Last night at 1:00am my roommates came home. They're from The States. I told them I'd be setting my alarm clock for 8:30 since I'm to meet Jen and her friends at 9:30 at the post office outside the Porte d'Orleans stop on the metro.
I wake up to my alarm at 8 and smash the off button with my hand so it doesn't keep ringing and waking my roommates. It won't turn off so I smash it a few more times before I realize it's the alarm on my watch. Once I realize what's happening (I set two alarms in case one didn't go off) I turn off my watch's alarm. Then my alarm clock starts ringing.
So much for not waking the guys.
I head off to the metro and grab a piece of bread on the way out. After changing trains a few times I pop out of the Porte d'Orleans station and Jen is there waiting.
Probably one of my most successful mornings. All hell didn't break loose when I tried to get somewhere.
We meet up with the two others that are coming to Versailles with us: Greg and Kim. Kim was with us last night at the bar. She's from Chicago. Greg is from Buffalo and goes to Ohio State.
We grab a quick bite to eat before taking the metro to the train station. I grabbed a croissant. My first bite made me salivate. Flakey outside with a warm, soft inside. Every bite was cherished.
We take metro and the train to Versailles. It was an odd route, made inconvenient by the construction on the easiest lines to the station, but with the three Parisian residents with me I just followed along.
The Palace of Versailles is a short walk from the train station we got off at in Versailles. We turn the corner to head up the street and I see it in the distance. It's a massive chateau with ornate gold decoration and a golden gate that bars entry to those without tickets. We paid €25 each to see not only the Palace but the gardens and Marie Antoinette's Estate. We wait in line for an hour to get in and finally we do. We walk all through the Palace, the garden with its massive fountains, and Marie Antoinette's Estate. Towards the end of our stay we decide to go back to their apartments at the university (I'm to use the ATM so Jen stops paying for me), buy wine, go out to dinner, get a beer at the top of Mountparnasse Tower, and then head down to the Seine where we will enjoy the wine.
We walk to the train station and when we get there there are a few trains waiting to head off in different directions so it takes a few minutes for us to figure out which one we need to take. Jen and Kim figure out which train we need and head off to the platform. I start following but Greg is still reading the sign so I shout for him to hurry up and come with us. Kim and Jen are walking down the platform looking for a car that is somewhat empty still. I'm not entirely sure I'll get to the same car as them so I walk close to the train so I can hear the alarm that announces the doors are closing. I hear a quiet buzz already coming from the train and realize that it's the alarm. I dash for the nearest door and grab the handle on the inside of the train. The doors crash shut on me. They make an absolute racket as they shut on me, pause, and continue to shut as I pull my body into the car.
That was close.
I'm not convinced Greg was able to get on a different car behind me, so I start to walk down the train to find Jen and Kim in a car farther up. As I'm walking, the train pulls away from the station and I see Jen and Kim standing out on the platform. I start shouting through the window at them but it's no use, the train had picked up speed and we we are long gone.
I try to retrace our route from this morning, and I'm pretty sure I've half remembered, half figured out how we got to Versailles. The next step is to decide where I should try to wait for them. I figure a station where we needed to change trains would be too risky if they took a different route, so I decide to go all the way back to Porte d'Orleans. I get back and wait outside the station for them. A few minutes later Greg comes out. He had made it on a car behind me and called Jen. She told him I was somewhere on the train so Greg waited at a train switching station for me, couldn't find me, and so he caught a later metro back. We went off to buy wine and met the girls a half hour later back at the dorms.
Jen tells me that Valerie, who was with us at the top of the Eiffel Tower yesterday, is coming to Montparnasse and the Seine. We relaxed a bit then all left for dinner. The five of us sat outside at a restaurant that Jen and Valerie had been to before. I order the smoked salmon taglieatelle that Valerie said she had last time. It's phenomenal. I don't even know how describe how good it is. After dinner Valerie and I hatched a plan to order different deserts and split them with each-other. And a brilliant exchange it was. French toast and molten chocolate cake.
After dinner we walked to Montparnasse tower. It's the only skyscraper in Paris so it has great views. You can pay to take a tour at the top, or you can go one floor lower and have a drink. We were going to do the latter. We ride up the elevator to the 56th floor and immediately we look like a bunch of termites running through the place. Everyone is dressed nice and the receptionist tells us there is a dress code. Pants and closed toed shoes. Jen and Kim will wait at the bottom of the building for us so we can have a quick drink and take pictures. So Greg, Valerie, and I walk back up to the fancy and elegant hostess.
