Paris,je t'aime !

REWIND !   Back to before we went to Nomandy, we spent an amazing 8 days in the city of sights, the city of love, the city of chic and sexy, Paris. We took the super-fast-high-speed train known as the Thalys from Antwerp to Paris.  Chris looooooved it.

Bring it on, Edmonton LRT !

The first night we went out for a walk we fell in love with the beauty. Being the founders of la joie de vivre, the French are incredibly passionate about everything. Even when they talk, they might sound angry, but they're not, they're just very passionate about what they're saying.  On the Paris streets,  street performers are everywhere and what I found surprising was that many of the spectators who were taking the time to watch them were also French.  Evreyone in Paris loves Paris and that love is contagious. 

 Les Champs Elysées.  Everywhere you look, there is someting beautiful to look at.

L'Arc de Triomphe.  Napoleon built this to celebrate his battle victories.  Unfortunetly, he jinxed himself and lost the battle of Waterloo before it was completed.  They kept building it anyway and underneath lays the body of unknown soldier, to commemorate those who died during those battles.  Here, a candle is being lit to commemorate those soldiers, hence why the lot is empty.  Otherwise, this is the most chaotic roundabout EVER (no lines, therfore sometimes its 6 lanes, sometiles its 7, depending how agressive the driver is).

Love is in the air !!!

We totally lucked out on where we were staying, at Godo's.  It was just him (Godefroy), his daughter Ornella and us in his beautiful home.  He had two extra rooms and and let us stay in one while we were there, From no on, when I think of a passionate French cheese-lover, this image will pop into my head:

On our first day there, we hit a grocery store and I came back with generic goat cheese (the goat cheese version of La Vache qui Rit).  We came back and I said "hey look !  We bought some French cheese !!".  He was NOT impressed.  He asked if I really like cheese and of course I said yes.  After a long night of drinking "Ti-Punch" (Godo's rum cocktail) we woke up extra early to hit the market.  There we visited the fromagerie. Well, 50 € later, I had 25 different kinds of cheese.  I swear, once we left Holland we thought "yes, a break from all the cheese".  Nope.  More cheese, older cheese, stronger cheese.  I found out , my tongue was untrained and had a lot of training to do. 

Hands off my cheese !  Some of these cheeses were so hard you could use it as a hammer. Some of these cheeses were so strong a bite every 10 minutes was enough.  Some of these cheeses were so delicious, I am asking my colon for forgiveness. His fridge was so full of fromage, that when we'd open it a great wall of odour would smak you in the face.  Seriously, when we sweating the stuff.  My armpits smelt like cheese.  When Godo told his neighbour about our lesson on cheese she said that he shouldn't do that because Canadians can't handle cheese like they can and that we were so cheese-sensitive, we could get sick. I love that.  Canadians are cheese wussies.

Trying some cheese.  Intense.

We had such a great stay there.  He even made us some homemade yougurt.  Which was delicious !  

             Okay, so it was better than it looks.  He told us we could the drink the milk (clear-like substance) in there.  We trusted him, we had some.  We were like his guinea pigs and he was testing our limits.

Are you sure this is okay for Canadians ?

After 8 days we did some great bonding and we were, once again; reluctant to leave.  Ornella, his 5 year old daughter, was a blast to have around.  She had contagious energy and kept us on our toes. 

Ornella and I wrestling.  She won.

And she won at the ugly-face-making contest.

Paris family.  Godefroy pretty much met my whole family on Skype.  He even did a presentation for my mom's elementary class on cheese via Skype.  He showed them and ate all the crazy cheeses while the kids were screaming "no ! no ! Don't do it!!"

I also got to visit some long-time friends.  When I was in grade 10, I went to school in France for 3 months. I got to visit with Marianne, my french sister; as well as old friends I went to school with and my french family.  Ten years have passed but we all got along just the same.  I felt like nothing had changed.

Marianne and I at Le Chateau de Versaille

    One happy french family : Les Bruno

 Me, Cécile and Marianne out for some drinks on the town.

We were also  very fortunate to catch a Lykke Li show at a very intimate venue in Paris.  She did an AMAZING show and again, it was nice to see our kind of crowd in a different country.

Sitting and waiting for the show at La Maroquinerie  

Here's a little clip of her show.  She also rapped the Fugees which was pretty sweet.

As for the sights?  Well, we saw a lot of them.  We have SO many pictures of eveything and we really don't want to load up blog with too many of them.  So here are a few.

This is the Hotel des Invalides.  It was the place where injured "invalid" war verterans stayed after battles.  It was also where they kept ALOT of arms and weapons.  When the revelution sparked, people marched to this place and broke in, stealing all the arms.  Then, they went after Louis XXI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette at Le Chateau de Versailles.

Napoleon's tomb can be found in that golden top.

"Hello?  Anybody home?"

 And then there was, of course, the oh-so-beautiful Château de Versaille, where the monarchy lived until the French revolution.  This castle is grandiose in every way. The rooms, the sculptures, the gold, the gardens.  I mean, looking at this we're thinking "Duh Louis!  Like come on! You didn't see it coming?"  (We have a gazillion pics. We'll be posting most of them on Facebook sooner or later)

It's bigger than it looks.

A view of the castle from the gardens.

 We also went to the Conciergerie.  It was the prison used during the Reign of Terror.  Marie-Antoinette was held there before getting beheaded as was Robespierre (the leader of the revolution, who, in the end, was also beheaded)

Marie-Antoinette's chamber when she spent two and a half months.  Creepy. 

Afterwards we decided to go for a walk and we got kind of lost.  Actually, really lost.  We got to this neighborhood I've never heard off and it all looked a little surreal.  Chris and I panicked a little bit but we eventually found our way back to central Paris.  Here's sole footage of the wierd, surreal neighborhood we were lost in:

We also saw (and went up!!) the Eiffel Tower.  Yep, right to the top.  We mostly made out while we were there (just kidding!)

The view from the top.  Unfortunetly, it was a little cloudy that day.

Well folks.  We're running our of time on the internet here.  We're on the road now, so we have limited access.  Every chance I get, I'm on it.  SO I will leave you with that for now.  I guess I'll have to make a sequel for Paris...the Louvre, Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Like I said, so much to see in Paris.  I have a lot of catching up to do as well.  Driving in Cider country (mmm....), Mont St. Michel, the middle part of France.  It'll come sooner or later !