"Do French Things, Watch the World Go By"

Hi There!!!

On our tour around Paris from a couple of days ago (led by an adorable petite woman wearing red rimmed glasses), it was described to us that Parisians love to sit at cafes and "watch the world go by." This struck a chord in me because I marveled at the way the French lived their lives. I noticed that all of the chairs at the cafes faced the street rather than each other. The scattered people engaged in their conversations, while sipping on hot espresso's and observing the beautiful world around them - something I am definitely going to adopt while I am here. Even among the chaos and constant hustle and bustle, they still find time to stop and kind of take a moment for themselves.

As we drove through the clogged street of Paris, our quirky tour guide shared several interesting facts about Paris with us, that I obviously thought I would share! :

• There are 96,000 trees in Paris, each with a tag on it describing it's health (this made me think of my best friend Savannah who loves the environment!!)
• There is a lake... yes a lake.. underneath the Opera house.. Water from the Seine leaked in underneath and they couldn't get rid if it so they built a lake. It helps with the acoustics!
• Staying at the ritz costs 150,000 euro, aka like $175,000... a night. Casual.
• The guillotine was made to kill people in a more "humane" way - there is a massive statue that symbolizes all of the people that were killed by it (it looks kind of like a knife).
• Part of the famous lock bridge fell into the water because the locks made it too heavy - so they had to rebuild it. Kind of sucks for all of the people who thought their "lock love" would last forever... :/
• A French man made the Statue of Liberty to thank America for helping them in the War - he modeled her face after his mother
• The Louvre is the biggest art gallery in the world!! and a cabinet maker stole the Mona Lisa and hid it under his bed for 2 years before bringing it to Italy where they found out and made him return it..

The next day, we visited Notre Dame which was absolutely stunning. At the top, I felt one with the gargoyles, lurking over Paris. The city stretched for miles and the view even made the Eiffel Tower look small! The church bells rang and the brisk breeze swept in, making it a beautiful day to simply enjoy the view and admire the beautiful buildings and trees.

View from the top!

Steeple of Notre Dame

Towers of Notre Dame 

We then wandered over to a statue with a man on a horse, where we found a huge flock of pigeons scavenging for food. I then met two kids who taught me their ways on how to get the birds to land on them (kind of gross, but it was cool!) 

The pro's themselves 

Working my way into the crowd...

Got one to land on me! 

The last thing I leave you are two interesting cultural differences that I have slowly accustomed to because I am quite the avid coffee drinker... 

1) They drink large quantities of coffee out of bowls... 

2) They don't use travel mugs - rather they enjoy their coffee and drink it before they leave/get to where they need to be. Something I am definitely not used to..

Until next time!