Sightseeing vs School- the ultimate battle
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2008
1
11
17
Trip End
Aug 30, 2008
Paris,
France
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Therefore, I have been in school a lot this week. Because of the fete day last week, we had a make up class on Monday afternoon in which we watched the french movie Ridicule, sans soustitres! Despite the implication of its title, it was not funny in the least. It was pre-revolution french drama so I found it incredibly interesting and actually succeeded in understanding the finer details, but no, not ridiculous as I had hoped.
Tuesday was another day of 6 hours of class (with my scary oral teacher :( ), but I tried to make the best of it by making use of my two hour break in between classes. I walked over to another huge church called St. Sulpice, which is where the first astrological clock is. It is currently still under construction but I thought it was neat and it was nice to actually go outside and see the sun a little bit. I also picked up a pastry- a pistachio and apricot something- I dont know how to describe it, expect diferent from anything I've ever had before and quite delicious. I went back to class and after class I walked over to this really famous bookstore (as I am kind of a bibliophile if you couldn't tell) called Shakespeare & Company. It is a treasure trove of old books and if you are a struggling writer in Paris, you can sleep upstairs. It's pretty cool. This place was at one time frequented by hemingway, Beckett, and James Joyce himself. I was incredibly content and it made the whole, being in school for two straight days a loooooot better.
Wednesday was nice because I was out of class by noon so I had an agenda for the afternoon. First stop, Cluny museum which is a museum on the middle ages in France. It was really cool, and my favorite part was the room that houses all of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. I didn't expect them to be there so I was really happy when I found out that they were. The big disappointment of the visit was that the authentic Roman thermal baths were closed and will not reopen until next Spring.
Best. Bookstore. On. Earth.
Oh well, next time. Second stop was the Conciergerie which is where Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, and Robespierre were famously imprisoned before they were lead to die by guillotine. Since I am so morbidly interested in these gruesome sites, I was thrilled and I am totally psyched for my trip to the catacombs tomorrow :)... I should be like Hamlet and grab a skull...
After that, I had a nice dinner near the Centre Pompidou and walked around the streets in between there and the Luxemborg Gardens. I got to sit right on the Seine River and watch the sunset. Needless to say, yesterday's excursion refreshed me for the full day of school that I had today.
School today was fine, and after we got out of class a bunch of us decided to go up in the Eiffel Tower. That was... fun. We got the cheaper tickets that meant we would have to climb up the first two stories and we didnt think it could be that bad... right? 668 stairs later, we heaved ourselves into the line for the elevator, only to find out after waiting through that interminably long line, that the tickets we had weren't for the elevator at all, and we would have to go get new tickets. I decided that it was not worth it as it was starting to rain and get dark so perhaps another day I will make it the last part of the way up. I still got cool pictures though!
My goals for tomorrow are 1)speak amazing french and do wonderfully in class, 2)Catacombs, 3) Pere Lachaise cemetery, 4) Pizza
I'm sure you'll hear all about it in a few days.
Comments
And the beat goes on.......................
The adventures continue and you don't seem to be missing a beat!!!!!!!
I am happy that you are not bored!!
Do you have time to sleep? I would love to visit that bookstore! Enjoy your last week in Paris! Pizza??? Is that the 'french bread' kind? :) We miss you!