Adventures of a TwentySomething

Paris & Nurlu

I made it! I arrived in Paris on Monday morning and spent three hours wandering the city with my backpack, fairly lost, sweaty and trying to kill time before I could check into my hotel room - an adventurous and overwhelming start to the trip. I decided to only stay in Paris for three days/nights and took the train yesterday out to Nurlu, where I am staying with the Baughmans, a wonderful family (thanks Amy!).

Paris was good after a night's sleep and some food - it rained and was pretty cloudy, but it was the perfect weather to hoof around the city. The first day, I went to the Musee D'Orsay, then walked to the Eiffel Tower and back on the other side of the river to Arch D'Triumphe, down Champs Elysses and back to the front of the Louvre. I took some pictures, tried not to get lost (surprisingly not too hard!) and then went and bought myself the most delicious looking chocolate/eclair dessert thing I could find and took it and ate it while watching the sun set over the Tuilleries Gardens, Louvre, and Eiffel Tower. The next day I went and visited all the big/famous cathedrals, randomly bought a ticket to the most amazing concert (in St. Chappelle at sunset, Vilvadi performed by a 6-person string ensemble - amazing!), and had a really late dinner in a cafe near my hotel. I joined the locals in watching the Barcelona/Manchester game while I ate my roasted chicken and strawberry tartlet.

Yesterday morning I checked out of my hotel and lugged my pack to the Metro station, where I took a bunch of metro trains to get to the train station, stood in two wrong lines, then stood in the right line for an hour and finally made it to the platform with time to spare. I got settled in and enjoyed the hour and a half ride out to St Quentin (actually, I would have enjoyed it more, but the train worker would not let me put my feet up on the seat - I got a mini-lecture in French... oops.). Abbie and Morgan picked my up at the train station and we ventured back to their house - 'ventured' because Abbie goes to school in the States and hasn't been back to France in 3 years, so it was her first time back driving and navigating... quite fun.

There are lots of little kids here and I've made fast play buddies with the little ones. There are about 14 of us here now and another 5 arrive tomorrow - a full house for sure! Should be fun! Love you all and hope you are having a great Friday!

posted by KacieAnne @ 7:24 AM