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Well, this week has been a rather short week (I still have tomorrow though!) - in regards to classes that is!
The last day of classes is tomorrow (Wednesday April 30th) so most of my classes either met for the last time last week or this week. Monday, I got my exam for French History back - the one that I did not expect to do well on because the information I studied was not even on the test! Well... that was a horrendous disaster! Now, I have to do a rattrapage paper and turn it in two weeks from now in order to bring my grade up to one that will transfer back. But I can use the internet and we're supposed to, so I should do a great job on it!
Tuesday, we got our exams from Dramaturgie back ... although a friend of mine picked it up from me because I was trying to finish answering a bunch of questions for my Ecriture class. She told me that we both passed it though so that's a good thing!
In Ecriture, we handed in our question packets and the professor told us our grades on our scripts. She had given me an 8/10 and Charlie a 10/10 because of the language issue and that Charlie wrote a good bit of it. I first didn't think it was that fair but then I did the math of how it would transfer back. Our questions were worth 10 points as well to make the 20 point total. Well, in order for my grade to transfer back and get an A, I have to get at least 13/20 points. Meaning that since I already had 8, even if I do horrible on the questions - a grade of 5/10 would still give me an A back home. Which is why I didn't bother fighting for the extra point or two!
Then, in Performance Artistique, she gave us our grades back on all of our projects as well. I got a 4/6 on the image presentation. I should've probably argued with her about that grade because part of her reasoning is the fact that I used clips from online on YouTube. Well, apparently we weren't supposed to do that, though I did not know. I did have a decent arguement becuase I had told Charlie my idea (including using clips off the internet) before I even put it together and someone who was a friend would have told me that I can't use clips from the internet. That just goes to show what kind of "friend" Charlie was...
For my movie scene analysis, she gave me a 3/6 which I didn't quite think was fair because it seemed like she was not judging me in regards to the language barrier. If I gave my presentation in English I would have done better than some of the French students because not only do I have the movie clip memorized, but I could use terms and talk about it much better - but she doesn't really speak English at all. So as I was reading off my typed up presentation (because there would be no way I could just rattle things off in French about the scene and actually be fluent enough) she had issues understanding some things and after a bit basically told me I was analyzing it in too much detail and she started asking me questions. That completely had thrown me off because I couldn't just read off my paper anymore - I had to think of what I wanted to say and then translate it into French... didn't go over so well.
So by now I'm at 7/12 which isn't incredibly good but in lieu of the grade transferring back, it's not that bad. She didn't have a grade for my court métrage because there were technicality issues when we tried to watch it last week. So I had the weekend to fix the film (since I realized there were errors in the first one!) and we watched it today in class. She told me she'll give the grade to the secretary - so I'll have to check that out next week or so. But figuring out the math again, the highest score I could get is a 6/6. (The total for this class is going to be out of 18 points instead of 20) So, in order for me to get an A, I just needed a 5/6 on the video. I'm figuring on getting a 3 which was the lowest grade she gave out (better to think worse than be surprised later!) - but even if I get a 3/6 on the movie, that puts me at 10/18 which would equate back to a B. So I was still rather happy knowing that in both classes I'm most likely going to get A's or the worst case, two B's!
I hopefully will get my Greek history DS back tomorrow and know how much I will have to study for the final exam!
I did get my French to English Translation DS grade back and I got a 10.5/20 which is not bad at all (that would transfer back as a B!) so I just need to get the same grade on the final and that class will be fine.
On my DS for English to French Translation, I got a 13/20 which is an A! So as long as I do around the same for the final, that's another great grade to transfer back!
In the French class for Dummies (I tested into the lowest level with a bunch of my friends and that was our nickname for it!) I ended up getting a 12/20 which will transfer back as B so that is another great grade!
Some classes I don't know my grades for yet such as the Marguerite Duras Class, Travail du Spectateur (although I am doing fine in there according to the professor!), my two monday classes with Analyze and Pratique du Jeu but the professor said I should be fine in those classes as well!
Now, all I have to do is start getting things ready to go home, do the one rattrapage, and study for exams in two weeks! I'm going to start taking things down here and packing up... the goal is to find a scale or borrow one, and pack everything that I will be taking back with me. Naturally there are things I will be leaving here mainly because I can't afford to take them back or I don't have the room (and in some cases I just have no need to either!) so I will leave those out. I will also leave out the stuff that I know I will be mailing home like all my souvenirs and things like that. The overall goal is to get my suitcases packed to see what stuff I actually have to send home. Then, I will get those packages (hopefully no more than 2 or three!) packed and sent out by this weekend so I know that they arrive at home.
As for the other things I plan on doing... not so sure about that. Most of my friends are traveling somewhere this next week because we don't have any classes but I can't afford to travel anywhere. I think I might try to get to Brussels since I have souvenirs from there and Belguim but the only thing I saw was the airport! It's only a half hour by train and wouldn't be too much money - and I might try to see some things around this area of France too, including hopefully getting up to Calais and the beaches up there. It would be nice to see the cliffs of Dover from France too! But I will just have to see what happens!
Well, I'm gonna get going here and get some sleep so I'm not tired in class tomorrow! I'm still working on getting my pictures from Paris sorted through. I took more than anywhere else, so it's taking a lot longer! But I will get them up as soon as possible! Laterz!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Week of Hell!
First off, for my Performance Artistique class, I had my court métrage due – that’s basically a short film. I had had to write the script, find people to act it out, film it, and edit it all together for a final movie. Note that I do not have a camcorder here at all, and did not have access to one even through my friends. As I did not have the money to go and buy a camcorder (although I had considered buying one used and then selling it back to the pawn shop afterwards but in the end didn’t want to take the risk of them not buying it back), I had to use the video mode on my digital camera.
