Yaya! Free day! We slept in till noon today. Walking around Paris has become something of a novelty: you don't have to spend money or go to a tourist attraction to really soak all of Paris up.
So we walked and did a mild bit of shopping. Certainly not very ernest of us. We walked from Notre Dame to the Louvre and then back to the Marais.
The girls went on to window shop whist I went and had a late lunch with my new Parisian friends: Thomas and Tim. Those two are a couple: Tim lives in Switzerland and is here in Paris often and Thomas is a restaurant owner up by the Sacre Cour. Either way, having lunch with them in that cute little cafe in the middle of the Marais was probably my most real moment on the trip: I felt like I was actually living there.
Sure, hauling my laundry a few blocks away the day before made me feel like a native, but really dining with friends like some scene out of "Sex in the City" was pretty awesome.
The food in Paris is so bloody incredible. In London, it was hard just to even get a side salad with greens other than iceberg lettuce. The 3 food groups for British people are beer, fried food, and the lard they cook it in! The French, artists in everything, use all the finest, freshest ingredients in making their food. Everything is fresh with no preservatives and tastes incredible. I literally had one of the best panninis of my life at that little cafe!
Tim and I agreed to meet up later to go dancing. I said my "au revoir" to my Parisian Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda and went on my way-- walking along the Seine river as I made my way back 'home'.
I hardly got back to the hotel before turning right back around and leaving again with Rachel and Mikey.
Rachel wanted wine and Mikey wanted smokes, so I went with them. We ended up walking and talking for over an hour before finally getting back to our hotel.
Several of my classmates were down in the lobby at the internet table checking up on their Facebooks, uploading pictures, checking in with family, and making preparations to come back to the real world in 2 days.
TWO DAYS! I cannot believe tomorrow is our last full day in Paris! Ugh, Im going to miss it and the peops on this trip.
London was this beautiful city with lots of tourist attractions and rat racy. Paris just has this magical aspect to it. So much of their fences and rooftops are adorned in gold. The architecture is old-medieval meets modern. Parisian culture is one of having beautiful everything: beautiful people, beautiful clothes, beautiful architecture, beautiful food. I feel like in London, we were always looking for something to do. What attraction to visit next. Here in Paris, your way finds you. Life finds you. Walking down the street or along the river in Paris can be an adventure.
It felt a little weird getting ready to go out with none of my classmates, but I think I needed to be alone with my friends. The only other gay guy on the trip, Andrew, has been a complete pill and just the bane of my existence. We got into a fight last night about who gives what to charity. Stupid shit. I wouldn't have even bothered arguing with him had he not always been such a fucking know-it-all that I just had to pick his argument apart. So I was very grateful to meet Tim and Thomas, and even more grateful that Tim asked me to go out tonight. We met up at the same club we had met originally at in the Marais.
It was fun, but not too much dancing, so Tim asked if I really wanted to go dancing. I, of course, said yes!
We went to this club at about 2 in the morning that was supposedly open until 8 am. This place looked like an old mansion converted into a circuit dance club. The music was super house music with a dash of French and perfect. The bars were open the entire time, so when Timmy and I weren't dancing our asses off, we were getting another drink. We danced and danced for hours. I'm telling you: one of the best parts about going to Europe is being able to dance in clubs until the sun comes up! I was so sweaty by the time we left at around 5:30 in the morning.
