Paris 19th-21st June 2009

Hello world, its me Elise. Yes, I still exist, though its hard to believe.
WOW... where do I start? It's been a crazy few weeks. This blog entry I shall write about Paris I think. It seems like a lifetime ago, but really, it was only 2 weeks ago.

First of all, I had no intention of going to Paris until at least the end of the year. I have been there once before (During my Sept 08 trip) so was in no hurry. However, one night, Audrey from SGP came on Skype and asked if I was doing anything on the weekend of the 19th June, if not would I be interested in visiting Paris. Audrey was going to be in the big scary city for something on the Friday & thought she'd make a weekend of it if I came over. So I thought what the hell, why not. I have a really bad habit of agreeing to things and thinking about it later Lol...
I became really excited that I was finally going to meet Audrey, someone I'd known thru SGP for months now. Audrey also asked Marion if she'd like to come, and she did! So the three of us took over Paris for a weekend. I am going to miss out alot of the small, funny details I'm sure because I've left it so freakin' long to blog (work sucks!!)... but here goes.

The decision to tackle Paris was made about 2 weeks before the actual departure date (the beginning of our unorganisation lol). I booked my train tickets & couldn't sleep I was so excited. A few hours later I realised I didn't have my passport. It was in the mail on its way to the DVLA (Driving & Licence Authority) in WALES as I needed to provide it as ID to exchange my Australian licence for a UK one. The papers warned it could take up to a month to be returned, it had been about 10 days. SHIT. So we were unsure as to whether or not I'd actually make it until 3 days before I was due to leave when my passport arrived in the mail box. Thank freakin' christ!

Friday 19th June
The day begun bright and early, as it does every Friday - at 6:30am.
Got up, did the kids breakfast-school-clean house thing then decided I should probably pack seeing as I had to leave home about 1:30pm to get to the Eurostar train station in time. What a trek! I caught a taxi to the local train station, a train to London Paddington, the Underground tube to Kings Cross and then the Eurostar train to Paris!
The train pulled into Paris and I text Audrey saying I was the girl in the green hat. One of the first comments I got from Audrey & her friend Julie were that my hat wasn't technically green Lol... It was so nice to be with people who could understand the signs (in French) and understand me (speaking English). I finally felt less anxious about the trip.
We went and bought some metro tickets and caught the metro to a station where Audrey picked up a billion more of her luggage bags (ok so it was two but I got great pleasure in tormenting her about the amount of stuff she brought for a weekend! ;)
We then made our way to the hostel where I was staying for the night. I got my room key/card and headed up to see where I was staying. A 4 bed dorm room with only one person in there, who was asleep... Yay! So we headed out. We went to Audrey's friend Julie's boyfriends best friends place (catch that??) and then headed out. I got a real taste of French culture as we sat by the river, everyone ate and drank & made amazing music til almost 2am when we had the leave as the last metro train was due to depart. I wasn't hungry at all so didn't eat but Audrey kept saying that they weren't trying to poison me & that it WAS safe to eat. Audrey & Julie walked me back to my hostel, past the house that had a bunch of cops investigating a party and I got back to my room about 2:30am. I somehow got lost trying to find what floor my room was (The fact the room number was 630 meant nothing to me... turns out my room was on level 6 Ssssh!) I fell asleep pretty damn quick as I'd been awake about 19/20 hours and had been in two countries that day.

Saturday 20th June
The next morning I was up bright and early. Had breakfast and then waited on the front steps for Audrey & Julie.
Marion had apparently arrived so we headed of to the metro to find her. We went up to a cafe near the Sacré-Cœur and had coffee. Well the girls had coffee, I had my coke. We all needed a bit of a caffeine fix!
Julie had to head off, so Audrey went with her to see her off. Marion and I walked up the million stairs and barged past the 30 of so men trying to put thread bracelets on our arms & went inside the church.
WOW, I was blown away. It was so so beautiful inside. I can't even begin to explain how amazing and beautiful the stained glass windows were. I had no words.
The view from the top of the steps is amazing. You can see over a huge part of Paris, its a surreal feeling. We stopped mid way down the stairs to watch a very talented man play the harp. The music was so beautiful & I was enjoying just taking in my surroundings while talking to Marion. I just couldn't believe I was in PARIS!

