Paris avec le Frere.

March was full of traveling and more importantly, family! After getting back from a veryyy long vacation to Malta, London and Dublin, I had exactly four days to rest, regroup and do tons of laundry because the next weekend I was off to Paris to meet up with my brother.

Scott had a conference in Amsterdam and decided to stop off in Paris before heading off to do some serious business. It of course took a veryy long train ride from Lozere to get to Paris, but it was well worth it! The first day comprised of us mainly wandering the streets as Scott was very jet-lagged. We walked from the Louvre up the Champs Elysees all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. Everything in Paris is just so much larger than it looks on a map. You can easily see the Arc de Triomphe from the Louvre and it doesn't look far. Well, it isn't really far, it's about a 45 minute walk, but since all these Parisien landmarks are so huge, especially the Arc, it looks to be about a 20 minute walk. We discovered this when both my siblings came and visited me when I was studying in France... unforunately it was hailing that day.

The weekend was mostly us eating delicious food, let's be honest Scott. We ate at an amazing Bouchon Lyonnaise on Friday and consumed fantastic Chateauneuf du Pape wine and Scott basically fell asleep at the table after his cheese course. The next day we walked around some more, Notre Dame, Ile de la Cite, etc, and eventually made to the Quartier Latin where we went to our favorite, extremely touristy creperie. Scott and I have been there together three times... the first was when Scott was teaching in France and I tried to order the l'Exotique crepe, but my accent was so horrific the waitress had no idea what I was saying and figured I was American and put ice in my water glass... the ultimate insult.

We strolled around some more and made our way to Montmartre, my, and most people's, favorite part of Paris. We climbed endless stairs and ended up at Sacre Coeur, a beautiful cathedral with a fantastic view of the city. After watching the best street performers I've ever seen and getting offered about 16 times to have our portraits done (Scott, apparently, is very drawable...) we trudged on to le Centre Pompidou. After quite a few visits to Paris, neither Scott nor I have ever been to this museum. It's a modern art museum with all of it's piping and plumbing on the outside of the building. To say the least, it doesn't really go with the whole Parisien landscape. What can I say about le Centre Pompidou. Most overrated museum ever. I know I'm not very educated on the art scene and perhaps I just didn't "get it," but honestly, what is artistic about a video of a naked woman hulahooping barbed wire on a beach? We spent as little time as possible in this museum and were then in search of a Moroccan restaurant. Couscous was on our mind. Mission accomplished.

The next day was unseasonably cold and windy. In fact, it was blizzarding in the south of France! We were going to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower since I've never done it, but we decided otherwise. Nothing fun about getting blown off of a big old tower. After some steak-frites and some relaxing in the hotel, it was time for me to go home. After departing from Scott at a metro stop you didn't have to pay to enter (our little secret) I was on my train and into some serious snow. I then took a bus from a city about 1.5 hours north of me, Clermont Ferrand, to Marvejols in what turned into a blizzard. Well, a blizzard by French standards. I was nervous. Now if I had been in the US, no worries, bus drivers have to drive in terrible conditions all the time, but being in France and seeing cars fish tailing and sliding to the side of the road was not very comforting. Needless to say I was extremely relieved to be back in Marvejols and wished the bus driver endless amount of luck in his continuation.