Salut Meara!
I hope you're out there reading this (and checking for my inevitable typos). I wish you were still here (and not just cause you let me stay in your hotel room, but tell your mom thanks again). Hope you've enjoyed some time back at home. I would also say enjoy Iowa, but you know...
Paris is a nostalgic city. When you throw in friends you haven't seen or talked to in a while, the combination of looking to the past gets even stronger while the future continues to press on.
Having you here made me think of all the previous times we'd traveled together with our families. My memories of Paris the first time that we went in 2007 have been intermixed and replaced more accurately now. Time passes strangely, especially with travel, but also at this point in life when everything seems to be changing so rapidly. Seeing you made me realize that I am more of an "adult" than I thought, and we are growing into our lives in much different ways than planned...and that's scary, but I guess everything will work out in the end.
The whole week wasn't a giant stress fest about life and the ambiguous future and existential crises. There was also a French midterm and classes to be stressed over, too! Just kidding...kind of. The flowers, sun, and conversations were greatly enjoyed. Your visit was perfectly timed, too, since this weekend has turned windy and rainy again.
Even though we're growing up, I'm happy we can still have stupid, fun times together. I mean, I got to bounce on a cow in the Louvre...bet not too many people can say that. By the way, Rosalie the bouncing cow is also on my wishlist, right under "unicycle."
More fun jumping in and out of bushes at the Jardin des Plantes.
Thanks for the delicious gelato (Amorino's vanilla and speculoos pictured above), sharing your unidentifiably flavored macarons, and all the amazing cheeses.
Here are some pictures from my museum visit to the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, while you got to sleep in and leisurely stroll through the Orangerie, Orsay, and Musée Rodin (still embarrassingly have not been to two of the three, but I will go soon!).
There were complexly carved doorways from various buildings, including one from Chartres. We got through the entire class and a good portion of the museum before the professor explained that everything in the museum was molded replicas.
Even these dancing statues...
Tip for next time: Incredible views of the Eiffel Tower from this mostly empty museum. I still want to visit that park below.
Sorry about the lack of cat when we visited Shakespeare and Co. I'll send you some pictures next time...and I might add a weird cartoon (Caesar? Hamtaro? Pete popping out of a chocolate egg?) to your note, if I find it.
Can you feel your legs again?
Thanks for taking me to the zoo! We spend a lot of time at zoos, no? Remember when we fed those giraffes with black tongues? Was that the same place that we watched porcupines eat for a half and hour?
I still think it's funny that the French are obsessed with squirrels and raccoons, the "hats of Davy Crockett."
Keep in better touch, okay? Don't be a creepy ninja spy all the time.
Miss you lots and hope to see you soooon!!!
Love,
Julie
P.S. Send me your high-quality-fancy pictures (especially all the ones I took of socks and garbage in the hotel room) and I will post them up here, too!
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