After seven years dreaming.

August 2002: Lara starts French classes at Bishop Montgomery high school and immediately loves the French language. Dreams about visiting Paris.
January 2007: Lara starts a French class at LMU after a semester of no French and remembers how much she loved her four years at Bishop. Dreams about visiting Paris.
January 2008: Lara starts her second French class at LMU and wants to study abroad in Paris. Dreams about visiting Paris.
January 2009: Lara starts her study abroad trip in London because LMU doesn't have a semester program in Paris. Dreams about visiting Paris.
February 28 - March 6, 2009: Lara is in Paris!!

I loved Paris. It really agreed with me. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up living there somehow sometime. I can't say that I love it more or less than I love London, but j'adore Paris, no doubt about it.

Instead of pictures for this trip, I will post blurbs about the 10 things that I did that I enjoyed the most (in no particular order).

1. Ice cream at La Flore en l'Ile: Paid 11 euro (about 12 US dollars) for 2 scoops of Berthilon ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel sauce. Was worth every cent. The ice cream was luxurious - the caramel had nougat in it and the vanilla had beans in it. Also, the cafe was behind the Notre Dame on the island in the middle of the Seine. With the accordian player on the pont (bridge), I felt the spirit of Paris.

2. French dinner at L'Alouette: I had one of the tastiest and most satisfying meals I have ever had at this restaurant. I am about to sound rather pompous, but as a native of Los Angeles, California, that is a big statement. I had preserved duck and sauteed potatoes.

3. Musee d'Orsay: Though a big museum, Musee d'Orsay is nowhere near as big as the Louvre. Nevertheless, at every corner I was welcomed by fabulous works of art. Manet, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Delacroix, Pissaro, Courbet, Matisse. They were all there. I absolutely loved Van Gogh's stuff. Prior to the trip, I knew that he was cool, but I didn't understand all the hype about his work. Seeing his art alongside others and, more importantly, seeing the original made such a big difference. The brushstrokes, the thickness of the paint, it's all so good. I loved the Louvre, but I actually loved the Musee d'Orsay even more.

4. Centre Pompidou: I learned about the Centre Pompidou in high school so I knew exactly what it looked like. I wasn't even planning to visit it, but on my last full day I was wandering around Montmartre and somehow remembered the Centre Pompidou. I thought, I'm going to try to find the Centre Pompidou - I can get some good shopping done! I don't know why, but I had been convinced that the Centre Pompidou was a shopping center! So I made my way towards it and when I finally saw it, I thought, this is such a cool building. I snapped a couple of photos, looked towards its front doors, and realized that it's a museum of modern art! The biggest modern art museum in Europe, actually. So I ended up going in, even though I don't really like modern art, because I figured I ended up there for a reason. Like my experience with Van Gogh's art, I have newfound respect and appreciation for modern art. I really enjoyed it.

5. Coffee at Les Deux Magots: One of my aunt's friends recommended this cafe to my aunt. My aunt didn't get to go so I went when I was wandering around Paris alone. It looks like a normal Parisian cafe with indoor, outdoor, and terrace tables (I sat in the covered terrace), but apparently it was once a literary and intellectual hubbub. I didn't know that at the time so I sat down thinking it was famous for its food. I ordered the cheapest thing - the house coffee for 4 euro. It was worth every cent. It was just coffee, no milk at all, some sugar - but it was delicieux!

6. Saint Sulpice: This basilica was in The Da Vinci Code, so I went in to visit while I was passing one day (as much as The Da Vinci Code was bogus, I wouldn't have known to go into Saint Sulpice otherwise, so cheers to that). There are 21 chapels around the basilica! I was really excited to see one for St. Anne so I lit a candle, the first I'd lit in Europe. The meridian line was also there, indicated by bronze in the marble floor.

7. The organ at Notre Dame: I have no less than three recordings of the organ playing at Notre Dame. It really set the Gothic tone of that beautiful cathedral. I could have listened all day. And the pipes were huge! (Think the talking organ in the Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie..)

8. Public transportation: The metro system in Paris is quite extensive. We bought passes and they were well worth our money. We were able to go everywhere we wanted to go by the metro. The Parisian metro is not as nice as the tube (in fact, it's rather dingy in comparison), but the metro seemed to be just as useful. It's also interesting to see how people are on the metro. There's definitely a kind of silent, polite aura in the tube (for the most part), but in the Parisian metro people seem more intimate. I also took the bus a couple of times. I'm a huge fan of buses after travelling to all these places - I might even venture out and try the LA buses (though I hear they are not the same).

7. La cimetiere de Montmartre: This is a huge old fashioned cemetery (though not the biggest in Paris, so I guess I just really recommend going to any of the big cemeteries). There are tombstones and mausoleums, windy cobblestoned roads, spindly trees. I wandered in the Montmartre cemetery for about an hour and a half. It was really easy to stay that long. Alexander Dumas and Edgar Degas are among those buried there. I wasn't creeped out at first, but after coming upon a row of mausoleums that just swallowed me up, I started to get the chills. In a good way.

8. Chocolate eclairs at Boulangerie Alexine: When I was walking around Montmartre on my last full day in Paris, I passed by this bakery. I stopped briefly to look in the window and kept walking at first, but then I somehow turned back. I got a chocolate eclair and it was delicious.

9. Crepes at St. Germain Creperie: This place was suggested to me by two LMU study abroad friends who were in Paris that week too. It was this nice hole-in-the-wall place on a busy cobblestoned road in the very center of Paris. I went by myself around 2pm and when I got there only one table was occupied by two women. I stood by the door for a couple of seconds, not knowing if I should seat myself since there were no hosts or waiters to be seen, until the guy who was smoking outside when I went into the creperie came in and told me to take a seat anywhere. Just after I ordered, the women at the other table left and I had the whole place (though tiny) to myself. The smoking guy who seated me and took my order (for a chihuahua crepe) then went into the kitchen to roll up his sleeves and cook my crepe! I had my very own creperie and chef! Anyway, it was one of the best things I ate in Paris. It was a crepe laid flat on a plate, with a concoction of chicken in a yellow currylike-creamy sauce with onions, carrots, and pineapples. Tres tres bien!

10. Versailles: I would go back to Paris just to see the Versailles gardens alone in the summer. Even in winter (albeit the end of winter), when most things were hibernating or gone (e.g. leaves on trees), the gardens were beautiful. And vast. I can't even describe how big the gardens were. Gardena could probably fit in the Versailles gardens. I also loved le petit Trianon, a favorite getaway for Marie Antoinette. And of course I don't really need to say how gorgeous the actual palace is. Though I will say that I thought the Vatican museums were as beautiful, just in a different way. Oh, except for the walls. I loved the Versailles palace walls.

I know I talk a lot about food in this post, but I wasn't about to starve myself in Paris, one of the culinary capitals of the world, and some of the best times I had were when I was eating.

Of course, I also went to and loved the Eiffel Tower (though I wasn't too much a fan of the hourly light show at night), the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees, Gare du Nord, the Tuileries, but it would all be way too much to write about.

I threw a coin into the Trevi fountain in Rome to ensure that I would make it back someday, but I don't need a lucky coin to know that I will be back in Paris.