the tower, my first night in pari. it was glorious, not too cold, i wasn't quite delirious from jetlag (yet) and i was in... paris!! the city of light, the city in all the movies, the city of...well, it was great to be there, i'm glad to have seen it and i do love parts of it, but...all in all, i think once in paris was enough. unless someone pays me, or someone i really love is wants me to go with them, i think i saw enough of it. bonjour, pari. au revoir, pari.
don't get me wrong. i had a great time. any city in europe, any time with renza, is a great time. our first night, we went to this restaurant, where one chef - phillipe - is the waiter, maitre'd, bartender, and chef. it was delicious and so funny (the restaurant only seats 22 people) and he called renza and i his girlfriends and invited us behind the counter. (unprovoked, i promise)
saint chapelle, on our second try to get in, was lovely. so awesome. i can't beleive that for so many generations kings and queens actually believed that they were better than other people and that God was telling them they were above the peasants. but their chapel was beautiful - this is from the david and goliath sequence. 
have i told you about renza's dual personalities yet? okay. i didn't quite figure it out til switzerland, but in france AND switzerland, renza and i would have short conversations that she wouldn't remember later. i assumed she was awake, because she was TALKING, but she never recalled the convos.
have i told you about renza's dual personalities yet? okay. i didn't quite figure it out til switzerland, but in france AND switzerland, renza and i would have short conversations that she wouldn't remember later. i assumed she was awake, because she was TALKING, but she never recalled the convos. for example, while she was sleeping, i got up from our "rest time" when we arrived in switzerland and was going to walk by the river. i asked renza if she wanted to come, and she said she was too tired and "in for the night." but it was 7 p.m. and i knew i wouldn't sleep through the night, and i told her this. "its okay, i could sleep til tomorrow for sure." so i got dressed to go. as i was leaving her a note, she woke up.
"where are you going?" she wanted to know.
"to explore down by the river, i'll be back in probably an hour."
"what? no! i wanna come! i'm ready! i'm ready!"
"um, you just told me less than 10 minutes ago that you wanted to sleep."
"what? no i did not! what are you talking about? i'm up! i'm ready! let's goooo switzerland!"
a similiar situation occured in paris. and two days in a row in swiss. so then it dawned on me... there were two of her. "ren" who likes to sleep, and rest. understandable, that's fine. but there's a time for play. enter "za." she likes to jazz it up, full speed ahead, va va voom, you get the picture. i love "ren" and "za" equally, there's a time for rest and a time for napping. i'm just glad i figured this out early on so that i could talk to "ren" and "za" at the appropiate times.
this is renza, both personalities present. we're in the great hall at the opera house, which was beautiful and huuuuge. its the place that inspired "the phantom of the opera." its inspiring.
we had lunch at this place...we speak no french. they spoke no english. but the decorations were cute.
montemart is a sketchy area, fo sho. renza and i practically ran away from creepsters boozin' it up on the steps of the basilica. which is beautiful on the inside, and really cool.that's paris in a nutshell.
oh, gosh, i almost forgot. parisian men like to make weird noises to let you know they think you're attractive, interesting, something. We were meowed out. Literally, a dude meowed at each of us. And someone else made burping noises and then whistled and said something in french. We laughed a lot in Paris. We strolled by the river, we drank a little wine, (renza actually broke the pitcher at our restaurant. we tried to find jazz but settled for street parties and nutella crepes instead. we ate a lot of bread. we climbed to the top of the Arc D' Triumphe and rode to the top of the Eiffel.
It was a great city to kickstart the trip, and... the accents. Oh, the accents. You cannot exaggerate the French accent enough, what with the "viola!" here and the "excuse e moi" there and the "bonjour!" every five seconds. I thank Gustave Eiffell for the Tower, which I loved, and the city of Paris, for the memories, all of which I also love.
Bonsour, good night, dear reader. and, of course, merci beacoup.
No comments:
Post a Comment