Paris

So this is part two of my out of order breakdown of what I did for the long weekend. Just so we don't get confused, these are the dates:

Sunday, November 9, 2008:
Catch the train to Paris, am reunited with Coralie for the first time since our highschool exchange 5 yrs ago. She shows me most of the big sites of Paris in a whirlwind tour. We crash at the apartment at 6pm, utterly exhausted.

I watch a tv show on bridge jumpers in a small Mediterranean city. My first time watching tv in months - justified it to myself because it was at least in french. Started watching "The Never Ending Story" in french too, but was too tired, and realized that when you aren't 9, sometimes the unveiling of the plot seems like it's taking forever... which is I guess kind of fitting, considering the title of the movie...


What I saw that day:
**I had like no batteries for my camera that day, so unfortunately not a whole lot of photos

L'Arc de Triomphe (from a distance)
le Grand and Petit Palais
Quai d'Orsay
Musee d'Orsay
the Eiffel Tower
Centre Pompidou
the Louvre
la Cathedrale Notre Dame
Shakespeare & Co
the Latin District
Hotel de Ville

It was cool to see all that stuff, but I'm definitely glad that I'm going back (for sure) at the end of the year with Granpa, because I'd love to actually go into the Musee d'Orsay and la Cathedrale Notre Dame, and take my time learning about the historical meaning of the buildings like I did in Munich, and see what I missed on my initial race through Paris.

Monday, November 10, 2008:
Coralie had class this day, and I was own my own. It was kind of nice to do everything at my own pace. I spent most of the day at the Louvre. I spent basically my whole visit in the painting sections. My favorite was the "Peintures francaises grands formats", where the canvases towered over you, sometimes as tall as a story. I got to see all the paintings from my Art History class, and it was so cool. I bought a really nice book at the gift shop - Louvre: 7 siecles de peinture. I could have gotten it in English, but getting the french version seemed more fitting. Like it would always remind me of my year on exchange.

Was pretty wiped when I got back, though really proud of myself because I successfully got from Coralie's apartment in the 11e arrondissment to the Louvre (1er arrondissment?) through the metro system without getting lost!!! Felt really cool to be in control like that even though I'd only been in the city for a day.

Anyway we hung around the apartment for a while resting, haha, then headed out to Montmarte that night for dinner (I took her out to thank her for putting me up). Saw Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, then we went to Pigalle so I could find the cafe that the movie Amelie was filmed at. Was pretty interesting to walk through the red light district of Paris at night. Kind of like what I image Las Vegas must look like except instead of flashing lights advertising casino's they're neon signs for strip clubs.