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Welcome to Paris!

By Lillian E. · Lillian Engel Archive

Dec. 31, 2023

All the planning has finally paid off, I’ve arrived in Paris! A couple days ago, Max was sitting with me while I (re)packed my suitcase and he asked if I was nervous. Honestly, for all the excitement and anticipation I told him yes, I was super nervous. As familiar as this city is, this trip feels super open-ended. I have classes at Le Cordon Bleu starting in less than a week, but nothing else planned beyond that!

So to start, I used every credit card point I’d ever accumulated to pay for (most of) a business class ticket leaving JFK at 9:30pm. Best decision of my life because even if I was too nervous (or the timing was just weird, they served breakfast at 3am nothankyou) to eat the fabulous, fancy food they offered, my window seat turned into a BED and I slept for several hours.

Remember how I said I didn’t feel like eating the food? See the croissant and jelly they woke me up for? I felt badly for wasting it so I wrapped it in a tissue when no one was looking, put it in my pocket, and went back to sleep. They left the orange juice with me and it basically came along for the ride, zooming through the air at top speed.

Me and my emotional support pocket-croissant made it to France and out of the airport and found a super great taxi driver (if anyone needs a ride from the airport when they come to visit, Eben gave me his number and offered to pick you up. I’ll probably text him in March when it’s time to go home.)

My host family is spectacular! Very friendly and welcoming. I won’t say too much about them to maintain their privacy, but they’ve been very helpful and happy to chat with me. Look, they gave me a room with a view! (My jaw hit the floor when I saw it, and that made them laugh). I feel very fortunate.

Jet lag tried convincing me to go to bed at 6pm, so I took a walk around the neighborhood and found a grocery store for dinner. My juice came with a hat, which made the guy behind the register laugh (I think it’s part of a charity/awareness effort). Re: my sushi dinner- someone made a good point in telling me “you’ve got three months of good food ahead of you, I won’t put it against you for not going for it the day you arrive.” At least now I can confidently say grocery store sushi is the same everywhere.