Once that was settled we went up to Sacre Cour again and tried to find a place to get hot chocolate. We looked all over and none of the places really struck us and with not much time, we just picked a place in Artist’s Square and got some hot chocolate and croissants. It was good, but not as good as the Italy hot chocolate.
We went down to the hostel and grabbed all of ma’s stuff and got on the train. It was a very painless ride, getting down to Guard du Nord quickly. I could even go with her down to where she had to get the train. It was sad to say bye, we had such a good time together. I’m excited to go to Spring Training with her next year.
I took the RER to by the Pompidou Center, but somehow got off in a mall and spent about a half hour trying to get out of it.
The Pompidou Center was interesting, with its very modern architecture in the middle of the old town. I can’t decide if I like it or not. I didn’t go inside, but I did watch a street artist make a painting of Obama while he played a speech of his. It was very interesting to watch.
I wanted to check out when the Musee d’Orsee was open until and if they had a free night. I talked to one of the ladies there and they said that it was free for under 26. She didn’t mention that it was only for EU residents. Dumb. It was only 5 Euros though, not so bad.
I went through almost the entire place, starting with the older stuff on the first floor and going up to the top to see the Impressionist stuff. They had tons and tons of famous stuff. The rooms were usually set up by the artist, with works of theirs filling the entire room. Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, basically everyone famous. They had some cool Van Goghs as well as Whistler’s Mother. It was a great museum, especially for the price (although it would have been better for free but that’s true with everything).
I grabbed a crepe was going to go take my book’s ‘Left Bank walk’ so I made my way over to the start at St. Michel’s. I went over to Shakespeare and Co., which is owned by Whitman’s grandson and published Ulysses first. I stopped in Notre Dame, since I was basically right there, and there was a sermon going on, so I sat in.
It was in French again, and definitely a Catholic service. I liked it, mostly because I looked at the architecture the whole time in the better light, but there was something cool about going to church at Notre Dame. When the money collection came around, I made my way out.
I started back into my walk, getting a little bit before getting lost for about a half-hour trying to find stupid Roman amphitheater ruins from the 2nd century. I ended up just skipping that part. I went down to Rue Moffat, a really cool street with many restaurants on it. I came to a little square and around the corner from it, Hemmingway used to live. That was pretty awesome to think about. I also went and saw where George Orwell lived, not too far away.
I stopped and bought some flam as well, not that great, but something I wanted to do. A French girl asked me for directions to the nearest Metro (I really don’t look French, for one I have blue eyes) and I tried to show her my map and we still couldn’t figure it out. Oh well.
I took the tour down to the Pantheon and then over my the Sorbonne. I love seeing colleges in other countries, it’s so interesting to see what my life could have been like. I would love to go to the Sorbonne, it’s all Medieval, as well as a great school.
I walked a little bit down the Champs Elyesee, bought a Nutella banana crepe, and made my way back to the Louvre for another free night. I got there later than I expected, around nine, which was nice because there was no crowd at all.
I went through some of the medieval Louvre stuff and then through the Egyptian stuff. I didn’t have all that long, so I went over to the Mona Lisa again. There was hardly a crowd there, so I spent the rest of the night in front of it. With the ability to get close and spend time there, as well as the aid of my glasses, I liked it a lot more. I’d seen it so many times in my life, it was fascinating to spend some good time in front of it.
They kicked us out soon after and I spent some time just hanging out in the courtyard. It looks so different at night, with the pyramid lit up and the building glowing. I took a lot of pictures.
I walked from there down to the Arc de Triumph, which is a longer walk than I think it is. I feel like it should take 15 minutes, it’s more like a half hour. I’d never walked it at night and it had a completely different feel as well during the night. The trees glowed with the streetlights, it was cool to see. There were a lot of people still out down by the stores, so it was cool. I took the train back because I was beat and sore. It was nice to get back and spend some time getting caught back up online. I was going to write my column about John Madden, but the RedEye did a good job covering that, so I didn’t think I’d really have anything to add, which was too bad. I decided to write about the Hawks again, it’s just tough to write about things days in advance in the middle of a playoff series.
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