We grabbed some lunch and then headed for the Louvre where we were to meet up with Audrey. I was so excited that I was going to the Louvre! Marion & I got our tickets and headed inside. Seeing so many sculptures and paintings I never dreamt of ever seeing was amazing. I was mesmerised... I was so shocked when I saw the Mona Lisa though as its so SMALL to what I had imagined. I have seen it on TV for the past 21yrs and it looked so big so to see it in person, wow. I am using the words Wow, amazing & beautiful alot because I just can't find any words to describe how magically the whole Paris experience was for me.
Went to the gift shop, took a good 20 minutes to decide what to buy then we headed out to the grass to have a drink to fill in some time. A Polish lady approached us and asked if Marion would come over to her group and take a photo for them! Was very random, but they seemed like a lovely group of people celebrating!

It was then time to bid Audrey farewell for the day. Marion's brother SOO kindly offered to let me stay at his house on the Saturday night so we caught our trains to his house. I had such a fun night.
First of all, I have to say that Marion has THE cutest niece in the whole entire world. She is too adorable for words!!! I could not stop laughing at the little cutie!Her nephew is also sooo adorable but he was quite sleepy when I saw him.
We spent the night talking, eating & laughing at Marion as she started speaking French to me and English to her family (Lol Sorry Marion!). I had alot of fun but was soooo tired. I finally went to bed about midnight & was asleep straight away again.

Sunday 21st June

Sunday morning I was awoken by the sound of Marion's cute nephew playing wide awake in his room next to the one I was staying in. There's nothing quite like waking up to the sound of a toddlers laughter! Sets the mood for the day. Marion's brother drove us to the train station and we headed back into the city.
We headed to Père Lachaise Cemetery first thing. I found it really fascinating. Well as fascinating as a cemetery can be? I hate cemeteries, I'll be honest but this one was ok. I had never seen anything like it. We walked around for a couple of hours, lost. Audrey saved the day but going back to the front gate and getting a map (I'll love you forever for that Audrey!). We headed up to where Jim Morrison is buried. It was so strange, to have heard of such a great musician & to have listened to his music and then to visit his final resting place. It's a really simple grave which you would walk past without realising if it weren't for the small crowd that forms around it. A music legend.

After leaving the cemetery, we went for some lunch. I sat there dumbfounded as usual as the waiter asked for our orders and I sat there just starring at him. I don't speak french at all! After lunch we headed to the Eiffel Tower. Wow, it brought back memories of my visit from last year. Up until this point everywhere I had been was new to me... but the Eiffel Tower seemed familiar. It's a very strange feeling when a girl from the suburbs of Sydney, Australia feels familiar with the Eiffel Tower. We took some photos and had a walk around. Went off to Champs-Élysées and took some more photos.
When there we went to an ICE CREAM RESTAURANT! I had never heard of such a place and was like a little kid at Christmas, I was SO excited Lol. Such yummy ice cream it was too. We wrote on our postcard we bought earlier and then headed to the Disney store. My family would be so proud, I didn't buy ANYTHING. It's the first time I have stepped foot in the Disney store and not bought anything. It was so hard but I did it!
Back on the metro we saw a guy come on and do a really random puppet show, which music & all. I was quietly amused! Before long, it was time for us to part ways :( Audrey & I saw Marion off, then Audrey came with me to the Gare du Nord train station before heading off to catch her own train home.
I went through customs, passport control & security before boarding my train back to London. :( It was after 9pm by this point and I was exhausted. Lucky me was seated next to a guy who kept randomly bursting out into laughter every time I'd drift off to sleep. I wanted to punch the guy!!

All in all it was a FANTASTIC weekend. I whinged alot that I was tired (Audrey has since told me the first thing she noticed when I got to Paris was how tired I looked, and that was Day 1!). It was alOt of fun though.
It was so fantastic to meet two wonderful girls, two amazing friends. This weekend would never have happened, and we would never have met if it wasn't for SGP, so I am so so grateful to Hilarie Burton & Kelly Tenney for starting such a company and letting us fans become part of it. I have made some great friends and experienced an unforgettable weekend in France! :)




Take Care all & keep the Papa dancing alive... (What DID that old dancing guys T-shirt say again???)

Eli

Apologies for all the typos. I cbf fixing them!