07 June 2012

Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart!*

*yes, I have had this scene from Anastasia on repeat in my mind all week.

Threes were the theme of our visit to Paris.

We took three bike tours. Three. Now, I am not a bike tourist, but I did my best. The first was a day tour of the city, hitting most of the highlights and big sights. The second was a tour of the grounds and gardens of Versailles, and by far my favorite despite the chilly/drizzly weather. After biking along wide paths through the grounds and we got to stop alongside the channel for a picnic. An Australian shared her nougat with us and a Pittsburghian told me the best way to learn French was to get a French boyfriend. (By this logic, the best way to learn emag is to get an electromagnetic boyfriend. Hit me up, all you electrifying fella's.) The third tour was a night tour, meaning we were navigating the streets of Paris during the busiest time for both motor and pedestrian traffic. On bikes. In a herd of people (mainly flight attendants). All in yellow vests. Except me, who for some unknown reason was given an orange vest. This was not my favorite, but I did it. I bike toured thrice in three days. And patted myself on the back and bought a Fat Tire Bike Tours cap to congratulate myself. Huzzah!

I went three times to art museums. Our first night (Friday) the Louvre was open late, so my parents and I went for a preliminary walk through. This ended up being one of our best ideas, since the crowds around the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and other bigshots were nowhere near what they were like when we went back Monday morning. And since we had already checked those off the list on Friday night, we got to spend our visit on Monday morning in the less crowded wings where we saw the Lacemaker and Hammurabi's Code. (Call me crazy, but I was jump-up-and-down excited to see Hammurabi's Code whereas the rest of my family took it like champs. I credit Mrs. Marler.) Double the Louvre, double the love. Visit number three was to Musee L'Orsay, where Impressionists and others are displayed in an old train station. Saw some Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and my favorite, Degas. Pretty dang cool.

We had glaces from three different shops. One was a sidewalk stand on Rue Cler - our home base. I got chocolate and berry cheesecake. The next was another cafe on Rue Cler (that ended up being a chain, but what evs, they made the ice cream look like flowers in the cone). I got chocolate and nutella. The third was during our night bike tour - definitely the highlight of the tour - from a little cafe near the neighborhood where Johnny Depp either lived or lives. I got Cacoa Intense 65% Noir (uhh - yum) and the inevitable mis-order. Mirabelle. It sounded so lovely, but ended up being a sort of peach sorbet. That's not ice cream, y'all. So I ate the chocolate scoop off the top and gave the rest to my mom.

I ordered three drinks from three different Starbucks on three different days in order to utilize their free wifi to check Twitter (a must) and avert crisis, aka, buy Feast For Crows after finishing Storm of Swords. Earl Grey, caffe latte, caffe noir, if you were wondering.

Brandon asked me three times where I got my sweater vest. It's from the Gap.

And of course other things happened that weren't in threes. Such as seeing the Eiffel Tower, buying pants when my legs were cold, eating lots of chocolate, buying corkscrews double the cost of wine, eating lots of bread, strolling through gardens, browsing street markets, many metros, sibling Game of Thrones reading siestas, and the like.

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