So I can now say I have been to Paris. (I am not counting being in the airport for a few hours as a legitimate visit) I must say, as much as I loved the visit, I still couldn't ever live there for an extended period of time. Too big. 'Nuf said. Upon arriving, we took my first metro/subway ride other than Atlanta's own MARTA, which is smarta, just not as smart as Paris' metro. This first station and transfer confused the bejeebers out of me, but when we got off at Glaciere (line 6), and walked to our hotel the FIAP, I was pretty excited. It gave us a little down time before we headed to dinner, also in the FIAP. I got stuck rooming with Blake, ugh, but not really, it was fun, plus we are the only 2 guys so it is obvious that we will always room together. Dinner was, let's say, different. The way it worked out was this: we got one entree (small appetizer type thing), one repas (english entree), one dessert or fruit, and a boisson. After this experience, we headed out into for me, the unknown.
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| Typical Metro Stop |
After getting off the metro, we headed down a street to find a tiny little theatre where we going to see Ionesco's La Lecon. This is a piece of absurd theatre, so in reading it beforehand, I was not a fan of the piece at all, but after seeing it performed, I understand the more vulgar humor that wasn't explicitly written in the book. Since it was only about an hour long, we were out of there around 9, which gave us time to get gelato! Yum! Plus in January, what could be more satisfying? I got a small cup of straciatella, which is pretty much just creamy chocolate chip flavor. After this petite pause, we walked literally about 100 feet and around a corner and showed up right next to Notre Dame. All we had to do was cross the Seine and see it's magnificence. We made it there, and the first thing to surprise was the giant Christmas tree in the front. It seemed out of place this late in the year, I think. One of the many things I learned that night about Paris was that to make sure you make it back sometime in your life, you have to step on the star which is Km 0 for all maps of Paris.
Being the adventurous youngsters we are, we thought it would be smart to walk all they way from Notre Dame to the Tour Eiffel that night. Turns out that was a great idea. Not only did we get to stop at the Louvre and see the pyramid and whatnot, but we got to walk along the Seine practically the entire way. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me Friday night, so I have no proof of this on my computer, but take my word for it: there was a trash can with trash that looked like a panda. This also means that I didn't get to take picture of the Tour Eiffel, but here is what you can pretend my first full view of it looked like:
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| Nighttime in Paris |
It was pretty to say the least. We kind of hung out there before we went back to the metro to get some sleep before our big day Saturday.
Saturday morning involved going to see an exhibit at the Jeu de Paume. We saw photography by Diane Arbus who, according to her wikipedia page, "was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of 'deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.'" It was interesting, and if you get a chance, I would recommend seeing her exhibition at some point. After that, we took the metro to a restaurant of whose origins I am not sure. My sandwich died because I didn't know I was supposed to leave it in the bag. For our afternoon activity, Ashley, Paisley, Quincy, and I went to the Centre Pompidou, which is one of my favorite places in Paris. It is a museum of contemporary and modern art, which may sound lame, but just know that modern are is a lot less depressing than contemporary art, and some of that isn't all that bad. I also have a new found interest in art, meaning that now I wouldn't reject an invitation to an art museum.
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| Centre Pompidou's awesome architecture |
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| Figure it out |
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| Best sculpture ever |
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| Picasso's Arlequin |
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| Outside Pompidou |
Saturday night was a completely new experience for me. First, the group went out to eat at a restaurant of some sort, I don't remember the type, I got pork nems, beef, and something chocolatey though. And yes, I dipped the nems in sweet and sour sauce or something very similar and asiany. After dinner was the real treat. Our director purchased tickets to go see a jazz group play live music. Essentially, we got to listen to good music about 3 feet away in a comfy, warm cafe/bar place. It was a little too comfy though because I dozed off for a tiny bit in the middle. (Walking around Paris is exhausting) Knowing I was sleepy, I went back to bed after the concert finished, along with some of the others.
Sunday can be called funday in Paris. In the morning, we spent a couple hours at the Musee d'Orsay, which is an awesome building as well- it used to be a train station. When you first walk in, all you see is a huge room with a walkway in the middle with a ton of sculptures. It is gorgeous, however, you are not allowed to take pictures, so I didn't. This is the place I discovered I love neo-impressionism: a bunch of little bright colored dots that make a picture. Example:
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| Le Chateau des Papes by Paul Signac |
Then we ate lunch. I had some sort of falafel sandwich from a place the Jane and Blake took me and Quincy to. It was good. I was in a hurry though because I knew my afternoon was going to be super sweet! So I headed down the metro to the stop to go to the Tour Eiffel, where I ran into Danielle (high school friend)!!! We planned this meeting, but it was still exciting. So we wandered over to the metro to go see the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. We went up to the top, after dealing with a very grumpy french lady who really didn't want to give us free student tickets. There are many names I could call her, but I am going to just let her be known as "Adelaide" (I googled ugly french names to come up with that, no definition or anything). After we did that, we decided it was way too cold to be wandering around the streets, so we hopped on the metro, got off near the Hotel de Ville, and found a cafe that happened to be called the Grizzlie cafe or something similar. Hey Scott! Since I don't live in Paris, I had to bid adieu to Danielle for the time being, and make my way back to meet the group for one last dinner in the FIAP and our trip home on the TGV.
All in all, I love Paris. It is a great place with nice people, most of whom speak english well. What I have decided to do is that whenever someone starts to speak english to me to help me out I only speak french just to prove I am actually trying to be a part of their culture. Hopefully the longer I am here the better my accent will get and it will stop happening altogether. But until next time, have a great few days, or week, or however long until we see (through text) each other again. And I just wanted to thank every one that is reading this. It makes me happy knowing that their are people like you who care about me enough to want to know what I am up to across the pond.
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| Me and Danielle in front of the Tour Eiffel |
