Thursday, March 31, 2011

Un Week-end a Paris.

Throwback post about Paris with Laura. The first weekend of February. Almost two months ago? (Oops..)

Alright, so, I have a post about Paris from my trip with the Club Ulysse in October. It was a simple day trip, mainly on a tour bus, but still enjoyable with my new friends and my very first taste of the City of Light. In January, Laura and I decided we’d head to Paris together for a long weekend to explore a bit further, enjoy the free museums on Sunday, and joke about a romantic trip together.

We hopped on the train for an hour and a half, direct from Lille Flandres to Paris-Nord. Paris-Nord is a super cool train station with the awesome ticker departures things. We walked a good bit to our hostel, located up in Montmartre. After dropping our bags and checking in, we stepped out immediately to begin our tourism. First stop: Sacré Coeur. Our hostel was quite close, and we were already up on the hill, so the walk there wasn’t bad at all, not too many steps. I don’t think I found the inside nearly as enjoyable as the outside, which is a seriously beautiful work of art.



(Sacre Coeur.)
(Paris.)
(hehehehe.)

It would appear that afterwards, we headed right down to the Ile-de-la-cité to see Notre Dame. I do remember being present for an evening Mass, and that I felt majorly uncomfortable walking around the perimeter inside while people a service was going on. I also remember a souvenir coin press machine being present in either cathedral, though at this point I’m not positive which one. It was warm inside, it smelled of frankincense.


(Notre Dame de Paris.)



We immediately crossed the bridge to go into Shakespeare & Co., a completely charming and now wonderfully famous bookshop. There’s really no simple way to find any book, but the atmosphere is soothing and cozy.




We wandered around outside, and continued our journey, ending up outside the Louvre. It was a bit too late to go in, but we did enjoy goofing around taking photos. Onward we walked, past Place de la Concorde and the huge ferris wheel that was running (for about 11euro a trip, if I remember correctly!) and down to the Tour Eiffel.


(Bridge with engraved locks of lovers hooked on. :) )



(At the Louvre!)

(Towards Place de la Concorde.)
(La Tour Eiffel.)

After a delicious little dinner of nachos, potato wedges, and beer at a sports bar, watching the England v. Wales rugby match with Laura excitedly and kindly explaining the rules, we made it home to our hostel after stopping at the Arc de Triomphe!


(L'Arc de Triomphe.)


We ended up in a 4 bed room, sharing with two other girls studying abroad from Canada. After looking past their cruel disbelief that Pennsylvania actually had a decent population and a couple of huge cities (I mean, really? You’re from Winnipeg! In CANADA.), we ended up chatting and the four of us got on super well. They’re both studying in Bordeaux for the spring semester, and we’re still in touch a bit, though it turns out none of our travel plans line up for the future. The hostel price included a pretty great breakfast, and after munching on some croissants and cereal and tea the next morning, Laura and I beelined for the Louvre.

And the Louvre. The Louvre. I had a bit of a snafu as I’d forgotten my passport and the ticket lady wanted to see my visa as opposed to my Lille 3 student card, but she let me through anyway. What a gem. The Louvre is huge. Just unbelievably huge. I. Loved. It. I mean, most everyone crowds around the really famous pieces, which we tried our best to see, but otherwise, I never felt overly packed in or uncomfortable. We did spend hours inside the museum, and there’s no way to see everything. We had plans to return later in the evening, but it didn’t work out. I think that Jacques-Louis David is my favorite artist, so the hall of his works was particularly enjoyable, especially the Coronation of Napoleon. :D Inspired by Tolu, one of the Canadian girls, we constantly made comments about questions we had about the sculptures, French history, anything and that we needed to add them to our “Google list.”

(This is my general "Louvre face".)
(What a huge head, and no eyes!)
(Athena.)

(Venus de Milo.)
(Another Athena.)
(Winged Victory!)
(This painting was in the same room as the Mona Lisa. Please note that I am the only person even bothering to look at it...)

(Do I even have to caption it?)

(Jacques Louis David's "Coronation of Napoleon".)


(Inverted pyramid.)

After finding a restaurant, where we ate delicious hamburgers, and stopping in a store, we went back to the Louvre to meet a long-time friend of mine, Céline. We walked through a loooot of Paris to get to the Galleries Lafayette, then back down past the Opera House, into an adorable sweets shop, and down to a café where we sat out to chat and people watch. After Céline headed home, Laura and I meandered back to our hostel and went to the Sacré Coeur, stopping to get some crêpes on our walk through Montmartre. The area is a bit less friendly in the evening/night time, but the view of the city and the church are beautiful.





On our last full day, we went to Cemetière Père Lachaise, the huge and beautiful cemetery in Paris with loads of really famous people. After some ingenious map acquiring skills on Laura’s part, we spent a few hours wandering through a good portion of the cemetery, admiring the grandeur of some of the monuments, the winding paths and trees, and paying respects to the obligatory residents.

(Cracked the Rosetta Stone.)

(Chopin.)
(Rossini.)


(Oscar Wilde.)

Later on, we went to both the Rodin Museum and the Musée d’Orsay. The Musée Rodin was small and very manageable, though very busy as it was the first Sunday of the month (wherein France gives free entry to all museums to all persons). We saw “The Thinker”, a personal fave of Laura, and I fell in love with two pieces, one I believe to be called “The Wave” and one called “The Hand of God.” The Musée d’Orsay is an old train station turned art museum which houses mostly Impressionist works. Lots of Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, et Manet.. And, of course, loads of other painters and artists whose names I’ll never manage to remember, even of the painting of Virgil and the devil, which was absolutely brutally awesome.


(The Thinker.)

(The Wave. )

(Musee d'Orsay)

We left, wandered the city some more, I believe, and then went back to the hostel. We had a good time talking to Chelsea and Tolu again before falling asleep. They were gone when we left, and we headed out later that morning. Overall, a lovely trip, and I am satisfied with my weekend in Paris. We lucked out with really warm weather for the first weekend of February, and my memories are only of happiness, wonder, and fun. :]