Swan in Kensington Gardens
Tower Bridge
Snow ball fight
Buckingham Palace
London Eye
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben
Rodin Museum
The Thinker
Lighting of the Champs-Elysees
Ferris Wheel in Concorde
Hello everyone! I cannot believe it is December. I fly home 2 weeks from today and I am heartbroken! I am so excited to see family and friends and to be out of the cold, but I will be very sad to leave Paris! But, I still have fun stories from the past couple of weeks to share first.
Christmas is upon everyone in the world right now and despite the freezing temperatures here, I'd forgotten what fun it is to see a city decorate and prepare for the Holidays. Every store window is displayed with decorations, trees are lit, and there is a general glow about the city. The lighting of the Champs-Elysees happened last Tuesday and the enormous tree lined avenue is covered in twinkling lights and Christmas market stands all up and down the street. They sell virtually anything you could want from vin chaud or hot mulled wine (delicious and very warming for the bitterly cold nights we've been having), spiced nuts, crepes, cupcakes, vodka&caviar combos, to scarves and other winter trinkets. Holiday music plays over speakers and it is so fun to listen to while looking at the lit street. Flannery and I went the night they lit the trees and strolled down Avenue Montaigne (one of my favorite streets, off the Champs) and they were having "Fashion Night Out". Basically every boutique on the street (this one is home to Chanel, Vuitton, Gucci, Valentino, Dior etc.) has a private party where shoppers are invited to come and have cocktails and shop around the store. We saw women in the most beautiful winter outfits going into all the fabulous parties. Maybe one day I'll get to go too!
Later that night, at the end of the Champs, opposite the Arc du Triomphe is the annual Place de la Concorde ferris wheel! It is enormous and lit up so beautifully. We walked to it and decided to take a ride on it. We asked the woman how long we'd be in the air and she told us 5 minutes. We timed it parfectly so that we could see the tower sparkle on the hour, once we were in the air. We could see everything from atop. It was perfect!
On Thanksgiving day, my friends and I decided to check out the Musee de Histoire Natural to see more stuffed animals and bones than I ever care to see again! But it was still interesting to see. We then went to see our beloved Harry Potter movie at the movie theater. I really enjoyed it and I was happy not to have missed out on it while in Europe. For dinner that night, we decided to go back to Relais de L'Entrecote. Originally we were going to go somewhere that actually has an anglicized version of the meal, but we thought, we're in Paris this year, does anyone really care if we don't have turkey? So off we went to Saint Germain de Pres for a delicious meal of Steak frites, a walnut salad, baguette, chocolate tarte, raspberry sorbet, and red wine for a perfect holiday with friends. It was everything I could have asked for.
The next day, we had heard whisperings that we would see snowfall. Sure enough, we went to have hot chocolate in what is known as the best chocolate chaud in Paris. As we sat on the top floor of the cafe, we looked out the window and began to see soft, delicate snowflakes fall from the sky. I am really not even a big fan of snow, or being cold for that matter, but this was beautiful! That night, my friend Flannery and I went to see another DJ show at club in Paris we had never been to. We had such a great time and it is absolutely the most fun thing in the world for me to be able to hop on the metro to see my favorite music, live!
The following day we went to the Rodin museum near Invalides. As we walked to the museum, we saw the "thinker". Flannery turned to me and said, do you know where the real thinker is? I had no idea. Then, we stupidly realized, this was the real thinker! We couldn't believe neither of has had no idea. The museum was cool to see because it is in Rodin's former home. The grounds are specatacular as well. It truly would have been paradise to live there. That night we went to a club we had yet to go to, that is actually built into the under part of the King's Bridge off the Champs Elysees. Everyone had kept telling us to go, and we finally did and had a fabulous time. We were discussing how Paris is truly the coolest place to be for so many reasons. But one of the main ones is that it absolutely offers everything. You can go to the most amazing clubs and party all night, then see priceless works of art and historic monuments the next day. We have enjoyed so much of the amazing nightlife, while also enjoying the wonderful culture, art, gastronomy, and scenery of Paris. It is truly perfection.
We also went to see a David Hockney exhibit called "Fleurs Fraiches" or fresh flowers done entirely on his iPad and iPhone, at the Foundation-Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent. As we walked through looking and dozens of tiny screens displaying a loop of his images, I wondered if this would be the future of museums. Will we just start looking at screens instead of canvases?
Fast forward to this past Thursday, when we went to London! The weather has been frigid here, tons of snow and freezing cold weather! So on Thursday, many of the trains were canceled but luckily ours was not. However, we experienced delay after delay once we were on the train. It took us nearly 4 hours to get there, when it should have only taken too. But, we were happy to finally arrive in London! We stayed near Kensington Park and were happy to quickly figure out the "Underground", what their subway is called. It is certainly expensive to buy a day pass, but we used it so frequently it made it worth it. The subway stops were the most charming names, a loud speaker on the train would read, "Charing Cross, Oxford Circus, Picadilly, Tottenham Court" in a lovely British accent. It was a welcome change from the dinginess of the Paris metro, having such a clean, cheery one. We got into our hostel and went to dinner than out in Oxford Circus where there is a lot of nightlife. We had a great time and took a double decker bus home.
The next day we did lots of sightseeing. We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrod's, Covent Garden, and Topshop! We went all of the city and saw blankets of snow covering the ground everywhere. We were in a little winter wonderland! Harrod's was spectacular! So festive for the holidays as well! We had a great day exploring the city and went to a tavern for dinner. I felt like we were in a Harry Potter book, seeing people cozily huddled around large wooden tables with pints of cider and shepard's pie.
The next and final day we went to the Tate Modern and walked by the Shakespeare globe theatre on our way. The Tate was fantastic! I loved the contemporary architecture and of course the art inside. We especially liked the Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol pieces. There was also a room that I took a liking too. It was a series of photographs called "Subway" by Bruce Davidson, where an assortment of people and situations are recorded. Davidson athletically trained himself to operate the heavy camera equipment in order to escape if need be from some of the dangerous situations that would occur in some of his photos. Later, we went to Kensington gardens which were fantastic! We stopped at a pond where there were tons of ducks and swans floating all around. So adorable! Later we went back to the train station only to experience more delays, but it all workd out in the end.
London was a really fun, interesting city, definitely one that I hope to go back to. It is very trendy and contempory despite its rich history. There is so much art, music, and culture integrated as well. I loved hearing British accents everywhere and the names they have everything are so charming! It was a wonderful city!
Just two weeks left in Paris and I still feel like I have so much to do! I don't know where the time has gone..but I wish it would slow down...just a bit.
