je t'aime, hubert.

a gorgeous vesinet morning

inspiration for all

smart cars are everywhere!

me with the eiffel tower

i really like these green men

emily, alliance, and james

can you tell i am freezing cold?

bons bons

adding to the door collection

standing in front of a monet

a delicious and long awaited croque monsieur

another exhausting and wonderful day in the heart of paris. today we (emily, jamie, allison and i) conquered another walk for our class, this time in the 16th arrondissement. the city is divided into these little sections called arrondissements and i'm not really sure why. ha. i just looked it up, and pretty much it is just divided into 20 little sections. great. we hit the 16th today- which is supposedly one of the classiest - it is also one of the least commercial.

we started our walk on this quaint little bridge that gave us a lovely view of the eiffel tower (which i still have yet to see up close, oops!) and took us on an adventure on the allee de cygnes, aka the path of swans. we didnt see any swans, but we did find this little blue bench where many lovers had carved their names. we loved it! our favorite had to be "je t'aime, hubert" how french is that? then we ventured a little further to the mini statue of liberty where there were a bunch of french teens smoking (apparently it is a cool place to hang out).

after that little walk, we found ourselves in the midst of an antique market! it was so neat to see some of the old french things on sale. there was some of the neatest jewelry, china, books etc. but of course everything was quite pricey. at the end there was this cute little candy booth and i had to get some. yum! next we wound our way along some old neighborhood streets and found ourselves at the musee marmatton where they currently have a lovely claude monet exhibit. i love monet and the impressionists so i was super excited to see his works in real life. they were amazing. i love being able to look at an actual painting and think that at one time claude monet was literally standing there looking at that very canvas and creating something absolutely beautiful. we got to see all kinds of sunsets, landscapes, bridges, and water lilies. our guide book encouraged us to "take a few minutes to sit and contemplate Monet's water lilies".. check! i really enjoyed the art, and the museum itself was actually really beautiful too.

after that we were all starving and we decided we actually wanted to sit down and eat somewheres, but we also didn't want to pay a lot... so we began an adventure. and we ended up getting very lost. and more lost. and more hungry. and no one could decide on anything. we kept trying to take buses, but let me tell you, the buses are no metro - they are not our friends. we decided to just get on a bus and get off when we saw something that looked alright. finally we found a random brasserie (restaurant and cafe) and decided to try it out - and it as exactly what we wanted! i had a croque monsieur (classic french take on a grilled ham and cheese) and we shared a dessert and were all happy and full. and our waiter was really cute and whistle-y so we left him a nice tip.

after that we took a little trip to jamie and allison's place to see how different it was. holy cow, so different. they live in the midst of a real parisien neighborhood where we pretty much live out in the country. their house is like a glorified apartment and ours is definitely a house. i loved meeting their madame though. glad to have a face to put with all their funny stories.

tonight for dinner i had an apple and some camembert (i was still pretty full from lunch) and for dessert i had a nutella sandwhich and a handful of chocopix, but i cannot lie, i am seriously craving some homemade cookies. man, maybe i will see what kind of ingredients i can find at the Leader Price and give it a whirl. good day. good night.

oh yeah and for the nerd in all of you... step count: 16,511