Grandma's Last Metro Trip!

Today was a very momentous occasion, because it was Grandma's last trip on the metro :D That is so long as our taxi actually does come tomorrow. It was also our last day in Paris, which I cannot yet fully comprehend! I was wondering how we were going to survive ten days without taking Grandma home in a box and suddenly I'm packing! It was very strange. But lets not get sentimental now!

We went to Centre Pompidou today, pretty much the only major Paris site we hadn't hit yet. Pompidou is the Modern Art museum, I suppose I should go ahead and clarify that. Now I really enjoy art, and I enjoy weird things as well. But modern art just gets a littttlee too weird even for my tastes. We walk in and downstairs they have this open performance space I guess, and there are a few makeshift benches, and a wide assortment of people strolling along playing various instruments. Not in any sort of tune or time together, just playing. There was a middle aged man on the guitar, a young woman singing an ethereally weird chant, an elderly woman on some sort of accordion, except it wasnt an accordion it had a hand-crank that she was turning, and I think you get my drift. It was weird. Apparently every single day there's a whole list of different things that go on, the music, philosophy talks, performance arts, and its like a "study" called Repetition Island because every day is the same but different in its own way... I wasn't quite high enough to really get what she was talking about.

We tried to go through the Contemporary Art gallery (1960-now) but we gave up. We're either not smart enough for it or the artists have been smoking the ganja and/or just throwing stuff together and calling it art. I vote the latter. We went up to the Modern Art gallery (1905-1960) which was MUCH more pleasing to the eye. Still had its fair share of weird though. I've learned two things about artists today:
1) They're very self important. The picture below is legitimately hanging in grand display. I wish I remembered the title of it because it was something like "outstanding painting".

2) Artists like only two things in this world. Drugs and boobs.

We found the museum so entertaining though. There were several pieces that changed as you move and made you dizzy, and some that made noise and such! I got some video of it :) Despite the weirdness it was incredibly enjoyable. Also not nearly as crowded as the Louvre or Orsay, which was fabulous.

After our LAST trip on the Metro (Grandma's never been so happy!) I tried yet again to visit the Catacombs. (I tried on Monday but it was closed, I think I wrote about that. Well if I didn't I am now.) Apparently today was the day all the tour buses decided to come down to Montparnasse because the line for the Catacombs literally wrapped around the building. Ridiculous. So I didn't make it there. Unfortunate, seeing as they're walking distance from the apartment. But there will be something new to do next time I come to Paris :D

I had to pack up this afternoon :( It's never been harder for me to pack up after a vacation than now, knowing I'm leaving Paris! Especially when I saw the cute outfits I'd brought in case of cold weather like Sarah told me we'd have but didn't get to wear because it was HOT the whole time!!! :D

Chartres

Today we decided to take a break from Paris and take a train out to see Chartres Cathedral. What a day! Chartres is the cutest quietest little town about an hour train ride from Paris, and the absolute polar opposite from our apartment on what is I think the loudest street corner in all of Paris. Unfortunately we didn't reallllly think ahead too much on this excursion, so we ended up having to wait at Gare Montparnasse for longer than intended. What happened was we tried to use the ticket kiosk and it was trying to charge us like 300 euro for the tickets which seemed absurd, so then we had to wait in line to talk to a person and by the time we actually got the tickets (56 euro) we'd missed the train. Sooooo we sat and had a cappuccino and pain au chocolat :) We got to experience our first huge French train station, so we're not counting it as a total loss.

The train finally came, it was a lovely easy train ride, with comfortable seats and air conditioning! Grandma was so happy she fell asleep :) We arrived in the town after about an hour and used the steeples as vague sort of marker for navigation. We found the cathedral remarkably easily! Chartres may just be the cutest town I've ever seen though. The streets are cobblestone, there are flowers in the windows, it was amazing! But I'm going to skip ahead to the Cathedral.

We decided to take the guided tour so that we could get some more education out of it, and also because my ticket was half-price seeing as I was the only person under the age of 55 on this tour. The guide was legitimately shocked when someone responded after he asked if there were any undergrad students on the tour... anyway. I'm just going to have to make a list of why this particular tour was so enjoyable.
1) We had to wear these alienesque stethoscope earpieces that had radios attached to the guide could talk into the a microphone and we could hear him easily.

