I Love Paris in the Summer Time!

What a week! It's been really busy, which is why I haven't really written anything here...that's okay, I'll make up for it with a super long post!

So, last time I wrote was Friday...and I was planning on doing all of these super cool things! Well, i did some of them, but not all of them. I ended up going to the Cimiterie du Pere Lachaise on Friday afternoon. That is the famous cemetary where people like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Edith Piaf are all buried. It was really cool walking around the cemetary and seeing all of the graves that go back centuries. The cemetary was HUGE! I don't ever think I have seen one this big, it just stretched on for blocks. Afterwards, my friends and I went to Sacre Coeur and Montmatre, which is the artists quarter. Sacre Coeur is this beautiful white basilica on top of a hill, so that from in front of it you can see all of Paris. I didn't get any photos of it because my camera decided to eat my batteries right before I went. From in front of the bascilica, you can see Le Centre Pompidou (Modern Art Museum), the Eiffel Tower, L'Arc de Triomphe, and Centre Montparnasse, which is the only sky scraper in Paris. Afterwards we decided to wander around Montmatre for a little while...Montmatre is famous for many things, some of which include: Moulin Rouge, and being where the movie Amelie was filmed. It was cool to wander in and out of the shops. The best part was that I found that most of the cheapest tourist stuff is there!

While we were wandering around, we somehow got separted from one of the girls we were with. One minute we all walk into a store, and the next, she's not there. So Gabriell, Ellen, and I are looking all around for Lenea, probably for a good hour. We walk through the shops, the Artist's Quarter, everything and we can't find her! And she doesn't have a cell phone like the rest of us do so we can't get a hold of her at all to make sure that she's okay. So, we walk down to get onto the metro to go to another friend's apartment so that we can call CEA and find out her host mom's number, and we get a call from her! She ended up calling CEA to get the number of one of our cell phones...and she hadbeen looking for us to, but we always seemed to miss each other...haha! Afterwards we head to Jessica's apartment, and we end up spending all evening there, making food and drinking cheap, but good, wine. We don't end up leaving her place until about 12:30 am...but the metro runs til 2 am on the weekends so it was cool. It's just her place is very inconvient to get to and from where I live.

Saturday we all meant to get up and go to Versailles, but since we had had a late night the night before, we deicded we're going to do it this weekend! Instead we hung out all afternoon and then went on a Bateaux Mouche, which is a boat ride on the Seine that takes you by most of the really cool spots, like the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. Afterwards, we ended up going again to Jessica's and made tacos...with more wine. Haha, I love being able to enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner here...especially one that costs 2 euros!

Sunday was a big day in Paris. The first Sunday of every month, all the museums in the city are free! So a couple of us planned out four museums that we really wanted to see. However, I woke up that morning feeling that I had been hit by a very large bus. I had a headache and fever, runny nose, cough, and I was really achy...but I still went to the museums! I had to go see them when they were free! Gabriell, Ellen, and I started out at the Musee D'Orsay, which is the impressionist museum. The Musee D'Orsay use to be the Gare D'Orsay, which was a train station. So inside there is this beautiful architecture with HUGE clocks (which were really cool!). I am not a huge fan of art, but the architecture of the building was great. Also, on the top level there is a balcony that you go out to and have a great view of the city.

Afterwards, we met Katie and Jessica at Le Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum that we were all interested in because we had to walk by it every day last week to get to the CEA office. On the outside it is extremely colorful, because it is a sort of "inside out" building. All of the pipes for water and heat and everything else are on the OUTSIDE of the building and are color coordinated for what they are for. Also, on the top floor was a great view of the whole city. I walked around some, but I definitly do not like modern art. I have a hard time looking at three blank canvases and calling it "art".

Finally, I went to the Musee du Moyen-Age, aka that Cluny Museum. The only reason why I wanted to go there was because I had read all about it in the "The Seventh Unicorn" book that I read earlier this year. The Cluny is famous for it's collection of tapestries called La Dame a la Licorn (The Lady and the Unicorn). It's this set of six tapestries that detail all of the senses, as well asa final one that is called "My Only Desire". They are amazing in that the six tapestries have never been separated, and that are nearly all fully intact. When I saw them, I lost my breath. They were incredibly amazing, and so full of detail. Just imagining all the work that went into this work of art, all of the stitching that was to be done on it boggled me. I was so excited that I got to see these tapestries that I had read about! Definitely was the highlight of my day.

Monday, I wasn't feeling much better. I still was sneezing and coughing loads...but I figure it as an experience that allowed me to go to a pharmacie here in Paris! haha...I went to class Monday morning, and my professor is one crazy lady. She reminds of my third grade teacher, just sort of completely out there. And she gets really bitchy too something. The one thing I really don't like about her is that she forgot to give us homework Monday night, so on Tuesday morning we still had to do all of the exercises really fast in class and then she got mad at us for getting a lot of them worng...when she hadn't given the exercises to us to practice in the first place! I also saw a movie on Monday called "L'Auberge d'Espange" (The Spanish Apartment). It was a really good movie, but I definitely didn't understand all of it as it was in French with French subtitles (we were watching it at CEA). However, I did learn some very interesting French cuss words :D

Tuesday and Wednesday I hung out with friends after class, and then on Wednesday went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I know I know, so touristy, but all of my friends wanted to go so I figured why not? It was kind of expensive, but definitely worth it...

Thursday after class I finally went to Notre Dame. I had walked by it prolly 5 times but hadn't had to time to go in. So I walked from the Luxembourg Gardens (prolly a 20 minute walk if that) and went inside. I love the Catherdral, and it is beautiful inside with all of the beautiful stained glass. Afterwards I just wandered around the quarter, and went in some shops.

And that brings me to today! Just hung out after class today, I have been reading some. I am going to a friend's soon to make some dinner, and then I believe we are going to the Louvre. The Louvre is free on Friday nights from 6-9:30 for people under age 26, which is really neat because it sucks to have to pay for so much here. I really enjoyed the Louvre the last time I was here, but I really don't need to see the Mone Lisa again...one of the biggest dissapointments ever! Then tomorrow we are planning on Versailles, and I hope I will get to see Kallie there. Sunday I am going Tree Climbing with CEA, and then Monday is Bastille Day! Therefore I have no class on Monday! yay! There's a huge military parade on Monday morning, and then fireworks at the Eiffel Tower at night. There's also huge artists playing at the Eiffel Tower all day, like James Blunt!

Anyways, I'm off!

A plus!
Lesley