weekend review

one of the perks to living in the suburbs is that I have things like this park at the bottom of the hill I live on. I’ve passed it on the tram for months now on my way to class and have wanted to go walk around but for some reason I tend to go my familiar routes. friday afternoon, annie and I walked around parc de saint cloud and were amazed by how beautiful it was and learned a bit of history about it being built by louis 14, which is why it looks so similar to versailles. at one point we were deciding we’d need to move the gigantic map in the middle of the terrace for when we had our wedding ceremonies there, when a sweet old man approached us. he talked to us in french so obviously there were large parts when I had no idea what he was saying, but his words were gentle and touching. his wife had died 8 years ago and he was enjoying life best he could, but was looking forward to joining her in heaven one day soon. he was so nice and sweet and I love the way people in the suburbs will take twenty minutes of their day to talk to strangers. 

this weekend felt like december should. partly because the weather was unbearably cold with snow in the forecast. but also because paris is extra lively, especially on sundays now that so much is open for christmas shoppers. annie was taking care of her kids while the parents went away for the night so I helped her take care of the little ones, which equated to catching up on tv shows while they napped and taking them to the grocery store. I’m not sure how she would have done it alone because monoprix is a disastrous task on a saturday evening. my saturday night was spent in very american ways-- mexican, football and dancing. annie and I cooked fajitas together and had our first tastes of desperado, a beer with tequila in it that is brewed in france. (anderson I can’t wait for you to come drink this!) I then went and met up with sara at the moose to watch the dawgs play in the sec championship-- a very unfortunate loss. and sara and I went to a really neat club called bellevilloise where we danced so late we rode the morning metro home. 

sunny sundays are the best part of paris and something we have had really good luck with. I went to an advent service in the morning where we sang christmas hymns in an enormous cathedral with beautiful sunshine streaming in through stained glass windows and I was so thankful I’d woken up. I decided that I want to try to go to services in some of the big cathedrals, like sacre couer, notre dame and saint germain des pres, with it being the christmas season. despite the language barriers, I think it would be beautiful to see and something I would always remember doing during the advent season.
annie and I went to musee d’orsay where I fell in love with every part of it, but especially the way the city looked from that level and the way the light was pouring through the ceiling windows. standing in front of paintings I've grown up seeing in books my whole life was absolutely incredible and I realized my fondness for impressionism paintings. we haven’t been to many museums yet because the weather outside has been so nice but I’m really excited for brittany to come visit in two weeks so we can go to some together.


we were going to do the ferris wheel that is set up at the end of the tuileries during christmas but decided our 10 euros would be better spent on things like, FAIR FOOD! I had my first taste of hot wine (vin chaud,) which I thought I’d hate but as it turns out, it’s a lot like hot cider and it’s delicious and something I might make for our christmas party! we ate churros with nutella for dinner and I laughed realizing my meals for the day consisted solely of chocolate croissants and churros-- how french of me. we strolled through the paris christmas markets, which are not the beautiful things one would imagine. they consist of tacky colored lights and white plastic tents with anything and everything people should not buy as parisian mementos. there are makeshift ice skating rinks with live a dj, slides that are supposed to be like bobsledding, and a creepy santa in a giant bubble throwing up the peace sign at passing children. but I must admit that the child in me kind of loved weaving in and out of hundreds of people in the freezing cold as christmas songs played from the trees. 

on the walk home we passed a group of christmas carolers doing an awesome upbeat rendition of in gloria in excelsis deo followed by deck the halls. I felt like a giant piece of ice after being in the freezing for so long so I took a long and very warm bath and got to stream the steelers-ravens game and watch it in bed until I fell asleep. happy december!