The Night I Fell in Love with Paris, and the Day After

Hello! Sorry that this post is late! I've been really tired recently and got in late last night and didn't have the time. I'll try to be more consistent!

Last night was great. Even though I've definitely enjoyed all the time that I've spend here in Paris so far, last night was the icing on the cake. Or the Nutella on the crepe. (I hope you see what I did there. By the way, I've had a crepe with Nutella and nuts almost every day that I've been here.) After taking a sort-of scary placement test for my French course at the Sorbonne, I went to dinner with a few friends at this quaint restaurant in the Saint-Michel area. The food was great- I had roasted chicken, and the manager could not have been more friendly. He even gave us his autograph! We sat on the top floor with a gorgeous view of the street outside. That was my first sit-down meal in Paris, and I could have not felt more Parisian!

After dinner, the three of us met up with a few Argentinians that the others had met on the day that I had missed because of my cancelled flight. Even though two of them only spoke Spanish, we still managed to have a great time walking on the Seine and getting delicious ice cream at Amorino's, where they serve you a scoop of ice cream in shape of a rose. Beautiful and yummy! I would have a photo to post, but my phone unfortunately started recording video instead. Whoops. Anyway, after we devoured our ice cream, my UNC friends and I realized that we had to get back to our hotel quickly before they lock up for the night. We cut it really close- a man was putting a lock on the doors when we arrived! Even though almost not having a place to sleep for the night was a little scary, running back to our hotel in Paris at 1:30 am just made the night that much greater. And that was the night that I fell in love with Paris :)

Today has been a great day as well. This morning, we all visited 2 different markets in the city: Marché Déjean and Marché Barbés.

Marché Déjean was much smaller than we had expected, so it didn't take us long to walk through. Still, walking through and seeing the meat vendors with whole pigs and different cuts of meat hanging above their stands was pretty interesting- I had seen similar pictures on Travel Channel, but seeing it in person was actually really cool. Also, a bunch of men selling counterfeit designer bags were caught by the cops and ran right by us in the street! Pretty exciting stuff!

Then, we visited Marché Barbés, which much larger and definitely more chaotic. The venders were constantly yelling for people to sample and buy their products. I sampled some cherries, oranges, and melon, and they were all so juicy and delicious! Way better than any fruit that I've had in the U.S. I didn't even think that I liked oranges or cherries! There, I bought some honey and apricot preserves from this really kind and quieter merchant, who said that the apricot preserves were his favorite! Visiting Marché Barbés was really spectacular- I'm sure that I could visit at another time and have a completely different experience that would be just as interesting.

After visiting the markets, a bunch of us ventured to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. Even though every sight in Paris is absolutely beautiful, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre rank near the top. The view of the Parisian skyline from Sacre Coeur is gorgeous, and even though walking up so many stairs was really exhausting, the views were surely worth it. Walking through the small streets in Montmartre full of artisans and small shops was great as well- definitely what people envision when they think of Paris.

I think that's what I've got so far! I'm sure that I'm missing some details, but so much has happened! It's hard to keep track of it all!