It's always been my dream vacation to go to Paris, France. Well, guess what? My dream came true! Whoopee! Directly from Finland, my family went there this summer for 5 nights. (To read about Finland 09, click here.)
We flew directly from Finland to Paris, and we took a shuttle bus thingy to our apartment. Ours is on the very top, the 7th floor (or the french people call the 6th floor- they don't count the ground floor) and there isn't an elevator. So we had to climb 114 steps up to our apartment, while carrying 5 suitcases and a backpack. That's a lot of work. We were all out of breath when we finally got to our apartment. It was nice- 2 bedrooms, 5 people, 1 bathroom, nice and small. Small but cozy. We just dumped our suitcases and made our way back down stairs (which was much better than going up) and made our way to our boat tour on the Seine River. It was a great way to start your trip in Paris- getting a quick glance at several of the landmarks (including the Eiffel Tower!)
Afterward, we walked over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It's really quite amazing in there. Very quite, and it's dim lighting in there, too. They have little trays of candles everywhere, and even little tea candles that you can simple light it yourself and put in on a tray. (My mom decided to do that, but I am just super scared of fire. The first time I tried to light some candles for the dinner table, I was doing just fine- until I blew it out. Apparently, I had just pulled the match to close and the flame got on my HAIR! My mom completely freaked out and put it out in a couple seconds. To this day I still am frightened of fire. I've never lit a match since then- and that was about 2 or 3 years ago. ANYWAY...) You should have seen the stain glass in there. Some was extremely colorful and detailed and every nook and cranny of the stain glass window was full of beauty. Others didn't have as much color, but they were still just so gorgeous. Our camera makes this beeeeeep 'ch-click' sound whenever it takes a picture. I was hearing that sound literally, every 5 seconds. Why would they make the camera make such a noise every time?
Close up detail on the Nortre Dame:
Our apartment is walking distance to many convenient stores, like shopping markets and bakeries and all that jazz. So we went over to this local super market and went shopping for dinner- and breakfast, while we're at it. My parents picked up a pack of vanilla pudding, thinking it was this organic yogurt of some sort. Yogurt, pudding, same thing!! We also got chocolate croissant Mmmm!! French food is so mouthwatering.
The next day was probably my favorite day in Paris, out of all of them. Today was the day that we had a bike tour! We woke up kind of early, and took the train down to this little place called Fat Tire Bike Tours. I know that that is the company name and all, but why would they call it that? I looked at all the bikes. None of the bikes looked like they had 'fat' tires to me. Weird. We were in the second group leaving that morning. Inside the little place was lots of post cards, shirts, buttons and magnets all advertising Fat Tire Bike Tours. They had TONS of water. Everywhere. Anyway, our bike tour was headed to Versailles (pronounced as if it was spelled VerSIGH). That was pretty far from the Fat Tire Bike Tour station, so part of our trip involved taking 30 bikes on the subway train. More about that when the time comes.
We kicked off our ride about 20 minutes after we got to the little station place. Get this: bike riders can ride on the streets! Like, there's a separate lane for Bus's, Taxi's, and Bikes! Sweet! I gotta say, though, it was a bit weird biking with some cars. The roads of Paris were a little bumpy, plus my seat wasn't very comfortable. It felt great, though, just to be biking again. I haven't biked in a while, since my bike at home has a flat tire... it's been like that for a couple months... I'm a tad lazy, okay? It felt great to be moving in the groove. Plus, in Paris, you don't need to wear helmets! I love this place. Now, finally, I can show a fashion statement without having this huge helmet on my head and having to take out my pony tale and having my hair down. (I don't know about you, but I don't really like having my hair down. Too distracting! I don't have time to flip it back and clip it back and comb it back and make sure it stays that way, so I do the easy thing. Hair goes up. No hair flipping, no hair clipping, no hair combing, it stays nice and neat all day.) Back on subject, I loved biking in a huge herd. It was also safer that way. People stop for you, and they wait for a few minutes while we rampage on down the streets, having intimidating faces on, showing how tough we are. After about a half an hour of cruising through the streets, showing my hair style with no bulky helmet in the way, (Did I mention that it's impossible to put a helmet on with a ponytail?? I hate that!) we got to the train station. We took this special purple line, for luggage and big things or something. Alright! Cramming 30 bikes on a subway train! It was just so hilarious.
