During Thanksgiving weekend, I met up with my cousin, S, again--this time in Paris! The previous weekend, when K visited, she taught me a bit of French so I felt fairly prepared for France. Or at least more prepared than I felt when I went to Germany and the Netherlands. She taught me several key phrases, as shown below:

Parlez vous anglais? - Do you speak English?
Oú sont les toilettes? - Where are the restrooms?
Je suis de New York. - I am from New York.

Of course, food vocabulary is clearly more important. Obviously I should have asked her more about that, but I suppose I was able to manage well enough.

One of the first things I did upon arrival on Friday (aside from spending two hours getting to the city center and then getting completely lost) was get a three cheese crêpe, which was followed up by a crêpe aux sucré (i.e. one with sugar). They were delicious, course! G and I got them from this lovely place nearby Notre Dame, which S and I saw on Sunday morning during mass.

We actually picked the perfect time to go--there was no line to get in, and the service really contributed to the environment. Later on that day, we saw a huuuge line of people waiting to get into the church and we were very grateful that we'd already gone.
For dinner on Friday, I had a cream of broccoli soup with smoked salmon, followed by some sort of white fish (that's how the waitress translated it, at least) from the formule, which is their fixed menu. I really enjoyed it.
On Saturday, for breakfast, I had two croissants and a meringue (my first one!).
S and I went out for (more!) crêpes! She had a smoked salmon one, which I really enjoyed.
This was my crêpe confiture/(orange) jam crepe. Hooray for new food vocabulary!
Speaking of orange things, S was abnormally excited to try a new flavor of Orangina, which I don't understand. Why are there different flavors? Shouldn't it just be...orange-flavored? Anyway, we bought a giant bottle of some random flavor and drank about 10%. On Sunday night, we realized that we barely drank any of and that neither of us could bring it back with us, so I gave it away.

We also went on a walking tour of Paris, in which we spent more time snapping photos than we did paying attention to the guide, who I'm sure was very interesting. To be fair, I did pay attention to some parts. For example, I did not know that Hitler tried to have Paris burned to the ground, but I know now. I really feel like I got a lot accomplished on that tour; we saw so many sites. After three and a half hours, we walked down the Champs-Elysées Christmas market...
At the market, we shared a chocolate waffle and a sugary pretzel-shaped donut. I believe we were too ravenous to get pictures of the latter. This only reminds me that I still have yet to get such a waffle in Barcelona. I've had a square or two of someone else's but that hardly counts.
We walked down Champ Elysees, which was gorgeous, especially with all the lights, but we didn't do any shopping during the whole trip (aside from souvenir shopping, that is--I bought about a billion postcards).
Our service at dinner was sub-par, but the goat cheese salad, codfish dish, and crème brûlée were excellent! I don't know if I already mentioned this in one of my blog posts, but I actuallly went to a cooking class recently, in which I seized the opportunity to use a butane torch to finish off the crema catalana. It was so much fun! I may have missed my calling.

On Sunday, I woke up super early to shower and eat a lovely breakfast of croissants, rolls, and tea before planning the day. We started off with a trip to the catacombs, which I could have done without.
The bones of six million Parisians freaked me out, even with the (sometimes) whimsical designs. If I could have exited immediately, I would have.
We stopped for a coffee break at a McDonalds nearby the catacombs.
I was astonished to see that one can order on a computer. There was also a self-service coffee maker. It reminded me a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when Charlie's father is out of a job because he'd been replaced by a machine.
So most people who know me also know that I absolutely love books. In fact, I just finished Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal a few days ago--it was great! I mean, obviously I've already read it in English, but doing it in Spanish was a completely different experience. Anyway, in Paris, there's this great bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.
If I lived in Paris, I would literally go all the time.
After an extensive photo shoot in Shakespeare and Company, we had a leisurely two-hour lunch at La Fourmi Ailée, a restaurant that used to be a bookstore.
The cashier at Shakespeare and Company recommended it to us. It had a lovely environment and we had such a sincere, friendly waiter.
S and I shared another goat cheese salad! I am such a fan of those. 
This was followed by a salmon (and spinach) quiche. When I saw the size of the dishes, I understood why the waiter was shocked when I wanted to order both the salad and the quiche. I definitely could have done without the salad, given that I seem to eat those types of salads all the time.
After the sunset, we climbed the 700-something steps to the second level of the Eiffel Tower! It was well worth the effort. We had an amazing view and took tons of pictures, none of which will be shown here.
I do think that the manically flashing lights are a bit much. The Eiffel Tower looks great in this picture because you can't see that the lights are flashing.
In my opinion, it looks significantly more majestic and sophisticated without the flashing lights.
I was actually quite devastated when I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to buy macarons (who knows when I'll be in Paris again? Although I would definitely love to return with S in five years!), but at around 9, I found a restaurant that had them and I bought a box of eight. Hopefully they're delicious!

My flight back to Barcelona was at 7:40 AM, so I woke up super early to get all my stuff ready and hop on the train to the airport. It was slightly ridiculous; the flight landed about an hour after it was supposed to. I suppose it worked out okay though; I was able to sleep for an extra hour, bringing it to a grand total of eight, albeit not continuous.

Here's to more adventures with my cousin! I'm sorry that the Spanish air traffic controllers are striking, but I can't wait to see her in New York!

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