Paris, je'taime!

Quick update as I am in PARIS and we're on our way to the Rodin museum and then to a dinner party at this guy named Jim's house (more on that later). Happy 4th of July!

Some quick highlights- got here safe and sound on Friday after being up all night and seeing a cockroach in the Girona airport. No customs at the Paris Beauvais Airport (!) and after taking an hour bus ride from the airport, met my mom at a cafe near St. Michel, where we are staying! We're staying in this amazing Parisian apartment that is a block away from Notre Dame cathedral and we can hear the bells every hour, and get to the Seine river in about 1 minute.

Friday was spent meandering along the Seine, trying not to die of heat since it was about a million degrees, and we had an amazing lunch at Lauduree tea room, complete with a violet puff pastry for me and a chocolate gaunache for my mom, and waiters wearing suits and calling us mademoiselle and madame every 2 minutes. C'est bien!

We also had a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens which is almost as beautiful (if not moreso) than Hyde Park in London or Central Park in NYC, which is a tough statement to make! We ended the evening with a stroll along the Seine and popping into Notre Dame which was completely dark as they were showing some movie, it was kind of eerie but so neat to be in there sans 100000 other people!

Saturday was rainy so after a breakfast of croissants and french press coffee, we went to a little market near our apartment to pick up a kilo of cherries, and proceeded to pop into some bookstores, had a quick lunch at a hallway of a creperie, and then made our way to the Pere Lachaise cemetary where we saw the graves of Oscar Wilde(covered in lipstick kisses, which I added to), Edith Piaf, Collette and Jim Morrison, which had 5 guards standing watch to make sure no one does drugs or has sex on his grave anymore, too bad.
Later in the afternoon, we had some Nutella crepes and Kir, and for dinner found an amazing Italian place near St. Michel area to watch the Spain vs. Paraguay game with some other Americans, French, and Spainards! It was lovely to linger over dinner for about 2 hours, no one bothered us. Everyone was out and about in the streets, it's such an awesome, open atmosphere. We popped into the Shakespeare and Company bookstore near Notre Dame that has English books, and was really out of control, I wanted to buy everything.

I love this city. Being back here after 5 years makes me so happy, so glad to be sharing it with my mom, too!