So, I’m back from Paris. Got home late last night because my plane had been delayed for 3 hours! It was supposed to take off at 9:10pm but didn’t take off until around 12:30am. I was mostly pissed because it meant I couldn’t take the bus home since it stopped running at midnight which meant I would have to take a cab. And I did, and it was 35 Euro (54 dollars!!!). I heard plenty of sorry’s and I got a measly coupon for food at the airport, but a free drink doesn’t make up for having to pay $54 for a cab when I should have had to! I think I’ll be writing the company a letter!
But anyways, Paris was amazing. I’ll start there and then talk about what I did the rest of the week I guess.
I got into Paris Thursday night and headed to my friend’s apartment near the Eiffel Tower. She was nice enough to give me her bed and take the couch which was great. And she had a real mattress which was such a treat! I slept like a baby every night there! Unfortunately though I got a cold- I felt it developing on the plane and even more so as we talked a bit before going to bed. So when I woke up Friday morning, I was miserable. I felt awful and my nose was so drippy. My friend had already gone to work, so I was on my own to find cold medicine.
After showering and checking e-mail, I headed out for the day and searched first for a pharmacy. Luckily they’re easy to find in France because they all have big green crosses out front. So I found one and the pharmacist spoke English so I told him I needed something for my cold. Cold medicine in hand, I headed to a photography museum I had looked up online, but only to find when I got there the building was under renovation! Oh well. I headed to my next destination- Pompidou Center, the big modern art museum. In all the times I’ve been to Paris, I’d only been in once and just saw an exhibit (on Hitchcock!) while I was there.
I started at the top and saw an exhibit about the Sacred in Art and really enjoyed it. I liked it both because it was layed out well (which not all museums have going for them) and because the subject matter was interesting. I thought there were some really great pieces. It was a pretty big exhibit, almost the whole top floor I guess, and it took me at least an hour to see it all. I ended up buying a book on the exhibit, but in French since I didn’t see one in English.
After the exhibit I went to the lower floors where they have the permanent collection but pretty much just focused on the floor with the 1st half of the 1900s. I really hate a lot of art after 1960 (and even a few movements before that. Don’t get me started on Cubism and Dada!). I liked a lot of stuff in the permanent collection too. I saw a lot of great Chagall’s, and Matisse pieces, and some nice Fauvist works. Eventually though I was starting to get tired so once I finished the floor I started to head out.
I still had a few hours before I would meet my friend after work, so I looked on the map and saw I was close to Pere Lachaise- the big cemetery where a lot of famous people are buried (most famously know is of course Jim Morrison). So I headed over and looked at the map at the entrance to see who was buried where and wrote down a few names and locations- but it’s very difficult to find people. The place is absolutely enormous and it doesn’t flow entirely logically. I was able to find Seurat fairly easily. I went hunting for David, but he was far in some back section and then deeper into the section (rather then being on the outskirt). Eventually I gave up trying to find the other people and just went searching for Jim Morrison. His I knew I’d be able to find because there would just be a lot of people around. And I was right.
So I snapped a few pictures and finally headed home. So, here, for anyone that cares:
I was more than exhausted after that, plus my nose was dripping even more so I made my way back home. I fell asleep for a few minutes until my friend came home.
We went out to dinner together when she did, and at first she thought of one place, but after seeing the menu, I saw it was way too fancy for my taste buds so we went searching for something else. We passed a crepe place and after mentioning I’ve never actually had a sweet crepe, it was decided we’d eat there for dinner.
I had a salty ham and cheese crepe for dinner and then an oh so yummy banana and chocolate with whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream sweet crepe for dessert! It was soooooo good! I think I’ll try to have a few more crepes before I come home on Wednesday.
After that we walked over to the Eiffel Tower because I hadn’t seen what color it was lately. It’s been lit up Blue and on one side has the stars of the EU because I think for 6 months, France is the head of the EU, or something like that. I don’t know. But it looks really cool. And it still sparkles every hour (it’s been doing that since 2000).
The next day was a long day. I woke up late, around noon, but needed it because of my cold. We set out and headed over to Notre Dame, looked around inside briefly, but our main goal was to go up and see the gargoyles. Except the line was obscenely long and wasn’t moving at all. It probably would have taken 2 hours just to wait in line and climb all the steps! 466 of them, which I was fine with not climbing because with my cold, going up stairs made me a tad dizzy.
We instead found somewhere for lunch. I had a yummy meal with a steak and potatoes au gratin and a yummy little chocolate cake for dessert. (I had been so frugal with eating out this whole month I decided to stop looking at prices of food and just enjoying since it’s my last few days.)
We then headed over to Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and looked around there and then walked along the Seine where they set up something called Paris Plage . We walked quite a bit of ways, ending up near the national library. We then walked a bit through this promenade garden which was a walkway with gardens on this old train tracks overpass thing. I dunno. It was cute. But after 5 hours of walking, I was exhausted!
We headed home and after resting for a few minutes, my friend ran to the store to get some food for a picnic on the Champ de Mars (the big law in front of the Eiffel Tower). We headed over to meet some of her friends and it was fun! There was a lot of food, but I actually wasn’t too hungry after such a big lunch (and also because of my cold), so I just nibbled on a few things here and there. It was all girls, and they were speaking French, so I didn’t really know what was going on, but sometimes I understood some things. It was still fun sitting under the Eiffel Tower and having a French picnic.
Eventually we started to feel some rain, only light though, but we all packed up and headed back. My friend and I ended up biking home using this new system called the Velib’ which is a bike program in France where it’s basically dirt cheap (1Euro for a day) to rent bicycles. It’s pretty cool.
We went straight to bed because we were both so exhausted.
Sunday I slept even later! Until 1pm! I couldn’t believe it. It was like 13 hours of sleeping. I must have needed it. It unfortunately cut into the day a bit, but oh well. It’s not like I haven’t been to Paris before and it’s not like I won’t be back.
We (I) wanted to see the Tour de France so we stopped for lunch and had yummy pizza before walking over to near the Eiffel Tower (again) to find a spot to see the guys on their way to the Champs-Élysées. We waited around for over an hour and eventually they came and went all in 10 seconds. The anticipation wasn’t quite worth it. But I got pictures, so it’s cool.
After that we biked over to the Rodin Museum where we walked around the garden for a bit and made a quick stop at Invalides as I had to get back to my friend’s place to get my stuff and head to the airport (but really, there was no hurry!). So that was my weekend in Paris!
Which took awhile to write, so perhaps I’ll write what I did the rest of the week later, because I’m burning daylight right now and I need to get a move on my 2nd to last day here! 
I don’t want to leave France!!!
Avah | August 28, 2008