"Trois," says Greg.
"Toilets?"
"No. Trois." he holds up three fingers.
She looks at us confused, then looks at the girls behind us who didn't meet the dress code and are going back down the elevator. She realizes what we did.
"Tres simpa!" she says. You can tell she wants to help us, and she's excited to see that we found a way around the dress code. I later learned simpa is a shorter way of saying simpatique.
She starts to lead us into the bar area of the restaurant but immediately you can tell it's full. It's a small little thing with only a few seats. She asks us to come back but let's me take a photograph of the view of Paris.
Eventually we take the metro to the Seine where they have just dumped tons of sand along the concrete banks to make it seem like a beach. It happens once a year and only for a little while. We open up the wine and sit around until the beach closes at midnight. From there we decide to head to an Irish pub to meet up with others.
After a few hours at the bar, the metro has long stopped running. I plan to walk home, but I want to stay with them until they catch a taxi home. It takes forever to flag down a taxi but eventually they do. The last of the group that I say goodbye to is Valerie, so after we say bye she leaves and runs over to the taxi before it leaves her behind. I start walking home. I only get as far as the other side of the street before I run into Kim.
Shouldn't you be in that taxi?
She had been on the other side of the street trying to get the group a taxi. They must have thought she went home already.
But now she's out at 2am with no money, no French, and her phone is at the apartment.
I can't leave her here.
I tell her I'd get her home but I'd need a place to stay once we got there since I wouldn't want to pay for a taxi back to the Bastille after paying for hers. We agree that I'll sleep on the floor.
It takes a very long time to stop a taxi. It takes even longer to explain where we need to go. No French. I remember the street is jaurdon so he puts rue jaurdon in his gps and we start off. It takes us a while to realize it's the wrong way. We discover it's boulevard jaurdon, not rue jaurdon.
It's an expensive misconception.
We get back and the taxi driver is simpatique. He rounds down our fare to the nearest ten dollars.
Merci.
I ask Kim to hold my sunglasses while I pay for the cab. We get out of the cab and take two steps before she starts screaming. A bird had just pooped all over her hand.
And my Ray Bans.
I wake up to my alarm at 8 and smash the off button with my hand so it doesn't keep ringing and waking my roommates. It won't turn off so I smash it a few more times before I realize it's the alarm on my watch. Once I realize what's happening (I set two alarms in case one didn't go off) I turn off my watch's alarm. Then my alarm clock starts ringing.
So much for not waking the guys.
I head off to the metro and grab a piece of bread on the way out. After changing trains a few times I pop out of the Porte d'Orleans station and Jen is there waiting.
Probably one of my most successful mornings. All hell didn't break loose when I tried to get somewhere.
We meet up with the two others that are coming to Versailles with us: Greg and Kim. Kim was with us last night at the bar. She's from Chicago. Greg is from Buffalo and goes to Ohio State.
We grab a quick bite to eat before taking the metro to the train station. I grabbed a croissant. My first bite made me salivate. Flakey outside with a warm, soft inside. Every bite was cherished.
We take metro and the train to Versailles. It was an odd route, made inconvenient by the construction on the easiest lines to the station, but with the three Parisian residents with me I just followed along.
The Palace of Versailles is a short walk from the train station we got off at in Versailles. We turn the corner to head up the street and I see it in the distance. It's a massive chateau with ornate gold decoration and a golden gate that bars entry to those without tickets. We paid €25 each to see not only the Palace but the gardens and Marie Antoinette's Estate. We wait in line for an hour to get in and finally we do. We walk all through the Palace, the garden with its massive fountains, and Marie Antoinette's Estate. Towards the end of our stay we decide to go back to their apartments at the university (I'm to use the ATM so Jen stops paying for me), buy wine, go out to dinner, get a beer at the top of Mountparnasse Tower, and then head down to the Seine where we will enjoy the wine.
