Today was a very good day. A few days ago, I didn't get a croissant for breakfast because the door to the bakery didn't open when I stood in front of it... Turns out the door I was at was the out only door and only opens from the inside. Today I found the in door and got a pain au chocolat (bread with chocolat, except the bread's more like a croissant) today! I'll only get the pain au chocolat on friday's or very special occasions.


One of the best parts about today was the SUN! It was wonderful! I'm going to miss it a lot because apparently, it's rare to see the sun in most seasons of Paris except summer and into fall a bit. So Anna and I strolled around a bit and had lunch, sandwiches with baguettes, the Jardin du Luxembourg which is by our school. Then we went to visit a really beautiful church nearby called the Saint Sulpice. It was build around the 1600's I think and it was amazing. I am having trouble finding a plug in that works with my camera battery charger right now, so I didn't have a camera on me to take pictures with. Hopefully this weekend I can figure out a way to charge it, and I'll go back and take pictures and put them up.


Also, in France January through February 14th is crazy sale season apparently. And Anna and I were thinking it would be great to get some good french boots since everything is at least around half off. So we went looking and in the second store, I found a gorgeous pair! In the second store even! Those of you have been shoe shopping (or any kind for that matter) with me know how crazy that is! And I made the decision after only walking around the very small boutique once! What helped my decision making was the price; they were only 15 Euros!! Shoes are really expensive in France and most of the boots I found were more like 30 or 40 Euros, so this was an AMAZING deal. And now I can say I bought shoes in Paris!

My Parisian boots!

I just wanted to post that this morning when I woke up, I could see blue sky! And in a little while I'll be able to see the sun (when it gets above the buildings)! I can't remember the last time I saw the sun... Okay, then I'm off to class!

Le Louvre!

    On Wednesday, Jan 25th, we went to the Louvre! We had a guided tour that went to only all the biggest pieces of artwork, but with our student ID at the Insitut de Catholique we get in free, so I can go back if I want to see more. The tour guide was a French/British man, and he would get mad at people who came to stand between our group and whatever we were looking at. Apparently tour groups trump individual people. Towards the end, he saw a dog out of the corner of his eye and started to freak out until he noticed it was a dog for the blind. Then he started gushing about how awesome dogs were. I think the french love dogs because I see a lot of people out walking their dogs. 

    After the Louvre, we walked down the Champs Elysees! And I finally had my first crepe! It was nutella (warmed up) with bananas... delicious! I also tried some hot wine, but I didn't like it very much. It could have been because it was from just a little stand though. Maybe I'll try it again somewhere more... refined. Check out some pix below!

And now... the Champs Elysees!

My first cup of French Coffee!
(with cream and sugar of course)

Arrive a Paris!

    I finally arrived in Paris (after both flights almost getting delayed/cancelled due to snow storms) at 5:00pm Paris time Saturday night. My friend, Anna Higgins, met me at the airport and took me back to her hotel she had been staying at with her mom because they came to Paris earlier. We met up with some friends from college who were studying abroad for the whole year in Paris to walk around a little and find a place to eat. I had a Croque Monsieur which is a kind of grilled cheese sand which, but with ham and an egg cooked on it. It was delicious! But I was having a little trouble processing the fact that I had arrived in Paris, so Anna took me to see the Eiffel Tower up close. That definitely helped a lot. We got hungry for crepes, but we couldn't find any at a good price (they were all expensive cuz we were so close to the Eiffel Tower) and we ended up at a little cafe where I had Mousse au Chocolat. And so ended my first night in Paris, France.

My first view of the Eiffel Tower