today has been super low key, which seems a little ungrateful to say once i list off all the once-in-a-lifetime things we've done and seen in about 8 hours time. first thing we did was visit a chocolate museum, which i thought was going to be awesome considering european chocolate is supposed to be the best. yeeeeaah... that may be the case but i guess i forgot the best chocolate doesn't necessarily equal the most interesting museum. and it was cold, (i think that's the thing i'm struggling with most here. there is no warmth. the tour bus is cold. the bus stops are cold. the stores are cold. the sites are cold. while waiting for our bus today i found myself moving down the street in line with the small sliver of sunshine that had fought it's way in between the massive buildings. i ended up quite a ways from marissa, who was waiting in line where i was supposed to be. the only place that's warm is my bed and i would totally hate myself forever if i stayed in bed the whole time i was in paris.) long, and in french. we got to taste some really fancy hot chocolate after and i chose milk chocolate and cinnamon, which was easily the best cinnamon hot chocolate i've ever had in my life, albeit it was also the only cinnamon hot chocolate i've ever had, but i digress. i think they whipped warm milk and then put the flavor in that because it was so creamy and rich. i'm tempted to try making it on my own but i know it'll never live up to what i had today.
oh! also, at the end of the tour they had a room full of stupidly fancy cups that royalty used to drink their hot chocolate out from. one of the cups was designed in such a way that the gentlemen using it could enjoy their cup-o-cocoa without dirtying their mustache. hilarious. don't worry, i totally took a picture. (as seen to the right) i find the flowery design on the mustache cup to be awfully fitting. do you think those fancy pants dudes were also desperately afraid their lipstick would come off onto their precious floral-to-the-max cup? buh dun dun tch! (jk, to be fair all the french men i've seen this trip have been very, very ruggedly manly. rest assured. i'm only calling the old royal men, who wore powdered wigs and tights, girls. buuut moving on)
the highlight of my day was easily our trip to shakespeare and company, which enabled me to cross something off my bucket list that i completely forgot to even put on my bucket list. shakespeare and company is a world famous bookstore on paris's left bank most well known for being the gathering place for writers such as ernest hemingway and james joyce. it's been featured in a few films and is basically heaven for literature nerds everywhere. including me. i could have easily spent the entire day in that little store. unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures, which nearly killed me. nearly. and so with my nikon in my backpack i figured i'd compromise with the store and only take pictures with my less than amazing phone. that way everyone wins... right? right. the walls were completely covered with gorgeous new, and gorgeous old books alike. there were a few books i wanted to buy so badly because they were old and full of character. but alas, books are heavy and money is for food at this point. so....
i decided that i was allowed to purchase only one book there. i wanted to make it a classic that i knew i already loved, so naturally i purchased the picture of dorian gray. <<<
this was my favorite book that i read last year and this specific version of the book is so absolutely gorgeous, i couldn't resist. swoooooon. one of my favorite things they do at the store is when you purchase a book they stamp it with the official "shakespeare and company stamp" and i totally got one >>>
this isn't my actual stamp,
i'm too lazy to get it out and take a picture of it right now,
but i'm sure you'll see mine soon enough.
our next stop was the pantheon, which i managed to only call the parthenon once, ten points! it was adequately freezing, enormous, and fancy inside. we went down to the basement to the crypt of all the famous french people who were buried there including mrs. marie curie and the author of my favorite movie, the count of monte cristo: alexander dumas. i took pictures of these things as well buuut you get to wait a few days for me to finally take them off my camera (i'm currently up to 430 photos. yay!), edit, and upload them. the pantheon is also house to foucault's pendulum, which claims to hold completely still even though it gently swings in the middle of the pantheon. the explanation? the pendulum isn't moving but rather it's the pantheon that's moving with the rotation of the earth and all that other trippy stuff. honestly it's hard for me to wrap my mind that. i took a video of the pendulum swinging buuut i shall save that for another day. or i'll put it up here later and just not tell you. who knows.
on our way back to the hostel from the pantheon we stopped at a random place for linner/dunch. we both wanted to try authentic paninis and crepes while we were here so i ordered some random panini, a lemon crepe, and cherry coke (which tasted sugar free and a little weird). the lemon crepe alone was reason enough to stay here in paris for the rest of my life. they do lemon perfect here. mmmmm. the dude who ran the place was a little overbearing, but still charming.
alright, i can tell i'm getting tired because i just want to write about the rest of today's experiences in short three word sentences. crepes are good. he was nice. we walked far. it was freezing. i'm finally warm. i love chocolate. blah blah blah.
day three was easily a success.
2 comments:
I could read your adventures all day. How very fun...I am slightly jealous!
I'm glad you are making the most of every day. A once in a lifetime experience.
Mustache guard tea cup = awesome!!
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