See Paris And Die

As is evidenced by the huge shit-eating grin on my face, I'm having the time of my life.

Before I even left, while I was waiting for my connecting flight from Heathrow, I started chatting with a French guy, just mindless gist, whiling away the time till our flight was called, until Bros asked what hotel I'd be staying at in Paris. Alarm bells just clanged in my head, I saw Taken as well as everybody else, I can't fight, My dad isn't Liam Neeson, if my trip get k-leg e don be for me.

Na so TWP go take lost because of vacation.

I just hanlele'd away from that area sharply.

Anyhoozle, got into Paris Saturday night with Nwabugo who flew in from Birmingham, no activity that night we just went straight to bed. Unlike a trip I took last year, where I went clubbing the day I arrived and didn't come up for air till I left, a week later.

So for this trip I decided to be the ultimate tourist, no shopping, no club hopping, just taking in the sights, visiting all the historic areas and all that good stuff.

The next day was Sunday and as rabid Roman Catholics, I and Nwabugo met up with our friend and blogger Stella of Stella's Addiction to attend Mass at the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris. We were all in the same class at Queen's College till we graduated, its awesome that we've remained friends for so long.

CATHEDRALE NOTRE DAME DE PARIS
Wearing a beaded caftan I got at LPM, can't remember who the vendor was now and I finally perfected putting my hair up in a bun after numerous attempts. Yay me!

Stella and Nwabugo

Still tres excited

Weird thing about the Notre Dame was that even while Mass was going on, tourists were still allowed to walk through the cathedral and take pictures, I could barely concentrate on the service. Added to the fact that every thing was in French, I was lost. The Latin Order of Mass is a piece of cake cos I've heard that practically my whole life but the French one was a new experience.

I don't know if I've said this before but I'm a HUGE history buff and I have a ridiculous ability to retain immense amounts of trivia, so there's a lot of useless and not so useless information jostling for space in my head. So seeing places and things I'd only read about or seen pictures of, literally sent me into a tizzy. I kept going "OhmyGod the gargoyles"! or "OhmyGod the porculis"! I swear I was in heaven.

After Mass we went to go get lunch and decided to be safe and stick to cuisine we were already used to.

Good old American fries, ribs, club sandwhiches etc, you can never go wrong

CHAMPS ELYSEES

Visited Paris' own Oxford Street/Rodeo Drive/Fifth Avenue etc, the Champs Elysees, not much to see there, expensive stores and tourists.

Immense LV store though, gaddamn. I was in awe.

ARC DE TRIOMPHE
I'd always wanted to stand in the middle of Champs Elysees and take a photo in front of the Arc de Triomphe. I did it!

Doing my happy dance

Went to the Haagen Dazs cafe to get ice creams after all our waka. I really need to live in a civilised town, all we have in Abz is a poxy Baskin Robbins cafe and its not even that bunz, oh well.

My kingdom for Haggen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake ice-cream, no really. I'll give anything for a life time supply.

THE LOUVRE

Even if you knew nothing about history and art, if you live in a post The DaVinci Code world, you'll def show a little interest at the thought of going to the Louvre. As all of the above plus a bibliophile, I literally almost wept when I saw the pyramids. I can be classified as a bit of a drama queen so don't shake your head when I'm recounting my antics. I get seriously excited by the things I'm passionate about and the Louvre was one of the things on my Tourist List. I can't even describe it adequately, its just mind blowing. Took so many pictures that I decided for the first time in over a year I have to post an album on Facebook. Since I couldn't put everything on here, these are just the things I was really excited about.

The pyramid, but of course

Shades of Robert Langdon. Even though I've devoured all his books, I'm snooty enough about my creative writing prowess to recognize that Dan Brown is not a very good writer. His books read like a dissertation, like he researched a particular subject and is just regurgitating the results. Very interesting, very informative but not very good writing. You can disagree with me, my own two francs sha.

Wore a Babushka dress for this particular sojourn, as I tweeted, I had to wear a work of art to go see other works of art. One of my favourite dresses for real.

The back....pow!

Forgive the visible bra, I'm no longer a perky teenager, can't be roaming around sans mammary support.

Venus de Milo!

The Long Gallery

Aunty Mona Lisa. Obviously the Louvre's most prized possession, the whole area was cordoned off, you couldn't even come close to the painting. We all had to stand behind barricades to take pictures. All the other paintings had no protection except the Mona Lisa.

One of my favourite paintings ever, The Wedding feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese. The detail in it is amazing, everybody in the painting has their own distinct features, undertaking their own separate activity. You can literally look at this painting for hours and see something new everytime. Fun fact about this painting is that none of the figures in it are depicted as "visibly speaking", this is because "it was commissioned for a Benedictine monastery where silence was strictly observed", so Veronese had to paint a wedding feast at which everybody was silent.

Inneresting no?

Veronese also painted himself into it.

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Obviously no visit to Paris is complete without seeing Le Tour Eiffel, scorned by Parisiennes as "a scar on the face of Paris" and loved by tourists.

We were going to go all the way to the top but the queue was ridiculous so we fashied and decided to lie down on the grass instead till night when the lights came on.

French policeman are unbelievably hot, my dear friend Nwabugo was practically salivating when we spotted them. I'm telling you, male model type hot.

An awesome time so far, the next day we went to one of my birthday presents to myself, Euro Disney, truly, my excitement knew no bounds. Pictures from The Happiest Place On The Earth coming up.

L'amour et La Lumiere xx

i just had to do that, lol