Ringing in the New Year in Paris

Some of the other Americans and I headed to Paris for NYE. We made some sandwiches, bought champagne, and caught the train. On y va! We arrived in Paris around 7ish and headed to the hotel to check in. After that Jeff, Jungho, Stephan, Stephan’s friend Tom, and I all headed to the Eiffel Tower.  It was nice because I had four body guards! We were all a little hungry so we searched for a little café so that Stephan and Tom could get something to eat when we stumbled upon a little Chinese restaurant. They had sushi, and I couldn’t resist the temptation. It was surprisingly very good. Tess and her boyfriend Luke met us there too. Once we were all fed, we were ready to go.  

We started out in the direction of the Champs-Elysées and meandered our way there. Once on the Champs, we got caught in a mob of people and it was just not fun. Too many people for such a little area. The street wasn’t blocked off or anything. We made it to the Arc de Triomphe when we decided we were going to head back to the Eiffel Tower for midnight. There was no music or anything playing which I thought was a little odd. I guess I only really know how they do it in New York, and this was totally different. We found a nice spot in a park to settle down and wait for the countdown. We had a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower.

As midnight was nearing we were interested to see what they had planned. We were all eagerly waiting, champagne in hand, when the Eiffel Tower started sparkling. We were all confused as to if it were New Years or not. There was no countdown, no fireworks, no ball drop, nothing! The Eiffel Tower sparkled which it does every night on the hour. We still made the best of it, but were all extremely disappointed in France’s lack of effort. I mean its New Years people. Anyways, we hung out and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle again at 1am and celebrated again for all the people in London. After that, the Eiffel Tower shut off and the city went pretty dead. It was like it was just any ole night. Crazy!

 We made the best of it though and hung out until about 3am when we decided to head back to the hotel, smashing every bottle of empty champagne we saw along the way. I quite possibly may have started it! Not realizing the metro closed, we had to walk back to the hotel which was pretty far from where we were, like wicked far! Around 4am, we were still walking, and I was falling asleep walking, so I decided to call the Dempsey household to wish them a Happy New Year! It was really nice because I got to talk to everyone and it was like I was there for a bit. On we walked until we came to a metro that was open. I have never been so happy to see a metro in my life. Not every stop was open, but we were able to get pretty close to our hotel, which was awesome.

The hotel was booked for three people, and we had five, so we had to sneak two in. We put all the beds together and crashed for a couple hours before returning to Compiègne in the morning, well more like afternoon. After a very long night of wandering around Paris, I came home and took a nice, hot shower and the longest nap ever. For dinner we were all getting together to make a beef stew in Jeff’s room. It came out really good. I made a nice salad too.

It was a fun night despite the midnight disappointment. I have now successfully spent two eve’s of major holidays in Paris, although my New Year’s Eve was much more enjoyable than my Christmas Eve!