Originally, I had written my script up months ago and was pleased with it – till Charlie told me after I had it written mind you, that it would be almost impossible to film because it took place in clubs and they don’t let you film in clubs or bars here. This ticked me off because I told her of the idea before I even wrote the script and she hadn’t mentioned that tiny but very significant detail – one of the many reasons I’ll be glad when I never see her again! So I then wrote another script which worked out fine and I went with that. I got some friends to play the parts and had planned to film this during my week break back in
It was Monday night and I hadn’t heard from my actors for a few days and really was flipping out because I had no idea if they were going to show up or not! And if they didn’t show up, then I really was screwed because I left for
The new film concept I thought up of was actually rather cool. It starts out with me in bed sleeping and having a dream… there was going to be some sounds you hear over it but that just proved to be hard as I needed someone else to do it… But then it skipped to me the next day as I’m sitting on a bench reading the paper… and the camera shows a view as if someone is creeping up behind me… but when I turn around there is no one there and I start to get worried. Skip a couple hours later, and I’m in my room working on my laptop when someone knocks on my door. So I get up to answer it, but again – there’s no one there and I really get freaked out. Then that night, I’m going to take my shower and walking down the hall… and after I got through the swinging fire doors, I hear them make a sound again as if someone went through them after me – Again I don’t see anyone nor did I pass anyone so I run into the shower…. After my shower, I peer out the door to make sure there’s no one there… and head back to my room… though that is when I hear footsteps following me. But since I don’t see anyone behind me, I run to my room and after fumbling with the keys I open it up and go inside – but the footsteps don’t stop! So I then run to my bed and hide under the covers… as I hear my door open and the footsteps come closer to me – then the covers are ripped off and I am able to see who was following me…. and am shocked because it’s me! My conscious/evil alter-ego was chasing me down and ends up strangling me to death and then after a cynical laugh… walks out of the room. Basically the whole thing was my guilt over something that happened in my past came back haunting me and ended up killing me because of it. So, a really good plot.
Only, filming the thing was tough because I had to play the main role and film it… so I used the tripod for most of it, and some shots where done in my point of view… but I got really creative for other ones – like holding two legs of the tripod at my hips with the camera behind me angled up to give the effect that the camera was following me…. and I had to film this at night in a dark hallway with no really good way of lighting it to keep it looking like night. But I ended up getting most of it filmed before I left for
However, when I got back from
Like, I had a test on Monday in my History of France class to not only study for but actually go and take. Then I had a 10 or so page research paper due on Monday for the other two classes I had – which I had to go to as well. So that took time out from me editing my film and I actually didn’t get much more than an hour or so of sleep Sunday night. Then, the History test was hell because I had studied all the obvious things that it could be one – i.e. the stuff we talked about the most in class. Well, when the professor wrote the questions on the board… all of us kinda were confused because it was such a vague question and we really weren’t sure how to answer it! So I did the best I could and can only hope for the best. I figured out that in order for me to have the class transfer back to Clarion, I had to get 7.5 out of 20 – so I can only hope I got at least that if not higher!
Then there was the paper which took time to research and write…. And I had to use the internet a lot for it. I got to that class late because I had to go and print the paper out at the shop across from La Catho…. And I’m normally late to that class because the History class overlaps with it. So I get to class, and during the break between the two classes, I went up to the professor and to give her the paper. I had originally figured that I would ask for an extension and turn it in a week late so I’d actually have time to put into it – but then Charlie told me that I couldn’t get one because the paper was like a D.S. exam only in paper format…. Stupid Charlie…. So that’s why I took the time to do it then. So when I went to hand it in, the professor asked me if I had enough time to do it (with the whole language issue and everything) and offered me to take more time on it! I was half tempted to take more time and do a better job – but then I realized that with all the other work I had to do, I probably wouldn’t do anything more to it. So I just handed it in and can only hope for the best grade on it.
So Monday after classes, I came back to my room and went back to work on putting my movie together – which took most of the whole night. I had to convert all the files to another format in order for them to even work with Windows Movie Maker and that took a few hours to do – so I called and talked to my Mom for a long while which was nice in itself – though as I was using Skype and calling through the internet, we lost the call a few times as my internet sucks. But we talked about a lot of things… like my trip in Paris and London, the fact I have to come home soon, the reasons I wanted to come home as well as the reasons I don’t (perhaps I’ll talk about that in another blog!) But anyways, by the time we were done talking, the files were almost done converting – so I starting to import them and work with them… when I realized that they were condensed when they were converted. That made my computer work even slower and after the program froze 5 times just in working on three files… I deleted all the ones I had converted and sat down to reconvert them again though this time I made sure they were uncompressed.
While that went on for a good two hours, I put on a movie and tried studying for my Dramaturgie test on Tuesday morning. I normally had my Modern Lit class on Tuesday mornings as well, but because I had the movie to finish – I didn’t go. Technically for my Modern Lit class, I had a 12-15 page research paper on one of Marguerite Duras’ books due that day as well – though I had pretty much realized and decided before I went to Paris that there would be no way I could get that paper written in French to turn in. And as that class is a master’s class and our only grade is based on that paper – I’m pretty sure I will be dropping the class unless the professor will grant me an extension but even then I doubt I’d be willing to write that long of a paper for a class that I don’t really have to have in the first place.
So my files finally were converted and I started putting it all together, when I had to go take the Dramaturgie test. That was interesting in itself as well because I had made notes on the couple things he said might be on the test – and studied those. As I had missed two classes including the last one, I had to borrow a friend’s notes and worked from those as well. For the class we were supposed to have read about 6 plays in French and one of the three test questions were going to be on the plays – so since I had only read about 2 of the plays I was really studying the notes for the other two questions. So I get in there… and first off I wasn’t sure which question was the one on the plays! For international students, we only had to answer two of the three questions – which was nice. But like with the History test, I just looked at the questions figuring out…. What the hell are they asking and how do I answer them! So I just started jotting notes down that I could recall that I could possibly use to answer the questions and went from there. I just hope I get a passing grade on it!
After that class, which we took more notes after the test… I came back to my room to finish my movie. Because I hadn’t finished it by the time Geography class came around – I skipped that as well because this movie was a third of my final grade in the class … ergo more important than taking notes in a class. Soon though, I had to go to Ecriture and deal with that class. Our scenario script was due today and that was hell to deal with as well. Charlie had finished writing the scenario before break when we had to have the rough draft done… and sent it to me so I could look over it and make comments, etc. Well, I got a very friendly message from here when I got back from Paris about how I hadn’t done that yet and she didn’t want to do the whole thing herself but if I didn’t do something, then she wouldn’t let me get credit… blah blah blah… So I basically flipped out on her, told her I’ll get it to her by Sunday night and she can fix it… So I had to go and work on that on Sunday as well.
