Power Paris!

I suppose i should really go back to this whirlwind weekend that was Paris. Power Paris, if you will. So let's travel back to the weekend of 6 october to 8 october 2006:

After 4 hours of sleep, i wake up at 4:45, grab my backpack and my camera batteries and run downstairs confusing everyone on the way. You see, the school was also running a trip to Edinburgh that weekend that happened to leave at very similar time in the morning, so the few people i met along the way told to that i was late and needed to run to catch the bus. I said thanks, gave a one sentence explanation why this did not concern me, and set out towards Laura's dorm. That was a nice sleepy 30 minutes of walking in the dark. We got on the tube for the one hour ride towards heathrow, after purchasing a nice loaf of bread and some water. Nothing like a good hearty English breakfast...

When we got to Heathrow and found the Air France section, some tall kid walks up to me and says "hey stacey". I was quite confused for a few seconds, until i realized that it is the one and only Dave Coleman (who i've gone to school with since Nutswamp). He is studying in London as well, and i hadn't actually seen him at all until this random rendevous at an airport. Well, it turned out that Laura and I were sitting directly behind him and his friends on the plane. They however, chose to stay in a hostel (which was an option i did not see on the website);whereas we were staying in l'Hotel Marigny. More on that later.

We parted ways at the Charles De Gualle airport as Laura and i went in search of the "Rossibus" to take us into actual Paris. As we drove along, i came to the conclusion that i find all mass transit extremely soporific, and merely stepping foot in one alerts my brain that it is now sleepytime.


Our hotel is apparently run by a very angry type of bald bespectacled man who simply glared at us for the entire checking in process. Tres gentil, n'est ce pas? So we dropped our bags in room 31 (keep that number in mind), which was a nice little room with two twin beds, a desk, a tv, and a built in bathroom, and went on our way.

Lunch was at the lovely Angelina's, which Laura had been to before. The line was out the door so i took that as a good sign. It was quite a tease in line as we stood there shifting weight, stomachs growling, and stared at the hundreds of pastries and chocolates surrounding us. Cruel, I tell you. Finally, we get a table upstairs, which was quite lovely, and we order our French food. I got a croque monsieur, which turned out to be surprisingly delicious. If you are unfamiliar with the croque monsieur it is a delightful sandwich made of slices of ham, covered with a creamy cheese, encased in two thick slices of wonderful white bread, topped with some more cheese and heated up. MMMmm french food. After our lunch, we got some of the famous hot chocolate, which, we maintain, is actually just expensive chunks of fancy chocolate melted down into a drinkable form. It was very rich, as one might expect, but it was very tasty.

After Angelina's we made our towards the Eiffel Tower by using the supposedly good, but actually confusing metro system. We had some confusion as to whether or not we could walk all the way to the top so we decided to take the elevator. This turned out to be a great decision because it was cold and windy and there were many, many stairs. The lift took us up quite far, and it was exciting because we were right next to someone who was freaking out. Here is my suggestion to all people: if you are deathly afraid of something, do not try to publicly confront it on a day with the worst possible conditions. Hence i do not fly to Kansas in search of tornadoes. It is common sense my friends.Anyway, we land on the first level and leave frightened girl and frightened girls peer pressuring friend behind.

The view at this level was quite impressive, but not good enough for us! So on we go; another lift to level 2. Glorious as well, but no! Not acceptable! We want to feel the sway of the building; fight against the wind to walk; we want to feel alive! (put in triumphant background music here) To the top, I daresay! To the top!

At last, we arrive at the highest possible point of the Tower that visitors are permitted to stand on. We look around as the wind whips by, and realize we're very high. Luckily neither of us are afraid of heights. We took many many photos, including some daring ones by holding our arms out through the barrier in order to get shots of the base of the Tower. The view was fantastic, despite the less than perfect weather, and we left quite pleased with our Eiffel Tower visit.

After this, it was fairly late in the day so we decided to set off for dinner. We had planned on going to this place Laura had been, and after much running through the rain, it turned out to be quite different and full. Now that we were fully soaked to the bone, we decided to just go into some random cafe and get any food at all. So we did that, bought some cookies on the way back, and returned to the hotel. This new man at the desk this time was quite pleasant, and he handed us our key with a "Bonsoir!" After killing a package of cookies while watching some French American Idol type show, we went to sleep in preparation for Saturday, certainly the most powerful day of Power Paris.