In which Chris comes to Paris

Two days ago, Chris came to Paris for a whirlwind 24 hours of Parisian sightseeing craziness. When I told my host mom that he would visit, she responded, "No one can see Paris in 24 hours! Not even an American!" But try we did.

So, I welcomed him French-style, with open arms, an awkward kiss on the cheek, and a bottle of wine.  We proceeded to the Tuileries where we had a petit picnic with some French baguettes and our wine, overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

Happy after our petit picnic

Afterwards, we went on the world's fastest tour of the Louvre.  45 minutes, hitting up only the most notable of pieces, including (of course) 

The upside down pyramid, of Da Vinci Code fame

Mona

aaaand Venus de Milo

Then we met up with his recently graduated friends from Saybrook and ended up at Notre Dame

Inside the church

After this, we went to my class at the Musée d'Orsay but it was closed, so Chris watched the US beat Algeria in a café while my professor conducted class right outside the museum.  Our next goal was to tackle the Eiffel Tower.  Done and done.

Eiffel.

Actually, our plan was to ride up the tower.  We found out that if we went in line, they would throw our wine bottle out, so we decided to sit in the garden facing the tower and drink the wine instead.  

Immediately after we had finished the bottle, some police officers approached us and curtly informed us that bottles were not allowed on the premises.  I whipped out the "I'm a stupid American but woohoo look at me, I'm trying to speak your language" card, and they let us off the hook.  We had already finished, in any case, and were off to our next adventure: Arc de Triomphe.

Chris being triumphant at the Arc de Triomphe. It was a cute idea at the time.

We scuttled over to St. Michel to find the most French restaurant possible for dinner.  For appetizer, Chris got, what else, escargot.  He was aided by the gay couple sitting next to us.  Their instructions: 

• Grabbed the snail's shell with the tongs in your left hand
• Use your right hand to pull the snail out with the long stick thing
• Dip your bread in the sauce
• Enjoy

Chris deftly following the gay man's instructions. 

For the second course, I got salmon and Chris got the beef stew.

A veritable man date, if I've ever seen one.

And that's where my pictures of our escapades end.  But the rest of his stay included winding down at a random Canadian sports bar found by his Saybrook friends, rowdiness, more rowdiness, waking up early the next day to take him to the train station, and a sad goodbye. 

Fun times.