21: Paris

Blaire and I made it to Paris! We grabbed food with her parents, who had been visiting for a few days, and crashed (hard) in our hotel near the swankiest of places, Place Vendôme.

The next day we got up surprisingly early (ok, surprisingly not that late) and walked to the Île de la Cité through a gay pride parade and/or techno music festival (we heard conflicting descriptions from natives… maybe there’s not a big difference in Europe?) along the Seine. I showed Blaire the historic English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company–one of my favorite spots in the city as friends of the blog will remember–since she loves literature and is reading A Moveable Feast (she got to the chapter about S&co a few days after).

Then we met up with the Eberts and grabbed lunch on Île de la Cité right across from the Sainte Chappelle, which we proceeded to check out. If you don’t know what this is, definitely check out my post from studying abroad–it’s my second favorite church in the world behind la Sagrada Familia in Barca (and I’m quite the religious architecture nerd). https://asloanineurope.svbtle.com/sainte-chapelle-louvre-gym

That night the Eberts & I grabbed dinner with some of their relatives who were visiting an exchange student they’d hosted, the former student Lola (our age), and friends of theirs at a fun place called the Grand Hotel d'Amour. Blaire and I dipped out early because we had to get up at 5 am (11pm the previous day our time) for a rough day of travel–and it ended up being rougher than we ever imagined!

UPDATE: after getting back from Ireland, we had one night in Paris and grabbed dinner at the little Italian place, near the FIAP, where Danny “big D” Lessig and I would have dates. Unfortunately, Mario (the owner, awesome guy) sold the place and retired… and they no longer serve chianti. Ah well, hopefully Mario is enjoying some well-deserved rest far from any Goombas!