Death Cab for Cutie in Paris
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
14
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Another busy day, on Sunday I went to Paris with Anne. We were going to see a concert that night, Death Cab for Cutie. We were meeting Merima there, who was already in Paris because her brother was visiting her, and SuZanne. We left early in the morning and got to Paris around 10. We went to a museum called Musée Carnavalet, which is a museum about Paris' history. It was full of paintings, artifacts, period furniture, etc. They even had recreations of some famous authors' bedrooms. It was a pretty cool museum, plus it was free, so that was a double bonus. While we were in the museum we saw flurries outside. The rest of the day it rained. Supposedly it snowed a couple inches in Laon on Sunday, but when I got back on Monday there wasn't any snow left. So anyway, after the museum we went and got some falafel from a place we had found on the interest, which claimed this place had the best falafel in Paris. It was really delicious. They put grilled eggplant, shredded cucumber and red cabbage in it. My mouth is watering thinking about it now. Mmmm. After eating we went to check in to our hotel, which proved to be a little difficult to find, because it apparently has two names, and the sign outside did not say the name of the hotel where we had reservations at. We had to go inside and ask where our hotel was, and the guy at the counter told us we were standing in it. We warmed up bit and got in contact with Suzanne. She came to meet us at the hotel. After we were together and warm we went to an internet café to print out our tickets for the concert and find another free museum to go to. We found a museum called Musée Cognacq-Jay. It was basically a small art museum, and was kind of boring, so I'm glad it was free. They did have an interesting collection of lighters, little boxes, and trinkets. There was a perfume vaporizer shaped like a pistol that was pretty cool. After the museum we met up with Merima and her brother at Notre Dame. We decided not to go out to dinner to save some money, so we got some crepes from a stand in the Latin Quarter and went on the search for an open grocery store. Since it was Sunday most things were closed, but we did manage to find one. We went back to the hotel after and had wine, bread, and cheese for dinner. We got a little carried away and actually got to the concert late. The first act was already done by the time we were actually in the venue. I had never heard of them before though, so it was ok.
Death Cab for Cutie came on stage at about nine. They played for an hour, and it was pretty good. Their music isn't really high energy though, so it was pretty calm, although everyone was singing along. From what we could hear, it seemed like it was mainly Americans at the show. I don't think many French people have heard of the band. They finished at about 10, but of course had to come out for the obligatory encore, so the show ended at about 10:30. It took forever to get out of the place, plus Merima's brother had to check his bag, so it took a bit of time. Anne had never seen the Eiffel Tower lit up and night, so that was our next destination. We made it in time to see it sparkle at midnight, but it was freezing out, so we didn't stick around long. Plus I had to be at school to teach at 10 on Monday, so I was ready to go back. Being sick on top of everything didn't help. We got to bed at about 1, and I had to get up at 6 so I could catch the train at 7 to be back in time to get ready for class. Overall it was a really fun day, and I hope to go see at least one more band in Paris while I am here. It is crazy expensive though, the ticket, the train, the hotel, food, it adds up pretty quickly, but it was worth it.
