C'est la belle vie

December 12, 2008
Paris, France

One must record their first impressions of France. You really shouldn't let the glasses of wine and the increasing exhaustion of travel and transit force you to sleep and blur the experience. And here I write:

My first thought-despite it feeling colder here than in London-was where are all the pretty people? I felt like they all stayed in London. Parisians are homely and fair-some are outright ugly to be honest. Hair is matted and disheveled, eyeliner is applied too thickly and most ensembles are seemingly, loosely and quickly thrown together.

The metro isn't as nice either. It stinks for one, and there is an absence of escalators and personnel around. The turn stalls are a pain and the trains are old. I would say of every city rail system I've been on this year-Paris comes up last in terms of cleanliness and modernity. That's saying something considering I've been to Manila.

Of course it's not all bad, I just needed to get the negative out so I could embellish the positive. I found the pretty people in shopping malls wearing designer clothes and smelling better than laundry fresh out of the drier. Then again when I met Olivier's friends and later in the week when we went out dancing.

Paris is quiet. It's surprising how quiet it is near a main street or just around the corner from a common landmark busy with visitors. Parisians have been quite friendly today as Olivier and I walked around lost most of the day stopping random people for directions. Perhaps because conversations were conducted by Olivier in French, but I'm not letting that arguably arbitrary fact sway my feelings that we were met with very friendly people today. Helpful people and some quite jovial.

The reputation for a love of food is duly deserved. Food literally lines the sides of some narrow, cobblestone streets we walked down today. Seafood, fruit and vegetables, even spices are prominently displayed enticing even the un-hungry to stop and browse a while.

I helped a Guatemalan girl carry her luggage to Gare du Nord this morning when I got of the bus. Then I met Olivier near Chatelet and we stashed our luggage at his old workplace and walked around the city past the Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame and a couple other cathedrals. I bought a phone and SIM straight away so that's out of the way.

I was exhausted by 7:00pm when we met Oliv's beautiful girlfriend Elod back where our bags were. I was staying (am staying) at Olivier's friend's house, Rafael. He cooked dinner for us tonight. Seared duck, with fried potatoes served with a blue cheese sauce and a fruity white wine for accompaniment. This will forever be my first dinner in Paris-and what a welcome it was!

It's gearing up to be a great weekend!

I love my friends!

Fear not my friends, I am alive and well! A thousand apologies for what must have been an excruciating silence over the past-can you believe it?-month since I've last updated my world tour. You'll find me now in a small mountain village in the French Alps. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me fill you in since my last update...

Celebrating Thanksgiving Day with Ben's family in London was a lot of fun. I had a lot to be thankful for over the past year and especially in my current position stying with Ben and his family. They were wonderful hosts, ever ready to make a cup of tea, help me plan my day or have a chat. While Ben was working during the day I caught up on reading some books my friend Trevor sent me, chatting online and going to the fridge whenever I was hungry! You don't' know what a luxury it is to be able to hop into the kitchen and have a bite to eat whenever you wish as opposed to going to a restaurant or food stall. One of the things I enjoyed most was being in a home again and waiting for those friendly faces to come back in the afternoon after being at work.

Ben and I went to Hillsong church in London on Sundays and attended a couple other activities like a men's day, teaching night and home group. I made some friends, ate some good foo and rocked out to eh Hillsong worship team. We also managed to explore some of the city and take some photographs on Ben's day off.

I was fortunate enough to have three of my friends from the States come visit me in London. Helen and I met in Costa Rica and hung out together in Denver a few times afterwards. She'd been in Spain for awhile and was finishing up her time in Europe bagging a few extra countries and between seeing a former roommate in Sweden and her dad in Ireland she had a stopover in London and stayed with me. We shared a fantastic day doing the tourist thing. We walked past Big Ben, the London Eye, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. We had some fish and chips, rode a double-decker bus and took a photo in a telephone booth. To finish in classic "terry-and-Helen" style we took the wrong metro line and she nearly missed her airport transfer! Fortunately she made it on time and last I heard she was in Italy with her father.

Trevor and I also met in Costa Rica during a semester abroad. He now works for the company we studied with and was sent to London on a business trip. It had been five years since we'd seen each other, but we've kept in contact ever since and we never missed a beat as we met in London and went to a football (soccer) match. We managed to meet up another night for dinner with his colleagues and we all met up again in Paris a few days later. It was great to get to spend some time together again after five years. And what better than over a croque madame and cafe au lait with a view of the Eiffel Tower!