SUNDAY 7/25:
Out of all the possible things I was going to do (i.e. Cannes, Giverny, EuroDisney), I ended up waking up at 11:00 AM (oh it was glorious) and eating lunch at 日本町 with Mari. Our restaurant was called ひぐま(higuma) and it's very famous, at least according to yelp and google. I had yasai ramen (or as the menu spelled it, lamen) and Mari had miso ramen. YAYYYY for 日本料理! I missed it! While we were eating a little bug (ごきぶり) creeped out of the shadows, and we were almost gonna ask for our meal to be free, but didn't.
After we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit, looking at various Japanese (and some Korean) restaurants and bookstores. It's kind of interesting to get another culture's take on Asian culture. Asians aren't extremely numerous in Paris, so I think it's safe to say that there is less knowledge of Asian culture compared to Californians, but according to my host mom there are plently of Japanophiles who learn the language, eat the food, read the books, and can't wait to get their hands on the girls. (Okay, I added that last part. But it goes without saying.)
After that I was pleasantly surprised to find Tuileries a near stone's throw away, so I walked over there and joined mes potes waiting for the Tour de France to come through. It was boring waiting and my feet got really tired, but it felt cool because the whole crowd was there cheering, and apparently I saw Lance Armstrong zoom by eight times on those bikes. It was cool to be a part of it for this one year--I mean, I'm IN Paris the day of, so why not?!
Everyone left around 5:30, but I still had energy, so I went by myself to Le Marais and explored Place de Vosges, where I had always wanted to go. I didn't really find Victor Hugo's house, but I found Musee de Sully (which was basically two courtyards) and a lot of other cute places (including a cute, well-dressed harpist harping in the street for money) that I'm glad I walked by.
Later in the night we met up again and walked along the canal St. Martin which was very nice and I love it. Another Amelie moment. I wish we could do it again, have it become a regular thing...if we were staying a semester, it could be like that. My new dream is to bring my bf/fiancee/husband to Paris and show him everything and take him all the places I've been. <3
MONDAY:
Me and Analiese got a lot done today!! Very good day.
First we went to St. Cour Emilion which is an INFINITELY CUTE little village with lots of shops and restaurants. We got cheap sandwiches and ice cream and walked around and took pics. Adjacent to it is Bercy park, which was adorable with ducks and bees and plants and best of all, NO CREEPERS yelling at us! We finally found the little city-within-a-city, the little Parisian escape. I felt like I was in the suburbs again. It was so nice to explore the rather unknown portion of the 12th arrondisment.
We got off the metro intending to go to the Tuileries area but saw the Opera Garnier, decided tour it for 5 Euro, which I thoroughly do not regret! Of course I thought of phantom of the opera the whole time (this is where it's based on.) We got to see the whole stage area and the box seats, as well as every other part of the lobby/foyers area, but no secret creepy tunnels/innerworkings. Still, it was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine real operas going down in there. Now that I've done it, I can't believe it was ever optional or not on my list, music-phile that I am. I'm supposed to be super interested in opera...:P
Afterward we decided to go to the Musee L'Orangerie, where they have Monet's water lilies (nympheas) paintings. They were gorgeous, as was everthing else in the museum, but I'm never like TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by art museums because I just haven't studied it and don't really know quite how to appreciate it. Photography, YES... other forms of visual art (especially pre-20th century), not exactly. But of course it was still a good experience.
After walking through Tuileries (which is next door) a little bit more, we went home, and I had about a 2-hour break for dinner. After dinner (way after, at like 10) we went out to Pigalle(oOo! again) to go to the museum of eroticism. I guess it was worth 6 Euro....LOTS and LOTS of sculptures and images of penises, vaginas, and sex, from throughout the centuries. My favorite part was watching 1920's cartoon porn and filmed porn from the 20's and 30's(silent with the little sentences you read in between scenes, the written dialogue.) It was hilarious. We stopped and took pictures at the Moulin Rouge (yay, I just happened to be there at night!) and other sex shops, etc. along the way. I decided I love Pigalle and think it is fun and happening and definitely not sketch. I haven't had a single sketch experience there, unless you count drunk guys seeing my camera and saying "prend un photo?" or hearing us and saying "speak english?", but that happens everywhere. I think I'd actually be more threatened by that in America than here, because there I wouldn't have the guise of being a tourist, of not knowing the language--I'd actually have to defend myself.
Just a few of the many possibilities which lay before me for these last THREE days:
_park Buttes-Chaumont with Carol! (<3)
_possibly top of Notre Dame with Carol
_park Belleville
_Marais (again) to eat lunch with Bpaul and Jchung
_UP the eiffel tower--at sunset!
_Sacre Coeur at sunset with ISA people :)
_Musee Rodin, Musee des Arts & Metiers
_Tour Montparnasse
_Galleries Lafayatte (yeah, never been!)
There's like 50 things I could add on there which I'm not because I don't want to disappoint myself at not doing every little thing I want to do. I've already done A LOT, including all the crucial attractions and everything on my bucket list. Yay <3 If only I could stay a whole month in EVERY place I go, haha.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
_Paris is somewhat keeping me from thinking negative thoughts/worries about next school year...student teaching, priorities/busyness, having a car, apartment stuff, boy stuff, money stuff...but these issues are IMPENDING and will be on me soon! But gotta get this freaking stressful Italy trip planning out of the way first.
_It's only in these past couple days that I've entered into a new state of comfortability with the city. It's maybe a halfway mark--if I stayed here twice as long, I could be completely 100% comfortable being in the city. But what sucks is that now I've hit that mark, it makes me not want to leave that much more. Whereas last week I was squirming at the seams, having hit the low of homesickness, this week I'm fine and just want to explore and travel more haha. POOP. POOP HOW IT WORKS LIKE THAT. :P
i love how current events are happening and you just happen to be there. tour de france -- i missed it my year, because i think i had other plans. what else i missed was obama visiting sarkozy. le lendemain i picked up a "metro" (i think) and a pic of the 2 presidents shaking hands was on la une. it was kind of exciting to know, although if i were there i would probably have found it kind of dry. pshh. politics.
ReplyDeletel'orangerie! it's interesting how they decided to devote one museum to orange paintings. of course it's not limited to that. but the rooms and the giant paintings are neat. i'm glad you got to visit.
i completely understand your lack of nostalgia last minute. although i probably wasn't feeling as homesick as you did. i was probably not feeling very homesick at all, and i'd much rather be away from home for and extended period of time (2 months+) and i probably still won't feel homesick. you know how i feel about my family.