Swallows, Glacieres, and Frog Legs...oh my....

France. The land where American curse words are totally acceptable to say in front of your conservative French mother.  The land where you dig orange salmon eggs out of a can and slap them onto a slice of bread. And the land where you have a 43% chance of getting beer tossed on your face when you go under a bridge. All that to say, Paris is not for people who can't handle their roommates going to bed at 4 AM and don't understand French television humor...because it's in French.

Day One: We flew.

We met Tim Swallow at the airport, got ripped off at Cibo: the Bistro at the Philly airport, and slept for 6 hours on the way over the Atlantic.  We arrived, pushed our way through the very un-intimidating French customs, (To Mariah: "Aire you partying 'ere on your birzday? Aire yew going to ze cloob?") and then met our French home dawg Arnaud Preteseille who was waiting for us. Long story short, we traveled for forever to get back to his apartment in China Town (Not to be confused with the China Town depicted in the Princess Diaries) where we had hot chocolate.  David stayed there for the full three nights. Thankfully, while Ohio was still bleak, gray and as cold as the dickens, Paris was green, sunny, and flowery-all-over.  Mariah and Leah's hostel, (The Young and Happy) was on Rue de Mouffetard (probably the most misunderstood French street name ever.) After they checked in, we made a huge walk all over Paris. (Miss Reno shout out: You thought you were challenging our leg muscles in D.C.? Come to Paris, missy!) We saw the Pantheon (Not to be mistaken for the Roman Pantheon) and then Jardin de Luxembourg (Where Arnaud was pooped on. caca.) Saw Shakespeare and Co. and several other cool sites. We ate lunch at a creperie, and then later split up: David back to Arnie's apt. and the girls to the Young and Happy. Meanwhile, while the girls were fast asleep, David lay awake wondering what they might be doing 5 metro stops away. Were they partying? Were they drinking? Were they handing out Christian tracts in the cloob? (aka the club, for those of you who weren't catching on.) Either way, the girls met up with the others the next morning and they weren't saying anything.