Bonjore! Hello Everyone!
This past weekend one of my co-workers and I went to Paris we left on Friday and got back on Sunday evening. I am so excited to share all the wonderful sights and stories with you but first let me just mention a few praises and prayer requests if you have time to read them :)
Praises:
- Work is going well (see my post below) I have been learned A BUNCH! and I am just really thankful the Lord is using me over here
- My knees haven't hurt once this whole trip! pretty much a miracle to do this much and not need my knee braces
- Made some really wonderful friends at work
- Learning how to Cook!
- RED BUMPS ARE GONE! Thank you to all your wonderful help with ideas about what it might be.. Almost everyone mentioned bed bugs, but I waited a few days and they went away on their own :) so thankful for all of your prayers and concerns about that. I think it might have just been nerves? Im not quiet sure, but I am just glad they are gone.
Prayer Requests:
- The BLF print shop keeps getting attacked by the teens in the neighborhood over night, in this past week there has been two broken windows, pray that #1 it is a safe environment for everyone at night #2 that the teens are somehow reached through our organization. We just put a fence around the property where they used to "hang" at night so they are not very happy about that.. we are assuming. Pray that everyone at the shop shows them compassion, that we are not plotting against them or anything.
- In 2 weeks Kirsty, my friend comes here to work at BLF with me, pray that she arrives safe and her other mission before this one does the Lords work! (so excited to room with her too!)
- Pray that I learn what God's will is for me after I get home, that he teaches me what I need to be taught, and that I am able to have a deeper passion for Jesus Christ and my relationship with him.
- Pray for a safe trip to London, England because this will be the first time I try to travel alone.
- Is there anything you need prayer for? Let me know!
Alright well thanks for letting me share those things with you, I am so thankful to be here and everything that has happened has been a major blessing, all the negatives God has made into positives and I LOVE being here in France. I am so lucky I can do both, serve the Lord and travel and see some culture. It was so fun being in Paris last weekend with Valerie and it was so amazing to see all the places that have been here for hundreds of years. I absolutely loved it and cannot wait to go back! Valerie and I took a train from Maubuege (which you saw already) straight into Paris.
They had funny signs to turn off your cell phone that I really liked, haha
We got there safely but MAN was it intense. Both of us didnt know where we were going, and unfortunately I booked us in the worst (most unsafe) part of Paris. We stayed in Pigalle, which was not good for 2 girls alone, not knowing where they are going at night. Thankfully God protected us and we prayed and laughed nervously ALOT. Needless to say we stayed in our room at night in such a sketchy area... But the hotel was very nice and comfortable :)
This might be stupid.. but I really thought the room keys were cool
The Next Morning we took a subway to the Eiffle Tower
The first thing Saturday morning we did was go see the Eiffel Tower. I was in complete awe of how gorgeous it was! We spend way longer than expected, but I guess thats what you get for waiting in the short line. Come to find out it was so short because it was stairs only. Wooo Hoo for an INTENSE work out in the morning. I had NO IDEA there were so many stairs. It was definitely worth it though, I don't think I would have liked it has much doing the elevator the whole way (plus it was cheaper) SCORE! we ended up spending about 4 hours total there which is NUTS, but now I can definitely can say I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower :)
View from the very top
Me just blending in with some tourists :)
Next we went on a boat ride, you can view the video at the end of how it went, I am trying to narrow down pictures here so you don't spend hours on my blog looking. Lets just say I took ALOT, I am a photographer for cryin' out loud. But the boat took us along the Seine River and showed us all the stops, which lead us to an interest into going to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Pictures cannot describe this one. It was absolutely amazing! The whole time I kept thinking about the movie Esmerelda and the hunchback of Notre Dame haha (the cartoon) but I really enjoyed it here. We met a nice boy from south africa who we also saw at the Eiffel tower. He kept asking us if we knew where this glass house was. I had no idea what he was talking about until we got to the Louvre later that day and laughed our pants off. It finally clicked, that is what he was looking for. It still makes me smile thinking about it, but anyway heres the pictures of Notre Dame.
Next we went to the Pantheon in Paris, its the copy of the real one in rome. But I am sure still just as cool. I was really excited to see this because I remember learning so much about it in my humanities class last semester! It was absolutely breath taking inside. I stayed in there extra long because there was also air conditioning :)
The Luxemburg Garden is really close to the Pantheon and so we walked over there. I was amazed with how many people there were, locals just sitting and sunbathing in the grass on lawn chairs.
