So pretty much I have had this song stuck in my head since we arrived to the beautiful city of lights: "j'ai deux amours: mon pays et Paris..." which means I have 2 loves: my country and Paris, and that is exactly how I am feeling! The other night when we ran into a little trouble checking into our hotel, I really had an overwhelming moment of missing my mom because I knew she'd be able to figure everything out in an instant. Then that got me going and I ended up having an hour long homesick pity party to myself and missed all my parents, siblings and friends! So yes...you got me to admit it...as much fun as we are having and doing all the fun things we write about, us 4 KARNies still think about home every once and a while and miss it :). But on the other hand..my second love being Paris... I could not be more thrilled to be in the place that I have recurring dreams of returning to and I am here! My two feet are planted on French ground at the moment! How crazy is it that when you look at a map, we are across the Atlantic ocean! It's been quite a crazy thing to wrap my head around haha but anyways...today!
Last night we got home a little late and were all ready for a good nights sleep...but because we all desperately wanted to go to the vintage market, we had to cut our sleeping a little bit short and wake up to go across town to go to that. Of course on our way to the train station, we picked up a couple morning croissants and other french delicacies from our local pâtisserie. We rode the metro (falling asleep on it all the while) to the other end of Paris and walked a little bit to find this "vintage market". Unfortunately, although Riley took us to the right place, the market had changed a little bit. Instead of cool old pins and other vintage knick knacks, there were aisles and stalls full of everything that you would get rid of in a spring cleaning.. Pretty much, it was a huge yard sale haha But it was still a fun experience to not be where the tourists go!...by any means! We did, however, find a little branch of the market that actually was vintage stuff! And we all scored on cool head scarves! Then we took a stop at a local grocery store slash French rite-aid and got some fruit and little snacks to tide us over.
Despite the weather forecast that predicted rain for the whole time that we are here, low and behold, another testament that Heavenly Father is making this the greatest trip ever for us, the sun came out!!! We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go to Versailles today instead of going in the miserable rain! So we hopped on the metro and took a long metro ride to Versailles! We were all put in awe when we saw the huge and glorious castle that Marie Antoinette once lived in and were even more amazed by the vast amount of beautifully maintained gardens there! We walked over to the area where people rent boats and row around, but we rented some bikes and were ready to get some blood pumping in our bodies! Avery and I tandem bike rode and Riley and Nicole went solo. We rode around through the beautiful grounds and loved looking around us and riding through the woods! We were taking pictures as we rode and were trying to capture the essence of the beauty that surrounded us when I heard a squeal, gravel bein moved all over the place, the sound of a metal bike crashing to the ground, a big "AH!", followed by Riley's hysterical laughing! I turned a round and what do I see but a mangled mess of metal, chains, tires, and Riley on the ground!! Hahah no worries parents...no harm no foul! She wasn't hurt a smidge but it was truly so funny!
We pulled ourselves together and continued our journey through the Versailles gardens. After we returned our bikes, we went over to the lake area where everyone was rowing around on their boats and sat on the grass and took a nap. I was cold and felt vulnerable to theft or worse, so I looked like a bafoon (or so I was told slash laughed at by Nicole) when I put on my black jacket, put on the hood with it zipped up all the way with glasses to keep the bright clouds out of my eyes as I slept (naturally because I forgot my sleeping eye mask at the hotel). I had a fabulous nap despite the weirded out looks I received from many, and was woken up I Riley's sweet voice saying "I'm cold, I'm hungry, and it looks like rain! We're leaving!" hahaha all 3 very good reasons that we all agreed on.
We bid Versailles farewell and began our search for some food to fill up our seemingly bottomless stomachs! We found a cute pâtisserie (there's one nearly every 50 yards here) and after a bathroom break, headed back to the hotel for a nap to rejuvenate us 4 zombies. I don't know if it was our "late" night last night or the grey weather, but something got in us all that made us feel like we couldn't even stand anymore! So we had a nice hour and 1/2 nap :). Then it was out on the town again!
We took the metro to the notre dame stop and set out for dinner..a nice and classy French street food dinner. We grabbed paninis and stuffed our faces with gelato from Amarino, which was actually not amazingly good to our dismay..but ya know..dessert is dessert so we enjoyed it!! I can't wait for Italy when we have real italian gelato!! WARNING: we are all coming back 10 pounds heavier!! You think I'm exaggerating...
We then made our way to a nearby jazz club...probably the highlight of my day!!! I am obsessed with jazz music now!!! I couldn't stop my foot from tapping and my head from bobbing to the sound of the jazzy beat and the trumpet trumpeting and the cute french pianist playing! In addition to the amazing vibes that we were enjoying, all of a sudden this couple came onto the dance floor and were professional swing dancers!! The older woman was so French and had little red dancing shoes and was being passed from French man to frenchman being twirled all over the dance floor! It was mesmerizing! I could not stop smiling! It was so fun to take in everything! The music, the atmosphere, the dancing! It was a ball! The band retired for the night after an hour or two and it was our time to do so as well...so after making a quick chocolate stop at a shop called "g", we went back to the hotel and said our evening prayers in our hotel robes :)
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment