J'amie Paris (The Suburbs)

The overnight bus ride from Amsterdam to Paris was shorter than the London to Paris one. Due to the short trip we arrived in Paris in the wee hours of the morning and I felt like I was in a deserted city. After a trip to Starbucks  the city came alive as everyone headed to work.

After not having a phone for the first 3 weeks of our trip, you would think we would figure out how to communicate with people we are meeting. Nope, we failed again. Our friend in Iceland, Francois invited us to stay with his family in the suburbs of Paris. We planned to meet him at a metro/bus/train stop. We ended up waiting for 2 hours in a metro station, I got asked on a date and we missed our friend who was at the bus stop. Due to the miscommunication, Lynn and I went on a small tour of Paris with our packs and met up with Francois a few hours later. This would not be the end of our lack of phone problems.

Francois was an amazing host! he took us out late at night on a tour of the city and to a local college area. We tried a Quake (type of beer) and delicious crepes. Another night we met up with his friends and went to a grungy bar that reminded me of The Buff. It had writing on the walls and interesting characters... He met up with us after work and took us to the Sacré Cœur Basillica that overlooked the whole city. We drank wine on the steps while talking about our futures and watching the sunset. 

One afternoon, Lynn and I went to have a picnic in the park near the Eiffel Tower. We ended up with 8 euros worth of cheese (because Lynn couldn't decide), a bottle of wine, a baguette and fruit. It was an adventure just gathering the items and thrilling to be able to drink in a park. Apparently if you aren't acting like an idiot it is completely acceptable to drink in public in Europe.

Without a doubt, the best part of our trip was waking up on Saturday afternoon after a late night out and eating lunch with Francois family. They had a 4 course meal complete with a round of cheeses and desserts.it was wonderful to talk with his parents and thank them for letting us stay with them. It was truly a French experience and nice despite the lack of French speaking from us. The end of our adventure in Paris reminded us why we were on this trip in the first place, to learn. It was just what we needed to help us keep going.