My favorite thing about this Garden is that there is this pond were you can rent mechanical boats and there were kids all over the pond pushing their boats from one side to the next with sticks. It was so cool. Just like a movie or something. It reminded me of Stuart Little when he is on that boat race in central park NYC. haha but this was cooler because its europe. duh :)
Our next stop was the Palais Royal and right next door is the Louvre. We werent event planning on stopping there but it worked out perfectly because we walked through all the way down to the Arch de Triumph
One area of the Louvre
One of the Many Arches in Paris the "mini version"
This was on the walk in the Garden de Tuileries which was absolutely breath taking. I loved walking in this area. It was a very romantic place, lots of couples and people playing music for entertainment. So relaxing almost at sunset
At the end of the Garden des Tuileries there is this wonderful area called the Place de la Concorde I wish we had more time here because I could have just sat under this fountain forever and watched people as they walked by.
As it started getting closer to sunset we walked up the Champs-Elyees where all the designer house stores were there. I felt really out of my element, but it was very cool to be on the street where all the famous designers sell and show their works of art in retail. I loved just being able to hang out with my two girls and laugh and window shop. I had such a great time there.
It was very fancy and I was so blessed to be able to eat in the most fabulous restaurant because of my mom and her good friend at work. I was soooo hungry and boy did this restaurant have the most amazing food. We all changed out of our street wear into heels and our "night outfits" which was fun. Girls night out in Paris :D We arrived the the most beautiful restaurant I think I have ever seen, Al Diwan. There was beautiful mirrors when you walked up the steps and as you walked into the restaurant you could see this beautiful garden and some soft ethic music totally set the mood. I could tell all three of us were so excited to be in such a fancy place. I had no idea what a wonderful time I would have in this Its a Leboneze restaurant. I was greeted by the most wonderful and kind man Mr. Harfouche who was the owner and he treated us so well! Oh my word I was so amazed with how good everything tasted! I would totally recommend this place to ANYONE in Paris. It was absolutely delightful! There were so many things he offered us to try I was just so thankful I was able to have such a large meal. He was cutest man who made us feel so comfortable right away showing us all the ways to eat the dishes and did I mention how AMAZING the food was? THE FOOD WAS AMAZING. like seriously a ten star meal. We walked out of there in like complete shock how giving he was to us. I will always remember that night for the rest of my life.
I was so thankful that we were able to enjoy such a filling meal we decided to walk to the Arch De Triumph. I actually as a photographer had a hard time taking pictures here. I could not for the life of me figure out the right exposure.. haha thats kind of embarrassing but it was really tricky. Next time I go to Paris toward the end of my trip I'm determined to get it right at night!
This was the view of it at the end of the Concorde
The next day Valerie and I woke up early to go to one place that I had been looking forward to seeing since I found out I was serving in Paris, The Moulin Rouge. Because of my favorite movie! I love the whole story line and think its just one of the best movies ever artistically. We finally got to the location and it was cool.. and I was excited.. but it was not even half as good as the movies windmill. Haha so that ended up being somewhat of a let down. But I still really enjoyed myself. I wish it looked more like the windmill I saw in Maubeuge (see that blog below with windmill and you will get what I mean) That one looks more like a french windmill in my opinion and how the movie looks like. But what was fun was that while I was there all the songs popped into my head... "I hope you don't mind.. that I put down in worddsssss how wonderful life is... now your in the worlddddddd" hehe (me singing and typing)
The "sparkling diamond" necklace
This last section of photos were my absolute favorite of the whole entire trip. We decided to go to a place that is really close to the Moulin Rouge. We took the Metro all the way as far as we could go and then the elevator because we were NOT about to take a million stairs to get up the hill after climbing the whole Eiffle tower by foot. haha It was in the town Montmartre and the walk was amazing it reminded me a lot of some of the areas in Belgium when I went...
We were looking for the Sacre Coeur which is suppose to be this amazing church.. but we couldn't find it right away. So we decided to take a small break and go to the cafe and drink an Esspresso I got decaf and put about 5 sugar cubes in because it was sooo strong haha. But I felt cool :)
You can totally see on my face it was STRONG! haha
The second we sat down, we looked up at the view and were in complete awe... There was the Sacre Coeur! The most beautiful view ever.. This is what we literally saw..
We had just about enough time to walk through the church and I snuck some pictures
it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. There were nuns singing acapella I got teary eyed. I loved every thing about it..
here are some pictures sorry they are kind of blurry I snuck them during the service
The area around the church was cool too, I could show you tons of pictures but you should just take a look at the video. There were lots of people and lots of entertainers. I loved all the excitement with painters just painting and people selling stuff. Live music and even some people painted as statues which I liked alot :)
All and all I had a pretty good trip.. I went to Paris and I wore a beret to prove it hehe
Au Revior for now. Check out my blog later this week for my London Trip which I just got back from on sunday June 21st. Also Check out the movie I made below of clips from Paris! Some funny things about it before I go.. I got in trouble for pointing my camera through the bars and looking down from the security guard. I asked the lady to take a picture in the beginning of the elevator down, she said no and it was SUPER awkward we laughed so hard when we got out. I combined our videos together to make a movie of the whole trip highlights. Enjoy!
Love and a Hug
Nicole
