Travel | Astroblastro

Buongiorno Firenze

Oct 3, ’11 7:59 AM

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And Angers

Oct 2, ’11 11:24 PM

Oh yeah! We made it to Angers just fine, but I didn’t have internet except for a frantic half hour to book my train ticket to Florence.

Alyx’s host family is a very friendly and supremely helpful. They didn’t bat an eye at my being here and let me stay on a surprisingly restful pull out couch for two nights. They’ve been hosting foreign students for four years and have everything pretty well sorted.

Meeting their two sets of twins (boys 8, and girls 10) brought me right back to elementary school aged me, equally shy and curious, meeting Marco and our other exchange students. Being ignorant, I shook their little hands, but the kids insisted on greeting Alyx in the French way with two little kisses.

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Friends in r/Paris

Oct 2, ’11 2:12 PM

The night before, we spent a slightly wild night at Aux Folies Belleville, one of the 20th arrondissement’s peppier cafes. There, I forced Alyx to strike up a conversation en français with the girls next to us and we all ended up drinking rhum till the wee hours. Flush with the success of meeting friends so easily we spent our third night at a meet up of Paris Redditors. A charming picnic on the square of the Pantheon overlooking a scintillating Eiffel Tower? Challenge Accepted.

Everyone was lovely, a mix of Parisians, Americans, British all organized lovely Margaux from Belgium. Heck! I wasn’t even alone by not knowing French. Someone suggested we take this long shutter photo to try and make it to the front page. Alyx is the I and I’m the dot. I’m embarrassed by it now but I insisted that I be in the photo. (Also, the squiggle is a barely passable Reddit alien.) After we took this photo a few of us continued the adventure, helping ourselves to a midnight tour of Jardin du Luxembourg. But that’s a story for another time!

Looking back on the few days we spent in Paris, the new friends we met and the fact that we had to decline invitations to meet up with all these folks again Alyx and I agreed that Paris is indeed a magic city. Au revoir Paris!

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les Touristes

Sep 28, ’11 6:31 AM

Of course Paris is incredible. Alyx and I made our way to 848 year old Notre Dame cathedral, toured the inside and had a picnic in the courtyard. A man hand fed sparrows pieces of baguette as the place bustled with tourists. Our meandering took us to Place Saint-Michel and across the Pont des Arts bridge.

It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed these women behind me. I was trying to capture the spirit of the statue of Saint Michel with my scissors loft and midriff exposed. They look impressed to me, no?