The laughs and giggles of Paris

Emily Freeman
Jun 12, 2019
3 min read

I know this post is several weeks late, but I couldn’t wrap up this blog without doing another post about our trip to Paris. My last post was focused more so on the beauty and romance I found in Paris, but this one will be dedicated to all the fun and silly stories and pictures I have from our time there.

My first story is dedicated to the cute, elderly Chinese lady who stayed at the hotel with us. On our second morning there, Ali and I were downstairs in the lobby partaking of the lovely and traditional French continental breakfast. After a little while, this little lady sat down next to us with a plate full of three pains au chocolat and one plain croissant. I kid you not, it was probably only like five minutes later that we looked at her plate again, only to find it completely empty. She promptly returned to the breakfast buffet and returned with another three pains au chocolat on her plate. At this point, Ali and I left the hotel and paid a visit to the delicious bakery that was a short, three-minute walk from the hotel. Once we returned, we were overjoyed to see that our friend had once again tucked away all three of her pastries in our absence. As we giggled quietly to ourselves, she stood up once more and made her third trip to the buffet. She soon returned with a plate of two more pains au chocolat and one more plain croissant.

Her third plateful of croissants. What an appetite!

Consistent with her tendency to gravitate toward any Chinese person (having served a Chinese-speaking mission in England), Ali moved over to sit across from our pastry lady, and started up a conversation with her. Ali later told me that the conversation had gone something like this:

Ali: “Are you enjoying your time here in Paris?”

Pastry lady: “Oh yes, I like it a lot! Especially these!” *as she gestures enthusiastically toward her plate fully of croissants*

Alas, our lovely pastry lady did not disappoint, as we looked back at her plate another seven or so minutes later and noticed that it was once again completely empty.

And just to add a little perspective to the number of croissants this lady put down, Ali and I were only able to eat like two or three croissants before declaring ourselves full. Further, she was probably shorter than both Ali and I. So it was definitely a lot of food to pack into a little body! I only wish we had asked for her name...But I guess Pastry Lady will have to do :)

Up next for your viewing pleasure, a series of artfully-composed photos from the palace and gardens at Versailles, featuring the one and only Christian Barnett and his blue umbrella!

Now it’s time for another story time! Poor Lilia was sick for most of our time in Paris…the kind of sick that makes you realize just how inefficient and wasteful tissues can be. But Lilia is a real trooper, and not the kind of person to let a little case of the sniffles get her down. And so, her ingenious solution was to carry around an entire roll of toilet paper in her backpack. It was portable, easy to access, and lasted longer than your average pack of tissues. It always brought a smile to my face every time I caught her pulling the toilet paper roll out of her backpack, so of course I had to document each incident! Oh, and it was an added bonus to watch the roll gradually get smaller and smaller throughout the trip. Lilia really made the most of that roll of toilet paper! Love her :)