Paris mon amour

We arrived in Paris via bus from Amsterdam.  My first impression was that it wasn't as clean and fashionable as what I usually see in photos.  Why did Amelie look so safe as she was waiting for her train in Abbesses? For a while, I thought I'd been fooled.

View of Paris from the top of Arc de Triomphe 

Ahhh, Paris on a gloomy day. This was Museum Day and I was at the top floor of the Pompidou.

We did a DIY Before Sunset trail and of course, we had to stop here. I came back the next day.

Do you remember that Amelie scene in this station?

But after lugging our bags through five flights of stairs and checking into our Airbnb, it instantly occurred to me that in a parallel universe, maybe I was a French girl! Our BNB was owned by a lady our age. She was renting it out for a few weeks because she was backpacking in Tibet (she became my instant girl crush when she said Tibet). She had wavy hair that she tossed in a messy bun. Her face was bare with just gloss on her lips. I couldn't tell if she worked out but looking at her bookshelf, she loved to go to places with mountains so I assumed that she liked to hike or at least, walk - a lot. Our apartment was the typical French apartment that I'd see in movies - wooden floors, big windows, no TV, with lots of books, lots of herbs. During sunset, hues of gold would peep through the windows and we'd head out to the balcony and wait for the sky to turn pink while we drink our Bordeaux (because that's what French girls do in the books that I read, LOL!!!).

Our small balcony - so pretty! I loved watching the sunset from this spot. It was summer so the view was perfect. Can you see the plants? Zoom in some more and I'll leave it to you to figure out what they are.

Versailles - look at the ceiling? 

This was my favorite in Pompidou. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because of relatability? I like a piece of art when I feel something.  I think this made me feel something?

We spent the first two days hopping from one museum to another. First stop, of course, was the Louvre, which was humongous. Personally, I'm not so much into classical art so the only thing that I was excited about was the Mona Lisa.

I was able to appreciate the Pompidou. It featured a range of modern and post-modern artists, which I love. There was also a Beat Generation exhibit that made me happy because I'm a Kerouac fan.

Versailles was a bit far from the city and we had to queue for more than an hour just to get in. We got an audio guide for free and somehow I was able to appreciate it more than Louvre.

Hello. Let's do what we see in the movies. Let's read, drink wine and mess our hair up because we're in France.

We allotted a day for the Eiffel Tower. I first saw the Eiffel Tower when we were on the train from the terminal to the city. Before seeing it, I thought it was overrated but as it whizzed past us, it struck me that I was indeed in Europe! No other sight is ever a greater reminder that you are in Europe than the Eiffel Tower. At that moment, I wanted to go down and just take it all in. Finally, we had half a day just for the Eiffel so we brought our mat, bought wine at a convenience store and some books (because checking mobiles is so uncool and we somehow felt obliged to read instead of check Instagram). We really had to rub it in, huh?

Bordeaux! The first full sentence that I learned in French was "Je voudrais un verre de vin rouge." I didn't bother learning about hotel directions. By the second bottle, we were buzzed. It was drizzling and our BNB was a few metro stops away.
We went to a nearby chocolate shop (which turned out to be the Chocolate Museum) hoping that the sugar would help us sober up.

The mornings were tolerably colder but we'd walk to a nearby patisserie to buy our freshly baked croissant au chocolat. I remember I had a hard time buying from the lady so I searched it on Duolingo and promised myself that the next time I'd go back, I should be able to order croissants fluently.  I hope I can now. 

The sight of the Eiffel was surreal but when you're slightly buzzed, in the middle of a Montmartre restaurant, somehow, the whole experience begins to feel real. It was drizzling and we were on our second bottle of wine. Everyone was speaking French and all the women had messy (but still fab!) head bed with just red lipstick. They were all so pretty and regal. I wanted to be like them.

I think the best part about Paris was the daily grind. For the rest of our trip, we were hopping from one metro station to another checking out markets, parks, bookshops, more food and wine. We did a Before Sunrise and Amelie trail because we loved the films. And every morning, we'd buy freshly baked croissants from a nearby patisserie.  Paris had the biggest impact on me. After our Euro trip, I was consistently listening to Coffeebreak French, logging into Duolingo and reading more French literature. I really want to be a French girl!