Last Mango in Paris.

This past weekend I went on a trip to Paris with my friend Mary. If you weren't already aware, my parents had bought me tickets to see Jimmy Buffett in concert at a venue in Paris for my birthday this pat July.  Also, if you ANYthing about my family and myself, you know we're a little Buffett crazy, and along with our family friends the Sieplers, a special connection with the song "He Went to Paris" by Mr. Jimmy Buffett, so it was only fitting for myself to see the legend himself in Pa-ree. My parents were gracious enough to send me with an extra ticket so I could bring a friend, (the ever so amazing Mary). Mary had been to Paris several times before, and a HUGE help when it came to navigating the French Metro System and the city in general.  She was my Sacajawea of Paris :)

So our journey began Friday afternoon with the highspeed train ride into Paris Nord station. Because of the French transit strike, the train after ours had been canceled due to lack of staff, and the shoved all of those people onto our train. Lucky for Mary and I we had seats, but were 3 cars away from each other, and seated next to very...interesting French people. We then headed to our hostel, which was the first time both Mary and I had ever stayed in one (we're spoiled, we know!) The Montclaire Montmarte turned out to be a really cool place, despite being under construction during our stay. Breakfast was even included, and it was about a block away from the metro which was awesomely convenient. This was my skepticism of the establishment when we first arrived, which quickly faded as we discovered how awesome this place was!

After we had checked in, it was time to head to the concert! We decided to walk to the concert (google said it was only a 30 minute walk) which turned into us getting lost in traffic circles, and an adventure in itself, but about 50 minutes later, we arrived at our destination, The Olympia for one of the best concerts I have ever attended!

I wish I was able to record the entire concert and upload it for you all, but that is just not feasible, so I'll put up a few clips and pictures for your enjoyment:

Cheeseburger in Paradise:

Fins:

Margaritaville:

He Went to Paris:

Check his outfit, stud muffin.

Cheeseburger hat for Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Now, in my usual fashion, I'll make a few observations in regards to the concert:

• The average age of people in attendance was about 40. 
• The lower level of the concert was standing room only, so for the first few songs Mary and I were near the back, but managed to work our way up to within about 20 feet of the stage!
• The pit at a Jimmy Buffett concert filled with 40-50 year olds is no where as intense as say, the pit for Rise Against at Warped tour, meaning people weren't packed together making it easy for us to make our way to the front of the crowd.
• Most of the old people were wasted, and it was awesome. Double fisting pints of beer, because as sacrilegious as it sounds, there were no Margaritas at a Jimmy Buffett concert. Thanks a lot France.
• I love parrot heads and their strange get ups.Even foreign parrotheads get it.

• I'm trying to find a setlist for the show, because it had a ton of classic Buffett songs including Fruitcakes, Brown Eyed Girl, Volcano, Tin Cup Chalice, Fins, Come Monday, Changes in Lattitude Changes in Attitude, I Would Play for Gumbo, Southern Cross, One Particular Harbor, Last Mango in Paris, and the list goes on!
• Jimmy rocked the performance, he's still got it and is still lookin damn good, you go sir.
• People kept throwing hats up to him on stage an he would wear them, it was awesome, some lady threw her bra onstage too, Jimmy's still got it!
• Mary and I wanted to be the two women background singers, they had super cool coreographed moves.
• Jimmy's guitarist was super hot for an older guy.
• Mac Mackinaley was a G as always.
• Some crazy French performer named Antoine came onstage and did some songs with Jimmy, and it was pretty bad ass.
• There were mostly Americans there, (we met some really redneck/drunk/freaking weird couple from Georgia and a very nice man in a Saints jersey that works for NATO who let us stand in front of them near the front) and a noticeable number of Brits.
• It was easily one of the best concerts I've ever been to, and I'm so greatful my parents gave me this amazing opportunity to see one of my favorite musicians since I was a wee one!

After the concert Mary and I went on a quest to find a bar to get some drinks (because believe it or not, we were sober the entire concert thanks to a HUGE line at the venue's bar), but were unsuccessful, and ended up just heading back to the hostel around midnight. The next Morning, we set out around ten to see the sights of Paris. I don't think Mary or I had ever walked as much as we did that day, but it was amazingly beautiful and SO worth it. We started off by going up to Sacre Cour, which is a beautiful church on a hill that overlooks Paris. It was an awesome way to start off the day, from there, we went to the Arc du Triomphe, and then walked from there to the Eiffel Tower, which by the way, is way farther away than it looks! By this point, my memory card was full of videos from the concert from the night before, and was useless.  An unfortunate lense error on Mary's camera had put her camera out of commission as well. Thank the heavens above that we have the same model of Cannon camera, so with her memory card in my camera, we had ONE functioning camera between the two of us. Clearly we make an amazing team! Here are a few pictures from our Parisian sight seeing extraviganza!

Me near Sacre Cour overlooking Paris & the Eiffel Tower

Mary and I at the Arc du Triomphe, my favorite of all the Parisian monuments.

Mary and I at Notre Dame

Later that afternoon, Mary and I met up with my good Friend A.J. (who I have mentioned in my previous posts, who had come to visit me a few weeks ago) and he showed us around some of the sights of the city including Notre Dame. He's super knowledgeable and told us some amazing info about Paris and it's history.  (He even lives down the street from Ernest Hemingway's flat!) I'm so glad to have such gracious friends who will take time out of their hectic lives to be my own personal tour guide! We even met up with some of his friends that evening and drank some wine (in my case beer) on the grass leading up to the Eiffel Tower (until it was unbearably cold and we left to find the baby bottle bar, which didn't end up working out :( )

We went out for some drinks and crepes, then back to the hostel around 12:30 that night. The next day we did some more sight seeing, including the Louvre, and Moulin Rouge. The Louvre was an absolutely incredible experience, and being able to see works of art like the Mona Lisa and the mass amounts of Asian tour groups was breath taking. We spent the morning there and met up with A.J. for lunch at the Louvre food court, which was kind of expensive, but considering we managed to get into the museum for free with our European visas, I think a plate full of Moroccan food, a drink and dessert for 15 euro was moderately justified...kind of. Paris was a ridiculously expensive city...and I thought Brussels was bad! I had a good time none the less (although my parents bank account may not agree)

Sunday was a loooong day. A lot of things were closed, it was raining, and really cold.  Our train didn't leave until 10:25 and we were done sight seeing around 6, so we killed some time at the hostel, then headed to the train station at 8, where we witnessed quite a few of Paris's surplus population of crazies, and tried not to freeze our butts off.


In short, going to Paris , I had no idea what to expect.  The city is a uniquely beautiful and busy one, filled with so much history.  I think Parisians get a bad rap, seeing as I had no problem with anyone I came across, minus the crazy man on the metro ranting and raving (in French mind you) about people coming to France who are not French and telling people that if you do not speak French, do not come to his country or eat in their restaurants. Okay guy. Paris was amazing, and I will for sure be back in the future!