Whether I am being visited or visiting, I always love to spend time with friends and family. I love the comfort that comes from knowing someone, reminiscing about the past, and learning things about my loved ones that I did not know before. In short, the opportunity to spend four days with my parents would have been awesome in and of itself. The fact that I got to both explore London with them and show them a bit of Paris? Icing on the cake.
Except that, when you really think about it, cake without icing is pretty much just chocolate bread. Good, but not cake. I don't mean to say that four days with my parents at home, without the 'icing' of being abroad, wouldn't be good -- it just wouldn't be the same thing. It was thanks to the fact that we were in new places that this weekend was what it was. Since we were away from home, we were all away from the things that tend to take us away from each other - work, chores, friends to see, emails to answer, and other distractions were mostly out of the picture. We had all dedicated the weekend solely to spending time with each other. I can't imagine that ours is the only family for which this is rarely the case, and I am fairly certain that we would not have been able to spend so much time together if we had been at home.
I am so thankful that I got to spend time "icing the cake" with my parents this weekend! We made great memories in London and in Paris, and had good conversation, both lighthearted and serious, all around. I got to hug my mommy and teach my dad French (he is now an expert by the way... he even knows the word for french fries!) I even got to introduce them to my host mother, Patricia, when we all went out for brunch. Sharing part of this incredible semester with the two most important people in my life was wonderful; the fact that they would give me this incredible opportunity by sending me here and then find the time to travel across an ocean just so that I could talk their ears off about my experience is astounding to me. It is such a blessing to know that, no matter where I am or what I am doing, there are two people who love me unconditionally and who are happy just to see me happy, even if they have to look on from afar.
Now that we have established the all-around awesomeness of my parental units and come to an agreement that there is no such thing as cake without icing, maybe we should get to the pictures of the awesome weekend I spent with my parents.
Okay, so this picture was actually from Wednesday night, before my parents arrived. I took it while I was waiting for my class to start. The Louvre looked so peaceful with so few people outside and all of the lights on. Definitely a moment that made me want to pinch myself!
I left Paris via Eurostar through the "Chunnel" at 6:43 am on Friday morning. I arrived in London at 7:59 am local time and met my parents at their hotel. That day, we did a Fat Tyre Bike Tour so that we saw all of the major sights and learned interesting things about many of the monuments. We even happened to be riding past Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard!
Fun Fact #14: On July 9, 1982, a man named Michael Fagan entered the Palace gardens through and scaled a drainpipe to go through an open window into the Palace. He was inside for quite some time, observing portraits, drinking half a bottle of wine that he found, and even sitting on the throne before eventually finding the Queen's room. She awoke to him sitting on her bed, and when no police came (after two calls... seriously, if the Queen calls the police I would think they would come), he sat on the end of her bed talking to her for about 10 to 15 minutes.
We continued our ride through London, stopping for lunch at Trafalgar Square.
Fun Fact #15: This is Nelson's Column, and it commemorates (surprise!) Lord Nelson, a British Naval hero who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson also lost his life. He was so well respected that his men did not want to bury him at sea. The problem was that they were 6 weeks from home, and clearly a body cannot make it that long without preservatives. The men rather ingeniously decided to put their fearless leader in a cask of brandy so he would not decay. When they got home, though, it is said that about half of the brandy was gone, and the officers found that the men had been drinking the brandy to pay homage to the great man Nelson. Apparently, to this day when someone is caught drunk in the British Navy, it is called "tapping the admiral."
Most of the tour was through parks etc. This was taken towards the end. LOVE THEM!
Saturday morning, we headed from London back to Paris. My dad thought it was appropriate to wear his Pierre Garçon Colts jersey, since garçon is a french word meaning boy.
Fun Fact #16: Garçon is the only player in the NFL who has a circumflex (the thing under the c) in his name.
Saturday night, we went to Le Relais de Venise (L'Entrecôte) for dinner. It came highly recommended by anyone who has ever eaten there, and was absolutely delicious. It was easily worth the wait for the famed sauce, delicious hand cut fries, and the all around excellent meal! I will be back.
Sunday, after brunch with my host mother, we explored the Montmartre area and the Latin Quarter. After a quick dinner in a park, we headed to the Eiffel Tower, where we met for another Fat Tire Bike Tour. This one was a beautiful night ride that ended with a boat cruise and red wine on the Seine. One of our stops had this view of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Our tour ended back by the Eiffel Tower. I like it so much better at night!! Monday we saw the Louvre in the morning and then after my class enjoyed a relaxing afternoon together. I was just glad to get to see them!
Fun Fact #17: The Louvre Museum houses over 35,000 pieces of art in 652,300 square feet. It has a mall in it's basement and was at one time a palace. No wonder we didn't have time for everything when we went!
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is having a good week!
~SKS
No comments:
Post a Comment