Paris, France

This

weekend,

I was so

inspired

by Paris.

What a

fabulous

city.

My first night was less than ideal.  The first thing that happened to me in Paris was that I lost my wallet (or maybe got it pick-pocketed, not quite sure), but it just served as an opportunity to be SO thankful for what I do have:
1. I still have my Passport and Eurail Pass! (by far the most important documents I had with me)
2. I only lost about 50 euro of cash, and still had 100 to use for the weekend that I was keeping somewhere else in my purse!
3. I was able to call the Bank and cancel my bank card before it got used!
4. I was still in Paris with a bunch of my best friends about to have an amazing weekend, so as much as the whole situation sucked, it was impossible not to still count my blessings.
5. I serve a God who provides for all my needs and is way bigger than any travel problems I could have.

After dealing with the wallet situation, we went to a beautiful basilica that I walked around alone in and spent time in prayer and worshiping God.  It was such a beautiful way to spend time in God's presence and praise Him.

We then walked around the flashy, neon, trashy district where Moulin Rouge is, which I did not like very much, but I was content because I stopped in a bakery and got a delicious little chocolate cake thing to cheer myself up from the wallet situation.  So as we walked around, I just happily ate my incredible cake, kept to myself, and did my best to ignore the grossness that was all around me.


We concluded the night with a trip to the eiffel tower, which is way bigger than I ever imagined it!  And it sparkled at midnight, which was an absolutely magical thing to witness.





After my first night, my Paris experience instantly became incredible in absolutely every way.  Here are some of the highlights:

Wandering around the Lourve, enjoying and carefully (mostly incorrectly for fun) analyzing beautiful, famous art after our mad rush for the Mouna Lisa.

Sitting on the bank of the river, on the lock bridge, and outside the Lourve with Thomas and Jaime, just enjoying incredible weather and each other's company, while watching the world go by in a new city.

Walking around Paris with Kristin and Jaime arm in arm, singing, getting makeovers in Sephora, having our sketchy-side-street time, being feminine, running across dangerous streets, getting lost, enjoying the most beautiful
weather we have had this entire trip, shopping for Paris-y articles of clothing,
and being filled with the absolute most pure joy as we explored this beautiful city as three best friends.

For a break from all the walking and wandering Paris, we walked through the center of a museum of modern art where we thought we would find a cafe, and ended up in the most adorable little place ever, which I explained in my journal as:

"this classy Paris skate park by the river where a bunch of parisians were hanging out- guys skating and others sitting and watching. there was a beautiful view of the eiffel tower and in a corner a group of young adults were gathered being super adorable Parisians playing cute music and dancing!  Like partner swing dancing!  It was a such a peaceful site and so happy to experience.  What an incredible life.  And we got to rest our feet!"

Dinner in a non-touristy part of town at an authentic Parisian restaurant, where nobody spoke any english.  It is so nice to escape the tourism and just relax in a slow-paced, local place for a meal.

Norte Dame for mass on Sunday morning was an AMAZING experience.  It was so cool to be a part of a service with people from all over the world, to take communion in a church so rich with history, and to read the English versions of the text as they spoke in French and sang in Latin.  It was a neat reminder of how big and powerful and good our God is!

Here's what I said about Shakespeare's Bookstore in my journal:

"Upstairs is a library of vintage books that you can't actually check out with cute, hipster, happy seating everywhere.  You're supposed to sit up there and read the beautiful  ancient books, so that's what we did.  Kristin and I found an adorable little nook with books all around right by a piano and we sat on the comfy little bench and read love poems to each other out loud.  It was so happy and so much fun!  Reminded us how beautiful love is, and that we deserve something like that!"

Sunday afternoon, Kristin and I had lunch at a cute little cafe, where we sat by a window and read love poems.  Afterwards, we went shopping and got inspired by a little store called Heaven.  Let me explain through my journal entry, once again:

"it was a hand-made, individually-owned clothing store with high end Paris fashion, and we met the owner and her adorable, super french looking puppy.  She said she studied fashion in London, then moved to Paris with nothing but herself and her sewing machine and eventually after many years and hard work, she owned her own place and was making her own clothes.  We told her she was living the dream, and she responded honestly to us saying it's hard work.  Her friend who owns the flower shop down the street came in and they chatted as we looked through her clothes, in awe of her work and her life.  We left with the conclusion that we really could do anything."

As we continued shopping and enjoying the Paris boutiques, and various other activities from starbucks to gelato crapes, we had a strange, inexplicable experience that Kristin explains way better than I ever could in her blog post on Paris which you can find by clicking on this link.  But, basically, there were tons of guys with really nice cameras taking pictures of us, and we had no idea what was going on.  We had to cover our faces, yell at them to go away, refuse photos, and run away like natural celebs.  Afterwards, I think how we were feeling can be summed up in Kristin saying "all my dreams just got twelve times bigger!" because through all our conversations and travels and experiences and particularly this weekend and that moment, we have realized that we can literally do anything and we have our whole lives ahead of us and the world at our fingertips!

So we spontaneously decided to get our hair done as our last thing to do in Paris when we walked by a "coiffeur"!  I got bangs and shorter hair and Kristin got hers dyed darker brown.  The hairdresser spoke no english, so it was kind of frightening letting her go to work with my hair when we had only communicated through hand motions, but it was so much fun and ended up looking so good!  As this trip marks our transition from our teens to our twenties, we decided we wanted to dress and look accordingly.

God blessed me so much on this trip with inspiration, confidence, and an attitude towards life in which I know now that I can truly do anything.  I am just so in love with my life right now and so excited for whatever is going to happen in the rest of it!

J'adore Paris!