2) Our guide was a hundred-year-old English professor who has been studying Chartres Cathedral for over 50 years. I wish I was exaggerating.

3) Our guide was distinctly racist. He deviated for several minutes to discuss how the huge Japanese tour groups come in and take over the place with no regard for anyone else in the building. Valid point. He also used these same Japanese tourists as reference points when showing us particular sculptures, etc. For example, "Look right above that Japanese woman taking a picture there, they're always doing that aren't they, see that statue?"

4) We actually did learn so much about the Cathedral! Did you know that stained glass windows were originally used in the Middle Ages to tell biblical stories to the illiterate masses? Did you also know that stained glass windows are meant to be "read" in a certain way? Well I didn't, but I do now! The windows are read from bottom to top and left to right, and the pictures tell the various stories from the Bible. Not only that, but the windows even give a commentary on these stories. One window we saw told both the stories of Adam and Eve and the Good Samaritan, and the commentary was the various ways these stories are connected. Absolutely fascinating. Another interesting factoid is that "brotherhoods" of tradespeople commissioned some of these windows, so the windows have little images of shoemakers or fur traders or bakers or what have you. The more impressive windows were funded by kings and queens and other royals and so are decorated with coats of arms. You'll be surprised what you find if you look close enough.

5) As I said, I was the youngest on the tour by a margin of a good 40 years. It was quite enjoyable to watch as everyones eyes adjusted after admiring the statues outside and returning to the church. Also one woman didn't realize that her stethoscope wasn't on until halfway through the tour. Just saying.

After we saw the cathedral we decided to take the tour of the crypt. Putain, c'etait froid!!!! But really cool. The crypt is actually more like a whole second church, with many small chapels and even a very large one where they hold services. The art in these chapels is all very modern too, it was one of the coolest things I've seen yet. The tour was all in French, which was interesting, poor Grandma was a little lost.... haha :)

Before we headed back to the train station we stopped at a salon de the for some tea and a sweet snack. Mousse au chocolat yummmmmm :) We'd been so healthy the first week of the trip, we've totally lost it though! Haha so worth it, I don't care what anyone says! All the food here has been to die for. I don't know what it is but everything is just marvelous.

Grandma fell asleep again on the way back, and I read my TrueBlood book (don't judge me). We got in just in time to go out for a late dinner, and decided it would be wise to have salad, which we did. I had hot chocolate after dinner and Grandma ordered a Cointreau. She was in heaven! They served it properly, warmed and in a very large.... snifter? It smelled delicious but that'll clear your sinuses quick! I did have a taste and while I enjoyed it I don't think it will become my new after-dinner must have. I am getting quite used to wine with dinner though. Silly American drinking age :(

Montmartre

Today we made the trek across Paris to Montmartre- the home of artists and madmen, the green fairy, the Moulin Rouge, overpriced tourist traps, minibottles of absinthe on sale in a gift shop, and anything else your heart desires! Haha but in all seriousness Montmartre was great. It was quite a different flavor of Paris than we've seen yet! The walk from the Metro stop to Sacre Coeur was rather sketchy, in fact its the first time I've felt legitimately uncomfortable walking in Paris, but it was a rather quick walk and soon enough we were back to the comfortable cushion of touristland :) Apparently when the artists moved out a whole other brand of people (and lots of garbage) moved in. Not complaining, just advising! Once we got up to the hill the atmosphere did a complete 180. We took the funicular (i'm not entirely sure thats how its spelled...) up to Sacre Coeur to avoid me literally having to drag Granny up several hundred steps- well worth it, even if it did use our last Metro tickets and had to deal with densely packed people and someone's child grabbing on to my leg...

The Basilica itself was a bit of a disappointment. Its beautiful from the outside but inside its not all that special. I think it has something to do with the lack of 500 years of dust that Notre Dame has accumulated. The sculptures and especially the stained glass windows are modern and very interesting, but we didn't get much time to look at them. They kind of funnel the tourists through it, you can't even take pictures or take the time to appreciate each chapel. Sacre Coeur is a Catholic church, and they have some sort of perpetual prayer dealio going on, but its been the first place in Paris that I've been disappointed with. They had those little coin-pressy-souvenir things right in the church, which even I found highly inappropriate and I'm not exactly the foremost authority on what is or is not appropriate in a  church. After we left the church my left arm started hurting in a very weird way, so either I've finally been smited or I'm having some sort of heart failure or I've pinched a nerve. Verrrrryyy weird. It still hurts actually. C'est la vie.

