Jours 32-34

Bonjour tout le monde!

Jours 32-34

May 27-May 29

So I always hate writing about days or things that happened that kind of suck, because I feel like I’m complaining about my life when I have nothing to complain about. I mean I am living in Paris, what could go wrong? But I have to say, there were definitely some things that happened this weekend that I wish I could have avoided. However, there were also a lot of amazing things that happened.

Friday was a very good, but very long day. I ended up doing walk #13, which was in the seizieme arrondisement. However, the walk ended in the Bois de Bologne, and Tara Kay and I took the wrong path and ended up getting a little bit lost out there.

In the bois de Bologne

 I then went to the Jardin de Tuileries to relax, and I ended up falling asleep in my chair because I was so exhausted. Then I went to go eat dinner in the Passage des Panoramas. Melissa had gone home earlier that day, and there was a strike going on so she had to wait over 40 minutes to take the train into Paris. Once we were finally all together the dinner was quite delicious! I talked to the waiter a little bit before in French, and he thought I spoke French well so he kept trying to talk to me in French and I had absolutely no idea what I was saying.

After, we went to go see the Eiffel tower lights again, and then we tried to rent bikes to bike from the Eiffel tower to the Notre Dame. However, the machine broke down on us after we spent a half hour getting everyone’s bike, so the last person in our group didn’t have a bike so we ended up just going home. However, on the way home we realized we took the wrong exit so we ran to the other side before the metro doors closed. However, my friend dropped her metro pass and it fell down into the tracks. We spent about 20 minutes trying to find someone to get it out, and finally we were able to use a little claw thing to get it out of the tracks. Luckily, we were able to make it on one of the last trains out of Paris to get home.

Eiffel tower at night

Saturday morning was amazing. My great uncle and aunt were in Paris for one day, and it happened to be my birthday! We were able to go to Giverny where Monet’s house was. We saw the inside of his house which was so cute and his room was just filled with his paintings.

Outside of Monet's House

Inside of Monet's room

 His gardens were absolutely stunning. The lily pads, the beautiful bridge, the flowers, everything was incredible. 

With my great aunt in the gardens

Just in the gardens

We went to the little town next door, Vernon, for a delicious lunch of steak and fries and some ice cream. After, we went back into Paris and rested at my friends’ apartment while it down poured outside. My friends ended up falling asleep, and we didn’t leave the apartment till about 7:30. The whole day I was looking forward to hot chocolate at Angelinas, but of course, it was closed by the time we got there. Also, the amazing gelato in the park right next to it was closed. The only snack that we could find that was open was Starbucks, so I got myself a delicious Frappuccino. After, I met up with my roommate Bailey at the arc de triomphe, and I figured I was in France so I should probably do something French and go up it. However, the line was so long that we just decided not to do it. After, I had a wonderful birthday dinner at Chipotle, how American. Finally, we went home and I went right to sleep.

Sunday was a great day. I went to church in the morning, and I could actually understand the majority of what was being said. Also, it’s mother’s day here in France so they handed out flowers to all of the girls there. After, my friends and I went over to Angelinas. It was amazing. I got the mother’s day deal with a bunch of different little pastries, little sandwiches and of course the delicious hot chocolate. At the end, the waiters gave me the most beautiful rose for my birthday. 

Some of the people that went to Angelinas

My rose I got

We came home, and Melissa and I gave our host mom a little painting from Giverny and a flower. We had a really nice dinner with delicious chocolate, and we just spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing homework. It is crazy to think that this is my last week in Paris, it’s actually so sad.

À Bientôt,

Claire Hunsaker