Then, after I had sent it back to here, I messaged here a few hours later to see how she was doing and if she had questions about what I had made notes on. To which she snapped back at me that I should get a dictionary and look things up, about how I said to change things that were already like I suggested in the first place, etc. When I asked her where that was the case, thinking that perhaps it was just a misunderstanding – she snapped back at me saying she was too high on weed to think about it… and had already gone and fixed and deleted that bit. That didn’t help me nerves at all – she’s high on drugs and finishing our script! But anyways, on Tuesday I got a message from her about an hour before class. She said she wasn’t going to have time to stop and print the script out, so she asked me to print it out and get it bound so it looked nice. So on top of all I had to do, I had to allow time to print the script out as well! So I had to leave even earlier for class cause I had to do the printing at the copy shop across the street – which cost me a good 8 euros in total… which she hasn’t paid me a cent for it either. But anyways, I get to class… turn the thing in and pull out my comp to add the last two clips to my movie before saving it to one file. While I’m working, my battery dies… before I could save it to one file – and because I didn’t think I would need my computer cord, I didn’t bring it with me. Thankfully, we only watched half of the clips in class and didn’t get to mine. So since there was an exhibition of our court métrages as well as ones from other classes on Thursday, I had time to finish mine.
Though the hell was far from over… I got back to my room after class – and the file wouldn’t open! So I had to start over from scratch putting my movie together. Though since I hadn’t slept more than 5 hours in the past two to three days, I said I’d have enough time to do it… and crashed. I ended up sleeping through my morning class and some of the afternoon class but since I already had the notes for the one, it wasn’t such a huge issue. I ended up going to my last class since we were getting out DS backs – which I did really well on! That made my day brighter. But then I came back and sat down to piece together my film again. Only this time my computer was being even slower and more of a pain, so I broke it down into sections and saved those as one file and then pieced the larger sections together… which took more time to do but I was able to actually work on it that way. So after another night of very little sleep, Thursday came around and I kept on working on my project. By the time I had to go to my French class at 4 pm, I had all but the last section saved as a single file, so I took my computer to class and kept on working. Things were looking good, I had gotten my test back for my French class and didn’t do too bad on it. My final grade for that class is a 12/20 which will transfer back as a B (I think I mentioned before how the grading scale for transferring back is really in favor of international students!).
Meanwhile, during class I kept texting Charlie to find out when and where we were supposed to be to present our court métrages that evening and she finally got back to me telling me when and where. So I headed up there and had about an hour before the evening started to finish putting everything together. So while we’re watching the first couple ones of the other classes… I was finishing mine up and saving it to one file. I finally got that done, and had to use my iPod to transfer it over to Charlie’s computer so she could burn it to a disk so we could watch it. The other court métrages were incredible and so much better than all the others in my class – and I was even really ticked because another group basically used my same idea! But by the time we got to our classes, it was a good two hours later and most of the other students had already left – some support we had!
Meanwhile, I thought things were good now as mine was done and good… then I figured I’d watch it to make sure… and quickly realized that not only did I leave out part of the movie, but the entire ending got screwed up somehow! So I’m sitting there trying to fix it and save it to a small enough format to put on my zip drive… while time is running out! I finally said screw it… if we watch it, then I’ll explain that I had some issues and might get more time to finish or something. So, we go to watch mine before Charlie’s… and it doesn’t want to play! So she tried saving it to the computer we were using to project them onto the screen… and watched hers in the meantime. But mine was taking forever to copy for some reason, and because there was only three other people left who weren’t in our class – our professor said we would just watch mine in class the next week! So something is working in favor of me because I now have the time to go and finish the film and make sure it’s done right so we can watch it in class this coming Tuesday.
Since everything was done and the hell had passed, I was able to relax a bit. I still have to write a short paper for another class that is late but I emailed the professor and explained what was going on so he knows why it’s going to be late – as well as I have to answer a couple questions for Ecriture that are due on Tuesday. Though as the teacher talks really fast, the couple of questions I tried to jot down were not complete enough for me to understand and answer them. So I had asked Charlie a while ago to send me the questions – and she scanned them and sent them to me but I cannot find them and am thinking that she never sent them to me in the first place! So I’ve asked her to resend me the questions – but she’s currently visiting her mother in Georgia and told me that she doesn’t have them with her… which I’m thinking is a lie because she either would have them done already (which I highly doubt!), or she’s going to do them the night before when she gets back to France. I also doubt that she would’ve left and not taken her laptop with her… so I’m going to try and email the professor and explain what is going on and see if I can get the questions off of her and possibly and extension on the deadline as well because Charlie is basically being a bitch to me and I think attempting to ruin my grade for that class because of it. So I’ll just have to see what happens with that.
I did have class on Friday with Travail de Spectateur which was fun, though I was kind of dreading because we had our DS the week before break and I thought I had done horrible on it and would have to drop the class because of it. So the professor talked about the DS and some of what he was looking for in our replies. He then handed back our papers and made comments about how each of us did – though he told me that he’d talk to me about mine during the break… so I thought I did horrible! Just to recap, the DS was to analyze the first few scenes of Tartuffe by Molière done by the Comédie Français, which I have never read at all and we weren’t given the text for it either – mainly why I thought I did horrible on it because I had to figure out what was going on just by listening to it and that didn’t work out so well! During the break in class, he came and talked to me about mine – and I actually did most of what he was looking for! A lot of others talked mainly about the text and analyzed it that way, but he wanted more an analyzation of the director’s choices for this certain production. Since I didn’t know the text or understand what was going on, I talked about the sets, the lights, the costumes and the symbolism involved with each of those. This was exactly what he was looking for! My only issue was that I didn’t follow his format, or perhaps it’s the French format, for analyzing a scene in which you take a stance on something and then support it with details. I had just talked randomly about the details. But he told me I had no need to worry about my grade in the class as I was doing fine, which really helped ease the tension of the past week.
So now, it’s Sunday evening and aside from the few things I have to do for classes this week, I have been relaxing all weekend. I was able to get all my blogs from
Through Couchsurfing there is a 4 day even going on this week that essentially travels along the Opal Coast of France from Dunkurque to
It’s hard to think that I have less than a month left here… time flew by really fast! After this week, the only thing I have left is my exams which don’t start until May 13 and finish on Monday the 19th. Then I fly back home on May 22… so it is really coming to an end. But I need to go get some food and do other things, so till the next blog! And I’ll post links to the new albums from
Sunday April 20 - Trip Home from Paris
Finally… Sunday’s blog … and this whole past week as well just to make things simple!
So I woke up around 10:30 at Antoine’s with everyone else and realized this isn’t good! I automatically thought that I had missed my train, so I apologized and quickly headed back to Benjamin’s to get my things and get to the train station to figure this all out. Well, while I was on the platform waiting for the metro to get back to Benjamin’s, I realized I had my train tickets on me in my wallet! So I pulled them out and checked the time – and realized my train didn’t leave till around noon – YAY! So I had plenty of time to get back and gather my things up. I had planned to head over to the souvenir shops in Montmartre this morning as there was at least one more things I had wanted to pick up – but I realized that I didn’t want to risk it and decided that I might have a friend going back down there who could pick it up for me – or find it somewhere else.
