my personal timeline

sunday. a quiet day in parisien life, when all is closed. not a single grocery store was open as we walked around throughout the day!

to be frank, in the morning i felt like crap – i don’t know what’s happening but i think i maybe catching something similar to what karmun has/had. we shall persevere despite that. (and i’m sure it doesn’t help that the night before i got like 6 hours of sleep on our lumpy and uncomfortable mattress. jetlag is messing with my heeeaaad….)

prior to leaving the right bank, we stopped by what essentially was the first coffee/food place we saw, and got a “petit dejeuner”, which translates into orange juice, toast,  and a great coffee. far too expensive, but actually ends up giving you a decent kick/boost to the day.

crossing over the sienne, gazing at the supper sunny louvre, we came up to orsay to find an enormous line. saying “screw this”, we launched into the first attempt to find the luxembourg gardens. it was unsucessfuly as after about an hour of walking we ran into the sienne (you know the area where all the painters/posters/old books are sold? that area, but not as far down as to be near notre dame). as we walked through the vendors, whoops, we ended up essentially back where we started.

at that point we both were pretty tired, and my body rebelled against walking. we sat down at a nearby cafe and spent at least an hour (i think maybe more) just chatting and people watching and slowly nursing our beer and coke (guess who had what ;-) ). the people watching was especially great – we had a nice pair of seats with our backs to the building, and no one in front of us (just the sidewalk/intersection), and so (a) it was safe to lean back; and (b) lots of people passing by meant that we spied on a variety of french women, men and tourists.

after that much needed break we decided to get to the luxembourg gardens.

ooh man, that was an insanely long walk. i’m pretty sure that i’m sick because karmun held out far better than i did. on the way we found a great bakery that was surprisingly open, and they had a great deal – a sandwich and a drink for 5 eu. that’s pretty dang reasonable, especially since the sandwiches were fantastic, and very big. we picked those up and barely completed our walk to the gardens, where we fell down on the basically nearest available bench in order to eat, and relax.

we spent about an hour on that bench, just relaxing, watching people walk by and play tennis. a lot of really adorable french kids were running around and karmun was trying to take photos of them being all cute. i read my book.

after that, again much needed, break we continued to walk through the park to get to the metro – way too exhausted to walk the hour back to the hotel. at the end of the day, we hit home by about 6pm, and i was DYING. everything hurt. the stupid, stupid mattress and the pillow are driving me mad; i feel like i’m the princess and the pea because karmun snoozes throughout the night, making me jealous, where as i toss and turn.

eventually i went down for a nap, getting up at 8:15 – karmun was going to go walk around (its  sunny here until 9:30pm… so 8pm is the greatest hour for photography) – and this should tell you a lot about how crappy i was feeling, i WASNT SURE IF I CAN GO TAKE PHOTOS.

i did get myself out; we did walk around; and i did give up first. she told me upon return that she got some briliant photos of the louvre; and i do not doubt that because the sunsets are magical around here. i just feel bad that im such a party pooper.

i did sleep from about 9-10pm until 7:30am; the problem is that i woke up non stop and still have a headache on morning of day 4.

day 2 started at 12pm by karmun waking me up. she was feeling better, and we fairly efficiently got out and to the nearest cafe to have coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. again, jetlag meant i woke up starving – i dont think i ever wake up THAT hungry.

after a quick non remarkable sandwich and a pretty decent cappuccino off we went – by foot – across the gardens, and to champs d’elysee. what a gorgeous, elegant, lovely street, which made me so freaking paranoid. i’m always freaked out someone will rob me!

on the way there we stopped at the local supermarket, monoprix, where right away i found a pair of perfect beige/white flats for … 20 euro at 50% off. god bless the french sales. awesome shoes, which i wore later that day to dinner – really comfy. i’ll go back and see if i can get the same style in another color – its never bad to have flats on hand..! (especially light soled ones that can be worn on the boat :-) )

anyway, in our walking we walked into zara (karmun put up with my constant whining of “oh its the same thing as north america” – she said “no no, zara is far better in europe” – holy crap she was right). i blatantly, purposefully and desperately ignored all clothing and focused on the mission of the day – shoes. while i found nothing, karmun found the perfect platforms with grey straps. just gorgeous.

