Paris Je T'Aime

After such a successful trip to Barcelona with Erasmus, AM and I decided to go to the Paris trip as well. This time there was thankfully no American/Red, White and Blue Party so we were good to go to catch the TGV. It was our first time on the infamous 200 mph train (AM did the conversion from 300 km) and we were both running on little to no sleep from the nerves/excitement. Instead of being able to get some sleep on the 3 hour trip we were unfortunately seated next to a group of Erasmus best friends from Spain who proceeded to loudly chatter in Spanish. Our attempts to make friends with them were in vain as they made no effort to speak in either French or English. I know this sounds awful but Spain Spanish is so much harder to tune out when you’re trying to fall asleep because it’s very whiny and punctuated when you compare it to Spanish from South/Latin America. When we finally arrived AM and
I were grateful when we finally arrived at the Gare du Lyon. It was so different from the small Montpellier train station but with palm trees decisively more laid back than New York City’s Grand Central station. That wasn’t the only difference between Montpellier and Paris. It was FREEZING! The week before going to Paris I’d gone to Palavas the beach that’s 20 minutes outside of Montpellier and hung around in my bikini. I’m not sure if it was cold by comparison or just cold in general but I had to reach into my duffel bag and put on two more shirts (which AM and I did throughout our trip). Our first stop was the hostile where we dropped off our bags because it wasn’t time to check in. The hostile as it turns out was close the Louvre and from their we walked to the Catacombs of Paris. I honestly had no idea what a Catacomb was and AM didn’t either we asked our guide (Alex) who tried to explain it to us unsuccessfully. As it turns out we didn’t need to ask because we found out soon enough. It was an ossuary and miles down the heart of Paris there were piles and I mean piles upon piles, walls of femurs, elbows, skulls all stacked on one another. Some of them were actually stacked into designs like hearts. It was creepy but cool because it was right around Halloween. Afterwards we went to a supermarket got food and then proceeded to have lunch at the Jardin du Luxembourg. It’s funny because I was so paranoid about germs after Barcelona I bought Pringles and ate them with my mouth. AM and my Belgian friends made fun of me for going to the extreme but hey I couldn’t take any chances. Thankfully one of the guides, had baby wipes and I was able to eat the rest with my hands. After lunch we went to Notre Dame Cathedral, where we got to go around on our own. I never realized how beautiful churches were before coming to Europe. As a Catholic I guess I should have more of an invested interest but whenever we visited cathedrals and churches in the past I guess I was too young to fully appreciate them.