So, I got back to Benjamin’s and started getting my things together to head on back home. Benjamin had a meeting to go to, so after thanking him again for hosting me and giving him his key and map booklet back, he headed on out while I finished up. Once that was done, I trucked my suitcase down the six flights of steps (that wasn’t fun!) and walked the block or so up to the Gare du Nord train station. Once there, I checked which platform my train departed from and then headed on over there. Of course, as I had gotten the cheap tickets, I was in the very last car of the train! But when I got there, everyone was waiting outside still as the doors hadn’t been opened yet – and the train was supposed to leave in five minutes! Yikes!
But they realized this and opened up the doors, so we all piled on. Once I was on board, I realized that I had forgotten to put my ticket in the machine on the platform to “composite” or activate it – so I figured that if they came and checked, I would just explain the issue if they even asked. One cute thing though was that in the seat across the aisle, a man was traveling with a cat in a carrier which was really cute! Soon enough, we pulled on out and I was on my way back home! For some reason though, they never came to look at our tickets – not that I would’ve been in any trouble to begin with – but I’ve gotten used to them checking. After about an hour’s ride, we were pulling into the Gare Lille-Flanders station and I was back in
Once there, I was able to relax for a bit as I unpacked my suitcase and organized my things. I sat down and balanced my accounts and the usual money issues, as well as double checked my expenses against my budget. It actually ended up looking really good! I had gone about $115 over my budget in
Normally, this was when I would sit down and get all my blogs updated and online, and start working on uploading my pictures. Well – this time that was absolutely not the case! I had to start on the ton of school work I had due the next few days – But I’ll do that in another blog to make it easier and shorter!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Saturday April 19 - Paris!
Alrighty, time for Saturday now!
Like most days when I’m traveling, and in general with me it seems… I had aimed to get up by 9 am to give me the whole day to see things. Since it was my last day in
Like I said, there were a bunch of things that I had hoped to do in
It’s a tiny chapel was built in the thirteenth century by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of Christ. The most famous of these relics was the Crown of Thorns – which actually cost more than building the Chapel! But it is really small, with two levels. The lower level was for the palace staff to worship in, and it is full of arches supporting the upper level and bright colors upon the walls. It also is where the oldest wall painting in
After leaving Sainte-Chapelle and the Palais du Justice (why I had to go through security), I crossed over the Seine to the
From there, I went underground to take the RER train to the next stop so I could visit the Musée d’Orsay. So I put my ticket through the machine and waited for the train to come. The RER line is not like the metro as it is slower and the cars have two levels in them! So when I get to my stop at the next station, I headed on out and tried to leave… and ran into a problem… I put my card through the machine to leave and it let me go through the turnstile… but the gate wouldn’t open! I tried to run my card through again but that didn’t work either. I ended up having to jump back over the turnstile and tried another turnstile, but to no avail. I knew my Carte Orange was good on the RER lines, but was getting worried about me not being able to get back out! Thankfully, one of the girls hanging there I guess waiting for someone used her card and let me through! So up to ground level I went.
I got up there, and first thing I saw was a rather long line to get in the Musée d’Orsay – so my first thought was … do I have to wait in that line? Thankfully I looked at the signs and since I had the
The Musée d’Orsay used to be an old train station that was abandoned for years until it was refurbished and opened up as an art museum. So where the train platforms would have been, there is a huge open area in which the statues are kept. There are smaller exhibit rooms along the sides, so after consulting my map, I just started going up one side. I didn’t see that many painters or paintings I knew at first but then some common names started to appear such as Eugène Delacroix, Eduard Degas, and others. The one end of the main gallery was an exhibit on the Palais Garnier which was rather interesting! It had a huge scaled down model of the theater and the rooms behind it and everything so that was really cool to see having been there the day before. The exhibit though was mainly to showcase the Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s renderings and original plaster models for the sculptures at the Palais Garnier. From there, I headed back down the other side of the smaller galleries and this time I came across even bigger names than before. This time, I was looking at paintings of Manet, Monet, Degas, and Pissarro. By now I was taking my time to look at such masterpieces. I then followed the crowds as well as the museum map guideline and headed up to the top of the museum on the 5th floor to the Impressionists and worked my way back down.
So in the first room, I come across Degas’ works of the dancers and even his sculpture of a dancer. They were incredible! Also in the room were more works of Manet, Caillebotte, and James Whistler – including his famous painting Arrangement in Grey and Black N. 1, also called Whistler’s Mother. This is one painting that I have studied before so it was awe inspiring to see it in person up close.
The next room held works by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. It was really hard to think that I was seeing paintings I’ve read about, and to be able to look at the detail they painted with – it gives anyone a new impression on art! This is the room with the famous Renoir painting, The Bal du Moulin de la Galette. And Monet’s works just kept going on as he was the only artist in the next room. This room housed such masterpieces as his gardens at Giverny, London and the Houses of Parliament, his series on light based on the La Cathédral de Rouen, and of course one of his most well known works – The Woman with the Umbrella Turning to the Left.
Continuing on, I came upon Van Gogh’s works – which were a different painting style in itself! I saw his haystacks painting, Starry Night at Arles¸ and both oh his self-artist portraits. It was incredibly to see how thick the paint was layered; you can even see it like that in the few close up pics that I took! The next room was dedicated to Cézanne, so it was of course full of his works! Though there was definitely a distinct difference between his works and Van Gogh’s, there were not many well known works that I knew of of his in the gallery. In between this room and the next, there were two huge paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec which were amazing.Next, it was the room dedicated to Renoir – so a lot of his famous works were in here including The Bathers, as well as The Young Girls at the Piano.
After this, there was a room where a couple of the pastels were kept – due to the material, the light is dimmed and the works are kept in air sealed cases. Thus, it made pictures hard to take! Following on, there was a short collection which included some of Monet and Cézanne’s works. By now I was in another part of the museum and this one was for other artists that followed the Impressionist movement with Neo-Impressionism such as Gauguin, Matisse, Rousseau, Signac, and Seurat. There were also some lesser known works intermingled in there as well. There were also some small sculptures which actually were done by Gauguin – I thought he only painted! It was also interesting to see some Pointillism works by Seurat and Signac as I have only seen them in pictures before. The last area on the top floor was dedicated to Toulouse-Lautrec’s pastels which were really cool to see, even if they were behind glass!
