Killing me Softly with His Song : France

Friday  I took the train to tour Avignon to meet my friend Marylise.

Marylise taught French at UVA as an exchange student teacher from France and was activity coordinator for the French House. I was spoiled living in the French House at UVA, between Marylise and Julie's involvement. Marylise and I walked around the tiny town of Avignon, but we were so sweaty and tired because it was 95+ degrees outside.

During my study abroad I tried multiple weekends to go to Avignon, but couldn't due to the french rail strikes. Now, I finally had the opportunity to go. 

Ironically enough, I was almost trapped in Avignon for the night this time.

My lovely date

Palais des Papes

A new statue

When it came time to take the first train I needed to catch heading back to Paris, I got to the station and saw that my train was cancelled. I had had too few of transportation frustrations for this to be a true France trip.
I had to rush through the train station like a maniac to find a train headed north and hopped on dripping in sweat. Then, I had to ditch my luggage and go searching through 18 train cars for the contrôle, because I had to explain to them why I didn't validate my purchased ticket and why I was on a different train.

After a little time explaining my case, in my tired French, the attendant smiled at me and said for me to wait there... She came back with a bottle of cold water and said go rest don't worry about a thing. People can be really sweet.

I arrived in Paris around 11:30 at night and began to take the metro to Julie's apartment. The stations' escalators were shut down, so you can imagine that after staying up until 3-4AM, taking a train to a new city at 8 AM, touring a city all day in 95 degrees, and then having the train debacle I had getting to Paris, I was not too excited to carry my luggage up flights of stairs. This is all just a part of travel, and if you're tired it means that you've been adventuring sufficiently. 

Saturday morning, back in Paris, Julie and I went to go do some errands and shopping. After this we went to the Grand mosquée and the Institut Arabe du Monde and explored.

We had tea at the Grand Mosquée. They serve tea in the Moroccan style, in little clear glasses but very hot and very sweet.

We headed to we went to a a little 'hole in the wall' crêperie where you can get a savory crepe- ham and Gruyere- and a sweet crepe (I had butter and cinnamon), along with a drink (juice, coffee, cider or beer) -all for 5 euros. It's a good thing I live several thousand miles away from this crêperie, because I could go every day. 

After this we walked up to the seine and walked around for quite awhile, heading to a unique neighborhood called la defense.

A picnic

man drawing by the Seine

La Defense is an 'up and coming' neighborhood where all the buildings are modern and very different from each other and from all other buildings in Paris. 

large rocks, on top of street poles?

"I only wish that you could remember"

Sunday the 26th, Julie and i went to the local market and bought groceries and vegetables. I'm always amazed at how beautiful the french food markets are.

 

We next walked through Luxembourg gardens and Jardin des Plantes and spent time sitting watching the baby ducks. 

notice the bee inside

We toured the streets surrounding the Luxembourg gardens and walked through an antiques market.

 

A quick stop at a Pâtisserie...

 We went to a nearby bar for a glass of wine while we watched France play in the Eurocup. Allez les Bleus!

Dinner that night would be a send-off dinner for Sam after his year in Paris. Our company was a combination of all of Julie and Marouane's friends from the US, or French friends connected with UVA. Julie and I explored the street art and markets surrounding the restaurant.

"the abuse of pleasure is excellent for your health" 

 

 

"Stronger than passion is illusion"

Dinner was at Gladines, which is where Sam went on his first night of his year in Paris and now his last. He wore his traditional African garb.

I had fish stuffed peppers in tomato sauce, typical of the basque region. Basque is the area in between Spain and France, and where Bart is from, so he was able to tell us all about the food from his region.

After dinner most of us went to a bar.  Later that night, on the metro home, Julie and I were sitting across from a girl sharing a headphone with her friend, and belting out the lyrics to the Fugees' song 'Killing me Softly. "Strumming my pain with his fingers..Singing my life with his words...Killing me softly with his song....Telling my whole life with his words"....

Meanwhile, the guy next to me began singing as well, and we all finished singing the song together. It was the perfect last night of my trip. 

The Next Day I woke up very early and headed into the heart of the city to climb the Notre Dame. 

 

I rushed back to Julie's apartment to grab my suitcase, to find her lovely goodbye note. 

I had about 5 minutes to leave the metro, to go grab my luggage, to leave Julie's apartment, and to head back to the metro to ride several metro stops away and meet Sam. From there, Sam and I would take a bus to the airport. While Sam and I were waiting to check our bags, the luggage lines shut down, so I had about 30 minutes to stand there and speak with the airport employee in French, as I couldn't go anywhere or do anything otherwise.
Sam and I got off the plane for our first layover in Iceland, but we had to go through a long line for customs.  Our connecting flight was supposed to leave in about 8 minutes, due to the luggage backup in France.
Standing in a line, we asked the guys in front of us where they were going (to see if we were the only ones already late for our connecting flight) and one of them turned and said
"The f*ing Brexit. You might not want to stand behind me in line. I'm a Spaniard coming from Denmark, going to San Francisco, with an English passport. But I guess my passport means bloody nothing now I'm immigrant as of today. F*ing Brexit they're going to screw me in customs"
This guy was hillarious! He was drinking away in the airport after hearing about Britain's withdrawal from the EU, and was honestly puzzled as to how he would make it through customs.

Once the line went through, and he succeeded, he skipped towards me saying
"It's a miracle the customs checker was a f*in Brit too!!"

On the plane from Iceland to Dulles, Sam and I told the flight attendants we were brother and sister and needed to sit together. We sat with a VMI graduate who had just spent 4 days in the Netherlands at an EDM music festival. He told us that the rest of his vacation time he would be "cabrewing," where you get really drunk and attempt to canoe down a river with your friends.
The three of us got along a little too well, and proceeded to laugh and enjoy each other's company for the next 6 hours.
Musing of the day: when there's an airplane emergency, what language do they announce it in first?

Back in America

This trip has been about self-reliance for me. It has been about my ability to thrive on my own outside of my comfort zone, and my ability to adapt and respond to the challenges of travel by myself. It also has been about my ability to be happy while completely alone or in the silence of exploring a city or on a hike. I love the adventures I had and the people I met along the way, and I couldn't have asked for anything more.