The rest of Montmartre was much more pleasant! The views from the hill were to die for!!! I was able to take pictures today but I'm feeling lazy so I'll put them up tomorrow :) There were cobblestone streets and huge staircases and flowers in the windows- it was just perfect. We had lunch in this amazing cafe that had an outdoor patio that had a big old tree growing up from the middle of it so the leaves completely made a roof over the tables. I had a salade vegetarienne which was actually some form of lettuce with dressing, a skewer of fresh fruit, a slice of watermelon and canteloupe, a dish of fresh salsa, some sort of sour cream, a couscous with feta and veggies, roasted peppers and zucchini on skewers, and  amazing whole-weat bread. I think its the best lunch I've ever had.

After lunch we strolled along to the cemetery, which was very different from any cemetery I've ever been in. It was all mausoleums jam-packed together, and they'd even built a bridge right over a huge section of the  cemetery. Very weird. Most of the mausoleums were still very well kept up with flowers and everything, a lot had their own stained glass windows and statues inside! Definitely puts our gravestones to shame.

After Montmartre I was going to go to the Catacombs, which are right down the street from our apartment, while Grandma took her nap. But alas, they're closed on Monday. And alas, I did not bother to check the book beforehand to see if they were open. Ohhhh well. I went on a nice walk instead, and then bought pasta so we could eat in tonight. The ravioli was ridiculously fresh- I thought it was amazing, but I'm not sure Grandma liked it as much. After dinner we went for a walk and then had dessert at Cafe Daguerre- a corner brasserie that has about a hundred outdoor tables and is always always always packed. Great dessert though! I had a lime sorbet that for some reason came with a shot of vodka... don't ask me why. We couldn't figure out if you were supposed to like sip the vodka and then  take a bite of sorbet or pour the vodka on top so I ended up just leaving it alone and then pouring it in my bowl at the end with the melted bits of sorbet hahaha. I'll stick to my kirs thank you!

We watched Love Actually back at the apartment, and I really should be asleep right now because we're getting up early to go to Chartres tomorrow!!!

Cuisine!

Today above all days so far was our food day. Not a health food day by far, but amaaaaaaazing food :D We started off the day with a very late breakfast of crepes. We didn't have lunch because of our late breakfast, and also because we had dinner reservations, so we had an ice cream around 3. Then came dinner. We ate at La Coupole, which my mom had told us about because she ate there when she was in Paris ages ago. Such a good recommendation! Some of the best food I've had like, ever. Grandma was in heaven because it had air conditioning :) We started off the meal with an aperatif of kir royale, which is black currant juice and champagne. Then Grandma convinced me to try oysters and I'm so glad I did because I found out that I love them! Yummy yummy yummy. Then I had salmon for dinner, which was cooked to perfection of course. And for dessert I had a molten chocolate cake and Grandma had a Cointreau :D By far our least healthy day yet, but definitely the most delicious. And I found us a cab home which made Grandma even happier! I think she's about had it with the Metro haha.

So onto today's activities! Apparently my camera was a little annoyed at being forgotten yesterday, so it decided to exact revenge and die on me today!!!! So I didn't get any pictures :( Which is really really a shame because I would've loved to get pictures today. We went to the Musee National du Moyen Age, which we decided was actually our favorite museum so far. It wasnt crowded or hot or too big, it was perfect! Everything was displayed very well and the audioguides were great, aside from being a bit confused as to which room we were actually in haha. My favorite part was the Roman baths. The site of the museum just happened to be on top of the ancient Roman baths, so they're included in the museum and incredibly well-preserved. I thought it was crazy how well-preserved the tapestries were, seeing as its only fabric and they've been around for almost 1000 years now. The centerpiece of the museum was a set of 6 tapestries entitled the Lady and the Unicorn, which is one of the most unique examples of tapestry that they have. They think it was made sometime in the late 1400s, but it wasn't found until the mid 1800s and I presume that it had been sitting in a trunk somewhere all that time, and yet is in perfect condition. I also found the woodcarvings especially impressive. I wish my camera had been working!!!!!  Lets face it, I can paint better than they could in the Middle Ages, but they could carve miniature scenes into a piece of wood as big as my thumbnail with perfect detail! It was very impressive, even if the body proportions were slightly off (they really couldn't get babies right. In all of the Virgin Mary statues it looks like she's holding an elf).