After that, I headed down a few levels, and there were smaller exhibits there but just had a few works by a couple of well known artists – nothing major of course. I ended up on the second floor of the museum and started off onto a new set of exhibits which consisted of newer movements in art such as Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, etc. Most of these artists I had never heard of before – so I didn’t spend too long walking through the various rooms although there were some really cool works in there. As this was most of the museum, and I still wanted to leave some time to get over to the Pantheon before it closed, I made a quick stop in the bookstore and then headed out.
From there, I got back on the RER line and hoped that my ticket would work this time! After changing trains and going a few stops, I got off and it worked – so I was happy! From the station, I walked over to the Pantheon which was an impressive site to see in the first place. After going inside, the first thing I could think of was – it was empty! It is a huge space which architecturally is impressive, but aside from the paintings on the walls and a few wall sculptures here and there – it was really empty. I noticed after looking at the guide for the Pantheon that it was possible to go up to the upper levels … however it was then that I noticed it was a guided tour only and the last one of the day left 5 minutes before I got there! Bummer! So, I headed down to the crypt which is what I wanted to see in the first place.
The Pantheon is originally a church to honor the Sainte Genevieve, built in a style mimicking the Pantheon in
Since the place was closing soon, I got a few postcards and then headed out. I had planned on heading to the nearest metro and taking that home but in walking there, I had discovered another smaller church beside the Pantheon. Since it was still open, I stopped inside to check it out! In here, there was a beautiful rood screen which separates the altar from the choir with two spiral staircases carved into it on each side. Also here is where the remaining relics of Sainte Genevieve are kept. She is the patroness of
But as I was running out of time, I headed on out and received quite a shock. Not once have I ever completely used up the memory card of my camera in one day – until today! I only had the 1 GB card since the 2 GB one I had was in the other camera I had bought in
As I mentioned yesterday, I was invited along to celebrate Antoine’s birthday today. (He is the friend of Benjamin who had been there when I got back after the Moulin Rouge show.) He was planning on leaving around 7 pm to head over to his place so I did my best to get back by then – and was successful! I got back and quickly uploaded my pictures onto my computer… we headed on out! Antoine had asked Benjamin to make an apple tart, though Benjamin didn’t have a dish to make it! So we stopped at the store on the way to the metro and picked up some things for dinner. After about a 15 minute ride on the metro, which took us into the eastern area of
While they were making that up, his friend Lavender came in with a bottle of champagne, opening it up and saying happy birthday as it goes all over the place! The relationship between Antoine and Lavender really reminded me of the one between me and Hilly – so it was cool. They were all incredibly friendly and throughout the short dinner and chilling afterwards we downed two bottles of champagne and just chatted and relaxed. Then, we all headed over to the
Around midnight or so, we hopped back on the metro and headed back towards Antoine’s and went to a bar up the street. It was a bit crowded at first as there was a live band finishing up, but soon we were able to get a table and we sat down. The rest of the night was spent downing another three bottles of champagne among all of us, and I spent a good time talking with a friendly couple who were friends of Antoine’s about all sorts of things. We ended up closing the bar around 2 am, and then headed back towards Antoine’s. We all were just a tad bit drunk and as the metro had stopped running, we all just kind of passed out/crashed at Antoine’s!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Friday April 18 - Paris
Well, time for Friday now!
I had aimed to get up around 9 am, so I’d have the whole day to sightsee around
I was starting to realize that my time in
I made my way under the stairs to an area that was huge and circular which was the Rotunde des Abonnés . After walking around down there – there wasn’t much to see, I came back up the grand stairs and headed on up them to the orchestra level. It was here that I started walking through the museum which was rather interesting and even held some of the original costumes for some of the more famous operas. However, there was not much to see on this level, especially since the auditorium was closed due to a rehearsal – which had me a bit bummed out. So I came back out and headed up to the 2nd floor where the foyers are. This level not only had a spectacular view of the Grand Staircase, but the foyers themselves were incredible! I really loved the rotonde de la lune and the rotunde de la soleil (the Moon and Sun rotundas). It was really something to walk through there. And it was as I was coming down from this level, that I noticed people going in and out of one of the dress circle boxes in the auditorium – so I checked it out! They had finished with the rehearsal so they opened up two dress circle boxes so people could look inside the main auditorium. They were working on focusing the lights on stage so it was dark, but it was still something impressive to see! After stopping at the gift shop on my way out, I headed onto the next stop of my journey.
This was the Église de la Madeline which is unique in that it has a Greek layout. Surrounded by columns, it is hard to think that it could even be a church but the altar inside, as well as the whole inside itself is gorgeous. Nothing really elaborate like Notre Dame but it has a unique beauty to it that you wouldn’t expect from a church. It was in this church that the funeral for Frederic Chopin was held, as well as the place where Mozart’s Requiem mass was first performed in
However, as there was not much to see, I hopped back on the metro and continued along my way. I got off at the George V stop with the hope that it would be near the Louis Vuitton store – just so I could go look inside – and it was! This is the largest Louis Vuitton store in the world, and was definitely something to walk through. I didn’t know that the line not only had purses, but clothing, shoes, and so many other things. I glanced at the prices of somethings every here and there and was shocked – I knew they would be expensive but didn’t expect that much! A simple key chain of a Louis Vuitton purse that opened up as a mirror cost about 175 euros – which is over $200… for a keychain! The cheapest things I could find in there were the scarves which were still 85 euros. But that was enough day dreaming, so I headed on my way towards the Arc de Triumph.
Thankfully, the Arc de Triumph was open today – else I would’ve been really disappointed! So, after wasting time waiting in a line that ended up being just for the tickets, I headed on up to the actual entrance. (It was covered with the
So, after that success, I headed on the metro out to the Blanche metro stop right outside the Moulin Rouge – where I’ll be headed again tonight! After getting some pictures of the place in daylight, I decided to be brave and walk through the Pigelle area up the street to the base of the Sacré Coeur. This whole area is in Montmarte – the famous district where the seedy cabarets and bars are, plus was the home of many famous painters. Today, it is still a rather seedy area as the Pigelle area is the Red-Light district of Paris. So, I’m walking down the street with my hands in my pockets (just to be safe and avoid the people who try to tie things round your fingers and then make you pay for them!) as I’m passing so many sex and adult movie theaters that it was overwhelming. I think I was propositioned about 4 times to go into these adult theaters, but I always ignored them and kept on walking. I did pass the Chat Noir, which has the famous advertising poster of the black cat on the yellow background! Soon, I was out of the sex area and all the adult theaters and shops were replaced by tourist souvenir shops! So I stopped in a few and found some really great deals – as well as discovered that I had paid almost twice as much for some things I had already bought! Oh well, that’s the tough thing when dealing with souvenirs: you can only price around so much and you are never sure if you’ll have the time to get back to someplace again!
