This post is the yucky part of our trip.  I have to tell the story, but I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible so I could move back into the fun parts of Paris.  Also, I am positive you all don’t want to see any pictures of this part!

So as we made our way back from Place de la Concorde, my mom wanted to stop at the Monoprix and get something to eat.   Remember we had eaten an awesome brunch at Ladurée earlier, but had done quite a bit of walking since then and needed to replenish those lost calories.  We were planning to go out to dinner later at one of my fav spots: Cafe George V on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, but wanted to get something light to tide us over.

I was feeling downright terrible by then and chose a cup of chicken broth with noodles.  Something that seemed relatively harmless.  Mom got a salad with chicken and some fruit.  If you are not familiar with Monoprix, it is like an old Woolworth’s store, one level per theme: groceries, home goods, clothes, etc.  You can get pretty much anything you need in one place.  We got our light meal, and headed back to our apartment.

I made a cup of tea and my soup and we sat down to eat and rest.  However within minutes of being back in the apartment I was violently praying to the porcelain god…over and over again.  Throwing up for me is a bit like crying…I don’t do it well or prettily.  There is no way I could have ever made use of the ancient Roman practice of the vomitorium.  I fight it.  And then I cry and get a runny, snotty nose.  It really is not pretty.

Needless to say, dinner plans were cancelled.  Mom was feeling pretty poorly as well, although luckily we were not both in need of the potty, because I had that pretty much monopolized for the next several hours.  Nothing would stay down, not water, not flat soda, nothing.  I was sick on a level that I had not been in more than a decade.

One of the small silver linings to getting sick overseas (if there is such a thing) is that the pharmacies actually have medicine that can help you…without seeing a doctor first.  The pharmacists are excellent at helping to fix what ails you.  In my case, the European OTC equivalent of Phenergan.

Desperate to end my stint driving the porcelain bus, I was thrilled to know that pharmacies here carry a pill that dissolves under your tongue.  That was a good bet because I was still not even keeping water down at this point.  I halfheartedly wondered if THIS was the secret to all these skinny French women, but quickly decided that even if it was, it was not for me!

However, the medicine did its job and I finally was able to sip some water, keep it down and fall asleep…hoping and praying that tomorrow would be a puke free day.  We had some really cool plans and I have a friend from the US that I planned to visit while I was here.