Paris holds the key to your heart! No, seriously.

Sleepy and hungry, my friend Jenny and I walked through the quaint Parisian town that our accommodation was located in and stumbled upon a fast food Greek-American restaurant from which we consumed our first meal on French soil. This was complete with “French fries” and a soda and ended with happy tummies and smiles on our faces. After only having Italian food for 3 + months it was a true gift to my taste buds.

On our first day in Paris we went to see the Louvre. It was a tiring expedition in a labyrinth of nudity and depictions of Jesus. A highlight was definitely seeing the Mona Lisa in person- woah.

We left the Louvre and were stopped by two French guys who started out making general pointless conversation with us which progressed to a scene from the film “Taken.” We quickly exited the meeting and went on to find the Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame was located very near where we were staying and that area of the city became our favorite and the most frequented. The Cathedral was closed, so we admired the architecture, re-enacted some scenes from “Hunchback of N.D.” and were off to find some grub.

Boeuf bourguignon was on my heart’s menu and I had my first encounter with Mr. Bourguignon and he forever has the key to my heart. On our way back from dinner we heard exclamations and music and followed the sound to find British actors performing some street theatre outside “Shakespeare and Co. bookstore.” This performance began with two guys fight dancing while a girl poured buckets of water on them from a window above them, and ended with a girl screaming at a stuffed aardvark. It was awesome.

The Panthéon was the start of the next day’s adventure, followed by a Pain au Chocolat and a coffee, and then to Notre Dame. The Notre Dame is my favorite cathedral that I have seen in Europe so far. It is very beautiful but also feels more cheery than many of the other cathedrals I have visited. Later we saw the Arc de Triomphe and went shopping on Champs-Élysées.

The Eiffel Tower is a sight to behold. Once inside, I could not believe how absolutely massive it was. Overlooking the city from that viewpoint was incredible. Later that evening, my soiree with Confit de canard (duck confit) proved to be a memory I won’t soon forget. To end the night, we went to a bar where we met some Italians (go figure) and Parisians. At one point I was switching back and forth between a decent conversation in Italian and a mediocre one in French. This was exciting!

The next day began with a crepe- specifically, a nutella and apricot crepe. Yum. We then traveled to Moulin Rouge, Sacré Coeur, and walked around Montemartre and had delicious Croque Madame. This was followed by an expedition in Père Lachaise cemetery to find the graves of Marcel Marceau, Oscar Wilde and Chopin, among others.

On our final day in beautiful Paris, we explored Musée d'Orsay where I gave a shout out to Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and Degas. This ended the adventure that was Paris, and brought us back to Roma, which felt like going back home. It was odd to feel this way- to almost experience relief that I was back where I could understand people, as if Italian were my first language. So, this made me realize that I have made progress with my level of Italian comprehension and conversation. Yay me!

This week our group left Roma and went to Parma and surrounding areas, and now we are in Bologna starting a three day weekend. Wooooohoooooo!