But soon enough, I was at the
Of course, I got there in time to go inside Sacré Coeur itself, although there was no pictures allowed and we were limited to the outer aisles as it is always a place for meditation and prayer. So, since there was no cheap guide that talked about the places inside and the building itself that I could find for free, I bought the guidebook at the bookstore and used that to figure things out! The inside was gorgeous – from the wide open areas to the many chapels around the outskirts to the amazing mosaic in the choir. It was a bit crowded though so I couldn’t dwell too long on any of the places although I really loved the Chapel of the Virgin Mary and the Chapel of Saint Michael which had a beautiful statue of him.
After walking around, I realized that there was not only a crypt but you could go up top and go to the dome – so I paid the 5 euros for a ticket to both and started the very long and steep climb up a very tiny circular staircase. There were times that it seemed I would barely fit though! But soon enough I was up on the roof on the outside, and had to walk along part of the roof and up more steps to get to the dome itself! But once up there, the view was completely gorgeous! I was the only one up there as it would be closing soon and most people didn’t feel like paying to have to go up there – I guess they wouldn’t go up to the towers of Notre Dame then either! But I took a ton of pictures and after walking all the way around, I started working my way back down. When I got to the crypt, they were close to closing so I only had about 10 minutes in the crypt. So I did a brief walk through and saw the gorgeous statues including The Pieta in the Chapel of the Pieta.
I tend to be good at being the last people in places it seems!
But once I was back outside, I had to check the time as I needed to get back to Benjamin’s to change for tonight. So on my way back to the
I ended up leaving Benjamin’s around 8 pm to head over to the Paris Vision office outside the Jardin de Tuileries. This is where I was to meet for the Paris Illuminations bus tour and Moulin Rouge package that I had booked online. Though, it had started to rain which was a bit upsetting. The couch bus arrived and we got off on our way – and I became rather disappointed. The tour itself was pre-recorded and you had to listen to it through cheap headphones. It did not always match up to what we were seeing or quite often there was nothing to listen too! Add to that the fact that it was raining and night – so my pictures weren’t even turning out decent so I just stopped and relaxed. There were some interesting things I had learned on the tour but overall it was a disappointment.
We then stayed on the bus as it dropped those not going to the Moulin Rouge off, and after picking up the people who had gotten the dinner with the
So the lights went down… and the curtain came up… the dancers took their spots on stage and as the music started, the waiters popped the champagne bottles and started pouring as the show began! It started with everyone in silver sequined suits just relaxing in the old garden outside the Moulin Rouge, and then the girls ripped their pants off… it went into a ballet like dance with the three main female stars and the others joined in… then they rotated offstage and started into the title number of the show – complete with the huge red headdresses, and tons of feathers, and topless girls! Next, in a review style, there was an acrobatic due that performed lifts and things that you would see in a Cirque du Soleil show.
This gave the dancers a break and time to change for the next themed part of the show – full of pirates, Indonesian, priestess… and snakes! There were some cool parts of this part of the show. For example, the pirate bit was funny, which led into the temple of the priestess. Here, the thrust part of the stage was retracted and a huge tank full of water was raised up. The priestess pushed the almost naked slave girl into the tank – along with three live pythons! The costumes in this part were really impressive and colorful as well. They even had the two lovers sing a duet while they traveled over the audience! – in neon colors of course!
This then led to a comic segment of a guy playing a set of drums with ping pong balls and his mouth – as well as him doing some juggling and other comedic stuff! From here, we went to the circus with the
Next, the review continued without an intermission and a ventriloquist came out and did a bit with his puppets, which was funny – and then had four people from the audience come up onstage and he did voices from their countries! It was humorous but I found it to take away from the fluidity of the entire show. He then brought out a live, really cute small white dog and he did a bit with her trying to get her to sing!
The next bit was one of the best parts of the night – the French Cancan! They girls and guys were wearing outfits of red, white, and blue (colors of the French flag!) with tons of ruffles! They performed the traditional Cancan which is really not what most people think it is. It’s actually a lot of acrobatic moves, such as flips and cartwheels, turning in circles with their legs held up in the air, etc… all the while they giggle and squeal! Even the guys were doing flips and stuff which really was impressive to see and was definitely one of the best parts of the show!
Then lastly, that went into the last themed segment of the show which basically traced the history and styles of the shows since the world wars till today. So that started out with a jive type feel of music in the forties and fifties, into the disco world of the seventies and into what was my favorite part of the show overall – the eighties bit. This was only the three main girls wearing silver leather and white boas, while all the guys were wearing open vests with bare chests – all in silver of course!. The music was typical eighties beat, but what really was cool was that a walkway lowered from the ceiling and then from there, a set of steps lowered to the stage floor to create a whole different kind of stage. From this, they went into the closing number which was all in pink, full of the bare-chested girls with huge pink plumes and feathers, with plumes that lit up as well… and the whole ensemble ended up on the stages singing the final number! Overall, it was really great to have watched, and to have been inside the Moulin Rouge itself was cool!
But when the show was over, we had to work our way out to the meeting spot rather quickly as the buses could only park for 15 min. That was disappointing because we couldn’t just look at things on our way out, or really even take a good picture outside of the Moulin Rouge lit up! I did manage to stop by the gift shop there and bought the traditional poster (I usually buy the poster and the program for all the shows that I see! – One of many things I collect! Haha!) But I got to the meeting point and was told which bus to get on so that it’d take us back to our hotel – though in my case they dropped me off nearby Benjamin’s place. On our way out, I got my last glimpse of the Moulin Rouge through the window!
Earlier, Benjamin told me that he and one of his friends were going to be out at the bars in the area and that I’m welcome to join them. I reminded him that the show is late and I probably wouldn’t be back till 2 am or so, so we worked out that I’d give him a call and could meet them wherever they were at – if they were still out! Well, as I was dressed up a bit too much for a bar of club, plus I had the program and poster, I stopped back at Benjamin’s place to change and figure out what was going on – and they were actually there! So I got to meet his friend Antoine, whose birthday is tomorrow and I was even invited to go out with them to celebrate. So we relaxed for a bit and chatted about things. They both are actors or at least work with short films and stage work so we talked a lot about theater. Then, after a bit, Antoine headed out… Benjamin headed to bed, and I crashed myself after checking email and things!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday - Paris - Louvre et Champs Elysées!
So, here is the rest of my trip… sorry it’s almost a week later but I had a ton of work to do when I got back and this is the first time I’ve had to finish my notes and work on getting my pictures online!
