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France, Days 1 & 2
I'm going to try and do my best to keep these next few blogs from getting too unbearably sappy, but this is the trip that I got to visit my boyfriend Jelly in France so they will be a bit mushy (sorry).
My plane landed at Charles de Gaulle at about 4:30pm on Friday and Jelly got out of his internship that day at 4:30 and had an hour drive to get to the airport. Luckily, it took a while to get off the plane, take the shuttle to the terminal, and get through border control so by the time I was ready I only had to wait about 15 minutes.
Jelly pulled up, got out of the car, and embraced me. Seeing him and being able to hug and kiss him again didn't feel real, and that was only after not seeing him for about 3 weeks so I can't imagine what it will feel like after 3 months. I know he won't want me to write about this, so I'm sorry Jelly, but it really touched my heart though when he started crying and couldn't stop looking over at me as we were leaving the airport because he was so happy that I was there, especially because he hardly ever cries. He also had brought me some pastries from an authentic French patisserie. I was a little too excited, and hungry, so I forgot to take a picture before I ate the macaroons, but they were my first macaroons and they were so good! Now I understand why Jelly would always rave about the pastries in France.
On the way to his house, I was pretty nervous to meet his parents, especially because of the language barrier. His mom was home when we arrived because she had had a minor surgery earlier in the day. It was difficult to interact with her because she knew very little english and was not feeling so well after the surgery, but she was very nice. His dad came home soon after and it was a little easier to interact with him because he knew a bit more english than Jel's mom did, but he hadn't spoken it since he went to the U.S. 3 years ago. Both of his parents were very kind and welcoming though.
Jelly and I went to his favorite Chinese buffet for dinner that night. It was quite different from the Chinese buffet I'm used to going to back in CT. Many of the foods were much more relevant to the French cuisine such as a whole lot of cheese. Sadly the service wasn't great so I didn't have as great of an experience at the buffet as Jelly hoped I would, but I didn't mind because it was time I got to spend with him and that's what I cared about most. Plus, Jelly complained about the service when we went to pay and on top of the already free shot of saki we each got, the man offered us a second as a form of compensation for the poor service. I'm not a huge fan of saki but I took it anyway because why not.
The next day we had been planning to go to Versailles, but Jelly's father informed us that the yellow jackets pretty much had Paris blocked off because of riots so it would've been a nightmare trying to get there. The weather also wasn't supposed to be great. Instead, we went to another city about an hour away called Amiens. This city was so charming! The first place we walked to was La Maison de Jules Verne. Jules Verne was a very successful novelist who wrote books such as Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I didn't recognize his name at first but once I heard some of his novel titles I realized just how famous of an author he was and still is.
His house was right on a street corner and it was open for the public to tour the inside. The house was very charming and I appreciated how they turned it into a museum while still keeping it looking like a house. I loved the spiral staircases and the old decor, and especially the giant map on the floor in one room which displayed the route of Around the World in 80 Days. If you scroll down you can see a picture of Jelly with one foot on Paris and one on New York.
After we toured the house we walked to La Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens. I quickly learned that there are more than one Notre Dame in France. For instance, there is one in the city Jelly lives right outside of called Chauny, one in Amiens, one in another city called Noyon, and one in Paris. The one in Amiens looked a lot like the one in Paris and at the moment, I think is a bit more beautiful because it isn't burnt or under construction. The architecture is stunning, and the little details are unbelievable. The sky began looking threatening so we decided to find somewhere to have lunch. We didn't walk far before we found a cute little creperie. It wasn't very crowded, and the inside was very cozy. I'm so glad I had Jelly with me because otherwise being in France would have been struggle since hardly anything is translated in English, including menus. I tried a French white wine which was very good, and also French cider. It was a different flavor than I was used to because it was a much softer flavor than the hard ciders in Ireland, but it was good. We both got cheeseburger crepes they were delicious.
We walked around the cute streets of Amiens for a bit afterward and then stopped by Jelly's friend Samuel's flat who he hadn't seen since before he went to Northern Ireland. He spoke a bit of English because he was studying English at university, but he refused to speak much. Jelly explained to me that even if French people know English, they are too embarrassed to speak it in front of other French people. Jelly doesn't care anymore after being in Northern Ireland, but most French don't feel the same way. Samuel's girlfriend was also there, and later more friends arrived because they were planning to go to a trampoline park. We stayed for a little over an hour and then left to go grab the car. We parked again and walked around a nice park for a little bit and then started the drive back home. On the way back to his house we made a pit stop at one of the other Notre-Dame Cathedrals, the one in Noyon. This one had a bit more of a gothic style compared to the others, but was still very beautiful and had impressive architecture.
We had dinner with his parents and his little nephew who is 4 years old was also there. Dinner was nice, and I felt a bit more comfortable interacting with his parents than I did when I first arrived. Jelly also did a really good job of translating back and forth when necessary. His nephew was very shy with me and scared of me at first because I was a stranger and didn't speak the language, but after a while he warmed up and I caught him trying to poke me a couple times, and eventually he even gave me a hug.
Even though we didn't get to go to Versailles the first day like we planned, it ended up being a really great first day and I'm lucky because I got to see a city that most tourists who visit France don't get to see.
