My Take on Paris

So my trip to Paris with Molly and Sarah is pretty much old news by now, and you can read about it on either of their blogs, but since I have my own stories and pictures, I thought I'd share them anyway.

My favorite thing about Paris was the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't all that impressed with Paris in general, but the city looks the best at night. Sarah and Mol and I spent a long while that first night just sitting in front of the tower talking. It was so nice. It was strange to spend the whole weekend with two Americans. Before my trip to Paris, I had only met one other American in France (and I've only talked to her twice at school). Although I do use English all the time for emails and phone conversations with my family, 99.9% of my face to face communication is in French. When I first got to the hotel, I said a couple of things to them in French by mistake. It was fun for me to be able to use my French to help us figure things out. Although there are enough English speakers to get by without, it's still much more fun. There were a few people that would hear my accent and try to talk back in English, but I would just respond in French. Hee hee. My French has definitely improved a LOT since I arrived in France, which is good, since that was my reason for coming here.

In my last blog, I wrote about the conversation with the extended family in Strasbourg that ensued over my not drinking wine. I said that the conversation didn't go so well because of my lack of precision in French. My brother Dave countered that it's annointing I need, not precision. Well, I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree, and I can illustrate this with an example from Paris. The three of us bought paninis one evening at a little shop near Notre Dame. Most patrons were buying their meal out on the street and then continuing on their way. Because it was rainy and cold, we decided to sit inside. It was tiny, and the only other people inside seemed like they were related to the owners or something, so we felt kind of uncomfortable. Next to us was a table full of older men and one lady, eating, drinking, and smoking. One of the men apologized for the smoke, and we struck up a conversation. We bantered back and forth a little bit about whether smoking, mayo, or soda is worse for your health. They must have decided that they liked me, because they offered me a drink of their special alcohol (not sure what it was). I said no thanks and that I don't drink. One of the guys said, "Man! You don't smoke, you don't drink...do you have sex? What's your reason for living?" That sounds a little inappropriate, but he was completely serious! I just pointed up and said, "God. Jesus." Then I explained a little bit about why I don't drink. At that point, most of the people at the table tuned out, but then one of the guys looked at me and asked, "And how did you come to this conclusion, that Jesus is your reason for living?" I could sense that he really wanted to know and had ears to hear, and I got to tell him my testimony! It's not as if he dropped to his knees and repented or anything, but I believe that a seed was planted. We then bid him goodbye and went on our way. It's funny to me how I spent a whole week with these people in Strasbourg and felt like I was talking to a brick wall, but God uses me to plant a seed in the heart of some guy in a dingy café in Paris. No, it's not precision I need.

La Seine

The best thing I saw at the Louvre

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower

View on the Champs-Elysées from the top of l'Arc de Triomphe. L'Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napolean in 1806, after France's defeat of the Germans at Austerlitz. He promised his men that they would go home under triumphal arches. The actual arch wasn't completed until the mid-1830's.