of course she was sweet enough to find me a pair in my size so now we have identical shoes in identical sized but holy crap they’re awesome :D

after that, despite a lot of stopping and looking and enjoying ourselves, no further purchases were done until the end when k found 2 tshirts. we stopped for coffee/breaks/etc twice; took a lot of cheesy photos; drank 5 small bottles of water. and i got robbed!

just kidding.

almost.

my pack of … cards … either fell out of my pocket or was swiped. i kept a tight hold on everything else but out of convienience, because everywhere its nice to play… cards … i kept the pack and the lighter (to, you know, light candles) in my pockets. no big loss. i’ll consider it my karma for pickpocketing fulfilled.

i was still mad paranoid – at one point i freaked out someone will swipe my watch. i’m leaving it at home now as to not to freak out!

we got home after a stop at monoprix for more water and to closer examine the clothing available. karmun left sooner due to exhaustion; i looked at everything and it was either my style but not my size or my size but not my style. no big loss because i feel like that area has been “checked off”.

for dinner we just walked around until we totally lucked into a cheap, delicious, french bistro, which had no tourists, no one spoke english, and was very busy. on the way there we passed through the japanese area and also noticed some pretty cheap shoe and clothing stores. coming monday a black adorable dress to an olya near you – i hope!! (and also some cheap stylish flats. i hope. really really!)

after a nice, very reasonably priced, dinner we went home and just chillaxed for about an hour. its hard to believe it is 1:45am right now – i’m still crazy jetlagged i guess! but time for sleep – busy plans for tomorrow. orsay, luxembourg gardens, shopping – if anything is actually open on sunday! – and montemarte in the evening :-)

paris, je t’aime – everything was beautiful. it didn’t rain a drop and was gorgeously sunny instead of the forecasted thunderstorms. and now they’re forecasting sun for the rest of the week. how lucky ARE we?

woke up far too late – jet lag really messing with my head. basically woke up around 6-7pm – don’t really remember, except K still had fever and we weren’t sure how high is it. i got her a thermometer, and turns out the fever was still ~38.6 i think. freaking high. (that’s european i.e. celcius for you american peeps). she went back to sleep and got out while there was daylight – even at 9pm!!

took some photos (nothing yet to post, not the right laptop for processing – no apps on this thing). louvre was bathed in a golden sunset light; people in love walking around everywhere. i missed tim very much. it was really quite weird – i walked around louvre area, crossed the street, and went back into louvre, passing by the same places luke (friend from DA) and i walked 5 years ago. i remember the first time i saw the pyramids i actually had tears in my eyes – it was such a epic moment in my life. walking in the same alleyway as i entered the courtyard first, saxophone playing, was a really pleasant experience.

after walking around some, i decided that its getting closer to 10 and i should eat something. (yes, that’s pretty late, but jetlag and the late daylight REALLY does mess with you head!). kept on walking until i found a place that wasn’t too empty, too busy, and had no “we speak english” on the menu. thankfully they took my (10:30, very late) order – salad and steak, delicious! and of course, a “quartier” – no idea how much it really was, but a small jug-like – of beaujoulais wine. tasty, happy.  ate my dinner, read my book, and chatted a bit with some nice people in the tables near me. nothing special and yet so amazingly special.

eventually it was time to go – 11pm, it was getting dark. i took my sweet time stumbling back over the night parisian streets – people hanging out. i think jetlag helped me not freak out that i was walking by myself at what essentially ended up being 1am. when i reached out apartment, i found another open bar, sat for about 30 minutes more drinking more wine and reading my book, and then back to sleep.

or so i thought. the computer/jetlag meant i fell asleep at 6am, and woke up at 12pm. not so bad all things considered (i.e., well, falling asleep at 6am).