They had the bungee chords wrapped around them, strapped to the little poles you're supposed to use to hold on to if the train gets too crowded. Then we all hauled out the bikes on our stop, trying to hurry up. Then we walked our bikes town to the place were it was safe to ride them again, and we formed into a stampede of bike riders once again. Cruising in the streets, drinking water, cool sports looks on our faces, we were awesome.
It was just the perfect day for this. Of course, I had my camera with me. Never go out in Paris without a cool fashion, a nice hair do, and a camera. The 3 requirements of Paris. (Unless you are a tourist.) But you know what? I like showing my style and at least trying to fit in. My first day I had on a lime green frilly top with a pretty plain white shirt under it, with khaki looking shorts, complete with braided hair and beautiful face. I looked so elegant. Nah, I'm not a girly sweet girly girl, nor a tomboy, and yes, I've mentioned this before. I am me, the one and only spectacular Sonja W. Heels. P.S. You'll never guess what my middle name is.
After the whole subway thing, we cruised around for a little while, then we parked all of our bikes to these poles. Time for lunch! We parked our bikes on the poles that are like, in the middle of the super market. Our tour guide was all, 'Cheeses- that-a-way. Bakery is over there, meats are over in that corner, and fruits and things are all over there. And if you ever get the feeling that you are getting too much, what is the answer?!!?!' and we are all shouting 'NO!!!' We disperse. I noticed that a large amount of people was heading over to the bakery. You just can't get enough sweets in Paris.
I got a little bread wrap thing that had lettuce, ham.. that's all I know. The rest was a wonderful delicious mystery. I also got my favorite Paris treat- a chocolate croissant. What I love about them is that the chocolate is like, semi-melted in the croissant, but it's not completely melted. When you take a bite, it just melts completely in your mouth. Yummy! I tried this french soda, Orangina, and I didn't quite like it, even though it came in the most adorable little glass bottle. I'm like trying to get used to getting soda in these glass bottles, rather than our usual American plastic bottles, and the cans. Anyway, I got my #1 favorite drink, Fanta. So did my brother. I was determined to get some fruit of some sort, because just the way they display it in front of you in the markets makes you just want to grab a handful and shove it in your mouth. Good luck running around town with angry French peeps on your tail.
We all got our stuff, and met back at the bikes a while later. We packed everything in our backpacks and purses and things so we could ride to a better place to have a sweet, sweet picnic by a canal. On our way to Versailles, we learned a lot about France's history, and all about the many Louis. (Over 15 Louis!!)
We finally got to the canal for our amazing picnic. Here's when the most hilarious thing happened. So we're all getting comfy in the shade of the huge trees by the canal, and we're all taking out our food. The French bees soon realize that we're eating food, so they come swarming around everyone, as if to ask, 'Hey! Hey, dude, can I like nibble on this?' I get so freaked out by bees. My brother, Ben, got a funny idea and took my little triangular sandwich container (which was empty) and caught a bee in there! We were shaking it up and down, showing the bee a little piece of our mind and what we think of them. My parents bought a couple bottles of white wine for the picnic, and lots of fruit like strawberries and stuff. So what we did is we took a strawberry, and pored a tiny bit of white wine in the the little hole on the top of the strawberry, and then we carefully opened the little plastic sandwich container and threw in the strawberry with wine inside. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but it was a very hot day, so the bees went crazy in there because of the heat, and the strawberry turned all soggy. Later, when the bees investigated the strawberry, one was like- flying up side down looking awfully weird, and the other one was just lying there next to the strawberry, twitching, as if he was saying, 'This strawberry is too much for me!!!!' My gosh, it was just so hilarious to watch. Had to be there.
