to get ready to celebrate my birthday.
Celebrating my 21st birthday in Paris was a dream true. On that night, Naomi had made reservations at Je the…me, a cozy French restaurant. When I walked into the restaurant, Naomi had surprised me with Sophie, Pat and Georgia sitting at the table ready to celebrate! I was shock to see Pat and Georgia because it was so unexpected. I had not seen Pat and Georgia for the past few days. They had suddenly disappeared from Juan-les-pins and told no one where they were (but clearly they had told Naomi). The meal was delicious and the owner informed all the guests of my birthday and everyone sang for me as the owner walked out of the kitchen with a crème brulee with a candle on top. It was so cute! I was very happy. After dinner, I had planned to join a friend from Montreal at the Financier Pub. However, when we arrived there, it was packed as it was student night. So we ended up heading to Saint-Michel and hanged at the Great Canadian Pub.
The next morning, we walked around Paris. We visited the Quartier Latin and saw the Pantheon, which is beautiful. I was greatly disappointed by the Jardins de Luembourg because it was so grey. However it’s winter so it’s totally understandable. Ziyi who was supposed to meet us at 11 AM didn’t show up. She had just arrived in Paris and had no mobile phone, so we had no way to reach her. Since, we knew she stayed out late, Naomi and I figured she might be still sleeping. By 3 PM, we started to hunt Ziyi down as we still didn’t hear anything from her. We were worried that something might have happened, but she just slept through her alarm. With Ziyi, we want back to Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. Everywhere we went, it was full of Asian tourists! They were mostly Japanese and Chinese. They were so many that in both department stores, a big portion of employees are Asians who speak Japansese and C hinese. I fell in love in the shoe department of Galeries Lafayette. I saw these nude patent leather MIU MIU high heels. They were so beautiful! I really want them! But in true luxury fashion, they were quite expensive. After all the shopping, we went to this amazing restaurant called Frenchie. It was DELICIOUS. The meal cost me close to $70 CND, but it was worth every penny. Everything was beyond delicious! It was hands down one of the best meals I had in Paris.
After dinner, we decided to visit the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc is gorgeous at night with the lighting. We went up and had an amazing view of the Champs Elyses. We ended the night walking along the Champs Elyses, while singing Joe Dassin’s “Champs Elyses”. I had a great evening, despite the Parisian cold.
February 20: last day in Paris. We woke up early, and it was raining. Luckily, we had planned to visit the Louvre. That morning, we woke up and our roommate came up to us and introduced herself. Her name was Nanako and she was from Japan. Nanako is a spring break, and she and her friend Yuma took this opportunity to go to Berlin for a month to learn German. Both of them attend Waseda University and study and law and cinema, respectively. I, who had considered doing my exchange at Waseda and Keio University in Japan was really excited to meet Japanese students. Since both Nanako and Yuma intended to visit the Louvre as well, Naomi and I invited them to tag along. While waiting for Ziyi at the metro station, Nanako and Yuma informed us that they are part of the choir club at their university. Of course, Naomi and I made then sing for us. It was magical! Their voice was beautiful! Nanako had a soft soprano voice, while Yuma had a smooth bass voice. They were such great singers!
After the Louvre, we went back to Galeries Lafayette and finally went to Pierre Herme. After the long day of walk, we went back to the hostel and tasted the macarons. It was heaven. Pierre Herme’s macarons were amazing! The flavour, tasted and texture were flawless. It was a great way to spend our last night in the city of lights. Later that night, Nanako and Yuma came back from the opera. Since both of them are not Facebook users, we initiated them to Facebook in order to stay in touch. The night ended with all me, Nao, Zi, Nanako and Yuma singing in the hostel room.
In the early morning of February 21, Naomi and I had to leave Paris for Brussels. I fell in love with Paris, and I wasn’t looking forward to leave; especially after meeting such amazing new friends. We had breakfast, packed and sadly said our goodbyes to Nanako and Yuma. I was so sad. I really wanted to spend more time with them. They were so kind and fun to be around with. I am going to miss them. But thank god for Facebook. At least I’ll be able to stay in touch. Hopefully, I will be able to visit them in Tokyo one day.
I am now in Amsterdam, where it is freezing cold! You would think a Canadian such as myself wouldn’t have too much of a hard time spending time in the cold weather. But Amsterdam is so humid that is the cold gets to your bones! It’s not like the Canadian cold. The same thing goes for Brussels, it was freezing! At least Brussels had AMAZING waffles!
*Pictures will be posted soon!*
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