We walk to the train station and when we get there there are a few trains waiting to head off in different directions so it takes a few minutes for us to figure out which one we need to take. Jen and Kim figure out which train we need and head off to the platform. I start following but Greg is still reading the sign so I shout for him to hurry up and come with us. Kim and Jen are walking down the platform looking for a car that is somewhat empty still. I'm not entirely sure I'll get to the same car as them so I walk close to the train so I can hear the alarm that announces the doors are closing. I hear a quiet buzz already coming from the train and realize that it's the alarm. I dash for the nearest door and grab the handle on the inside of the train. The doors crash shut on me. They make an absolute racket as they shut on me, pause, and continue to shut as I pull my body into the car.
That was close.
I'm not convinced Greg was able to get on a different car behind me, so I start to walk down the train to find Jen and Kim in a car farther up. As I'm walking, the train pulls away from the station and I see Jen and Kim standing out on the platform. I start shouting through the window at them but it's no use, the train had picked up speed and we we are long gone.
I try to retrace our route from this morning, and I'm pretty sure I've half remembered, half figured out how we got to Versailles. The next step is to decide where I should try to wait for them. I figure a station where we needed to change trains would be too risky if they took a different route, so I decide to go all the way back to Porte d'Orleans. I get back and wait outside the station for them. A few minutes later Greg comes out. He had made it on a car behind me and called Jen. She told him I was somewhere on the train so Greg waited at a train switching station for me, couldn't find me, and so he caught a later metro back. We went off to buy wine and met the girls a half hour later back at the dorms.
Jen tells me that Valerie, who was with us at the top of the Eiffel Tower yesterday, is coming to Montparnasse and the Seine. We relaxed a bit then all left for dinner. The five of us sat outside at a restaurant that Jen and Valerie had been to before. I order the smoked salmon taglieatelle that Valerie said she had last time. It's phenomenal. I don't even know how describe how good it is. After dinner Valerie and I hatched a plan to order different deserts and split them with each-other. And a brilliant exchange it was. French toast and molten chocolate cake.
After dinner we walked to Montparnasse tower. It's the only skyscraper in Paris so it has great views. You can pay to take a tour at the top, or you can go one floor lower and have a drink. We were going to do the latter. We ride up the elevator to the 56th floor and immediately we look like a bunch of termites running through the place. Everyone is dressed nice and the receptionist tells us there is a dress code. Pants and closed toed shoes. Jen and Kim will wait at the bottom of the building for us so we can have a quick drink and take pictures. So Greg, Valerie, and I walk back up to the fancy and elegant hostess.
"Trois," says Greg.
"Toilets?"
"No. Trois." he holds up three fingers.
She looks at us confused, then looks at the girls behind us who didn't meet the dress code and are going back down the elevator. She realizes what we did.
"Tres simpa!" she says. You can tell she wants to help us, and she's excited to see that we found a way around the dress code. I later learned simpa is a shorter way of saying simpatique.
She starts to lead us into the bar area of the restaurant but immediately you can tell it's full. It's a small little thing with only a few seats. She asks us to come back but let's me take a photograph of the view of Paris.
Eventually we take the metro to the Seine where they have just dumped tons of sand along the concrete banks to make it seem like a beach. It happens once a year and only for a little while. We open up the wine and sit around until the beach closes at midnight. From there we decide to head to an Irish pub to meet up with others.
After a few hours at the bar, the metro has long stopped running. I plan to walk home, but I want to stay with them until they catch a taxi home. It takes forever to flag down a taxi but eventually they do. The last of the group that I say goodbye to is Valerie, so after we say bye she leaves and runs over to the taxi before it leaves her behind. I start walking home. I only get as far as the other side of the street before I run into Kim.
Shouldn't you be in that taxi?
She had been on the other side of the street trying to get the group a taxi. They must have thought she went home already.
But now she's out at 2am with no money, no French, and her phone is at the apartment.
I can't leave her here.
I tell her I'd get her home but I'd need a place to stay once we got there since I wouldn't want to pay for a taxi back to the Bastille after paying for hers. We agree that I'll sleep on the floor.
It takes a very long time to stop a taxi. It takes even longer to explain where we need to go. No French. I remember the street is jaurdon so he puts rue jaurdon in his gps and we start off. It takes us a while to realize it's the wrong way. We discover it's boulevard jaurdon, not rue jaurdon.
It's an expensive misconception.
We get back and the taxi driver is simpatique. He rounds down our fare to the nearest ten dollars.
Merci.
I ask Kim to hold my sunglasses while I pay for the cab. We get out of the cab and take two steps before she starts screaming. A bird had just pooped all over her hand.
And my Ray Bans.
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