So what else? We tried to rent bikes from the Velib' system and ride around the Latin Quarter but the machine didn't like our credit cards :( So we strolled a bit but since it was Sunday all of the stores in that area were closed, so we ended up just having a very relaxing afternoon. Grandma took a nap, I went out for a walk for about an hour and then read. I tell you, my sense of direction has improved a hundredfold since I've been here. I've always been fairly decent at getting myself around but I have not gotten us lost once! I had my first small mishap today, and it wasn't even that bad. We were taking the Metro from the Latin Quarter to Le Bon Marche, where Grandma wanted to go shop (it was closed.) and there were two lines on the map that were shades of yellow and they were both at the stop we got on at, so I mayyyyy have led us first to the wrong train BUT I realized it before we got on the train or anything. Grandma was a little mad until she realized that we would've found ourselves in the Ukraine if she was in charge of navigation :)

No Camera :(

The day started off rainy, and I guess that got me all discombobulated because I did the most atrocious thing I can possibly imagine- I left my camera in the apartment :( And what did we do today? We went to the Eiffel Tower. I disgust myself.

Well of course the Tour d'Eiffel wasn't the only thing we did! We slept in pretty late today, as yesterday was quite exhausting. As I said it was raining rather hard this morning, so before we left I ran down the block to buy umbrellas. I had to buy a belt too, as it was cool enough that I needed jeans today and I hadn't worn said jeans in close to a month and didn't know that they'd be loose! Successsss!!!! So yes anyway bought a belt. Now most of you (as in like Sarah and Lauren) will know that I've been searching for the perfect pair of white jeans for many moons. Well I found them :) Haha I was getting the belt and just happened to notice a rack of white jeans, not ripped, and under 20 euro. Tried them on, perfect. It would've been irresponsible not to purchase them. Ah so my morning jaunt across the road may have taken a few minutes longer than I'd planned, but c'est la vie. Grandma still wasn't ready to go when I got back anyway haha.

Now let me just stress the fact that the following series of events was all GRANDMA'S IDEA! The major plan for the day was Musee d'Orsay, and to get there we had to change trains at Notre Dame. We'd been thinking that the tour of the Crypt in Notre Dame would be interesting, so we got off the train and went there instead. It was indeed very interesting, not very large but they had several layers of ruins cut away and explanations of how everything came to be placed on the same site, etc. The site had once been the center of Roman government, old chapels, and just regular housing. No actual artifacts though, and they said much of the oldest parts were completely destroyed from 2 millenia of constantly digging out cellars and rebuilding. We spent about half an hour there, and then decided to move on to the Musee d'Orsay. GRANDMA suggested that we just walk instead of take the metro one stop, which I thought was the better plan as well. Let me tell you Grandma was highly regretting this decision after hahaha. She told me to make sure I put in here that it was AT LEAST 2 miles that I made her walk. It was a lovely walk though! It was cool and overcast, and we were walking along the Seine so there was a nice breeze.

Believe it or not we did actually make it to the Musee without having to call an ambulance for Grandma. The Musee d'Orsay was beautiful but much, much more crowded than I had expected! I don't know why I had the idea in my head that people wouldn't really be into Impressionism and would therefore skip the Orsay, but I guess its like the Louvre and just one of those things that you have to do in Paris. I have to say I really really enjoyed myself there, Impressionism is my personal favorite, and even though we skipped the Van Goghs  because of the crowds, I got to see some famous Gaugins and Monets and Renoirs. The sculpture was also very interesting. It didn't matter that I didn't have my camera though, because you're not allowed to take pictures anyway :)

We had a very late lunch and then caught the train over to the Tour d'Eiffel. Why why why didn't I have my camera? Haha luckily I got some good pictures of it from the boat the other day, but still. We only stayed about 5 minutes (it was sooooooooooo crowded!!!!!) but it was good to check that one off our list :p

I was very afraid to take the train home at rush hour, but we remembered it was Saturday today so it wasn't too bad.  The best thing about today was definitely the weather, it was great to be able to walk more than a block without wanting to die!! We're really really realllllllly hoping it stays like this. I'm going to fight the urge to go shopping now, it will help that everythings probably already closed, because there are some of the best clothes I've ever seen here and it is incredibly hard to find anything within my budget. I'm not going within a 20 foot radius of a shoe store on principle. It will be too hard to resist!

