Or some such. My French is a bit rusty, but I used it in this beautiful city. This city of light and love and romance. Oh gosh, it was romantic. At night, anyway. With all of the lights and the quiet. Yeah, Paris seemed kind of quiet at night. It was loooovely. I would be Parisian if I could be anything. And the people are nice, alright. Consider this rumor dispelled. There was one woman who was especially cross with me when I asked her for directions, but in all fairness, I do believe she was having a row with her partner or whoever he was. But we were lost and we needed directions. We couldn't, for the life of us, find our hostel. But we did! And it was on Montmartre, and it was pretty great. They had overbooked the Square Caulaincourt, and we were supposed to be in a large dorm room, but we got upgraded to a private suite! With two beds and our own shower! It was kind of a spoiled way to start off the trip.
So, we got to Montmartre, unloaded our stuff, and ran right out to the Louvre. On Friday nights after 6pm the Louvre is free for students. I wasn't so keen on going to the Louvre, I thought it would be all about Mona Lisa and boring French paintings. But it wasn't! There was a whole floor of sculpture! Greek sculpture! And my favorite was there.
I love the story of Cupid and Psyche. It's one of my favorite Greek myths. See Aphrodite gets upset with Psyche, because Psyche is sooooo beautiful, and Aphrodite hates competition. So she sends her son Cupid to go take care of her, if you know what I mean. But then, Cupid falls in love with Psyche! Look up the rest of the myth, it's kind of fabulous.
We saw the Mona Lisa, too. It was overrated. By all means, go see it for yourself, but really -overrated. Maybe her mystique is gone because they discovered who Mona really was, but still. It's small, behind 8 million tourists and a pain of glass, and I wasn't going there to see the Mona Lisa anyway. I feel like people expect to see the Mona Lisa and the great mysteries of life will be answered. Unless your greatest mystery is what room she's in, you'll be okay ;)
Louvre from outside at night! So pretty!
From the Louvre we walked along the Seine to find the Eiffel Tower. And we did! Eventually! We kind of wandered unnecessarily... But it was beautiful at night. And I have at least 20 pictures emphasizing such things.
Never really got back there during the day... Which may or may not have been a sin, but it is really really gorgeous at night. And we saw it from far away one day, and it was a hazy day, and it didn't seem to warrant going back. But we saw it at night a lot. World's Fair monuments are funny things. More about this when I talk about Belgium.
The next day we went on a free walking tour of Paris. The guides work on tips, so they work extra hard to make sure you have a good time. I think it's a great idea. So there were lots of jokes, and the guide was really personable, and it was a fun time. I'm not always a huge fan of tours, because I feel like I never get to spend the amount of time I want to at places. But on tours you learn all sorts of cool things that you otherwise wouldn't have. Ack! It's like a double-edged sword.
We went to the Arc de Triomphe. The real one. Or rather, the one people associate with the phrase Arc de Triomphe.
True story: No auto insurance company will insure you for this traffic circle. It says, explicitly, on all policies that the Charles de Gaulle Place (Place de l'Etoile). Yeah, it's dangerous.
We decided to do cathedrals the next. We went into Sainte Chapelle first. Which was beautiful. Small, but not as crowded, and the stained glass was incredible.
Pretty, right?
And of course we did Notre Dame. You can't not do Notre Dame. It was huuuuuuge and crowded. And services were being held and all the jazz. But this place is epic.
And that, right there, above the doors, is their pipe organ. After visiting so many cathedrals and churches in Europe, I've kind of kept on the lookout for cool pipe organs. And this one, although it's probably a recording, but the organ music was all dark, moody, and gothic, as you would expect. Not the uplifting organ music, but more of an impending doom, Old Testament God sound to it.
And of course, being the good music fan that I am, we went to Pere Lachaise cemetary. Which was really cool. Saw Proust's grave, Oscar Wildes (which was pretty trippy) Chopin was buried here, too. And of course, I had to see good old Jim Morrison.
And promptly felt bad for the poor guy buried next to Jim. No one visits him.
So this is him. Immortalized forever in my journal. However, I don't know his name. It's awfully crowded around Jim's grave.
That night we took a free tour of Montmartre. Our guide, Mary, was so adorable. She was little, but spunky. I had one of those moments where I thought to myself: I would like to be friends with Mary. But then the tour was over, and we left the next day for Belgium. So Mary and I would not be friends.
But! We started the tour by the Moulin Rouge. The one and only, origin of can-can dancers and tragic bohemia.
Then we walked up Montmartre, saw a whole bunch of interesting places, but not visually interesting. We stopped by the house where Van Gogh had lived for a time and where he promptly went crazy. Apparently, instead of cleaning his brushes in water, he used to lick the paint off. Back when it wasn't bad news to have lead in paint. Oh Van Gogh, such an innocent mistake. Ask me about Van Gogh some time. Lots more interesting ness going on here, without the space to detail it without boring everyone.
We also saw where Picasso used to eat, at the Lapin Agile. And he paid his tab in paintings before he was "discovered" and the proprietor retired very well.
We get to the top, and at the top is Sacre Coeur.
It was beautiful. And huge! My word, everything seems to have been built for giants. But Sacre Coeur was built of this white stone that as it gets washed (or rained on) it just keeps getting whiter and whiter. More godly.
Okay, so Paris was kind of fabulous. Kind of my favorite place. If I was to live anywhere in Europe, it would be there for sure. I don't even think I can explain it. Everything was beautiful. Even on a dreary day, it was gorgeous. I could have just wandered forever, taking it all in. The lights, the sound, the boats on the Seine. The monuments. The food! The crepes were delicious, and they had waffles (more on waffles when I get to Belgium).
But, I have to get to homeworking! Because classes are back on tomorrow! I'll get around to writing about Belgium and Amsterdam later. I figure I should space out the writing of spring break by country.
Today, I'm going to the Cat Sanctuary to start project numero 2. I'm excited. And a bit nervous. But the weather here is gorgeous today, so that will help get me out of here and out to the sanctuary.
A bientot!
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