An American in Paris

So after a hair-raising disaster of canceled flights and trains, terrible weather, and an emergency bus ride to Glasgow, I finally (finally!) made it to PARIS, FRANCE to meet Sarah and Jacob!!!!!!! We had been planning this since the beginning of the semester, so it was ABOUT DAMN TIME. I got into Paris proper around 9:00 Saturday night, and I tell you - I have never been happier to see anyone in my life than I was to see those guys.  I was so happy to be in PARIS (it must always be referred to in capital letters) that I immediately forgot all of the travel hell that it had taken to get me there.

Anyhoos, since I wasn't able to get there until Saturday night, that left me with really only one full day in Paris before Jacob and I were supposed to fly back to Prague on Monday morning. This was unfortunate, but not to be helped, so Operation: Take Full Advantage of the Time You Have in Paris was instigated in full effect. Time was not wasted. Within ten minutes of getting off the bus from the Beauvais airport (and snarfing down the delicious pain-au-chocolat Sarah brought for me), we were walking around the streets of Paris, which let me tell you are absolutely gorgeous, most especially at nighttime. We would be walking along a beautiful stone bridge over the Seine, the streetlights would be reflecting in the water, I would look up....and see a world-famous Parisian landmark like, say, I dunno, THE EIFFEL TOWER or NOTRE DAME or THE LOUVRE. You know. Nbd. Actually BFD.

So after a nighttime wander through Paris, a delicious (and marvelously inexpensive) dinner at a wonderfully atmospheric cafe in Saint-Michel, and a soujourn up the Champs-Elysees through the Parisian Christmas markets to the Arc de Triomphe, we split up and Jacob and I went back to our hostel in Montmartre to prepare for the intsense, crash course of Paris that was in store for us on Sunday.

See the next post for Sarah Senter's Crash Guide to Paris 101, since this post would have been obscenely long had I included it..

Also, pictures are to come once I get back to Edinburgh - I forgot to bring the cord that connects my camera to a laptop, so they have to stay on my camera until next week. Apologies, but they'll be worth the wait! Until then, enjoy these videos of one of my favorite movies - rest assured that this is what actually happened. Gershwin and hordes of French children and all.

An American in Paris, Example 1

An American in Paris, Example 2

An American in Paris, Example 3