We continued our bike trip to Versailles, and once we got there, the tour guide let us 'free' and go about were we please for the next 2 or 3 hours. A few of us had to go to the bathroom, so we got in line. A VERY, very long line. That took a little bit. Then we traveled inside and just gazed at all of the detail on the walls and, well, everywhere! The whole thing was just down right fancy. Too fancy, if you ask me. I would hate to live in such a fancy, huge place like it, especially with the hall of many mirrors. Although I just loved the flower gardens and fountains that were outside of the way too fancy building.
We all met back outside the gates to Versailles, and we were back together and on the go. We learned a whole bunch about the many Louis, etc. It was a long ride home (back to the Fat Tire Bike Tours station) but yet again we took the subway with the bikes and all of our bikes. It felt like such a great workout day, and it was so beautiful. (The only bad part was people kept littering everywhere when there are public trashcans everywhere!!)
Once we got back to the station, we seemed all exhausted. My butt killed like heck. Everyone had the big adult bikes with super soft, ultra squishy bike seats, when I was on a mountain bike with an extremely uncomfortable seat that should not have been sat on for more than a half an hour. Unfortunately, I sat on it for a much longer time period that that!! OUCH!!!
That was obviously our 'trip' for the day. We all collapsed on our beds, and it was worse for me, unfortunately for my behind, it still hurt. I don't want to go into details, and I'm sure you can understand. The pain wore off a couple days later. I got used to it.
That very night we went out to eat, and we hunted for good spots until we came to this cute restaurant on the corner, and we asked (in French of course) if they had room for 5. They had a reservation that was due 15 minutes ago for a group of 6, but clearly they hadn't shown up, so they let us take their spot. Good decision on their part. (And our part! The food was outstanding!) Dad shared a whole bunch of Air Force stories from his early life, talking about they're training, how badly they'd screwed up, oh my gosh it was so funny stuff.
As you can imagine after a day of biking, you would probably want to sleep in. Sleep in we did. Today we were planning on going to the Louvre by 11:00. That place is HUGE. Like, really huge. It would take--- (I don't want to do long boring calculations, but to get to the point,) a long time to see every painting in the whole museum. A lot of the paintings were slightly awkward for an 11 year old to be seeing, but that's okay. We saw the painting of the background of one of Coldplay's albums. (The one with Viva La Vida in it.)
No offense to the French paintings, but I got pretty bored after a little while, and thankfully, so did everyone else. Out we go. We took a stroll over to the Pompidou modern art museum. My family doesn't necessarily like modern art (or at least the majority of it) because the reason we came over to the Pompidou is to get our caricatures done. Dad told me that there are always artists hanging out outside drawing caricatures. Ben and my Mum went first, with two different artists. Ben decided to get a ''funny'' one, rather than a regular portrait. Mum I believe got a regular one. Boy did Ben look funny on his one. It looked nothing like him (except the hair and maybe the big nose?) my dad went next for the dude that did Ben. Sam went after Mum, with the different guy. I think Sam got a ''funny'' one because I saw his and he had a toothpick of a neck and the classic silly big nose. Dad, however, got a normal one. Good choice. His took a while, and I got a bit bored. My solution? Shopping. I asked mum for a couple of Euros to spend over at the store nearby. Wondering off I go. Wow, do they have a whole lot of Paris souvenirs! I got a key chain for my backpack. Classic, I know. They were cute. If you're like me, you just can't resist anything cute.
I went last, after dad, and I decided to get a normal one. Why? I don't want to see myself with the unusually large nose, forehead, and the strange teeth. I want to see me. Just me. I like it that way. Turns out mine came out a lot like me. It looked pretty much exactly like me, only the drawing made me seem more... petite in a way, I guess you would call it. I WILL (and I really mean it) scan the caricature for you all to see, but at this very moment that I type, it is packed away in boxes somewhere at my dads place. He hasn't unpacked everything yet.
