English translation- Fall Break. La Toussaint is All Saints Day which is an actual holiday in France; the banks are closed, markets are open from 10-13h, and families pass the day by wandering around Centre Ville and window shopping at all of the closed boutiques.
Let's rewind to last Monday where I left for Dublin to join up with Maddi. I had meal of fish and chips with a pint of Kilkenny; I had been craving something, anything fried for weeks! People just dont fry their fish in France. We took a tour around her neighborhood then took the doubledecker bus to the center of town to walk around Temple Bar. Here's the problem with doubledeckers-the stairs. They are steep and narrow and the sudden start/stop of the bus puts you in constant danger of knocking out your teeth on the handrails that are supposed to support you. When we got to downtown, we recounted a scene from Once (where Glen's guitar case full of change gets stolen and chased down in the park; I have pictures).
On Wednesday, we got a 4 o'clock start to catch the RyanAir flight to Edinburgh. Sidenote- RyanAir is cheap for a reason. Super sketch, played one loop of orchestra music before takeoff, and another song upon landing (as if it was a surprise success that we actually landed). On the bright side, we got to Edinburgh bright and early. On the less bright side, we had all of our luggage and had no place to put it; the hostel wouldnt open until 2 for Check In. So what do you do in Scotland to kill time? Go to a Tartan shop! Every pattern of tartan relates to a specific Scottish clan and you can have a special kilt tailored for you in your desired tartan. We hiked around Edinburgh castle and saw the Crown jewels of Scotland then went to Greyfriars Kirkyard (Kirk means church). Fall is the perfect time to see a graveyard-the trees are losing leaves, its cold outside, and there is a good chance it will be overcast. We ate at the Monster Mash café (mash is mashed potatoes) and realized that the Scots have just as hard of time understanding Americans as we do understanding them. The next day we boarded a tour bus for the Scottish Highlands. Among the spectacular sites was: the castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Highland cow, Ben Nevis, Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, and Madonnas "castle" that she bought when she was with Guy Ritchie. The bus driver makes all the difference. Ours had been doing the Highland tour for over 17 years and knew the history and references of anything we passed. For example: Braveheart was between 65-75 percent accurate and was the longest shown movie in Scotland; it was in theaters for over a year and a half. If anything, he made me want to buy the Rob Roy soundtrack for traveling. It makes everything more epic. The last day we toured Mary Kings Close (close means small alley) which is part of a series of underground passageways that were buried after the Black Plague killed a third of the people living in Edinburgh.
Goodness, this is a long entry.
Finally we get back to Paris after another uneasy Ryanair flight. We stumbled our way onto the metro after walking around the Arc de Triomphe and strutting down the Champs Elysée (I begrudgingly caved in and let Maddi sing "Oh Champs Elysée ba da da da da... il y a tous que vous voulez aux Champs Elysée"). We found Jérémie and Paul's place where we were fed and watered (with grenadine) before going on a GUIDED tour of Paris! Oh what wonderful hosts. Maddi checked off a couple more sites: Notre Dame, Hotel de Ville, Centre George Pompidou, Panthéon, Père Lachaise, and Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle. In Père Lachaise, we saw Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde (Maddi kissed the tomb, blech), Chopin, Deproges, and ISADORA DUNCAN, what? Back at the appartment, Jérémie cooked a failed (though delicious) raclette. This somehow turned into a huge house party, but thats all that is important. Bises.
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