March 16, 2000

I am now sitting on the plane leaving France so I have to write my conclusive events and reflections. Yesterday our plan was to be at the Louvre at 9 so that Patty and Minnie can spend as much time as possible there but as you can imagine, that did not happen. We had breakfast at the hostel. They give you a roll and marmalade or laughing cow cheese and orange juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and yogurt. It was cute. We took the Metro to the Louvre and when we got out the station was like a really cool shopping center. Patty and Minnie are both cd crazy so when they saw the Virgin store they ran. We spent so much time in there listening to cd's. Finally we made it into the Louvre. We split up again because that is the best way to get things done. I went and saw the Nike statue, the Mona Lisa, Aphrodite or Venus de Milo right away. Then I was just wandering around and saw a lot of Greek stuff. At one point, I had an emergency bathroom run and spent about 5 minutes in the bathroom. By then it was already time to meet so we went back to the entrance. We said bye to the girls and then gave another meeting time. That time, I tried to go and find the Egyptian stuff but it was closed off. I did see the Code of Hammurabi though. So I decided to just wander around. I found the Napoleonic apartments (which were very exquisite). Then there was this cool courtyard with French sculputres. It was time to meet again so we went outside and saw the pyramid and took some pictures. Joanna and Helen wanted to see the apartments so we went for one last round. I just went anywhere and did not see anything special. there were some people who were painting the painting. Then we decided to leave. I can say we only walked close to a quarter of it and we did a whole lot of walking. You need at least two full days in there to really enjoy everything. I was pretty satisfied with my experience. We started walking towards the Champ de Elysse but we got detoured by a strip of souvenir sops. We kept going from one to the other comparing prices but not really buying because we had seen it for cheaper. We were starving so we stopped at this places that looked like it had a goo dmenu. But the food was crap. I got a vegetable soup which was like eating Ramen noodle broth with pieces of bread and grated cheese. So I got a croque formage so I used it as an opportunity to eat Dijon mustard. Let me not forget to mention how rude the waiters were because they spoke not a word of English and blamed us for it. And we asked for water again and they brought us bottles that we paid 18 france for. It is crazy what water costs in Frence. I wonder if they rare really at such a shortage. And the problem is that we don't know how to order plain tap water. But I was rather upset with the whole meal. I realized that I paid half of what I had paid the night before for crap. So when everyone says that the food is so expensive, I think it is more the little stuff than the actual restaurants. There you feel like you got your money's worth. So then we kept on walking and reached the streets. At first it is just a little park and then all the stores start. Helen had to pee really bad so she stopped at one in the street. It cost 2.7 franc and you had to pay that every time you closed the door. Once we hit the stores we went crazy. There were some really crazy trendy ugly shops. I did not see anything I liked. Then there were a lot of perfume makeup places. I did not think ahead of time that all the big names are from France like Chanel, Lancome and all those. We went into NafNaf and I bought some cute shirt for me and Babs. We found a Zara too and a shirt that was 2000 drachmas in Greece was 60 franc. Go figure. They had a Gap, a Disney Store and a Sephora that Helen went crazy in. We somehow made it tot he end and sat at George V. They made us sit in a straight line. It was so weird. We went to the arch and walked a little past it. We needed more souvenirs and found some stores that were crazy expensive so we decided we should go back to the first strip. I found green apple Mentos which were really good! We took the other side of the street back but it did nto have much. There were  a lot of movie theathers. All of the restaurants were on that side too. Ok this is really scary. We are having really bad turbulence as is evident from my handwriting. I am trying to ignore it. Trying but it is really hard. Joanna is freaking and holding my hand so tight. I am going back to the previous subject. So we all kind of had a sweet tooth I think and we were stopping at every brasserie reading the menu. We got to the end of the street and rode the ferris wheel. Then we tried to go souvenir shopping but they were all closed so we were more or less screwed. We too the Metro back and went to find a place to eat. We tried to find a new one but could not choose. I personally was sick of looking at the same menu and wanted pasta or Chinese. We ended up at Vieuz de Chatele which was where we were the fist night. They let us sit upstairs in the dining area so we had a nice view and we were alone. I got this really damn good tuna salad. And then for dessert I got this cake that was like a pie crust with warm spicy apple cause on top with a scoop of ice cream. I ate like a pig again. By then we were so tired and it was only 10:30. We went home and did not even take a shower. I have not taken one in 48 hours. This morning we woke up and cancelled our plans for crepes. We booked our ass to the airport. We got to this... shit this turbulence is really bad and it is going to continue for another two minutes. I need to pray... It is kind of calm now or I spoke to soon... Let me try and continue. We got to this newsstand that sold a few ugly things so we bought them. I exchanged my money back and took a good loss for it but what could I have done. So we boarded the plane right away and now we are having these problems. right now I honestly can not think to reflect on my experiences of France.