During the whole charicature thing, a street performer was performing very impresive tricks. He had these two poles (same kind of set up as the two ends of a swing set) and then a bunjy like chord attaching the two poles. He was walking on the what-seemed-to-be-a-bunjy-chord, and he lied down on it, jumped on it, and it was just so incredible. I had to give him great credit. While we were getting our charicatures done, I could see him putting away his poles and other things. About 30 minutes later, he came back, set up, and the crowd of people increased very fast. I'm assuming that about 1/4 of the new crowd had seen the previous act (same thing) but simply wanted to see it once more. I wanted to watch it again, but the rest of us wanted to go back to the appartment so we could get to the Eiffel Tower.
To the Eiffel Tower we go! You just really can't appreciate the structure until you're standing right under it. Which is where we were for the longest wait in the universe until finally we got our tickets, stamps, blah blah blah to get in. For the heck of it, and mainly just so we could say that we did, we took the steps as high as possible. I was extremely confident that I could just run up the whole thing like a small hill. BWAA!! You're exhausted after like.... I don't know, why the heck would I be keeping track... let's just say MANY flights of stairs and you just can't believe about a minute ago, you were totally ready for action. Boy does that feel weird. Of course, like all tourists should, I had my camera with me with extra batteries, and was taking pics every 5 seconds. You know how digital cameras make those little *beep-beep! sounds whenever they take a pic? I could tell people were getting annoyed by it. Away the camera goes.
Apparently, you can only climb steps until you are on the second floor, the one right below the tipitty top. When you are on that level, you have no choice but to take the small elevator. So now I can say that I climbed the Eiffel Tower as high as you can legally. (I saw little steps going up to the top, but they weren't like the ones we'd been using. I figured they were for security guards of some sort.)
Everywhere we went, like literally, every 6 or 7 feet, this guy would come up with this huge ring and who knows how many little Eiffel Tower key chains dangling from it, and he's just like, 'Ya ya you wanna key chain?" And we'd just politely shake our heads no, and walk away. Eventually, we came to one and bought the most expensive one ($7, and it lit up.) and from then on, whenever a dude came up to us, we'd be like pointing to the light up one, and they're just like, 'Ya ya you wanna 'nother one??" They really just don't give up. Whatever. We get a lit up mini Eiffel Tower! Woohoo!
You just need to see Paris, France from the top of the Eiffel Tower in order to really capture your experience. You can totally notice where the pompidou is, because you look out- all you see is gray buildings, black roads, white cars, etc. All of a sudden, this big blue splash of color splats right there. It really does stand out.
The next day was all about the L'arc de Triomphe. Same sort of set up as the Eiffel Tower, as far as steps. A nice, big, spiral staircase to the top. You can also stand on the roof, outside. The only difference with the steps is that they are spiral, and they are much shorter. Classic souvenir shop was right inside on the top, on the floor right below the top where you are standing outside.
A seriously bad translation was made on this sign. It was really supposed to mean something in the range of 'passage blocked' or 'no exit'. And we're all just like, "No way!!" Cracking up. We just had to get a pic.
The rest of the day was spent shopping, souvenirs, mailing postcards, the classic tourist stuff. Because seriously, it's Paris. Who doesn't love it?? It's got everything. Amazing food, sweet fashions, and the place is so popular in the world. I got a hot pink dress with serious ruffles. WOAH that would look so chic (I love that word CHIC!!) on me! Just a final touch of sunglasses (if I could just convince my parents to get a pair of sunglasses, and that there really is no difference between my clip-ons and regular sunglasses) and white heels. Gosh, I just love fashion. Paris is so me. :) I also got 2 pairs of earrings. They really have sweet earrings.
Sadly, our beautiful Paris trip was coming to an end, and it was soon time to fly back to Boston. We had totally had our fun, and like my dad says (every single time we go on a trip) "It's good to leave, and it's good to come back." I was actually really excited to get home, because I could finally get started on my blog post on Paris. Hope you liked it. I know I loved the trip. It was my dream vacation, after all.
