Paris, Revisited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BKGS2hNp-o (Musical inspiration and thematic relevance?)

Let me jump back in time for a minute. I know I just posted a couple of things from Digne, but I haven't quite settled in there fully. So the whole "Yay I'm here! Look at my new home!" post is yet to come. It's not easy to...to try to be a real person, a normal person, in a tiny town in France. I am, and will forever be, the token American. I'm just trying to feel comfortable, and above all to make a few (just a few!) connections with people. Real French people. That's the dream.

But I digress.

Post Hutcheson roots tour, things ended up falling into place beautifully, in that I was able to get a Eurostar from London to Paris, spend a few days there ALL BY MYSELF, and then meet up with one of my very best friends in the whole wide word, AnneBAM! You may recognize her from this blog, since she is my twin and kindred spirit, whom I met during my semester in Paris. So it was truly wonderful that we were able to spend a weekend in Paris. It's funny, because before saying goodbye in 2013, we would muse about a reunion in France, and then it became a reality. I truly never would have predicted that.

En gros, my time in Paris was fantastic. It is so nice to be able to arrive in one of the biggest and most-visited cities in the word, and immediately know the language, know the sites, know the culture. I never feel out of place there--though that's not to say that I don't feel my foreign-ness. But this time, it felt a little bit like coming home. That being said, I was surprised by some "firsts" experienced there, in the place I thought I knew so well. Namely...

**Note: My first stay in a hostel! Somehow, through a whole semester abroad, I got away with staying in cheap hotels, with friends, or with Couchsurfers. I have to admit that I was anxious, but curious: I couldn't wait to experience my first hostel! It was good to be in Paris though, because at least it was a familiar place. I stayed in 2 hostels in Paris (The St. Christopher's Gare du Nord hostel by myself, and BVJ-Louvre Fri-Sun. with Anne). Both were great!**

Another beautiful run in Paris, which remains one of my favorite places to pound the pavement, despite some cold looks and the inevitable tourist-dodging

I was lucky enough to arrive in Paris on a Wednesday night, allowing me to visit my favorite Thursday morning markets! This is marché Bastille.

Post market picnic lunch, in front of the Eiffel Tower. Look closely!

Hostel friends! I stayed in a 10-bed female-only dorm at the St. Christopher's Gare du Nord hostel in Paris, and it was just a room full of female empowerment: I was SHOCKED by the number of solo female travelers, just like me, who were brave enough to take on Paris! I really admired them. In this picture, I took Canadian Lyrica and Australian Ellen out to dinner at a tiny Moroccan place nestled in the streets beside the Sacre-Coeur, when they requested a meal off the beaten track. Go girls go!!

Here's a way to walk off mounds of cous cous: walk a million steps, and take in one of the most beautiful churches at night. I was surprised to experience another Paris first at this moment: Sacre-Coeur at night! I have never been there at such a late hour (nearly midnight?) because my friends and I didn't go out in Montmartre and it would be a little sketchy for me to venture there alone. Turns out, the youths congregate on the steps to drink and bavarder. The cornucopia of beer bottles lined up next to the overflowing trash cans serves as proof.

Um...shall we count an Australian-led hostel striptease as another Paris first? No comment. No wait, just one: it was great.

Another Paris first: a boat tour! I felt a bit touristy (which I think is why I never did this before...I was also probably too poor while i was living there), but it was great. Got a little sun, learned some things, and saw a whole new view of my city. For example, this statue below one of Paris' many bridges, which used to be used to gauge the Seine's water level--I NEVER would have known it was there! (P.S. fun fact: in 1910 the water was up to his neck).

Seine-side sunbathers, seen from the boat.

On Saturday, AnneBAM (angel that she is) let me make us brunch reservations at my pick, Chez Casimir. It interested me for 2 reasons: 1) same owners as Chez Michel, a restaurant which is apparently beautiful and is featured in many of my Paris food guides, but is a little out of my price range, and 2) it's literally next to the apartment building where I lived during study abroad. We NEVER went to chez moi for anything (NEVER) so it was very gratifying to come back to Paris and find ourselves headed towards Poissonière/Gare du Nord. Tenth arrondo, WADDUP!

The view from our sidewalk table at brunch- my church!

The brunch appetizers spread, à volonté aka buffet style! Let me just draw attention to the hunk of beurre in the middle. I may have gone back multiple times just for more butter. It takes like salty heaven. 

Côtes du Rhône in the 5th, comme d'hab. Anne and I sought shelter from the rain (the sun left us midway through the weekend, unfortunately) on a stoop next to the Panthéon, to the amusement of an apartment full of young people watching us from above.

Classic Paris, Smiley Anne