Marie, Marie

8 words to sum-up Versailles: opulent, hot, beautiful, crowded, smelly, breathtaking, unbelievable, underappreciated.

More crowded than the Louvre, hotter than Charlotte at 2pm in August, covered in dust from the gravel in the gardens, Versailles is still one of my favorite days we've had so far. The palace is truly unlike anything I've ever seen. You think you know opulence? No no. I thought I knew because I've seen Marie Antoinette so many times, I had no idea. Theres more gold than you think possible, more marble than could ever come out of the ground, and more paintings on the walls and ceiling than would take many artists lifetimes to complete! Even while you're dazed at the beauty of the place you can't help but be revolted at the over-the-top lifestyle these people lived while the rest of France was literally starving in the streets. I know its very bourgeois of me to say, but its true! Despite all the art and culture that came out of Versailles, which believe me I do appreciate (I think I was the only person I saw paying attention to the artwork on the ceilings), it is the number one most tippy-top prime perfect example of why inhierited governments died out. But I digress.

The best part of Versailles was undoubtably the Hamlet, a collection of several cottages and gardens and even a little pond where Marie-Antoinette wasted away much of her reign. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen, but still the Revolutionary in me kept reminding me of the extravagances of the Bourbons. The Hamlet was more than picturesque, Grandma kept saying how it looked make-believe, and I had to remind her that even though its been around since the 1780s, the Hamlet was constructed as Marie's personal Disneyland. So yes, it is make-believe!

After we returned from Versailles, we were far too hot and tired to do any more walking around, so we went to see the new movie with Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher, Killers (or Kiss and Kill in France). Lucky for us it was in English with French subtitles, instead of dubbed-in French. Before the movie they showed a trailer for Eclipse (its not out yet in France- where its known as Hesitation) and it was dubbed-in, oh dear god it was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen! They had these weird manly husky voices for Edward and Jacob, and everyone was sounded even more emotionless than the real actors do. Anyway, Killers, very funny! Light, amusing, just stupid enough. But it was a good kind of stupid comedy, not too heavy on the sex jokes, etc. Plus Ashton Kutcher is a genius. He could make Hamlet funny. The Shakespeare Hamlet that is, not Marie Antoinette's Hamlet....

So it ended up being a pretty early night, and I wasn't ready to turn in yet so I went down the street to a cafe and sat outside with my book and a kir, my new favorite drink ever! It's white wine with black currant juice. Its bright red and very sweet but in a good way. And they serve it in a tiny champagne glass and its very cute! Haha but anyways so I was reading facing the street and there were three boys about my age kind of behind me and to the left a bit, and I'm like 98.3% positive that they were talking about me hahaha. They clearly didn't hear that I had conversed with the waiter in French so I knew what they were saying :p This spying on the French thing is getting very entertaining, especially since I'm getting so much better at picking up what they're saying!

Au Vin des Rues

I hadn't really planned on writing again today but dinner was so funny that I decided I had to.  We ate at our new favorite restaurant, Au Vin des Rues. We went there the other night for dessert, thats where I had the conversation with the chef? Well the other night we were the only people in there. Tonight it was packed and they were moving tables from inside onto the sidewalk because everyone wanted to be outside. We only had dessert there the other day but the food was DELICIOUS. I had these pastry things with cheese and salad, and Grandma had duck and potatoes. Yum yum! So the funny part actually was that the couple that sat next to us was a Jewish couple from Manhattan. Needless to say Grandma and the man who's name may have been Joe I dont really remember basically went to fisticuffs. I just sat back and watched :) Another interesting thing that I noticed was the couple on our other side was an English woman and a French man, so their conversation switched back and forth between French and English. When they first sat down they were speaking English but then I guess when they noticed the tables around them were English as well the woman switched to French. I'm assuming they didn't want to be overheard, but little did they know I understand French very well and knew exactly what they were talking about :p hehehe

Shopping, the Seine, and Stairs

We started our day as we do every day, with the impossibly steep spiral staircase to the ground floor of our apartment building.

