I will go ahead and preface this blog post by saying that it is Bethany writing. I am flying solo on this one, so bare with me! Patricia got up today at the crack of dawn and is headed to a wedding in London! I am sure a blog post about that will be headed your way when she returns.
Well, we have been living in our apartment for about a month now and so far we have had visitors for about 3/4 of that time. We like to compare ourselves to a local "Hostel," except for it is free and you don't have to share a room with a 60 year old Polish dude named Alfonz. But really, it has been so refreshing having new faces come in and out of our time here and it is great to be surrounded by little pieces of home.
Our first visitor was Georgia Pearce, one of our other roomies at Texas A&M. She was traveling with her family and decided to pop on over to Paris to spend some time with us! Thankfully, Patricia and I had opposite schedules so at least one of us got to hang with George at all times! We went on runs, walks, shopped, went sight-seeing, drank, and had a blast.
Here we are at one of our favorite bar spots called Dernier Metro. It is close to the shop so lots of people go there after work. It has great authentic French food, cheap beer, and the people who work there are so nice! (which is rare to find here in Paris, let me tell you)
The Metro is slowly becoming one of our best friends. More like a friend that we are really close to, but don't like spending time with and sometimes really hate. It costs close to $2 for every Metro ticket that you buy, which is A LOT. Also, its dark and the recirculated air is really bad for your pores. Anyways, it gets you from point A to point B, so who's complaining. However, I will say it is way more enjoyable when you get to ride the Metro with fun people like these girls! CHI-O till we DIE-O...can I get a hootie hoo?? I believe we were leaving a very nice French dinner at one of Katy and Sebastian's favorite places. Georgia tried Foie Gras and Escargot that night, proud moment.
One of my favorite memories of having Georgia here was the night we got caught in the rain. Allow me to pan out the scene: We were in the apartment and were craving something sweet so we walked around the neighborhood trying to find a bakery or something that would satisfy this itch. All the while the clouds were doing funky things and it started getting dark. We finally settle for two 8 Euro pints of ice cream (yes, folks, that is about $22 worth of ice cream). As we are walking back from this shop about a half mile away, the heavens open up and it was like someone just dumped a bathtub of water directly on us. Picture two American girls (in flip flops and v-necks) barreling down a Parisian street laughing so hard and trying to stay upright while sprinting all at the same time. It was incredible. Here we are once we finally made it back. Thanks George for that memory! (and yes, the ice cream was worth it)
Once we said bye to Georgia, we got two new visitors! Audrey (one of Patricia's besties from home) and Lacey (one of Audrey's friends she met while studying abroad). They were on vacation from their study abroad program in Florence and we were so blessed that they could come to Paris! I felt like I was working a lot of the time they were here, but I know they got to go to tons of Museums like the Louvre and Musee D'orsay and they also got to meet a ton of the people we work with!
And, obviously shopping was on the t0-do list! Here the three girls are at Champs Elysees, one of the best streets to shop down! The cool thing about this street is it connects Arc de Triumph to Place de Concorde, to the Tuileries Gardens, to the Louvre. All of those things are in one perfect line!
Here are Patricia, Audrey, and our other friend Baby Jack. He is a guide at Fat Tire and one of the funniest guys we have met. This picture was taken at the Moose, one of our favorite bars. It is a Canadian bar and English is spoken there (now you know why we like it so much!) Also, we get killer discounts on the drinks, which is always a plus!
One of the last nights Audrey and Lacey were here we went to this great French restaurant called Chez Gladines. There was a hefty wait, but the food was totally worth it. We all split a phenomenal salad and escargot, duh. For our meals, everyone accept Lacey (vegetarian) got duck! Who knew I would become such a fan of duck since being over here! Anyways, it was a great dinner with great company and such a success! Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but I had to try and capture some of what we ate that night.
So we said "Bon Voyage" to Audrey and Lacey and "Bienvenue" to Veronica and Brittany! We loved having the two of them stay with us, they were such peaceful sleepers and easy going guests. Neither of them had seen the Eiffel Tower so it was such a fun thing to be able to walk them to it for the first time! Here we are at the beginning of possibly the most epic picnic ever.
Soon after that, the boys came! It was Ben, Andrew (Peaches), Chad (Brittany's BF), and Cameron (one of other friends who is traveling Europe this summer). All of which are Aggies! So basically we had a Hullabaloo kind of time (bahah, I crack myself up). Here are the girls in front of the Eiffel Tower when it was starting to light up. Again, pardon the awful quality.
Lastly, one of my other most favorite memories so far has been our dinner to the Refuge (a Fondue place). I would roughly compare the size of this restaurant to a shoebox. Kid you not. So, my knees were basically in my chest the whole time, but thats okay because it is all about the experience, right? One of the most unique parts of this restaurant is you are given wine in baby bottles! It was such a sight seeing everyone suck on baby bottles while cooking their meat for dinner. We had a blast that night and made memories I definitely wont forget!
So, ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry for the extremely long blog post. I guess this is what happens when you sit Bethany in front of a computer screen for too long. I hope you have enjoyed it and it has been a blast reliving all of our visitors and the good times we got to share with them in the wonderful city of Paris!
