Flea Market

Today Melissa and I journeyed to one of the biggest flea markets in Paris. The flea market had tables upon tables of jewelry, clothing, and souvenirs, basically anything and everything.Once past the sketchy vendors, Melissa and I found a gorgeous antique section. The antiques consisted of everything from furniture to records to vintage couture and jewelry. If I had 1,000 more euros in my bank account maybe I would have bought some Chanel earrings, they were only eight hundred dollars. Mom... Dad... where are you? :) I did find a cool snake wrap around watch. Breann and Lana will make fun of me for saying this, but it is a great "staple piece." :)I couldn't believe how expensive the records were. I'm pretty sure some of The Beatles albums I picked up were well worth their high price...sorry Breann.We also had our first bad experience dining, this could have been due to the fact we were clearly American and clearly not fluent in French. For example, never again will I order mineral water thinking I am ordering regualr water... that was some nasty water. Probably after twenty minutes we gave up on our server taking our card, and left euros. Au revoir to that cafe, we won't be seeing you in the future.

The Cat Man

Melissa and I finally got to sleep in this morning, praise Jesus. Today we got up and decided to explore our neighborhood Saint Maur, in the 11th arrondissement. The neighborhood is best described as "one of the most up-and-coming areas of eastern Paris." We found some great little markets and boutiques while we were out. We had a cafe au lait at a cafe called Tabac, which we later found out was occupied by sketchy Asians who did not speak French and kept looking at us. Melissa and I will not be going back to this cafe. ;) We must have spent an hour just sittting and talking. I would be content just sitting along side the sidewalk looking to see what the Parisians are wearing. While we were walking we found a beautiful cathedral church that I had to snap some photos of. As we got back to the apartment, we had a not so pleasant encounter with our neighbor, whom I like to call the "cat man." I would best describe the cat man as a distressed looking Parisian poet who probably does not bathe or like to socialize with young female foreigners. As we were coming in the door before we reached the spiral staircase to the apartment the alarm started buzzing. Melissa and I had a minor panic attack/laughing attack as we frantically tried to stop the buzzing. I'm pretty sure we didn't know what half of the buttons we were pushing did...ooppsssie. All of the sudden we heard French yelling from upstairs saying something about a key. As Melissa and I stared at each other blank expression and eyes bulging, Melissa finally looked up the staircase and said "no francais." The infuriated Cat Man came stomping down the stairs to show us how to turn the alarm off. All I could say was "pardon" (sorry) and Melissa said "merci" (thanks). I'm still not positive we know what to do the next time the alarm goes off. I guess we might be having another encounter with the Cat Man. Oh my... :) haha Tonight Melissa and I are going out for a night on the town in beautiful Paris... should be fun! Maybe I'll meet a scruffy Parisian Pierre. Ooh lalala.

Au revoir!

From Paris with Love,

Marcy

Falling in Love Paris

It's been a long day. Melissa and I got lost trying to find the college today. All was well until we stepped off the metro. Finally, after two hours a French woman helped us find our way by literally walking a mile to show us where the building was. Lost in Paris... why am I not surprised this happen to us? Once we arrived to the college, we found out that orientation is at another building. You can probably imagine Melissa and I were very pleased to here this. After some more stress and a few metro stops later, we arrived at the correct building. We were greeted by coffee eclairs, chocolate eclairs, apple tarts, and ham and cheese on french bread... my mood was suddenly lifted. Later that afternoon we took a bus tour of the city and saw a lot of the main tourist attractions. I am slowly falling in love with Paris. It's amazing how a city can be so beautiful just because of it's intricate detail. Whether it be pebble stone streets, archways, or a window there is always some kind of fascinating detail that appears with it as well. This evening Melissa and I checked out another market behind our apartment and picked up some croissants from the bakery down the street. I still can not fully grasp I am in Paris... oh, did I mention I am living here too?

From Paris with love,
Marcy

Nostalgia

This past weekend was my last weekend in West Virginia before I leave for Paris. Breann and I headed out of D.C. Friday night to visit family in Weston. My Granny was having a yard sale and selling what some people call junk, but I call treasure. I found some retro earrings and even a teapot, which who knows if I'll ever use it... oh well. I decided I wanted to do a blog about antique inspiration. Anyone that knows me, knows I love retro and I love vintage. On Saturday I went on a photo expo with Breann, Kristen, and Bryce through my great grandmothers house across from Granny's. The house is old, somewhat creepy, but absolutely gorgeous. Walking through it made me feel nostalgic. When I was younger, Breann and I would play CSI with all the cousins and great grandmother's house somehow was always where all the "murders" happened. I snapped some photos of the inside of the house, as well as some around my grandparents house. Weston, West Virginia was my vacation as a child and still is, it's the definition of what makes West Virginia beautiful.