C'est La Vie!

Since I can remember, it's always been my dream to go to Paris.  So I decided to finally make my dream come true by going to Paris for my 40th Bday.  My Bday celebration started on my birthday with my closest friends and family in San Diego.  I had a Paris theme birthday at one of the nicest hotels in San Diego, The Pearl.  The Pearl Hotel is very vintage with a dash of class.  It was the perfect place to start my celebration of a new decade.

   Weeks later, me and the girls were off to an adventure of a lifetime: Paris!  I decided to invite my sister Dedee, and my friends Angel Palacios and Michelle on this special trip.  I knew they all wanted to go to Paris too and I knew they would make this trip fun.  The start of our trip did not go so well.  We were supposed to land in Mexico City but there was a huge storm and we were not able to land, so we ended up in Guadalajara.  This delayed caused us to miss our flight from Mexico City to Paris, so we ended up missing 1-day of our trip.   24-hours later, we finally arrived to Paris and right away we fell in love!  The airport was modern and artsy.  One of the first things we noticed how they had glass rooms for people to smoke, we found that interesting.  To my surprise, I did very well in booking our hotel room.  The location of our hotel was in the Latin Quarter, where a lot of restaurants and shops were at.  We stayed at the Best Western Hotel Trianon Rive Gauce on the 3rd floor.  And we were 1 out of the only 2 rooms on the 3rd floor.  One of our windows was facing the Eifferl Tower!  It was the most beautiful view ever!!

And our other window was facing the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  The room itself was a bit small but we had 3 beds and a decent size bathroom.  The front desk people were very helpful.  They were able to book us reservations in French and get us cabs.  The only thing we did not like about the hotel was the elevator.  It was the oldest and tiniest elevator ever!!  Only 1 girl w/ a luggage or 2 girls were able to get on the elevator.  So it took us forever to check our stuff upstairs and checking-out took forever.

   We enjoyed our first day in Paris by walking to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was walking distance.  The Cathedral is so beautiful!!  We took a tour through the Cathedral and were lucky to listen to a mass in French.  After Notre Dame we had our first lunch at this cute little bistro in the corner, Village de Ronsand.  We ordered 2 bottles of wine to share (bottles of wine are cheap in Paris) and I ordered a Germainde Salad.  It was the most interesting salad I've ever had!  It had duck, eggs, potatoes, toast bread, and bacon!  I definitely gave it a 9.5.

 After our lunch, we decided to go back to the room to take naps, since we were behind on our sleep and needed to get ready for a fun night out.  Our first night in Paris, we had dinner at this very trendy Bar Restaurant that a friend had highly recommended.  Le Kong was such a fun spot!  It's a restaurant/bar/club.  It has the nicest view with the cutest Asian decor.  The food was amazing!!  I had a "Raw Hand Cut Tartar of Beef Filet" and it was a bit different but really good.  We all order a dish to share, so we all got to experience sashimi, crab ravioli, and some other delicious entrees.

 After our dinner, we wanted to go check out the club at Le Kong but our waiter suggested we check out Matignon Paris instead.  We were able to get into Matignon Paris with no cover, thanks to our waiter at Le Kong.  The club was an underground club with 3-levels.  The basement was a smoking room.  We made friends with a couple of guys in the smoking room.  John and the French Scott Disick.  They were both very friendly and we shared stories about our different cultures.  They invited us to join their table upstairs.  We drank and danced the night away with them, the club did not close till 5am.  After the club, they invited us over to their place and they got us pizzas and drinks.  The apartments in Paris are like lofts.  We had a good time hanging out with our new buddies but we finally headed back to our hotel to rest up for day 2.

   The next day we headed to Le Louvre.  Le Louvre is one of the largest museums in the world and the home to the famous Mona Lisa (Le Joconde).  Le Louvre is so beautiful!!  It looks like it used to be a palace.  It has so many sections of so many beautiful art!!  I was fascinated by the different types of art and sculptures.  And seeing the Mona Lisa in person was very surreal.  It was so crowded too, everyone gets crazy trying to get a picture.  Since my friend Shahim has always been fascinated by the Mona Lisa, I bought him a duplicate of the painting and got one for myself too.

 After a long day at Le Louvre, we got ready to finally go check out The Eiffel Tower.  I was bummed because we got there too late to go on a tour of the Eiffel Tower but we still enjoyed the experience by having a picnic in front of it with bottles of champagne.  The most beautiful experience is on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles with lights.  And we ended our night at the BEST Sushi place I've ever eaten!  We ate at Sushiyama, which was right next to our hotel.  We ordered a Boat of varieties of Sashimi, rolls, and of course Sake.

   On our 3rd day in Paris, we woke up early to take the train to the City of Versailles.  I've been obsessed with Marie Antoinette and I wanted to see her castle and learn a little more history on her.  The train ride was about an hour from Paris but we got to view beautiful parts of Paris on the way there and back.  The City of Versailles is the most beautiful place I've ever been to.  Words or pictures do not do it any justice.  That day was a French Holiday, so we go to experience a  French Parade.  I was happy because I got to see Marie Antoinette's bedroom and I got to check out the gardens of the palace.  I was lucky that the girls let me have this day to something I really wanted to do.  I was very happy.

