Last stop. Rachel and I stayed with Chelsea No. 2 (this time from St. Louis). Chels had been studying in Paris for a full year so she was the ideal tour guide and obviously very proficient at French. I think I will have to return to this city and give it another shot to see how much I like it. We ended up visiting during Easter Weekend, i.e. throngs of tourists. Us included, I suppose. But seriously, I couldn't turn around. The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame were a nightmare, especially Notre Dame it being a Catholic church and all.
Rachel and I rolled into Paris late Thursday night, meaning after midnight, and just crashed. Friday ended up being a walking tour of the city with Chelsea. She lives with a host family directly in between the Eiffel Tower and L'Arc de Triomphe so she was perfectly situated. We opted not to go up either, too many people, quite costly, and just didn't really care all that much. After lunch at the park below the Eiffel Tower, we did a quick walk through of Notre Dame before running away from mass. Then onto my favorite place in all of Europe: Shakespare and Company. My friend Michael had recommended the site after his semester in Paris, and I immediately fell in love. Books everywhere. Small rooms with shelves stretching to the ceiling. You can see the broken plaster and the bare lightbulbs--it all just enhances the ambience of this writers' haven: run-down, but cozy and safe. The bookstore is meant to house aspiring writers and was home to many famous 20th century writers. They also published Joyce's Ulysses. Good choice. We weren't able to stay long, though, because we had to grab dinner before heading to the Louvre. The sculptures there were incredible, but seriously, they need to step up their security or something because visitors were hugging the statues when they posed for pictures. We stayed right up until closing at 10pm. On the way home, we grabbed nutella crepes. Delicious.
We let ourselves sleep in on Saturday because we were tired from travels by this point after being on the road for a week. That afternoon we went to Pere Lachaise--huge graveyard. Rachel is obsessed with them so we spent a lot of time there. It was a really cool cemetary and lots of famous people are buried there: Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, Moliere, etc. That night we went to Musee de l'Orangerie. Possibly my favorite museum. I loved the water lilies, although the Renoir was also great. We had a slow start to the night because we ate dinner so late, which consisted of pancakes and hashbrowns. There's nothing like breakfast for dinner. I was a bit of a loser and delayed our meal because we got distracted watching Midnight Ramblers videos online. The group was having their spring show that night, and I was feeling a bit nostalgic so I shared some favorite songs with Rachel and Chelsea. It was the closest I could get to the real thing. I still don't forgive them for choosing to do the Harry Potter theme the one semester I'm not at Rochester.
Anyway, Sunday morning I went to d'Orsay. And honestly, my favorite thing about the museum was the building itself. It's an old train station. There was a whole floor dedicated to the Impressionists, though, so I got to see a lot more wonderful artwork. I think by this point I was simply museumed out and ready to be heading home. My last couple hours in Paris I returned to Shakespeare and Company to ruminate on my travels, journal, and browse through some books. Despite having a huge selection, they didn't have the one book I wanted. You would think they would stock more Tolstoy.
I made it back to Bath Sunday night safe and sound and immediately had to jump right back into my work as I had a presentation for my Shakespeare class the next day. Silly school. It was good to be back home, though. Traveling is exhausting.
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