Seth's visit

Notre Dame


inside

Seth and Ellen's visits overlapped by a day, and 24 hours after Ellen flew back to Atlanta, Seth and I flew to Paris for of our first time. We stayed with a friend of mine from Yellowstone, JS, and his hospitable family about thirty minutes from the city center. We were exhausted from sleep deprivation when we arrived (our flight left at 5:45 that morning, and we'd pulled an all-nighter the night before) so we slept on the shuttle that took us from Beauvais (the Ryanair airport... more about it later) to the city center. JS and his mom greeted us at their metro stop, where the drove us to their house. We probably took a nap immediately upon our arrival, and then headed to Notre Dame for the Easter mass that evening. JS told us about the history of the cathedral and some of the governmental buildings around it. The church was filled with thousands of tourists like ourselves--it wasn't the somber, reverent experience I was anticipating. But the church was breathtaking, and thinking something so magnificent being built in the 12th-14th centuries is just mind boggling. After our visit to the cathedral, JS walked us along the Seine and showed us around the Latin Quarter, right near Notre Dame. We ran into some random guys who wanted to trade us a little Eiffel Tower figurine for whatever we had that was more valuable than that, so Seth and I gave them our chap-sticks in exchange (I think we got the better end of the deal).


dinner with JS and family

JS's mom made us all an amazing French meal that night, complete with French wine, cheese and a little raspberry tart. She's my favorite. :) And then she made us breakfast the next day before Seth and I headed off to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees. It was cold and rainy that day, so Seth and I invested in an 8-euro umbrella with "Paris" written all over it. I think he's going to give it to his Nanny as a souvenir--don't tell her we already used it!

Seth and me at Eiffel Tower



Right next to the Eiffel Tower lookout point was a churros stand (long pieces of fried dough, this time covered in sugar, not dipped in chocolate). So, of course, we had to split a container of some FRESH ones--they were better than the ones in Madrid, I have to say (though I missed the chocolate).

Kate, Seth and Gen at the Pantheon

Kate and Gen, two of Seth's friends from school, were visiting Paris at the same time as us, so Seth, JS and I got together with them the next day. We hung around the Latin Quarter a little then went to Montmartre that evening (it's the hilltop of Paris). The Basilica of the Sacre-Coeur was really beautiful--such interesting mosaics on the ceiling (one of a very serious, cold-looking Trinity). We all split dinner dishes at this cool restaurant Gen had heard about in Montmartre. We met some friendly guys from a band at the next table over who invited us to their concert, and Gen, Kate, JS and another new friend actually went to it after Seth and I came back to Madrid! I love new acquaintances!


Montmartre view

Sacre Coeur

hilly Montmartre at dusk


The next day Seth and I thought we had PLENTY of time to catch our 8:00 flight back to Madrid that night. So we went to the Musee d'Orsay (with Kate and Gen), the Louvre, to McDonald's for McFlurries, then took the Metro to the airport shuttle station.

Van Gogh's Bedroom

our McDonald's splurge...

Upon arriving, we were informed that we were supposed to be there 3 hours before our flight (not 2 1/2 hours...). We got to the airport, knowing we could have made our flight, but the airport workers wouldn't let us on. So, we missed our flight and had to buy new tickets for the next flight 12 hours later. We went to a little grocery store inside the airport and stocked up on food for our night in the airport, got settled down on some chairs and around 10 an airport attendant came by to tell us that the airport CLOSES DOWN at 10:30! We didn't have any money to get a hostel, and we didn't want to risk missing our flight again, so we and about 20 other young people stayed outside the airport in the freezing cold rain that night. We were covered from the rain by an awning, but it was still miserable. The most miserable night of my life, maybe. We befriended some Italian kids and a Chinese guy and watched "When Harry Met Sally" on my laptop for the first two hours outside. We thought--this isn't so horrible. This might be a fun night. Then it really started to get freezing. We put on all the clothes we had but still couldn't get warm. The Italian kids and I started a FIRE in an CIGARETTE URN with Paris pamphlets we'd gathered beforehand in the airport. The bliss was momentary. When the airport doors finally opened at 5:55, Seth and I booked it to the Ladies' bathroom, turned on the hand driers and thawed for about 20 minutes--our plan from about 1:00 that morning. Then we checked in, wiped the Beauvais airport dust from our feet and slept through the entire flight to Madrid.


us with our new friends, still ignorantly blissful

It was a good learning experience. We now know a little bit what it feels like to be homeless, how easy it is to make friends with people in the same extreme situations, and to be treated "inhumanely"--what if we weren't young, healthy twenty-somethings? Well, we'd probably have money to afford a hostel. But what if we didn't? We also thought about the desire some people on the streets have to commit petty crimes. We did start a fire in a cigarette urn. But we also contemplated somehow breaking into the airport, or hiding behind one of the food vendor's registers before we had to leave the airport. I wouldn't want to relive that night for any amount of money (well, maybe SOME amounts of money), but I'm pretty sure we'll laugh about it someday.