Firsts.

We arrived on Wednesday and already this city has stolen my heart.

Not only can I hear the bells of Notre Dame from my apartment, but every single person (save a few at Zara...) has been warm and welcoming. I'm even getting to try out my French!

Today, Mom and I visited Versailles, which is gorgeous. It was my first time at the palace and it was absolutely overwhelming. We followed it up with a visit to the Louis Vuitton store, and stopped to have some wine at Fouquet's, the famous cafe on the Champs-Elysses.

Exploring this town is a wonder in itself, and tonight we ventured over to the Boulevard St. Germain and ate at Le Deux Magots, which I'm fairly certain is where we spent an eventful evening that fateful night almost two years ago (I'm looking at you, Olivia, Beth & Alycyn). The waiters are just as accommodating and sweet.

My dad arrives tomorrow and it will be the three musketeers in Paris...but without the swords or protecting the king.

In the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.

One of the many wine bars we've visited.

Eating lunch with this in our view. The tree is not impressed.

Paris Perceptions

Source

This is it, y'all!! I leave next week for Paris! To answer your question: no, I have not started packing yet. Everything I've read has told me not to overpack, to bring fewer things that will work in multiple situations. So I'm going to take that sage advice and pack as little and as practically as possible...that's the goal anyway.

I'm feeling very optimistic and excited about this coming month! I intended to make a to do list, but besides writing beaucoup every day, eating enough crepes and brie to last me a lifetime and shopping for Paris fashions, I really don't know what to expect, and I'm okay with it. It's the uncertainty that makes it exciting.

It's kind of like "Titanic" when Rose got to New York and had no idea what she was going to do because Jack was dead (she couldn't move over 4 inches to let him get on the door with her? Really?!? Still pisses me off) but she knew things were going to be okay and wonderful and her life was going to have purpose and she was going to be happy.

It's exactly like that...

...okay maybe not exactly, since girlfriend also had a 50 carat blue diamond in her pocket which I will most assuredly not have.

The point is that I'm looking forward to embracing the unexpected, and who knows what I will find.

The next time I write I'll be in Paris, and I hope you'll join me here for some adventures.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Mumford and Sons concert was cancelled and it made my heart break into a million little pieces.

So no Mumford last night. Although I feel so, so badly for Ted Dwayne with the clot and think that was absolutely the right thing for them to do, I still wanted to go. :(

*sigh*

Hopefully they reschedule before June 25th IYKWIM. (cough..Paris..cough)

In the meantime, here are two videos of 1) TSwift covering White Blank Page which is amazing and I wish I'd thought of it first and 2) my current favorite song by them.

And here's a gratuitous pic of my first trip to a Mumford and Sons concert. I walked through a tidal wave to get to them, and I'd do it again.

Oh hey Beth Breeding.

Also this:

Moral of the Story: Don't lose your cool.

This weekend for me consisted of a wonderful brother coming home, a wedding with a friend, and lots of wine. Good times. I hope you had a nice weekend, especially with the perfect weather we've been having in Texas. Here are somethings I'm learning lately:

1. Do not lose your cool when you hit a bad golf shot on the number nine hole. Especially when it faces the club house and people can see you. I hope they let me back on the course... the divot in that grass was pretty significant. I'm gonna go ahead and blame it on number 2:

2. Also bad form: letting a sore throat get the best of you. Oh well, at least this is happening now and not when I go to Paris. (I can't resist mentioning it. I'm so excited!!)

3. I just started reading Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers again. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. I'd say it's a mix between the Bible and the Notebook. I know, that sounds weird, but it'll change your world and make you think of love in a completely different way. Well, it did for me anyway.

4. I still get just as excited about the weekend not having a job as I did when I had a job. There's something about ending another week, bringing me closer and closer to my trip to Dallas tomorrow for a Mumford and Sons concert, and Paris two weeks after that (oh quit rolling your eyes, you know you love it). 

Stay thirsty, my friends.