Week One in Paris

Hello! Bonjour! Salut!

I have made it to Paris! I've spent some time becoming accommodated with my surroundings, and I think I finally grasp what each day has in store for me here. I've also done enough living to provide some updates finally!

I'm staying a bit out of the city center (a 20-minute train ride from the Paris Saint-Lazare station), which is very lovely for a lazy day although there are a few lessons to be learned:

1. A 5 euro train ticket to get to and from Paris is NOT awesome! Grace (my sister) and I have done our best at foregoing train fares as the security is rarely around, but yesterday they were extra persistent and despite my powers of persuasion, I paid the 60 euro fee. oops! Won't happen again, Dad. Swear.

2. Once Grace is back in Scotland, I intend to spend more time closer to the city center and make friends with other travelers/locals. The trains are down 1-5 am, so if I find myself having too good of a time at a fun new bar, I'm sort of out of luck.... no uber either!! A lesson to myself on proximity, I think.

3. Weigh and sticker your produce before heading to check-out at the grocery store. Obviously.... I guess. Not specifically related to my location, but an important cultural note nonetheless.

Enough of that, though. Grace and I have been up to a lot, so I'll give a short rundown of where we've been showing our faces.

The first couple days we spent figuring out the metro system, which is honestly not horrible as I've already got it down! We went to the Notre Dam, Shakespear and Co. (naturally, because yanno... Grace.), Musee D'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, and a few small stops here and there.

The 11th was Grace's birthday, so I treated her to a visit to Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, France! Very beautiful, of course, and very hot outside. I'm not a fan of the states, but I find myself missing ice cubes and air conditioning more than ever before. After our trip to visit Monet, we had a delicious dinner on the Seine.

Yesterday we went to Versailles. Another beautiful location, yet we found ourselves going in circles trying to find the King of France's quarters (who knew a guy needed so many bedrooms?). And eating 25 euro finger sandwiches. Very royal. It was here that I noticed my French is starting to come back to me! One woman even said she thought I was French by the way I introduced myself. Score!

Tomorrow is our day at the Louvre. Not much is planned until day-of, so I have little to say on that. Grace, however, is leaving the 18th, so I'm sure she'll want to get all the big touristy things out of the way before heading out. I'm anticipating a lot of being told what things are despite my ability to read signs for myself. Older sisters, amirite.

With all the heat (and my distaste for it), I'm starting to think that my next destination needs to be one with a pool. And pool-side drink service. And maybe a few more people that aren't my sister. Croatia maybe? Portugal? I'll be doing some research tonight to narrow my options, but definitely somewhere I can cool off for a few days.

a tiny note: ignore the lack of accents on french words, my U.S. keyboard doesn't come with those fun features, and I'm a bit too unbothered to figure out how to make accents work right now.

I think that's the majority of life here so far. I'll keep updated, of course.

Au revoir!

Liv