Three Metro stations later (more stairs) and we were at the Galleries Lafayette! It puts every other mall I've ever been to to shame. I didn't even really look at any clothes for a few floors because I was so overwhelmed. Also because the first three floors of the store were shoes ($$), cosmetics and bags ($$$), and haute haute couture ($$$$).  The whole store was on the out-of-my-price range side, but quelle surprise that all French stores have MASSIVE sales all throughout July. I mean every item in the store, and I do mean every single item, is marked down between 30% and 60%. So naturally not only all of Paris but all of Europe and Asia was shopping on Bvd. Haussman today :) And the strangest thing was that they had the clearance bins, where everything is just sort of thrown in there and you have to sort through it, for the stuff that was 60% or even 70% off, but in some of the departments the things in the bins started out at 450 euro! At SouthPark anything over $100 practically has an armed guard! It was very weird.

But with the sales and the benefit of shopping with my grandmother, I managed to put together a very cute and francais outfit from LaFayette and Au Printemps, the even more upscale store next door. Around our apartment theres alot of more reasonable stores that I will definitely be meandering through later in the week :)

After shopping we headed over towards the Seine with the intention of going to the Musee d'Orsay, but it was ridiculously hot today (Sarah ma chere you lied about the weather!!!!!) and Granny was tired so we decided to take a boat tour of the Seine. Didn't learn a whole lot that I didnt already know (I'm probably not the best test subject for educational benefit. I'm a sponge.) but it was a great way to see the sights. I got some phenomenal pictures of Notre Dame, and we got to be quite close to the Tour d'Eiffel without being attacked by storms of stampeding tourists. One thing that I did learn is that everything in Paris was built for the 1900 world fair, and that is le fact. Well everything that was built post-1500 was built for the 1900 world fair.

So all in all we had a relaxing and very enjoyable day. Tomorrow we go to Versailles! I'm already doing so much better with my French! I can pick up conversations around me, which I couldn't do at all at first because the people here speak sooooooo fast. My thinking is also much more French-oriented, and I don't have to concentrate quite so hard to understand. For example, on the boat tour today she said everything in French first and I wouldn't have even needed to hear her speak in English. But unfortunately everyone can tell that I'm American, and absolutely everyone speaks English, so even if I go up to someone with the intention of speaking French they automatically switch to English! How am I going to practice?? Haha I think I need a name tag that says, "Bonjour. S'il vous plait, ne faites pas attention a ma grandmere. Je suis americaine, mais je promis que je parle bien francais. Je veux pratiquer!" or, "Hello. Please disregard my grandmother. I'm american, but I promise that I speak French well. I want to practice!"

Touristus japanesecus

There were quite a few titles I debated on for today, The DaVinci Day, The Day of the Man Purse, and The Day I Think I May Have Really Killed Grandma being the top contenders. You'll notice I didn't choose either.
So yes, we're only 3 days in and already Grandma is insisting that tomorrow be a "rest day." So we're going shopping at the Galleries Lafayette and visiting the Musee National du Moyen Age and then exploring the Quartier Latin :D
I guess its time for me to do some storytelling eh? Our plan for today was the Louvre, but because I'm such a professional at the Metro now I noticed that the Eglise de Saint-Sulpice is right on our Metro route to the Louvre. Anyone who's read The DaVinci Code sufficiently, like me, will recognize said church, so naturally I had to stop in! Of course I could have guessed but I didnt really know that the church was about 3 blocks away from the Metro station, or that the church is jussssstt off my map that had the Metro station, and vice versa, or that there was construction that involved very high walls set up in a veritable maze that made the entrance to the church very hard to find. But as been the spirit of this trip thus far, i found it, Grandma tagging along and gasping for breath while simultaneously getting distracted by various other not-things-to-sight-see. Just kidding, I've been keeping pace with her. Kind of.