So, this morning I had aimed to get up around 9 am to be out an about by 10. Benjamin had to get up around 7 for a meeting he had so I figured that there shouldn’t be any issue. Well I ended up waking up when Benjamin got up and was getting ready, so I got up and lazily got ready myself. I had gotten online and was trying to get the wireless internet he has working but for some reason it wouldn’t. After Benjamin had left, he said I could use his laptop if I would need to – so I got on there to see if I could find the key for his network. Well… after that didn’t work – I realized that he had an Ethernet cable hooked up to his internet! So, I plugged in and did some stuff online and checked emails.
By 10 am, I was out and about. I stopped at the small grocery store before getting on the metro and picked up a large bottle of water and a sandwich for lunch – to save me some money! Then, I hopped on the metro and headed towards the Louvre! I figured I’d see things around the huge Louvre museum and then in early afternoon, get another bike and bike through the Jardin de Tuileries, up to the Place de la Concorde, and up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triumph.
When I got to the Louvre, I was already underground with the metro and ended up going into the carousel underneath the pyramids where there are shops. There, I walked in and had a great view of the upside down glass pyramid! But as there was much more to see at the Louvre, I headed through security, and into the main lobby under the huge glass pyramid in the middle. Because I had the museum pass, I didn’t have to wait in any lines at all, so I just picked up the map of the museum and was able to go where I wanted. Of course there were certain things I had wanted to see in the Louvre, but I glanced at the map and tried to figure out the best way to see all that I wanted to see and not waste too much time getting to places. As the Louvre is divided into three sections, I first headed into the Denon wing.
There, I started with Italian sculptures – which were incredible! Some of them were by famous sculptors like Michelangelo. Though, as there are three levels in the Denon wing, I stopped going through the sculptures and started working my way through the Pre Classical Greece exhibit. I worked my way through those, seeing some amazing works, and ended up on the second floor where I was back into sculptures again. But before I headed off in that direction, I stopped in room 7 of the Denon wing and saw the beauty of Aphrodite, also known as Venus de Milo. She was all alone in the work as far as artwork goes (they are moving that whole area around), her ancient armless statuesque body amongst a swarm of Japanese tourists taking pictures with the flash on – which is a huge no-no in any museum, let alone the Louvre! But after admiring her for a bit, I decided that she’s been standing there for so long, I could slip out without saying goodbye! Haha!
Before I headed back to the second floor’s room of Italian statues, I stopped and browsed through the Greek works in the area – but mostly was admiring the ceilings in the rooms themselves. To think that most of the Louvre was the private royal residences, it’s just amazing how much room they had and how ornate each room was. It seemed like each room was the equivalent of the Sistine chapel! But I moved on to the Italian Sculptures again and in there, discovered some amazing works of art. Some of these works included the “Borghese Gladiator,” “Pysche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss” by Antonio Canova, and lastly “The Dying Slave” and “The Rebellious Slave” by Michelangelo.
At the end of this gallery, there is a huge multi-leveled staircase that I took upstairs into the third floor which is all the paintings. So I would have the least amount of backtracking, I started with the two large portrait galleries – and they definitely were large! This was an amazing corridor of long rooms packed full of grand paintings. It’s hard to think of someone taking up to three years to paint them! This gallery was cool because there were even some paintings that I recognized either from classes in school or just in general. For example, the large portrait galleries included “The Coronation of Napoleon I” which is the second largest painting in the Louvre, “The Raft of Medusa,” “The 28th of July 1830: Liberty Guiding the People” which is a famous painting of Eugène Delacroix, plus so many others that I found either amazing to look at or just impressive to look.
After glancing through these galleries, in which there was an occasional artist painting a replica of one of these great masterpieces, I made my way through the Old Italian paintings into the Grand Gallery itself – which was incredibly long! It was hard to see the end of it. This of course was full of many important paintings including DaVinci’s “The Virgin on the Rocks” and so many more that I could list forever. This of course was a very busy gallery as most people coming to the Louvre are coming to this gallery because of all the masterpieces in there. I had decided to work my way down the one side and come back up the other. About halfway down, was the entrance to the room number 7 which is where I discovered La Jaconde by DaVinci. This is of course Mona Lisa herself! The room however was packed as hell! And what was disappointing was the fact that although she is behind glass, and there’s a wooden railing around it, the crowds were kept back by queue lines with those rail thingies. And of course, on the wall facing Mona Lisa is the largest painting in the Louvre – The Wedding Feast at Cana.
After dealing with that heard of the masses, I headed back into the Grand Gallery to finish looking at the paintings. One my way back, however, I was looking at DaVinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks when I thought the girl next to me looked rather familiar. Well, anyways, she turned around and lo and behold – it’s Rachel Edelstein! She’s from
Anyways, after basic introductions, they invited me to hang out with them for the day and they’d get us both dinner (both Rachel and I as the poor college students!). So I joined them in looking around. I ended up seeing a lot of the same things again but they had gotten the audio guides that give information on certain paintings all throughout the museum – so we shared them and learned some interesting things about some of the paintings. I had opted not to get it because I didn’t see there would be much value in it. Her parents were older, but incredibly nice as well and we talked about a lot of things as they live in
From there, there were different places that we had wanted to see, but all of us were interested in the medieval part of the Louvre, so after walking back through the Italian Sculpture Gallery, we headed down to the medieval part. We stopped and her mom got a picture of Rachel and me in front of this huge sphinx that led to the entrance of the Egyptian area. This area was really cool as it is the foundation of the original fortress on the grounds. Believe it or not, it wasn’t discovered until the 80’s when they were making the grounds better as a museum and also when they built the glass pyramids! It was hidden in the central area under the ground – so it was cool to walk alongside the old medieval walls. However, the actually History of the Louvre exhibit is only open on the weekends so we were a bit disappointed in that. From there, we only had about 45 minutes before the museum closed so we actually decided to split up as Rachel had wanted to see the Islamic exhibit and I was keen on seeing the Egyptian exhibit. We had planned to meet up at the point they both met, so we headed off in our ways.
In order to plan it right to end up at the meeting spot and see all the Egyptian stuff, I actually started back with the ancient Greek area and worked from there through the Egyptian stuff. It was really cool, though I was limited on time. One of the cool things that were there though was the sarcophagus of Ramses III – which was huge! There were many coffins as well; it became hard to keep track of them!
