Eugénie

I wasn’t all that excited for another early morning, but lucky me, I got one. My dad and I were out of the door around 7:00 this morning for an early morning run mostly along the Siene. We ran through some famous landmarks such as the Louvre and the Louvre garden, across a bridge with a view of Notre Dame, and through the park under the Eiffel Tower. For such a large tourist attraction I thought there would be a lot of care in keeping this park clean, but it was absolutely covered in trash as we ran through it. A few people were cleaning up the mess, but I would suggest going during the day if you don’t want to see lots of trash. On the bright side, the weather was cool and a bit drippy and there weren’t any tourist out yet so it was a beautiful time over all to see the Eiffel Tower. After our six mile run I came back for a quick shower and breakfast before Hannah and I left to meet our friend Eugenie, who lives just outside of Paris. She came to live with us for a month three summers ago to practice English and we haven’t gotten to see each other since.

When we first saw each other we were so excited and in no time at all it was just like three summers ago. We decided to go to the Louvre to avoid the rain and even managed to get in for free because of our age. Once we were inside we realized how incredibly big it is as we wandered and wandered, trying to find the Mona Lisa. I will say, even though we had no idea where we were the Louvre is impressive. Every room is like a different world. We we walking though different 1700s furniture arrangements then passed through a regular old doorway and were looking at asian plate designs. Eventually we were able to find the Mona Lisa after Eugenie asked countless staff, in her super pretty french, where it was and getting vague directions. It turns out the painting is tiny for all of its buzz. It was really cool, but I had to ask what made it so special while it was surrounded by thousands of other bigger, more detailed paintings. No matter its cause for fame, I can now say I have seen the Mona Lisa, which is pretty cool.

We continued our day of fun by going to Mont Martre, where my family got our portraits drawn years ago. In order to get to the top we took the funicular, while takes you straight up it. When we got to the top we headed straight for a yummy lunch, where I got stuffed peppers, which were stereotypically delicious. After our lunch, lots of catching up, and some tough decision making, we decided to go back to her house to make some crêpes and hang out. On the way we bought some fruit to go inside of the crêpes and then look the subway to her town. Her mom picked us up there so we didn’t have to walk to their house in the heat, which had begun poking through the clouds hours ago. When we got to there house I suddenly remembered it very clearly. We went to their house for dinner last time we were in Paris and I was impressed by my own memory.

We started out playing a few games: uno, spot it, and one she taught us while she stayed with us in Colorado. She won every single round of every single game but one. Feeling defeated, but still happy to be together we started to cook up some crêpes. Her family has a ingenious machines that had all of the recipes installed in it and it measures the ingredients as you pour them in so we didn’t need a single measuring tool or recipe book. With out batter done we took turn making crêpes, ending up with a variety of torn ones, perfect ones, and a few that looked like exotic animals. When we finished eating we watched the movie we made of Eugenie’s trip in the US. We had forgot all of the amazing things we did while she was here. We did so much it didn’t seem like she had just been there for 3 or 4 weeks! All of the fun memories came flooding back just in time for dinner. My parents had arrived by then and Eugenie and her parents and my family all got to catch up over some amazing pasta. It felt like it had been ages since we last saw them and o time at all at the same time. We talked to each other for hours, going late into the night. A few left over crêpes and some fruit made a delicious dessert and kept us chatting. Eventually we were starting to “wilt,” as my mom said and after our Uber was close than expected, we had a rushed goodbye. It was sad to leave Eugenie behind, not knowing when we would see her again, but I was happy to have seen her at all.

On the drive our apartment I couldn’t stay awake, but Hannah got me up enough so I wouldn’t miss driving around the Arc de Triomphe to seeing the Eiffel Tower glitter at midnight. Paris at night is truly beautiful.

When we got back to the apartment I walked straight to bed and instantly fell asleep, clothes and all. It has been an exhausting few weeks and it is finally starting to catch up with me.