Saint-Sulpice is nearly as big and just as beautiful as Notre Dame was, but sadly it has not been kept up nearly as well. They're in the middle of renovations right now so the facade was covered in scaffolding, but the inside was more or less intact. Many of the frescoes and paintings are cracked or peeling, but the main altar and organ were breathtaking! And the best part is I got to see what I came for, the white marble obelisk and the golden meridian line that runs right across the altar :)

So back to the Metro we went (more stairs for Grandma) and made our way to the Louvre. Grandma made the decision as to which stop we would get off at, because there are two Louvre stops. It may or may not have been the wrong decision. (It was). I shouldnt give Grandma a  hard time I guess, because admittedly I haven't always chosen the best paths for us in our travels just far, I just don't tell her that :p

So the Louvre. How to describe the Louvre? Well the building is unbelievable for one. I've also never seen such a large conglomeration of people in one space. And the Louvre is a pretty darn big space. I came very close to being trampled by a lumbering herd of Touristus japanesecus on more than a few occasions. We tried to avoid the "Big Three" beeline as much as possible, so we first headed to the Napoleon III apartments. If that was the solution to the French monarchy I don't even want to think about how opulent Versailles is going to be! My favorite part was the chair that was like one piece of furniture with three chairs, and they were in a spiral, very hard to describe, but it seemed completely irrational for any sort of social function.

After Napoleon we had lunch at the Cafe Richelieu, overlooking the courtyard with the glass pyramids. A great way to rest after a lot of walking! After lunch we decided we really had to go see at least the Mona Lisa, because it was my first trip to the Louvre and you really can't go to the Louvre without seeing La Joconde. I'm not going to say that seeing the Mona Lisa took my breath away, because really she's not a whole lot bigger than a piece of newsprint and I've seen reproductions of her so many times that I already know what she looks like. But it was pretty cool to be in the same room as the most famous work of art ever. We even happened upon the Winged Victory on our way there so even better! On our way out we walked through the hugeeeeee gallery where the curator was shot in the DaVinci code and saw Madonna of the Rocks, which also made it into the book. (I hope by now you've picked up on the first potential title of this entry.)

Finally around 4pm I walked and Grandma staggered home from the Metro (hence the third possible title) to rest our feet a while. I laid down for about 10 minutes and then decided I was bored so I went to go wander around our neighborhood and look in some shops. It was then that I had time to contemplate the second possible titles of this entry. The Day of the Man Purse. I have never seen so many man purses in my entire life as I did today. Granted I have never spent as much time in Paris as I did today, widely regarded as the home of the man purse, but I was still shocked. I think I was mostly shocked by the wide variety of man purses. They range from the semi-respectable small leather messenger bag to the camera case-sized "sporty" adidas shoulder bag. The most "Parisian" version of the man purse I've seen is a leather case about the size of a hardcover book that is worn cross-shoulder. One could argue that these are used to bring things home from work but they're just too small! However I will grant them that their pants are rather tight. I noticed that the tourists tended to go for the tackier cloth camera-case sort. But before anyone asks they were not in fact camera cases, because they had their cameras around their necks.  Why didnt I take pictures?!?!?

We went to dinner at a very crowded brasserie just a few blocks from our apartment. I had toast au jardin, which is roasted red pepper, eggplant, and sundried tomatoes covered in olive oil and spices over a piece of toasted bread. Mon Dieu c'etait delicieux!

Les Fils de La Ferme

We ate dinner tonight at the restaurant Les Fils de La Ferme, per several recommendations in the guest book of our apartment. They couldn't have suggested a better spot! Off the beaten track but lovely, only 10 or 12 tables but it was completely full. And only one waitress to work the whole place! We had some amazing fish with veggies- healthy(ish) and delicious(very). Everyone else in there in French, so it was great for me to be able to listen in on the conversations. I'm getting pretty good at that :) I definitely have to work on speaking louder when I speak French though. The waitress and I had a very amusing language barrier when she brought us a little appetizer. It was a small cup of a whipped something- mousse I guess- with a pesto-looking something on top. She was telling me it was "ail", which I of course couldn't remember, and she didn't know it in English. It was delicious though so we ate it nonetheless! I just consulted the ever-trusty Google and found that "ail" is garlic. Well I'm off to the tarte au chocolate we bought earlier :) A demain!