I had gotten about halfway through the Egyptian areas, when Rachel called me. It ended up that the Islamic exhibit was closed and as they were going over to the
Even though it was later in the day than I had planned, I kept with my plan and started heading to the Jardin de Tuileries… only I couldn’t find a bike station! So I just started walking along through the park which was gorgeous like all the other parks here in
Since I was right there, I walked across the traffic to the center of the Place de la Concorde, which is a huge area. It now is home to two huge fountains and one of the three Cleopatra’s Needles – this one commemorating Ramesses II. Also, up the lane I was able to see the very Greek façade of the Madeline church. Looking back towards the
At this point, the Champs Elysées is mostly through a park, with a couple theaters inside it and smaller food places. The next major area I reached as the
I then got to a round about which had nothing much in it, but while I was walking around it – I had noticed that the store on the corner of one of the roads was the Gucci store, and further on down I saw other names of fashion. While I didn’t realize this at the time (and would’ve walked down the street if I had!) was that this was the Avenue Montaigne which is where the huge fashion names have their stores and offices. But as I didn’t know this, I kept on going!
By this point I was in the shopping part of the Champs Elysées and there were a lot of upper end restaurants and stores. I stopped in the Disney store, just for laughs which was rather cool! I then got a sandwhich at one of the small patisseries on the street when I noticed up the way was the Louis Vitton store. So I headed up there, noted passing the
So, eating my sandwich, I kept on walking up the street and passed a bunch of stores till I got to the Arc de Triumph. I had planned on going underneath the roundabout around the Arc de Triumph but after I had taken pictures, I walked underneath and got there only to find that it was closed due to a civil union strike! So I got pictures underneath it and around it without traffic in my way! The French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is right there under the Arc so it was interesting to see that. But as there was not much to do there with it being closed, I headed back under and figured that I should get going back. But since it was getting dark, I figured I’d wait till the lights came on to get some pictures – so I did some souvenir shopping! Soon after I got done comparing and shopping around, the lights were on – so I took some pictures. I also noticed that the Cartier store was right there but didn’t get real good pictures of it as it was closed and had gates over the windows.
From there, I got on the metro and made my way back – but decided to stop at Notre Dame to get pictures of her at night with all her lights on. So I got out, and walked over to her in her splendor – she’s just as impressive by night as she is by day! After getting a bunch of pictures, I walked across the
Once back there, I just relaxed, and as I was really tired – jotted some notes down for this blog, checked my email and talked with a few friends for a bit before crashing!
Wed April 16 - Paris!
Alright, time for the blogs!
To begin with I had a rough night as I got little sleep. That was because of the short movie I have to make for my one class due Tuesday. With that a week away and me going to
Before I knew it, I packed the last of my things and headed to the train station where I got on the train at 9 am bound for
He's really cool and so is his place. He's 26 and an actor in
So I headed to the Cité metro stop. I got out there, and unlike in
Since I was at Notre Dame then, I had wanted to go up into the towers – but I wanted to get my 4 Day Museum pass first. Since the long was line for the towers, I opted to come back later after I got the
I was then headed up towards the Place de la Bastille and I figured I could very easily find something around there. I ended up eating at a Brasserie along the sides of the plaza which was interesting because I was alone – but I made it work! After looking at the menu for a bit, I finally ordered Potage de Legumes which was a vegetable soup and water as well. It was actually very good and not that bad in price either! While I was eating, I noticed a FNAC across the way so after I was finished, I headed over there to get a Museum Pass because on the website, I read that you can buy the passes at FNACs. This took me right past the new Opera Bastille which was an interesting and modern building. However, I got to FNAC and was informed that unlike the website stated, I had to go to a museum which takes the pass to buy one. Bummer!
After that disappointment I figured I’d head back to Notre Dame and just wait and buy the pass there – but I didn’t feel like the long walk over there. In
Let me just say this: walking in Paris – not bad, the metro – simple and efficient with only slight confusion, biking on the roads with the buses and traffic – a nightmare! HAHA! I haven’t biked on a major street since I was back in
After about a half hour of waiting, I finally got to go in. (They do a bag check before you can go in and then you have to wait to get the ticket.) I was actually the first one as they cut the line right before me when the last 30 or so were let in, so I was the first to get the ticket desk. I then bought the 4 Day Museum Pass and headed on up the first of a couple sets of stairs. Europeans loved to build steep circular stairs that go on forever! After a decent climb, I was at the first level which had a gift shop as well as an interesting arched room in the one tower. From there, we kept climbing up to the next level with more small circular stairs. Finally, I was on the outside of the towers at the level where the two towers separate and continue upwards. The view was amazing, even just looking back at the cathedral itself. The only thing was that the walkway around part of it was so tiny that I had to sort of go through sideways to get past!
After walking across to the other tower, I stopped in the room inside the tower and climbed some steep wooden stairs to see Emmanuel – the largest bell in the tower which is only rung on Church and National holidays. I was able to hear the other bells as they rang on the hour while I was up on this level and it was cool! Next, I kept going on and went up to the top of the
As I was back in the plaza in front of Notre Dame, I figured that since I had just gone up the towers, I could now go underground and see the Crypt Archéologique de Parvis which was also in the plaza. This was really cool because there were ruins of the old Roman city, which was the first main city on the island and what started the city of
Next, I crossed the bridge and headed into the
After I tell him which station it is not, he runs something through the system to look for my number and tells me he cannot find it at all. Meanwhile I’m getting frustrated because not only am I wasting time, but he’s not being helpful at all… and I’m wasting money I put on my phone! (I had bought 25€ that was good for 2 months – plenty of money for simple needs for the rest of my time here… that was all being wasted waiting and talking with this guy.) So after he keeps telling me to go to the station – on the other side of
But I got a bike out, checked the map, and headed off towards the Pantheon. After riding up a hill which was a lot of work! I checked out where I was and realized that I had gone further south than the Pantheon – Oops! So I then had to figure a way to double back with the many one way streets. By the time I finally get to the Pantheon, it’s closed already! So I parked the bike and decided to hit up the
I then figured that I could bike over to the
Since I was there, I figured I might as well go up it – and the sun was just setting so I figured it would be beautiful too. So I joined the line to get tickets (the museum pass doesn’t cover the
The
Pretty soon, the lights of
Since it was getting late, and Ben had texted me making sure I was still good as he had gotten home… I started on my way back. Only there is no metro stop really close to the
Finally, about 20 minutes later I was back at Benjamin’s place. He had made some noodles and bacon for dinner which was actually pretty good. We just relaxed and chatted about things for a bit before he decided to call it a night and crash. Though he first helped me get my bed rolled out and set up. I was really tired and tried to write this blog that night… but got basic notes jotted down and I actually fell asleep before I knew it!
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