Belgium

2 Jours à Paris

So the other day I spent the night at my friend Alison's house and her mom ended up having some extra tickets to Cirque du Soleil in Paris and asked us if we wanted to go. We were obviously up for it, who wouldn't want to go to Paris for an overnight trip to see CDS?

So we took the train down to Paris from Brussels and had a great time. We first headed over to the hostel where me and Alison were staying to drop off our bags. The hostel wasn't amazing but it was about a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower so we were happy about that. We were basically wasted when we got to Paris because we had to wake up so early. So we decided to stop in a cafe and get som caffinated beverages and try to wake up a little.

We spent a good part of the morning trying to get to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were recommended to me by Bailey. When we got there, it was sunny but within about 5 minutes we heard a huge bang of thunder. We looked up and saw the blackest clouds EVER. Within another five minutes it was on us, pouring. We had to stop in the middle of the street and wait under a little legde. When we thought the rain couldn't get any worse, it started hailing. of course, why wouldn't it hail in Paris when we were there? Why wouldn't the clouds follow us from Belgium?

Pauline, Alison's host mom, wanted to do a little shopping because pretty much every store in Europe is having sales right now, so we went to Les Halls and did a little shopping. Then we were right by the Georges Pompidou Center and me and Alison had looked up an exposition we wanted to check out. It was called Les Airs de Paris and it was all about how the city affects life. It had some really cool stuff but considering it was at the modern art museum there were some things that I looked at it and was basically like um.. what? It was definitely worth it though, and especially because me and Alison got in for free. You gotta love being under 18 in Europe while everything is free.

Then we had a quick dinner in a cafe and went to Cirque du Soleil Alegria. It was insane. One of the coolest things ever. People were bending in ways I didn't know it was possible to bend. It was impossible to take your eyes off of it but it was really amazing, it was one of the coolest things ever.

After that Pauline went to her sister's house and me and Alison went up to Sacré Coeur to check out the view. I have to admit i was upset when the rain first came but by night it had stopped and it had cleared up all the pollution so we had the most beautiful view of Paris. It was amazing. We took the last metro back to the hostel and pretty much past out on our beds.

We had to wake up semi-early to go pick up Kirsten at Gare Du Nord and us, being smart said ya know what, let's leave our bags in a locker there so we don't have to go back to the hostel later or anything. So after that we tried to go to the Louvre but found out it's closed on Tuesdays when we thought it was closed on Monday. I wasn't too upset about it though, I'd already been there twice.

So we went over to the catacombs of Paris. I really recommend going there, it's a little off the beaten path, and it's really cheap. It only cost 3.50 to get in and it's great. We ended up talking to some French guy in line and we became friends and once we got down in there he knew like everything about it. It was nuts. He told us everything about everything, I don't know how he knew so much, it was like having a free tour guide. So to explain the catacombs, in the 1700's there were a lot of diseases going around Paris because of improper burials so close to ground, so they took a bunch of the bodies and put them underground in the catacombs.. that and they needed the space from cemetaries for building new things.. Anyway, it is insane. I thought it would be really cool and I would enjoy it the whole time but once i got down there and I was that close to REAL human bones like that.. I started freaking out. I think this was the point in my life when I decided I cannot do anything medical. What was really interesting was they had a bunch of realy morbid saying ingraved everywhere, like my favorite was at the entrance, it said "Arretez, ici, c'est la mort" or in English, Stop, Death is here.

After that we went to another cafe and people watched for a little bit. Then we went to the Saint Sulpice chapel (think Da Vinci Code) and saw the original Rose Line. I actually liked that chapel a whole lot better than Notre Dame. It's true that if you're in Paris, seeing ND is a must but after seeing it once, it's kinda like ok now that's done with..

By then it was late afternoon so we went to the Trocodaro to just hang out, people watch and look at the Eiffel Tower. We grabbed some sandwiches for dinner and ate watching the elevator go up and down and the clouds move around, just chilling mostly. We got up cuz we had to get to our train and started to walk down the Troc but eveything was fenced off. We were confused so we asked a cop guarding and he said that they were preparing fireworks for the national holiday and we had to go all the way around on a 20 mintue walk. Then Kirsten had to go to the bathroom so we waited in line for it at the bottom of the tower.

After that we basically had to truck it to the nearest RER station (for those who don't know the RER is a train, bigger than the metro, smaller than international) so we got on the train and we had a couple stops to go and I was realy stressing about time. We had to change and there were these giant sets of stairs that i basically sprinted down and in the process my camera fell out. At first I freaked out cuz he's brand new but I picked it up and turned it on and it worked so I took off running again. We finally got to Gare Du Nord and we had a little more than 10 minutes to get on the train and I sprinted all the way across the gare, which is one of the most confusing things ever. I finally got over to the lockers to get our stuff and I had to walk though security and I beeped and I had to get wanded which only stressed me out more.

I had a little trouble with the lockers but finally got it open, i had no idea where Kirsten or Alison were so I grabbed both bags and Alison's happened to be open and when I started running again, some stuff fell out and the security guard called me back and all I saw was a notebook and some random Paris brochures so I picked them up and ran again. I got up for the platform where our train was supposed to be and found the girls. Then we tried to get on and realized we didn't have our tickets so we started tearing Alison's bag apart and didn't find them so I asked the nearest train worker if they could wait 2 min for us and she told me to ask the manager and told me which one he was and I asked Kirsten to ask him while I ran back down to the lockers to try to find the tickets. I see Kirsten run straight past him so I run over and ask if they could wait and he says no. By this time I have 2 minutes until the train leaves. I sprinted back down to the lockers and found the tickets on the ground and ran back up and started yelling at Alison that I had to tickets and to pick everything up. She had torn apart her bag looking for them and her clothes were all over the platform, so I grabbed a huge armful of clothes and she took our two bags and we ran to the nearest door but the woman said we couldn't get on there cuz it was first class. We ran one more door down and the whistle was blowing and we begged the man to let us on even tho it was still first class and thankfully he did. Once I got on the train I basically passed out.

I still had the adrenaline in me after we got on the train and we finaly found Kirsten and Pauline so we started telling Pauline about our day, cuz she went off on her own. We tried to explain the catacombs to her but she didn't really understand and I said I had pictures. I took my camera out but none of the pictures were there and that's when I figured out that my card had fallen out when it fell down the stairs. That was just the straw that broke the camel's back and I broke down and started crying. And that is why there are no Paris pictures.

COMING HOME IN 5 DAYS!!

Bisous,
Chelsea

posted by Chelsea @ 12:51 PM