Paris Day 1

I suppose it's time to talk about my marvelous week spent in Paris before taking the train down to Grenoble.

Day 1: I took the Thalys train from Brussels and arrived in Paris on Friday June 24th. The train arrived at Gare du Nord, which I planned most excellently since I was to be staying the night with my old host family who live just five minutes walking from the station. Clutch. I stepped out of the train station and the sights and smells of Rue Dunkerque were exactly as I had remembered them being three years earlier. I grabbed my luggage and headed back to my old apartment. No map required. I remembered exactly where to go. I got to my old building and rang the buzzer for the Foucault apartment. My host mom, Patricia, answered most coyly "Ouiiiii?" "Coucou, c'est Alex!" "Bonjour Alex!" and she buzzed me in. Reaching the 6th floor of the building, Patricia was waiting outside the door for me and immediately kissed me on both cheeks and asked me if I was hungry. Yes, famished. I dropped off my bags in my room and went to the kitchen where my host mom of 4 months proceeded to make me lunch like she had done so many times in 2008. It was truly a great homecoming. We caught each other up on everything. Since I had left 2 of her 4 kids had gotten married and they had finished working on their home in Bretagne (Brittany). After lunch she had to go run errands and I immediately was itching to go explore some of my old favorite spots.

I went to the metro station to buy some tickets for the week and upon purchasing them with my American card at the ticket window, the vendor commented on how cute my card with the ladybug on it was and how she wanted one with Hello Kitty. It's the little inconsequential conversations such as these that make me love Parisians (most of the time). I decided to go to my favorite area in Paris, the Latin Quarter, which is halfway touristic halfway not, to go to my favorite cafe, Cafe Malongo on Rue St. Andre des Arts, to go to Orange (like Verizon or AT&T) to add money to my French phone, and to get ice cream. After adding money to my phone, grabbing a coffee and wandering, I crossed over the Seine to Ile-St-Louis where I got Berthillon ice cream. With my delectable pistachio ice cream in hand, iPod on and blasting some great tunes, I walked down the stairs to the edge of the Seine where I sat and basked in the sun in pure and simple bliss for half an hour surrounded of course by multiple young couples making out. Salut, Paris, it's damn good to be back.

After my lovely afternoon, I headed back to the apartment where I did laundry. Hallelujah! And ate dinner with my host mom which we then followed up with some movie watching in the living room. It was the perfect first day back in Paris and the indicator of the perfect week that was to follow.