sorry for my significant leave of absence and it taking so long to organize this post. I’ve been busy with visitors and traveling on a two week holiday! a (semi) brief recap of visitors...
anderson came to visit me back in february. though it was a freezing, semi-miserable week in regards to the weather, the 10 days together were amazing. I hadn’t seen her since the summer before she left for new zealand so it was a special reunion for both of us. luckily my family was super gracious and let anderson essentially move in with us for her visit, which my children were obsessed with.
anderson and I visited versailles and hilariously the entire gardens were under construction. picture tractors, large sand piles beside huge holes, with loud noises etc. it was my first time visiting the inside of the palace which was amazing, my favorite room being marie antoinette’s bedchambers and I loved watching the marie antoinette movie afterwards, especially when I saw kirsten dunst during suno market. we have about 100 mirror pics from the palace.
anderson picked a good week to visit in terms of fun things to do. our freind’s who are in a french band, bel plaine, had an awesome concert at pont ephemere with other super good bands and a dj that deserved some kind of award for nailing the perfect set. I was obsessed with his glasses because they reminded me of my dad’s unibombers and was begging to be able to wear them. our friend’s also had a housewarming party and so we got to spend lots of time with our friends in intimate settings which was great! 
we did lots of prancing around paris with pep in our step, frolicking even in the freezing cold. she was a good sport about us getting lost all the time and was so easy to entertain or send out by herself when I had to work. it was so fun to show all the places we’ve come to love with a visitor and I was obsessed with any excuse to pay extra money than normal on all the places I love to eat. 
a day I knew would be one of anderson’s favorites was chocolate coma day where we drank cafe de flore hot chocolate, and sampled macaroons from multiple famous patisseries in the saint germain area. my family was also super sweet and had us over for a raclette cheese night. 
mark and amy came next and accidentally booked a trip for 5 weeks instead of just 1. though with the bad weather, I think they are probably regretting not seeing a little bit of sunshine in paris. unfortunately for them, it was 75 and sunny the day after they flew out. I was spoiled beyond belief while they were here and thoroughly enjoyed the nights I spent in their apartment. it had the looks of versailles and certainly beats sleeping 4 to a futon, which has turned into a regular weekend bed situation these days. we did all the typical tourist things, though much to mark’s initial dismay I kept us on the edge of town the first few days I was responsible for our agenda. but there is so much to love beyond central paris.
mark and amy came next and accidentally booked a trip for 5 weeks instead of just 1. though with the bad weather, I think they are probably regretting not seeing a little bit of sunshine in paris. unfortunately for them, it was 75 and sunny the day after they flew out. I was spoiled beyond belief while they were here and thoroughly enjoyed the nights I spent in their apartment. it had the looks of versailles and certainly beats sleeping 4 to a futon, which has turned into a regular weekend bed situation these days. we did all the typical tourist things, though much to mark’s initial dismay I kept us on the edge of town the first few days I was responsible for our agenda. but there is so much to love beyond central paris.
there was little communication between the three of us before they came, so much that I wondered if my entire family was coming to surprise me or if they were just ignoring me. I’ll forgive them for being so busy but it was pretty hilarious the morning they were expected when I hadn’t heard from them for hours and so just went to their apartment and sat on their stoop waiting for somebody to answer the door. it was a stupid tactic and something I pretty much instantly regretted but luckily they called me soon after.
we visited the top of everything, which was awesome and enjoyed things like stereotypical crepes after the eiffel tower. amy got cheese pick-pocketed out of her purse which left us all practically in tears from laughing and so curious as to how in the world they managed that. I got us lost every time we tried to go anywhere, which disastrously ended with us walking through the sketchiest part of paris that nobody should have to see, even during the light of day. there was a moment when mark was anticipating having to beat two guys up for approaching his wife and little sister, but luckily we got out safely and got to my new favorite park, parc des buttes chamount to watch the sunset.
embarrassingly enough, my first time visiting the louvre was 7 months after me being here. it had been closed the day before so I’m not sure if there were more than the average 30,000 visitors there but it was sort of miserable and I quickly remembered why I’d been putting my visit off for so long. the egyptian wing was really cool and I loved all the jewelry on display. I do intend to go back again and take more time studying things other than the highlights, hopefully on a day when less people are there. the highlight of that day for all of us was potentially devouring cosi nutella. 
mark was hilarious in shakespeare and co. where he literally started dry heaving because the smell of books was just too much for him to handle. drama queen!! he and amy were great sports and loved the hipster places I took them too and honestly I loved spending so much time together! it’s always special to see my family and it was sweet to realize how mark and I are literally twins in looks and personalities. I loved our nice dinners together and the advice they gave me for my future and am so thankful for their support. 
next, two of my best friends laura and emily came to visit me a few weeks ago. they came with an agenda unlike a typical tourist and instead were only concerned with spending as much time as possible with me. precious babes. I am so thankful they had that mentality because it made us able to do so many of the wonderful great things paris has to offer and we were very fortunate that the weather was remarkable.
we spent a significant amount of time wandering around backstreets of paris, exploring places I’d never been to before. we imitated every rodin statue we could finding this one closely resembled the single ladies dance. and we sat in luxembourg and the tuilleries with our feet in chairs like the parisians do.
we spent saturday and sunday mornings at flea markets (I’m excited to start going more frequently now that it’s so pretty outside!) I made my first big girl investment and bought a rug from a really nice old man, that I accidentally tried to underpay. laura was hiliarious and said that if it was less than $1,000 I absolutely had to have it. I can assure you, it was much much less and I am so excited to have such a special relic that will forever remind me of paris. and come on, it’s gorgeous! look at those hot pink accents!! I proudly carried my rug and almost took it with me to every touristy place so we could take a picture together. getting it home to america is going to be interesting.
we did what you absolutely have to do when the weather is nice in paris and spent an evening with bottles of wine and laduree macaroons and watched the sunset over the seine. we also got to watch a beautiful sunset from buttes chaumont. annie’s family had a birthday party for their son and so we spent a sunday afternoon in their beautiful courtyard filled with family and friends from france, portugal and morocco. it was so sweet to celebrate camille and be included in their special day.
I just want you to each know how special every one of your visits meant to me and how thankful I am that you took the time to visit. love you all so dearly!
No comments:
Post a Comment