Wandering with Holly Part 1

So I was worried about not doing enough in Pittsburgh but I am so not worried about not doing enough here. This week has been a blur, I've gone everywhere from Notre Dame to the Louvre to the Bastille, with lots of random excursions in between.

I'm not sure which day I met up with my high school friend, Holly, and spent the whole afternoon wandering the city with her, but I do know that it was in the beginning of the week and it was amazing.

Holly is here for her semester abroad as well, and as a project for a French culture class, she had to explore the 18th arrondissement. I got to go explore with her! This was my first experience walking around without a specific destination in mind. I cannot emphasize how much just the act of using the metro and walking with someone who knew what they were doing helped me acclimatize myself to this environment. 

Even though I still feel like I have no idea what's going on most of the time, I've come to realize that it's just a part of life when you study abroad and didn't even think to learn some of the language before you left -_-. And I've realized it's mostly okay, too. Bonjour and smile will get you pretty far.

Right after coming off the metro

Cities in the US should have more statues and cool gardens like this, right?

The trees are pretty, but the building behind was even more beautiful.

There are a ton of traffic circle here. Just watching people navigate them is pretty stressful.

We ended up in an area that had a lot of Chinese and middle eastern stores. Not a whole lot of French writing here.

We stopped to grab a baguette, cheese, meat and wine for a picnic at the park

This was wine selection at a CONVENIENCE STORE. We, of course, picked one of the cheapest ones. 

Here's the park. There were actually a lot more children and adults running around, but I managed to get this picture during a lull in the traffic.

Our modest spread

It got to be pretty late, so we headed over to Holly's apartment.

Walked over some train tracks

It's a really tiny apartment, even that's an understatement

A beautiful view straight to the bathroom for the floor.

 We caught up there for a bit, and as it got darker we decided to go for a walk again. We headed over to the Arc de Triomphe. which is right down the street.

The moon was pretty too

I just appreciate that the facades of all the buildings are beautiful as well

The Eiffel Tower could be seen, but unfortunately we didn't stop long enough to get a good picture

Looking for ice cream, we headed back into the metro to find an area with more shops.

Saw a hotel that made me a little sad

No ice cream, but we did make it to The Bastille!

No ice cream to be found for a reasonable price, we headed back to our respective lodgings and then to bed. Come to think of it, I have yet to have any ice cream.

Au revoir,

Rachel