 The French Are Glad |
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What a day! We woke up, grabbed breakfast, and walked to Luxembourg Gardens to eat which were of course lovely. She said of all the gardens she's seen in Europe, these are the loveliest.  We walked along the Seine to the Musée d'Orsay which was really quite something. It got to the point after seeing the Degas and Renoir and Cezanne and Rodin and van Gogh and Monet and Manet and Seurat (LOVE) and EVERYONE ELSE that I was left thinking, "What in the hell is left to be in the Louvre?!?" And it was at the Orsay that I became one of those crazy, annoying people who spends way too much time trying to take nonflash pictures of the art. 
We enjoyed the audio tour and the art but also just the awesomeness of the building itself. What a great building. We crossed the Seine and walked along Rue de Rivoli along the Louvre for approximately five thousand years. We ducked into a few souvenir shops and ate a croque monsieur (her) and a poulet pizza (me) and a shopkeeper directed us to an internet café (which ultimately in fact did not exist) so we could get in touch with a reader, A., who'd contacted me about getting together in Paris.
We finally gave up on finding the café after a long, hot, fruitless, aggravating walk and took the metro to the Picasso museum which was of course fascinating. We had some fruit and apple juice in the café outside afterwards and my sister told me that you're born with taste buds genetically configured to either hate or love grapefruit, which I found strangely fascinating. (I am a grapefruit lover.) 
We then took the metro to Montmartre where we finally found a damn internet café and made plans to meet A. Then we took the funiculare up to Sacre Coeur and saw the great view of Paris and the beautiful giant church that was described in the guidebook as being something Parisians built when being basically shit on by invaders and having to eat rats but they wanted to "praise God anyway!" which I thought was funny.  We got strawberry/vanilla swirl ice cream cones and walked behind the church to the CUTEST most magical square and series of curvy, hilly streets, and it was divine.  We saw van Gogh's house. 
We saw the Moulin Rouge. We were dorks in the street.  We met up with A., who took us to a delicious Korean restaurant where we fell in love with bimbimbap. It was interesting to hear her tell of life as an American in Paris, especially her take on how the French people she knows see their professions more as a calling than as a job. My sister and I were both so tired from running around all over town for two days together that we could barely keep our eyes open and were less than dynamic dinner companions! We stuffed ourselves silly at dinner and then had ice cream for dessert. And that was our day! About this time in ...
© Copyright 2004 elb |
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