1 novembre 2009 (Day 62)
Today I had to leave my wonderful family. I was pretty tired after going to bed after 1 am and waking up at 5 to be ready to go. Gunnar, Catherine, and Gabriella came with us to the airport. It was around a two hour drive so we had to head out early. We three girls slept most of the way. The family was all so cute and waited for us to get past security before leaving. I got some wonderful hugs along with a lot of the cinnamon buns that we made. They really are the sweetest family, I am going to miss them loads.
Brooke and I hung out/slept/laughed at the boy with 5 layers on taking them all off/talked to a cute French family before leaving. We met some kids from Minnesota who were going all around Europe studying international business. They go to some private school so it is ALL included in their $15,000/semester tuition to go to multiple countries with their professor teaching them in the hotel, planning trips, etc. We both slept on the bumpy Ryan Air flight into rainy Paris. We took a 13E bus from Beauvais into Paris. It was a lot warmer in Paris than in Stockholm! I could also feel my skin slowly start to break out as it felt the French air. It was magical; in Sweden my skin cleared up and wasn’t all nasty feeling, but now that I am back in France it is back to greasy grossness. But enough about my skin, let’s talk about Paris. We walked by the Pompidou on our way to the church there, which was closed (it was around 3pm). We passed by the Notre Dame of Paris and the Seine on our way to the Pantheon. I showed my respect to people like Volataire, Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Mr. Louis Braille, Rousseau, Zola in this neoclassical monument "To the great men, the grateful homeland.”
Afterwards we barely missed getting into the Louvre for free so we people watched and walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It started raining hard enough that we made our way to the metro. Brooke had fun playing with all the broken umbrellas from the wind and rain that had ruined them. Brooke successfully evaded paying to get into the metro, and I paid, being the law abiding citizen that I am.
We amused ourselves watching people make out, Dumbledore, and pigeons trying to attack people for about 2 hours. We munched on cinnamon buns, apples, and talked about movies. I then left on the TGV, leaving Brooke to fend for herself in Paris. And yes, the metro really does smell like pee. I slept most of the way home and caught the last tram. I talked to Oskar, a boy raised in SLC, Utah who is part Egyptian and part French. I got home and couldn’t fall asleep. Bienvenue a Nantes! I really loved Sweden and didn’t want to come back to France, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Brooke and I had a lot of fun seeing all of Paris really quickly while getting soaked and barking at all the people trying to sell us miniature Eiffel Towers.
