Oh la la!... That's not made up by the way, french people do say that quite often...
So we pulled into Gare du Nord last friday night; for anyone that's been to Paris, you've probably passed through there. It's quite the way to be introduced to the city. Huge windowed ceilings and people everywhere. The cliche continued; people full on making out on the platform as they greeted each other, beautiful, fashionable women talking a mile a minute on their phones...step outside and the night was unseasonably warm. Neon lights, taxis, Vespas darting by. Ya, I got a bit choked up. Shutup. Whatever. Laugh it up, fuzzball. I'm not ashamed.
So we went around the side of the building and the taxi lineup was a mile long...we stood in line for a bit but then...cue Grandma: someone spotted her with the cane and we got bumped to the front of the line...life's little perks :) Our taxi driver was cool and chatty, unlike some cabbies in Paris. It was so warm out, I had the window down all the way and we were whisked to our hotel. Paris by night is pretty damn beautiful.
We stayed at Hotel Madison, a swank 3-star on Boulevard St. Germain. Newly renovated, pretty slick and modern with some classical styles. Our room had friggin LED stars on the ceiling. And the shower had like this rainbow light show button, so you can spice up your honeymoon shower sex, I guess? Oh yeah, nothing says romantic like starry ceilings, rainbow showers and...seperate beds? I'm not sure if we had a mormon honeymoon suite or something...other than that it was actually really nice.
It was like 1030 on a friday, we needed to eat. Went down Rue de Buci, and it's full of swanky bars crammed full of SUPERMODELS. I swear to God this is like an epicentre of the top 2% of mutants; I'm beginning to acknowledge the cliche is just reality. But not just that, the energy in that place is buzzing...you can feel it move through you as you pass. Just a vibrancy that exists everywhere. You gotta look pretty hard for that in Vancouver, I'll tell you h-what...
We found this restaurant that specialized in a special kind of Iberian ham that came from wild pigs from a specific area that were only fed one kind of food. Okayyyyy....delicious. Parmesan Risotto with ham on top...giddyup.
I think once big difference I've noticed is that pretty much every 3rd table at a cafe or restaurant is speaking English...Canadian, American, British, Australian...it was common enough 7 years ago but not now. There were some Canadians behind us at the restaurant; maybe in the past I would turn and say hi...but I could care less really...I didn't come here to meet Canadians! Although that seems to be happening anyways :P
After only a couple hours in town, I couldn't just go to bed. I went for a long walk to find some water for my Grandma and I...once again with a huge grin on my face the whole time...
Alright, too much time on the computer, not enough in the city. I'm out.
B-Dizzle.
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