Paris, Je T'aime

The city of love, the city of light, the city of long lines. C'est Paris!

But where to begin? Well, my adventure in Paris started with a three hour tour (Gilligan's Island, anyone?) and we got off and explored Notre Dame, but that was the only on-foot part.

We saw all the important monuments of the city, like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. The first time I caught a glimpse of the tower it made my stomach jump. It was a sure sign I was actually in Paris!
Thursday night was our dinner out with AIFS. It was... possibly the worst meal I've ever eaten? And, I have to say, that's saying a lot given some of the things we've been served in the cafeteria here. The salad wasn't terrible, but it was entirely cabbage, although it came with some gouda on top (think mozzarella sticks made of gouda). My main course was a plate of... wait for it... different types of carrots. There were purple ones, too! All in some sort of watery butter sauce. Yum? Dessert was a baked apple - and I mean a whole apple. They didn't even cut out the insides...

We saved the evening, however! After dinner a group of us went to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up and sparkly. We then trekked over to the Arc de Triomphe and wandered the Champs-Élysées, in search of hot chocolate. Trying to get back to the Bastille area, where we were staying, proved to be only slightly more difficult than we had thought. Metro closings and such had us worried for a little while, but we made it!

Sparkly!

Tons of tiny, light-up towers - all for sale at the low, low price of 1 euro

Arc de Triomphe

Friday morning was a visit to the Montparnasse Tower, which has a view of all of Paris. But since the weather in Paris is always kind of iffy, the view from all the high up places (Sacre Cœur and Eiffel Tower, as well) end up looking a little gray and foggy. Still cool, though. Following Montparnasse we checked out the Latin Quarter for some good food and stumbled across the bridge with love padlocks on it - not the super famous one, I think, but a smaller version of it. The basic premise is that you go with your lover to this bridge and attach a lock with your names etched on to it, then throw the keys into the Seine. We also took silly pictures next to the Seine, in the area around which the Ratatouille scenes were based.

View from Montparnasse

Cute girls in Paris

After all that we swung over the the Musée de l'Orangeries, which houses some of Monet's Waterlilies, or Les Nymphéas. J'adore Monet. There was a little market right by the Metro stop, it had lots of garden stuff and looked really interesting, but we couldn't stay long.

I love the metro signs

Garden market

Place to sit outside of the Orangeries

Hanging out with the waterlilies

I've decided that I now want to live in an oval-shaped room with the walls around me painted like the waterlilies and have my bed in the center. My new dream.
After seeing the museum, we just hung out for a little while outside (sometimes in the rain) and ate some crêpes. So French. And then headed over to the Louvre! Which was incredibly large and impressive, but I really enjoyed the Orangeries more.

Entrance to the Louvre

Totally looked like people were wading through the water

Mona Lisa = much smaller in person than you'd expect

What I saw of the Louvre was the Medieval section, which shows the previous structure of the building when it was a castle - I'm still not quite sure on all the details. Then I looked at French paintings and the large-scale paintings, such as Liberty Leading the People. After the Louvre, our group split up between those who wanted to stay longer and the others. I was among the others, and one of the Emilys and I went back towards the Bastille area to eat at an all Vegan restaurant. We had samosa, I had pho soup (om nom nom), and then we split a sundae. The whip (not)cream was sooo delicious! Later that night a group of us went out with one girl's friend who's currently studying in Paris. We stayed in the Bastille area, and while it looked not very busy by day, it was really crowded at night. Drinks were around the same price as in Cannes, but you actually got a lot more for your money in Paris. Maybe because they're used to a younger and not-so-rich crowd there.
Saturday morning we all took a tour of Montmartre and found out where tons of famous artists lived and painted. A bunch of them used to frequent this cabaret called the Lapin Agile. There was also a cute bunch of farm animals right by where we got off the Metro. I saw Sacre Cœur and then went to the Pompidou Center, which is a Modern and Contemporary Art museum with all it's normally internal structure on the outside.

Cuties

More cuties

Wall that says "I love you" in tons of languages

Cabaret where Picasso used to hang out

Sacre Cœur

Pompidou Center

Candy apples at a crêpe stand in the Bastille area, there was a strange carnival-feel around there. There were even games.

Sunday doesn't have any photos, because I left the camera safely in the hotel. A few girls and I decided to skip the AIFS tour and instead go to the flea market in St. Ouen, the biggest one in the world (or so I've been told). At first it didn't seem that large, but we were just in the outskirts of it. The whole thing would probably be impossible to see in one day, and there were indoor parts as well as outdoor. It was incredible, though. A lot of the stalls were repeats of things previously seen, but many of the indoor ones had vintage clothing or photos or books and it was really neat. A lot of the furniture was really interesting, as well. I ended up getting an African-print dress AND bartered IN FRENCH. Granted, I don't think I got a really great deal - the price she originally said was 25 euros, and I got it for 20, but it was my first bartering experience. After that I got one more treat - some soft-serve sorbet from the crêpe stand, and then it was back to Nice and Cannes.