So I just got back from Paris yesterday and I'll catch you up on the last 2 weeks.
The weekend of October the 13th on Saturday I met up with some friends and we went to Aix en Provence and hung out. It was really awesome because they knew where all the stores were so we found a store that sold PEANUT BUTTER! And a book store that I got a french book at. We also went to this place called Tutti Fruiti where you get to pick your own frozen yogurt and then put whatever you want on top and then you pay for however much it weighs. That was awesome and it is now my favourite shop. :) So yummy.
They next day I had a soccer game in Aubune which is about an hour from here. My soccer team met up and then we all took a bus there. It was really nice to hang out with the team. They are awesome and everyone is super nice. It's kinda neat too cuz the ages on my team range from 16 to 23 I think because there isn't enough girls who play soccer to to make team with smaller age groupings. We lost 2-3 but it wasn't our best game and sometimes I find the team a little bit dysfunctional with is really frustrating for me because after games and stuff when we are talking in the change rooms it's difficult for me to tell everyone how I feel about the game because if people want to understand me they have to listen and its difficult to get a room of 14 girls to all stop talking when everyone wants to say their two cents. But it's okay I know it'll come once my french gets stronger.
The following weekend was...PARIS! :D We left Friday morning to catch the train, that travels at 300 km/h so we made it there in 3 hours. When we got there we took the metro to our hotel only to find out that the room that was meant to have 2 beds, for my host brother and I only had one and that wasn't really going to fly. But no worries they said they could fix by "casser le lit" which literally means 'break the bed". So I'm not really too sure what happened there but all I know is that when we came back to the hotel there was two beds. :p After checking in at the hotel to leave all our bags we went to promenade in the streets of Paris. We took the Metro part way to Champs d'elysée and we walked the rest. The champs was filled with people walking everywhere and there was so many different stores. And the song was right, "au soleil, sous le pluit, a midi ou a midnuit il y a tous que vous voulez au champs d'elysée" sun shine or ran there's people on the Champs d'elysée and unfortunately it was the latter.
At the end of the champs d'elysée is L'arc de triomphe. Which honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. We went to the top of it and got a pretty good view of Paris.
But it wasn't as good of a view as the one we got from the top of the Eiffel Tower. :p We took an elevator to the top and then stop at the other two levels on the way down. On the first level we sat and had a drank and just chilled out. At the bottom of the tower they had all these bears that were painted by someone from every country to raise money for something. We found the one for Canada. I guess what I also found really neat is because we were going to all the touristicy places you probably could have found someone there who spoke almost every language. So that was pretty neat.
The following day we went to the Louvre, we didn't go inside though because I'm going to Paris again with Rotary in December and we're going inside then. And we went to le hotel de la ville which was huge and very Parisian. After was Notre Dame de Paris which was HUGE and old and very beautiful. You weren't allowed flash photography so you're going to have to excuse the ambient photos.
This banana split was real yummy :)
Notre Dame was so beautiful
Later that day we went on a tour of the France stadium which was actually really cool. Plus I got to see the jacuzzi in the change room that they filled with champagne after france won the cup in 1998 :p
Here they even played the music and we walked out onto the pitch with it. I can totally imagine the rush that the players must get from a full stadium. It would be amazing.
The next day was our last day and we left by 12 because we had a 7 hour drive ahead of us. My host dad was working in Germany and then met up with us in Paris with the car. We went and saw La Defense before leaving which is the new part of Paris with all the skyscrapers ect. The drive home was fairly calm but we had a nice courtyish view the whole way home.
Now I'm back home and this is the last week of school before we get a two week break. YAY :) I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable with my host family which is really great.
So that was my trip. It was awesome and I'm so thankful that my parents took me. Hopefully I'll get to make them pancakes soon!
A bientot et gros bisous,
Rebecca
