Poshdeluxe

i’m already ready for another trip.

onward blog ho!

and the la guardia airport finally sent back my suitcase. i never knew how much i could miss my jean capris. is that sad?

WEDNESDAY

many of you may be aware that my favorite movie is “amelie.” during my last trip to paris, amber took me around amelie’s neighborhood, montmarte, and i suddenly felt like andrew mccarthy’s character in “mannequin,” i.e. DUDE! SHE’S REAL! SHE’S A REAL PERSON! HOLY CRAP! but then, no one understands, and that’s why andrew mccarthy and i have a connection.

so of course i had to go back. armed with my “paris walks” cards (i was determined to make them my friend rather than my most hated enemy), i took the metro and put the “amelie” soundtrack on my ipod. oh yes i did.

i can totally understand why amelie would live in montmarte. i mean, just look:

i can also understand why amelie has a smokin’ hot body, cos montmarte is full of hills and stairs:

but with hills come magnicent views, like this one:

for my daily dose of croissants and espresso, i went to visit amelie at her cafe! but she wasn’t there, unfortunately, and i actually didn’t recognize any of the waitstaff. and also there isn’t a cigarette counter. BUT still, it was so awesome.

afterwards, the cards led me to sacre coeur, a gorgeous church perched on the highest hilltop in montmarte. last year, amber and i took a picture in front of the awesome view, but this time i decided to go inside the church. here is the outside:

and here is my favorite thing about the inside:

i wanted that angel to fly down and hold my hand for a minute.

then i got kicked out for taking a picture (even though i didn’t use a flash or anything). but that’s ok, the angel was worth it. also i like the fact that i got kicked out of a church, cos it makes me sound punk rock.

“paris walks” then directed me to “the most beautiful staircase in montmarte,” so i found a staircase and thought, “this is pretty.” so i walked down it. only to discover that this was not the right one. so i walked back up. then i found another one, a HUGE one, and thought, “well, this one is nice, too.” i climbed down… and yeah. wrong one again. but i was DETERMINED not to let “paris walks” beat me, so i climbed aaaaaall the way up again… and FINALLY found it. and let me tell you, i wasn’t that impressed. i mean, yeah, it’s pretty, but was it worth me tackling that many steps? i don’t think so.

ok yeah yeah it’s pretty. it’s got trees and stuff. but let me just say, the beauty is lessened when you are sweaty and tired and some random scam artist keeps trying to make you braid together a bracelet which you will then have to buy.

ANYWAY

it might not be the most beautiful, but the COOLEST staircase in montmarte is in the metro tunnel. it is my favitty fave fave:

i would say that this is pretty trippy, but i never use that word.

i met up with amber at the madeleine church so we could enjoy POSH PASTRIES at ladurée, one of my most favorite places on this earth… or even in the UNIVERSE! apparently, ladurée has been around for ages of time, and it feels v. elegant and classy, even when you’re just a sweaty tourist. also, you guys know how i feel about baked goods. I FEEL MUCH about baked goods.

here’s me and my slice of heaven/nirvana/xanadu:

no, the sticker was not edible. but how i wished it was!

one of the many reasons that amber and i are friends: she *knows* how to handle baked goods with the gentleness and care they deserve. and that’s a rare quality these days.

check out that technique!

her pastry was prettier than mine, and it tasted like a jelly donut. but in a posh way, of course.

after we both got rooms with our faboo confections, we headed over to meet some of amber’s friends at a bar called “kitch.” i don’t know if the owners meant to mispell “kitsch” or not. regardless, they certainly understand the meaning:

if i had a bar, i would probably look like that. but with more twinkly lights and also cheaper drinks (even at happy hour, my mojito was five euros).

then we went to an italian restaurant where we waited and waited for a table and then the host guy forgot about us and then i ate five pieces of bread cos i was starving and then we finally got a table and i ate the best pizza and then we got a free shot of lemoncello for all of our troubles. but there are no pictures cos i was too famished to even lift my camera.

THURSDAY

with amber finally off work, we decided to take the train to giverny and explore monet’s garden!!!! i’ve wanted to go here for ages, especially after i was given this book:

the only thing this book didn’t mention is all of the tourists. in fact, if the cover was *accurate*, there would be about 15 other people on the bridge with linnea. and she wouldn’t have room to dance around like a ninny. details shmetails.

oh, the book ALSO doesn’t mention that giverny is CHOCK FULL of tiny, super annoying little bugs. these bugs are EVERYWHERE, and they are full of sweet, sweet love for yr body. just thinking about them made me stop and inspect my arms just now. anyway, this is how the bugs made me feel:

yeah, that’s right, bugs. suck it.

i was soon distracted from the bugs (which says a lot) by monet’s house and his gorgeous, gorgeous garden. it was so *amazing* to imagine him walking around the garden, sitting in the yellow dining room or hanging out in the bright blue kitchen.

so here’s his house:

here’s part of the garden:

i mean, gah, couldn’t you just die from delight?!!

but there’s more!! hellooooo, the lily pond!

it’s incredible to see something that you’ve experienced in a painting… i mean, usually, the landscape has changed or people have died. but the lily pond! it’s still here! i sort of half-closed my eyes to try to see the lilies like monet did as his eyesight worsened… that’s kind of weird that i did that, huh? hmm.

amber and i hit the japanese bridge to take a picture, just like all of the other hundreds of people there. it took a lot of patience and a bit of lucky timing, but yay! here we are! with no one walking in front of us!

all i need to do is photoshop out the people on the right. i’ll just put a bush there or something.

while we were on the bridge, a lady dropped her camera in the water.

i know, right?!!!

there was another spot on the bridge (which is not v. large, btw, but we were picture hungry) where we wanted to take some photos… but this lovey dovey couple was TOTALLY hogging it. ugh. so we took this picture instead, cos we are v. mature:

anyway, we took about a bajillion photos on the bridge, but i think you get the picture (was that a pun? i don’t know).

after filling up on monetness, we shared a bottle of apple cider (apparently a local speciality) and then walked over to the bus stop where our bus was… not waiting.

we missed our bus.

it had left 5 minutes early, and amber and i are not exactly early pants when we get together.

missing the bus = probably missing our train

so, we went over to this little apple cider hut and asked the guy for some taxi numbers. amber called all of them… and discovered that, in giverny, a cab company is really just one person, in a car, with a cell phone. and NONE of them were around.

i started feeling like paris hilton: “WHAT is UP with this SHIMSHAM LITTLE TOWN?!!!!!”

then we tried hitching rides to the train station with random people. looking back, that sounds kind of cray, but at the time, it made perfect sense. we approached people in the parking lot like crafty jehovah’s witnesses, but we coudn’t seem to snag a ride with ANYONE. GAH. hello? two cute american girls? what is WRONG with you people?!!!

so we ended up catching the later bus, then getting on the later train, all the while pretendeding to ourselves that this was what we had intended all along. otherwise it would have been too irritating.

as a reward for making it back to paris, amber and i had dinner at her favorite restaurant, cafe janou. the food was fantastic, but the best part? GET THIS: if you order the chocolate mousse, they bring you a big bowl… and YOU SERVE YRSELF. i mean, they just HAND OVER the ladle and everything!!!! i couldn’t believe they were tossing that kind of power around so casually, but hey, i could handle it.

like i said, i am a professional.

[more and more soon]