France Wrap Up:

My main impressions from France were of negative stereotypes of how rude the people were, and that the South of France was beautiful. Jason’s experience from 10 years ago as a backpacker, were also quite unenthusiastic, so I wasn’t going in with the highest of expectations. From the moment we arrived to Paris, even in the hour long walk in the rain to find our hotel, I was in love with the town. The usage of the verbs cute, quaint, adorable, sweet and amazing were profuse and explained most of what we saw and experienced.  It really is as romantic as everyone says it is!

Highs/Best Moments: Our hotel being in the heart of St. Germain des Pres; walking along the Seine our first night and glimpsing the Eiffel Tower for the first time; meeting up with my Aunt Nancy and Richie and having a fun first evening along with their friend Carla; croissants; being able to walk everywhere and feel completely safe, even at the wee hours of the night; seeing the Eiffel Tower glitter for the first time at 10pm with all its sparkling lights; night out with Adrien at Jade; it staying light out until 10:30pm; moving to a much more reasonably priced hotel and getting an even bigger room (although location wasn’t as good); day trip to Champagne with Nancy and Richie; seeing Ocean’s 13; our picnic in the Luxemburg Garden; loving the ease of the metro; discovering Rosier Street (Jewish Street) in the Marais area; hang out in the Places des Troges and people watching;

Lows/Worst Moments: Realizing how pricey everything was; our tiny hotel room at the first hotel; getting totally lost in Versailles trying to find the train station, and ending up in the cab of the rudest driver ever; too many gloomy, rainy days; cramming into the metro with barely any room to breathe; learning the expensive way about carafe d’ouxs (first time we asked for water we ended up with a $10 tiny bottle of Evian);

Sights: Café’s; baguette; croissants; little alleyways filled with bistros and boutiques; creperies; museums galore; the Eiffel Tower; The Seine River; artwork; galleries; Luxemburg Gardens; gloomy, rainy days; Arc de Triumphe; Champs Elysees; The Louvre; metro; street performers; viewing the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero; Laurent’s art gallery;

Food and Drink: double espresso; croissants; cheese; salami on our picnic; poulet salad (chicken); nicoise salads; French onion soup; baguette; red wine; carafe d’oux (water – not bottled); baguette sandwiches

Favorites:

Towns: Paris

Accommodations: Argentine Hotel

Food: French onion soup (the last one we had on the trip)

Restaurants:

Drink: Red Wine everywhere

Activities: exploring the city by foot; deciding on which restaurant we’d eat at each day;

Least Favorites:

Food: a shrimp salad that was literally smothered in dressing; everything at Café Maison

Restaurants: Café Maison (turned out to be a chain and was terrible)

Drink: The lengthy process of getting a bottle of wine the night we went out with Carla – it was a whole production with the owner

Activities: trying to predict the weather each day, since it was so on and off with the rain; getting decent service at any restaurant

Internet Connections: it was annoying at the Argentine Hotel every 48 hours we kept having to get another hotspot code, other than that the connections were good

Exchange Rate: 1.37 Euros equals $1 US