I give in Paris, I give in!!

First off:

Congratulations Paris. I'm throwing in the towel. I've tried to hang on to Thanksgiving spirit, but due to the non-celebration of this holiday, plus all the Christmas decorations that are up, I'm officially excited for Christmas.

I thought I could hold off until after Thursday, but alas, Christmas always arrives early in cities.

Secondly, a shout out to the woman on the Metro who proved that you can wear black, brown & gray AND look awesome. Rock on Metro woman.

Yesterday was probably one of the best I've had in Paris so far. And it was a Monday, usually my least favorite day of the week, because it makes Friday seem so far away.

We finally went to the Orangerie museum, where we saw Monet's water lilies.

I was breathless, because it was not one but 2 rooms of these giant paintings of his pond at Giverny. Just impressive, and moving too. He donated these paintings to the nation, and these were done when his eye sight was going and many thought he was crazy. Well, I think these paintings are the most elegant "Fuck you" to anyone I've ever seen. Go Monet.

After phonetics class (which is always fun, I think our teacher gets a kick out of Americans), I met up with some of the girls for dinner. I met them at the ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde. That night, the Champs-Elysees was all it up for Christmas, and shall be throughout the holiday season.

We walked along the Champs to dinner, and it was so wonderful! The lights, the Christmas market booths set up, as cheesy as it sounds, it was magical. Hot wine, churros, little gifts, what more could you ask for? We ate a delicious dinner at Bistro Romain, which is a wonderful chain of restaurants in France. My LORD is was so good, and with our vouchers, free!

On the way back we decided to pretend we were 5 years old and slide down those long giant slides you see at carnivals. They had one set up along the Champs and we couldn't resist. We took pics of each other; it was like we were parents and children both times. We got a crowd going, who seemed to love watching us have fun. And they totally knew we were Americans.

Oh well.