Girl Meets World: Eat. Pray. Metro.

It's Tuesday night here and I'm finally getting around to blogging about my weekend (while frantically chasing Josh all around the house; I've never been much of a multi-tasker but I'm learning quickly). First weekend in the books and it was a definite success! After my fun-filled Friday night watching the two younger boys, I had plans to meet up with Leslie at her house Saturday morning but apparently my REM cycle had others. I was pretty convinced I had fully adjusted to the time difference. However, when I woke up at noon on Saturday, the verdict was back out.

I was able to meet up with Leslie and her friend from college, Nicole, who was in town visiting from London. Having Nicole here was great timing. Since she had never been to Paris, she wanted to see as much as she could on her limited timeframe. We chose to walk around Montmartre which is a really neat area up on a high hill that over looks all of Paris. It is known as an artsy area of Paris and the main attraction there is the Sacre Coeur (a Roman Catholic church from the 1800s). Before entering the church, there are large sets of stairs that are popular to sit on and admire the view. Saturday, we were lucky enough to admire a professional soccer player as well! He stood on top of a small pilar and did all sorts of tricks. He was SO talented and definitely a hit (check out the pic of him below). While hanging out on the steps, the three of us were accompanied by another American au pair, Jennifer and a German au pair, Isabel. Both of them are really great and it's nice starting to know others. When we went into the church, like most things in Paris, it was breathtaking. Walking around inside was a true joy. Right when you walk in, I was able to light a candle as a "light to your faith" and a prayer for God to always protect you. These small candles light a majority of the church, and at 2 euros a pop, probably do some financial good besides just honor our Lord :) But what the heck, I thought that would just be the cherry on top to the two blessed rosary's Grandma Shirley gave me, dad's old St. Christopher, and my new St. Christopher my mom got for me.

Once we finished walking around the Sacre Coeur (which still holds services every Sunday), we walked to a local Cafe (but not before just HAVING to have a crepe from a passerby window shop). We ended up at Cafe les Deux Moulins where the movie Amelie was filmed. I've never seen the movie, but I definitely will need to now! We continued our walk down to THE Moulin Rouge. I have to admit, it's not as magnificent of a sight compared to most places in Paris, but cool nonetheless. After posing for a picture, Isabel and Jennifer had to head back. Leslie, Nicole, and myself then took the metro over to the Musee d'Orsay for a failed attempt to walk around that museum due to the fact it was already 5:30 and doors close at 5. After metro-ing ALL around Paris to find Nicole a damn macaron (another failed attempt), we ended up at Shakespeare & Co... way cool! The famous British book store is shockingly easy to spend an hour in considering how small it is. I decided it was time for my first purchase and I saw it fitting that it be Ernest Hemmingway's "A Moveable Feast" (which I considered titling this post because we ate at so many different cafe's and brasseries). One cool thing about this purchase and at this store is that they stamp every book bought here with their logo as a souvenir. Once leaving Shakespeare & Co, you guessed it, we ate. One thing I love about eating in Paris is that I could tell you a cool story about each and every place I've ate at, the history is so interesting! Right next to Shakespeare & Co is the Notre Dame so we chose to grab a cafe (coffee) at "Le Notre Dame" brasserie. Sitting in a window booth, sipping on a cafe creme, people watching in front of the Notre Dame, chatting it up with Leslie and Nicole... life is good.

Earlier that day we decided we were going to check out this bar called Harry's which is famously known for being the "American bar of Paris." I don't know who gave them that title because that couldn't have been farther from the truth. We walked in to this closet, I mean small bar and didn't hear a lick of English. Within the 5 steps we took to get to the back of the bar, we quickly turned around and went to plan B. We again took the Metro to meet up with Isabel and a few other German au pairs. The party was on a big boat, on the Seine, over looking the spectacular lit up Eiffel Tower. On our way there, the three of us discussed staying for a drink or two then heading home. After all, it was already midnight. Before we knew it, it was 4 am and we were dancing the night away.

Sunday morning hit me like a ton of bricks as we woke up at Leslie's house as I thought to myself, not even in San Diego do I stay up that late (most the time..)! Apparently that's the way it works over here... not sure if I'll ever get used to that, especially having to be in "mom mode" come Monday morning. I finally met Leslie's host family.. Their mother Ann and my host mom, Sadia, went to a really prestigious business school together so that's how our two families know each other. Thank goodness for brainiacs like them, otherwise I would have never met Leslie!

We said our hello's, ate a crossant, and headed back into Paris. We only had a few hours before Nicole had to take the Eurostar back to London. First on the list... get the girl a macaron! We ended up at Angelina's (where we had lunch on Friday) to pick a few up then headed over to Starbucks for a coffee. As I mentioned earlier, Starbucks sells pancakes. On Sunday I found out that they also sell french toast! And it's surprisingly delicious! Latte, french toast, macaron... breakfast of champions.

Once finished there we had to part ways but agreed that we'd figure out a weekend soon that Leslie and I could come visit. Most likely that will be sometime in May because I figured that would be too much to cram into my month of April where I will be in Barcelona for Easter, followed by going to my host family's other house in Britnay (West France), then spending a week in Rome :) ... got to have something to look forward to, right?

I have been looking online for some sort of American church around here and found a seemingly promising one located close to the heart of Paris, right on the Seine. It's cleverly called "The American Church of Paris" and is a interdenominational Christian church. On Sunday I went to their 1:30 service and really enjoyed their band, the pastor, and the sermon. I already met a few people my age and definitely will be going back!

As you can tell, it was a fun-filled, busy busy weekend. It took sleeping all day Monday to feel back in the swing of things (but so worth it). Here are some pictures from the weekend...