Mes Amies à Paris

My friends and I took a weekend trip to Paris. I'm not going to tell you the whole story. Becky and Tasha have both already chronicled the adventure on their blogs, so I feel like we're covered. But I WILL regale you with my favorite parts:

1. Going at all:

It's not easy to coordinate six families' schedules so that the wives/moms can disappear for a weekend. Shout out to Tasha Oates for being our resident go-getter and making it happen. She's one spangly outfit away from being a full-scale super hero.

We took the train from Lux to Paris on a Friday night and stayed at a hotel called Princesse Caroline... which I found unaccountably hilarious.

#2. Brunch at Angelina

Martha is hip. She has cool hair. She's into interior design and can explain the Paris-tousled-brunette-model thing. She knows about quirky, fabulous shops in the city. And she got us a reservation at Angelina.

There was so much food, we struggled to fit it all on the table. And it was heavenly--pastries, eggs benedict, fruit juice, hot chocolate... wowza. If you go, make sure you get a reservation. Otherwise, the line goes out the door!

#3. Rodin Museum:

I think my favorite part was encountering each of my friends in the museum. They were all wearing these pensive happy expressions that made me wonder if they were loving the art or loving the chance to listen to their audio guides uninterrupted. Both, probably. Tasha cried in the museum, so I'd call that a rousing success.

#4. Explore-stroll-ing:

Rue Montorgueil...

... salted caramel eclairs from Paris's first pastry shop, raspberries from fruit stands, flower shops, a cheese shop manned by a Tom Cruise look-alike. Tasha bought the cheese shop's special Comte, and we ate it with a baguette in the street. Parisian Awesomeness: check.

Crossing the River

Notre Dame

Dinner at Pain, Vin, Fromages. (Great pick, Becky!)

Climbing the steps up to Montmartre.

Sacré-Cœur and going on a quest to find Tasha a crepe.

Riding the Metro

#5. Hotel Shenanigans:

Before you start worrying that we were running the halls and stealing toilet paper off the maid's cart, let me just state that WE were not the ones responsible for the shenanigans. Sure, we stayed up really late laughing...

But we did not burn the toast.

Unfortunately, someone else DID. At 6 in the morning. And the fire alarm went off. I would LOVE to see footage of how the next few minutes played out on our floor. Let's just say that several of us would have survived the fire... and several of us would not. Not to brag or anything, but I think Becky and I earned our fire saftey badge. I even checked to see if the door was hot before we left. However, someone (ahem*Tasha*) wanted to take the elevator, and I never saw someone else (ahem*Martha*) come out of her room. Mandy had already come up with a back-up plan for using bed sheets to escape from the fifth floor balcony. Mandy gets extra credit. Really, really funny.

Megan Reenacting the Morning's Chaos

#6. Good Morning, Mr. Eiffel:

Mornings in February at the Eiffel Tower apparently look like this:

Not ugly.

Excellent trip! Thanks, Paris, for being fabulous. Thanks, friends, for being even more fabulous than Paris. So, where to next? I'm ready when you are!

#travel #star #friends