Paris, France - July 23-25, 2010

Trip to Paris!

I was very fortunate to start my internship when I did because the other interns and the colleagues in my unit all turned out to be a great group of people with whom to spend my time! Mirjana happened to be going to Paris this weekend to see her sister, so Jessica, Kristina and I all used that as an excuse to go with her and spend the weekend in Paris!

We booked seats on the TGV going from Geneve to Paris with only a few stops. It was so easy and took only about 3 hours. We left work at noon and took a 1pm train, and we were in Paris drinking wine and eating pate by 4:30. Great! We first went to check into our hostel. Strangely, this was my first experience staying in a hostel. How have I avoided this until now? I don't know. Anyway, it was a bit strange but not altogether terrible. You definitely get what you pay for, just a place to crash at night. As soon as we dropped our bags we went to Place de la Bastille and drank our wine while waiting for Mirjana's brother-in-law. He came pretty quickly and showed us around the area, since he is a real Parisian. He took us over to XXXXX where his mother owns a gallery and we had a great meal looking out at the square. After dinner he took Mirjana and Jessica, Kristina and I went to explore the sites.

Once we meandered out to the Seine it was pretty easy to explore what we wanted to see. The city of Paris has set up beaches all along the Seine for the summer, which were great. There was volleyball, foosball, ping pong, ice cream...anything you could want down there. And it was so pretty at sunset. We walked towards the center of town and stumbled across a big concert going on in front of Paris' city hall. We listened to the concert for a while and then crossed the bridge to Ile-St-Louis to see Notre Dame. This is where silly picture taking seems to have started. I blame both Jessica and Kristina. Regardless, we got some great pics of each other and of Notre Dame. We kept walking in the same direction, passing the French Academy and strolling into the grounds of the Louvre. Fortunately for me there was some big carnival going on in the Jardins des Tuileries in front of the Louvre! We went and wandered around the carnival, wondering why some of those rides even existed. Either because they looked unsafe or were ridiculous. By the time we got through there it was past midnight and time to get some sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up and met at Place de la Bastille for petit déjeuner. After that we split up. Jessica went to explore the Louvre. Kristina went to cure her impending migraine. And I went to randomly wander the streets. Looking for a cafe to sit and read I made my way to the Latin Quarter. The old, narrow, winding streets are always so beautiful and interesting to me. I ended up at the bookstore where I managed to find English-language books on Croatia and Copenhagen. I knew I'd never find those in Geneva, so happily I purchased them. I kept wandering north until I got to Centres Pompidou. It was a nice day outside so I sat in the big plaza, had some white wine, read my book, and watched all the performers trying to make money. While I didn't see many of the sites, it was okay. I've already seen them and this seemed like a better way to spend my time.

In the early afternoon I met up with Kristina to commence a search for bubble tea. This elusive drink can't yet be found in Geneva, but there are a couple places in Paris. So we had our tea, grabbed some pizza, and went back to the hostel to meet Jessica. We were all pretty exhausted, but went back to finish our sightseeing tour. We started at tuileries and wandered up the Champs Élysée. There was plenty to look at, including preparations for the Tour de France, which conveniently was ending in Paris on Sunday. We passed a movie theater on our way and decided it seemed like a good idea to see a movie so we got tickets for XXXXXXX. The show wasn't for a while, so we kept walking up the street to the Arc de Triomphe for some more tourist shots.

After the movie we got on the subway to go see the Eiffel Tower. We'd been in Paris for over 24 hours and still hadn't been to it, so it seemed like a wise idea. We made it there on what may have been the last metro for the night, but that didn't bother us. We went down the hill and sat on the grass in the park just below the Tower. Fortunately, earlier in the day Kristina and I purchased some wine for just such an occasion. We took out our wine bottle, like everyone else there, and celebrated the fact we were in Paris. The funny thing about this park was the number of people selling bottles of wine, champagne, or beer to tourists who hadn't planned ahead. One guy started talking to us and asking if he could have some of our wine. Kristina, being generous, gave him some...in a used Coke bottle he picked up off the ground...and told him to go. He kept bugging us, which Jessica took pictures of to prove, but eventually left. After our fun time in the park it was time to go home, but we had definitely missed the last metro. So we started wandering in the direction of our hotel. But the Eiffel Tower isn't very close to Bastille...oh well. It reminds me of the time I came to Paris for New Year's and had to walk back to our hotel from the Eiffel Tower. We walked for maybe 30 minutes, mostly in the right direction, before we did find a cab. The cab then started to take us to the wrong place, but fortunately where we were staying was right on the way. Time to crash, again.

Sunday morning we woke up late and headed out for breakfast. I dragged Kristina and Jessica to Centres Pompidou where I'd had my wine the day before, since the place served a nice looking brunch. And it was good! I liked it at least. By the time we were done it was time to meet Jeff and Dyfed to go see the conclusion of the Tour de France. What I didn't know, since I've never really watched it before, is that the winner is basically already decided by this stage and it is mostly for show. So we went and stood with the groups of Spaniards cheering for Contador and the Danes who just seem to love bikes and biking. It was really interesting to be able to see it live, they really are amazingly fast.

Then it was a mad dash back to the train station to catch our evening train back to Geneva. Another successful and exhausting weekend.