I love Paris in the wintertime

“The blacks love me here.” That, my friends, was said by one Theresa Burton at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Paris after a man started talking to her from afar, probably in hopes of securing some kind of monetary compensation. But it wasn’t just “the blacks” who loved her – it was the whites, the sandwich sellers, the strange men looking for internet cafes, the families from St. Louis, and the ditzy American girls on holiday from studying in Rome. My mom has two rules in life that are repeated to me whenever I go out of the house: Don’t talk to strangers and Put paper down. I can’t say for sure about the latter, but Theresa loves disobeying the former.

Paris. Was. Awesome. I’d been there twice before, but apparently I was too immature and stupid to appreciate it for the beautifully amazing city it is. Sure, I still don’t know how to say ‘Can I have your ticket stub’ in French and continue to freak out when crossing the huge rotary that is the Concorde, but I think this trip was one of my favorites ever. I have a million stories naturally, but I’ll try to highlight the most fun ones…

- Theresa has a propensity for falling. We weren’t in Paris 10 minutes before she fell down and cracked her elbow. That’s when I started keeping track of near-falls for the rest of the week. At the time of writing this on the train home, the tally is at 8.
- Number of trips to Sephora in 2 days to put on lip gloss, eye shadow, and to spray perfume: 6
- Number of crepes eaten in 2 days: 5 (feta and spinach; egg, tomato, tuna; Nutella; Nutella and banana; chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream)
- Number of steps we climbed on the Eiffel Tower: 600 something
- Number of steps it felt like we climbed on the Eiffel Tower: One bazillion
- Number of 12 year old French girls rapping and belly dancing on the Metro for money: 1
- I was shushed by Theresa at Notre Dame for being loud and obnoxious.
- Oh, and I almost walked into a plate glass door. Whatever.

(Theresa would like me to mention that she doesn’t mean to offend anyone with the “blacks love me here” comment.)

So that is a very brief overview of the last 2 days. Feel free to ask me about the man/woman in the shiny hat, silliness at the Eiffel Tower, inappropriate comments at the art museums, my 2 near-heart attacks, pet stores, and ticket adventures at the Louvre.

As for me, I’m off to Ireland now with Susan. (And because I know you’re wondering…No, I don’t actually do any work.) I’ll be back towards the end of the week with more shenanigans for you.

Here’s something to leave you with….
Said by Theresa on the Tube back from the London train station: “We did our top 5 moments of Paris before that lady walked into the wall, right?”