To Paris...

My last night in Barcelona was low key. I went out around midnight, since that’s the way the Spaniards do it, and I ended up just walking around, watching the scene since I didn’t feel like drinking. I headed home rather early and watched “My Left Foot”- AMAZING and went to bed; I had to leave the next morning for Paris.

At the airport I was thrilled to hear that EasyJet wasn’t limiting luggage weight- or at least wasn’t checking it, so I LOADED UP my checked bag and made my way to the gate. I was tempted to have one last tortilla sandwich, but held out for the plane. Why again? Why did I think it would be better to pay 5 euro for some peanuts and olives than eat a cheapo deelish sandwich??? Yeah, you tell me. At least the olives were marinated...

Once I landed I went to buy a bus ticket to city center and I handed the guy 10 cents worth of 1 and 2 cent pieces. He told me, “Uh, I prefer a 10 cent” and I’m like, “Yeah, I don’t want these either...” But then I remembered, it’s France and you have to just surrender to their attitude because they have really perfected it. “Of course, here you go.” I say, and I lost, and I just went out to the bus. It smelled really bad on there...

I caught a cab to the hotel and of course the cabbie (who drove a Mercedes and wore a pinstripe suit and some FAB cologne) was upset that I only had a 50. He asked me to go into the hotel or a restaurant to try and change it- OH Paris!

My dad arrived within 5 of me being there and we set out to see a bit of the city before dinner. We grabbed a croissant and a chocolate chip brioche, you know, to spoil dinner, and sat in a park. It was the whole idyllic French scene with dads and children playing football and people with baguettes walking about and lovers kissing and musicians toting instruments to their nightly gigs and the sun setting as beautiful streetlights flash on and the fountain bubbling in the center....

Dinner is a few blocks away and the place was slammed from the moment they started serving dinner at 8 o’clock. We ordered a spinach salad with goat cheese to start and I had duck, my dad had steak. We strolled around and ate some more- I had a gaufre, which is like a waffle, with Nutella and banana, my dad had a chocolate crepe with Grand Marnier. I have not eaten like this for my whole trip, but GOD- Paris is the place to indulge!!

I went to sleep so full I had to lie on my side and only woke up in time to eat. AGAIN! We had another fab meal- salad with Camembert (a whole wheel of it!), steak tartare for me and onion soup for my dad. Jesus, I can’t believe I ate all that! Then we went on a cruise of the river, which conveniently passes by most of the landmarks of Paris. I snapped some photos, but the real highlight of the cruise was this jackass up front.

He’s somebody’s dad or something, so I don’t want to be too harsh, but this guy is FRONT AND CENTER, standing up THE WHOLE TIME! Every time I wanted some wide shot of the cityscape, it turns out to be a picture of a guy on a boat, and you lose the whole image! I kept thinking, “If this was New York, this would NOT fly!” I know some rough Italian guy with gelled hair and a gold chain would be all, “HEY! Down in front! My kid can’t see!” Or something like that. If only I had the nerve! Instead I BLOG about it. Wow...

After the cruise, what did we do? EAT! Ice cream from this charming little shop with HUGE portions, especially for France, which is JUST what I needed. Then we headed home and straight to the Thalys train. Ok, this is where it gets DISGUSTING! Since we booked pretty late, only first class tickets were available, so it was ALL YOU CAN EAT/DRINK! And yeah, even after all the indulgence from the night before I partaked. Partook. Partaketh- I did it all! YUM YUM YUM! VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!

-H*

Pics from Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146589&l=1cc9d&id=22001348