Today finally kicked off the Parisian party parade, letting the true French festivities commence. After class, Noelle and I made ourselves some breakfast in our rooms with bread, (French?) peanut butter and other treats from the corner store. (Totally recommend buying breakfast things when traveling abroad for an extend period of time). Man... simply eating a few plums from the market was exactly what I needed after having a small meal for dinner yesterday. But this isn’t even where the fun starts. Noelle and I had ideas a’ brewing for how we were going to take on the day.
Cubular
Since tomorrow marks our first day of tour ad agencies, this morning's class meeting was a quick overview presentation of the agencies we'll be seeing, including TBWA and Ogilvy's Paris offices (AH!). While a lot of people were planning on using their 4-day museum passes after class, Noelle and I decided to save it for later, in hopes of trying to hit Versailles on our off day this weekend. Instead, we were going to face the city and let it give us what it wanted, on our watches of course.
A few others decided to join us on our quest and we legitimately had the best time.
We kicked everything off with a metro ride to the world famous Louvre Museum. Breathtaking. So, of course, we had a photoshoot. As part of the plan, we walked through the Jardin de Tuileries, sniffed some lavender, and got lost along the canal. Craving the delicious paninis and baguette sandwiches we once devoured in Cannes, we sniffed through the park leading to the Champs-Élysées for a crepe stand to surface, and with outstanding success, we found one. Fighting back tears of joy, we set up a picnic spot in the park and munched our hearts away.
s q u a d
everybody eats....................................
The shopping district housed all kinds of treasures. Perfume bars, macaron mansions, a McDonald’s with a croquet madame happy meal option. Honestly, it was almost exactly what I expected to see in Paris—every brand had a 3-5 story facility with at least a couple of glass cases of limited edition shorts or something. What I didn’t expect to see, however, was the forbidden and glamorous fortress that housed the Abercrombie & Fitch. This thing was massive and unnecessary but I was completely taken by it. The entrance was a winding hedge maze leading to a golden, 10-foot tall door with a mural of half-naked, b’-jeaned men behind it. Incred.
Our mile long journey ended at the Arch de Triomphe. We initially planned on climbing to the top, but the rain and afternoon traffic prevented us from getting too close. Instead to admired from afar alongside a headless street performer that got a lil too close…
The last box on our Best Day Ever checklist was a concert, and boy was that an endeavor. Morgan, Mike, Noelle and I discovered the Canal bar, and with it a bunch of shows that were coming to town, included Whitney! They’re a pleasantly upbeat indie rock group that I actually saw last month when they were on their North American tour with Phoenix. They put on such a lovely show in Orlando, so I was so excited to see them in the big city! But, like everything else in a foreign country, accomplishing anything comes with its brinks and barriers. I’ll go more into my concert experiences later on, since I’ll be seeing another show next week (The Avalanches!!), but in short—one of us essentially saw Whitney for free. Certainly a contender for the best moment of the entire trip. I love my friends.
We wrapped up our day in a delicious Turkish kebab combo from our new favorite restaurant across from our hotel. I can’t wait to see what else Paris is going to chuck at me.
-A.J. :~)