We had lunch at Brasserie du Musee', this cute restaurant by the Chateau of Versailles.  We decided to order 3 different pizzas to share.  The pizzas in Paris are so good!  They have very thin crust, which helps you not get so full and their cheese is very different.  We had one pizza with chorizo, another one had potatoes, and vegetables, and one had eggs and pepperoni.  We figured we would try pizza that we would not normally try and we were all satisfied.  Very good pizzas.  I highly recommend trying their pizzas here.

 That night we decided to go bar hoping the Latin Quarter.  Our first stop was an outdoor Hookah Lounge so we could people-watch while drinking and smoking.  But the funny part was that people came coming up to us and asking if they could take pictures of us or with us.  They kept asking if we were Brazilian or what Nationality we were.  I guess we really stood out in Paris.  One of the guys told us that people could tell we were not from Paris because we looked too happy.  We did laugh a lot and we were a bit loud.  I did notice that people in Paris are very reserved and quiet.  There was a time that we had a big crowd of guys around us and wouldn't leave us alone.  Luckily,  the owner of the bar helped us get rid of them in French

  Our 4th day in Paris, we took the Sub to Pere Lachaise to go visit Jim Morisson's grave, which was on Dedee's bucket list.  The Cemetery is beautiful and it took us a while to find Jim's resting spot.  We pour some Whiskey for him and paid our respects to him.  We decided to have a picnic by him and we got in so much trouble.  We got yelled in French that the police was going to arrest us.  I guess having a picnic with alcohol in the middle of a cemetery was a bad idea.

   Before we headed to Moulin Rouge, we had dinner at Bistros des Augustins.  I'm a big fan of food and I love the food in Paris but my favorite food I had in our trip was at this place, it was a Gratin.  This is what I ordered: Gratin Landais, pommes de terre, creme fraiche, ouef, chevre et tranches de magret de canard.  I'm not too sure what ingredients were in there but it was cheesy and one of the most delicious foods that I have ever had in my life.

 After our dinner, we went to Moulin Rouge, the most spectacular show ever!  Being a dancer for 10-years made me appreciate the art of the show.  Every performance was excellent and the whole show exceeded my expectations.  Moulin Rouge was my favorite part  of our Paris trip.

   Our final day in Paris, we started by having a delicious breakfast at Tabac De La Sorbonne, which was across the street from our hotel.  Before we boarded our boat to tour Paris on the Sienne River, we bought locks to put on the Lovers Lock Bridge (which was recently removed).  Cruising through the Sienne River was such a beautiful experience.  And we finished the last part of our trip by doing some serious shopping.  I got to buy some cute clothes for both Skyy and I. And got souvenirs for all my loved ones.

   From this trip, my favorite moment was The Moulin Rouge show and visiting Versailles.  Alcohol is cheap, so it's nice to ordered bottles of wine with food.  The only food I did not like in Paris was a "ham and cheese creepe".  I thought it was the most disgusting food ever, I thought I was going to throw up.  I think they put a raw egg in the Creepe.  I highly recommend their croissants!  I forgot to mentioned that one of us would get coffee and Croissants for all of us every morning.  In regards to fashion, Parisians dressed comfortable but trendy.  I noticed they wear a lot of black with colorful scarfs.  They all wear boots and dressy tennis shoes.  And I see a lot of designer bags and watches.

 And I like how most hotels provide umbrellas because umbrellas are a must in Paris (lots of rain).  And the most important tip I can remember is that when you take a cab, the fare includes a tip!  We didn't know in the beginning and we were tipping on top of it, until one cab driver was nice enough to tell us that we were over-tipping.  Another useful tip is the voltage in Europe is so different than here.  We bought converters for our chargers but it took hours to charge our phones.  And it didn't even work on our straighteners and curling irons.  The hardest part of my trip was how much I was missing Mexican food.  We kept asking people if they sold any Mexican food but no luck, not even at the Latin Quarter.  Speaking and understanding French is helpful but about 70% of the people spoke English and I was able to get by with the bit of French I took in High School.

   5-days in Paris was not enough time.  I'm still sad that we missed a whole day because of our delayed flight.  I would say it's worth paying the bit of extra money to take a direct flight if possible, otherwise it feels like an eternity to get to Paris.  I can't wait to go back to Paris, maybe next time I will go on a romantic trip, since it is the most romantic place in the world.  And our favorite phrase we learned is "C'est la vie!"  We like how Paris people live for the moment, if things go wrong, they move on, it's a "c'est la vie moment".  C'est la vie translates to "oh well, shit happens, move on".  So to this day, me and the girls live to that "c'est la vie" mode.  Life is too short to worry about meaningless things.  If something goes wrong....move on.  Enjoy life to the fullest!

Merci beaucoup to mes filles (Dedee, Angel, and Michelle).  Je t'aime!!