Paris, je t'aime

You could probably say that Paris was my first love.  It is the first big city that I visited outside the United States, and I fell in love with it right away.  The streets, the food, the sights, and so much more have drawn me back to this city over the years.  A lot of people like to make fun of me for loving Paris, but all I have to say to them is "Haters gonna hate."

This past Sunday, Mike and I caught the Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris. The ride was about three and a half hours long, which wasn't horrible and before we left, we hit up a small market to get some food for our trip.  Cheap and delicious. 

When we got off the train in Paris at Gare du Nord, I was expecting to see our family friend, Danièle, waiting for us.  But to my utter surprise, it wasn't Danièle who first greeted me and Mike, but rather her daughter and my friend, Marianne.  Marianne is currently living in London and flew in for a few days.  She and her mother kept it a secret from us, which made for a great surprise. And I was so happy that we were going to be able to spend some time with her. 

After arriving at our apartment and catching up at a cafe over a coffee, we decided to walk around Paris.  We had a great time wandering around aimlessly.  It was important to Mike to see the less touristy areas of Paris, and I think we accomplished that. 

After our dinner that evening at a creperie across from the Centre Pompidou, Danièle and Marianne headed back home but Mike and I decided to keep on wandering the city.  After looking for a place to grab a drink (which is surprisingly hard to do on Sundays because so much is closed) we settled on a cafe that faced Notre Dame.  While the drinks were not cheap, being able to look across the bank at one of Paris' most famous landmarks was worth it.

Not Notre Dame, but pretty nevertheless.

During our many talks, Danièle said that if we wanted to see something outside of Paris that we could because she has a car.  The next day, we decided to go to Provins, which will be my next entry.  Stay tuned!