Bienvenue a Paris. Please mind the glass.

Well, the weekend before last, Annie, Barbara, Máire, Nick, Robert and I (look at my impeccable English) boarded le TGV and went to (gay) Paris. We had the intention of not going to sleep (partly because we hadn't booked a hostel, partly because of La Nuit Blanche), as it was La Nuit Blanche. I expected this to be a night where all the big attractions, the Louvre, L'Arc de Triomphe (celebrating France's many victorious defeats. There's been alot), La Tour etc etc would be open. It was not. It was a night where there were various arts things over the city. In Notre Dame (actually awesome, despite the silly exhibition there), random churches, Jardins de Luxembourg, and of course some Irish centre. Now, it was fun, don't get me wrong - seeing a shiny disco ball held up by a giant crane over a park at 2am may well be the trippiest thing I've ever seen, but it was awesome - but I couldn't help but think that all the hype just wasn't worth it. Actually, I take back what I said about the disco ball being the trippiest thing I've ever seen. We spent like 2 hours in the Irish Centre, watching the oddest thing over. It was meant to be wolves, or men in the trenches (ww1) being ordered; moving in sync etc, then some smoke came out, and they didn't move in sync anymore. That was it. I doubted if it was real at one point on the train home.

Here are some highlights of the night. Stolen from Annie...

We did so much, its hard for me to put it in chronological order…Instead of doing the rest in paragraph form, here are a few highlights of the evening:

1. Waiting in a line for over an hour to see an enormous disco ball hanging from a crane.

2. The excursion into the Louvre parking lot. LOL

3. The time warp at the Irish cultural center (really, I have no idea how long we were there) and the nervous breakdown that followed.

4. The creepy gas mask things at the Irish cultural center that appeared to be mice or horses from afar, but it turned out that they were meant to be wolves.

5. Witnessing what appeared to be a fire from near the Pont Notre-Dame.

6. Also witnessing a beat-down taking place and quickly turning the corner.

7. Finally finding programs

8. Overpacking my Longchamp bag to the extreme. [I don't know what she means by this either]

9. Continually losing each other in the crowds- Thank God for cell phones![A cell phone is a mobile in English]

10. Bloody Mary around 4am. [I had a Fanta. I forget actually. Definitely not alcohol though]

11. Almost getting screwed over by a waiter and witnessing one of his teapots being stolen [Barbara Dwyer if you're reading this angry waiter]

12. Walking through Pigalle aka Paris’s Red Light District at 6am. Let’s just say that was an experience!

13. Witnessing the steps of Montmartre being power-washed of their filth.

14. Struggling to keep our eyes open during the 7am Mass in Sacre Coeur.

15. Sunrise in Montmartre.

16. Big omelette breakfast at an awkward restaurant near the gare (train station), that was decorated to make us feel like we were eating on an actual old school style train. [I had McDo. Vile]

17. Swapping out our 2pm train tickets for 10:05am tickets. [And ending up sat far apart]

18. Falling asleep on the train and then waking up in a panic because I thought I’d missed the Rennes stop. [I did not.]

19. Getting back to Rennes, dragging my body through the station, on the metro, off the metro, through three parking lots, into my dorm, up two flights of stairs and into my room. Dropping my bag, shedding my clothing, wearily updating my facebook status to “Ann-Charlotte has not slept in 31 hours” and then literally falling into my bed only to finally wake up 21 hours later. [I was quite awake. But fell asleep at around 18h. Until 8am. Good times]

I also saw Laura from uni and her friend Edinson, which was nice. I actually spoke French. First time in ages. Good old Eiffel Tower times.

So, that was Paris.