Let's have a picnic! Pt. 1

My time alone in Paris naturally splits itself into two categories. Today's post takes place in Montmartre, the beautiful village on the hill overlooking Paris. When my dad first left me, I was both nervous and excited. But by the end of that first day on my own, it was clear that I was going to have an amazing time. 

Since I had several hours before I could check in to my first hostel, I decided to explore the neighborhood. At this point I accidentally started my mission of traveling mapless, so after wandering for a while I happened to emerge at the back door of the Sacre Cœur cathedral.

 It was a beautiful day so I bought a baguette and sat down on the grass to listen to some street performers play a few Eric Clapton songs. After a short while, a young man approached me and asked my name. When I gave it to him he scribbled it down on a piece of paper, said I had beautiful eyes, and walked away leaving me with a free drawing of myself. It was just the start of many (what I have now concluded are more enchanting than creepy) surprises that Paris had in store for me. 

When I finally checked in, the first thing I did was make a friend. A Canadian named Lorne had just broken his leg in Amsterdam and lost his wallet in the Paris airport, so I took pity on him and made it my goal to make sure his trip was still amazing! Luckily, he had a very happy and optimistic attitude and his friends (Pascal, Zach, and Micah) had the same mission as me. It also doesn't hurt that Paris is never anything less than amazing. So since he couldn't climb the Eiffel Tower that night and drink champagne at the top like he had planned, I suggested we buy some wine and cheese and have a picnic underneath it instead. He loved it:

It was the first of many picnics for me, but they never got old. And I finally got a picture of me under the lit up tower:

The next day, it was this group that I took on a tour of the Louvre. Even though he had to hobble with cheap Dutch crutches, Lorne was the most enthusiastic and was constantly laughing. Even after we had finished with the Louvre they wanted a tour of the rest of Paris. I absolutely loved getting to share what I had learned about the city, and they loved not being lost all the time. I was sad to see that group leave later that day, but their contagious happy attitudes had set the scene for an amazing week to come. 

My second night, I met Scott the athletic trainer and half his New Zealand professional field hockey team (seriously I couldn't make this up if I tried). They were celebrating a recent win at a tournament that made them contenders for the Olympics. Only Scott was staying in Paris through the night, but it was a blast hanging out with the rowdy kiwis for a while! After that I headed down to see who I could meet at my hostel's bar. John and Richie, two boys from Ohio, invited me to join the card game they were just starting with Romy, an Australian girl. When I said I was from Michigan, John started singing "Hail to the Victors" and we were instantly friends. Richie was an OSU fan, but we got over our differences eventually once we decided the more important rivalry was in our game of euchre. 

By the time Scott rejoined our group at the hostel bar, happy hour had come and gone. So we grabbed our coats and headed out with the mission of finding the free dinner and salsa dancing lessons that we had heard about. We never did find the dancing - instead we found ourselves in a park next to the Seine having, you guessed it, a picnic! But between all of us and our phones, we had quite a large playlist of music. So we improvised the dance moves and called what we did salsa dancing.

Since we were all staying another night, we stuck together and tried again. The second time, we found ourselves under the Eiffel Tower instead. At this point I resigned to the fact that with new groups of people, I would most likely visit the Eiffel Tower several times. I did indeed visit it often, but each time was a different and fun experience.

The next day, when the group split up to visit different things, I realized I had already checked almost everything off my list of things to see in Paris. That even included the clichés like mimes

and matching couples.

So I got to spend the day just exploring the many bookstores and little shops. When I discovered a small, secluded courtyard, I laid down in the grass and pretended to sleep for a while as I eavesdropped on the only other people's conversation. It was encouraging how much of it I understood! I only had a problem when the girl got really upset about something and started talking fast and at an almost supersonic pitch. She was either very angry at her diet or I was just hearing food words because I was hungry. Regardless, I wandered to my new hostel to find some company for dinner. 

Again, I happened to find John and Richie along with a Londoner named Alex. We all went out to find some cheap food which ended up being Domino's (Dad, I finally made use of the buy one pizza get two free deal!), and then decided to wander and see where the night took us. There's a crazy motif about my adventures aimlessly wandering - I almost always ended up at the back of Sacre Cœur. The cathedral was even more gorgeous lit up, and the view that is incredible enough during the daytime turned into a picturesque glimpse of the City of Lights. We sat in silence for a while just appreciating the beautiful city before heading back. On the way, we passed the minorly famous cabaret, "Au Lapin Agile" where artists like Toulouse-Lautrec spent their time. Apparently at night it still opens, and we all agreed we needed to have a beer in the iconic building. It was also one of the only times I remembered to take a picture. This is John, Alex, me, and Richie (and a sign I didn't notice until now that says Callaghan & Co!)

It was a fantastic couple days. The people I met were all unique and wonderful, and I got to feel like I was really a part of the city. When I come back to Paris (when not if), I can only hope I have as good of an experience as this.