So, aside from schoolwork, here's what I've been up to for the past few days:
Sarah arrived on Monday morning. I met her at the train station with a baguette and the customary "Bienvenue à Paris!" She looked very European in a green trench coat and black suede boots, a fact that made me realize that I, too, looked pretty European. Sarah called my outfit, "French," though I think I looked more like a flight attendant. I wore long black boots, a leather mini, black sweater with a silk bow tied around my neck, my new grey blazer, and the new hat, pinned into my hair. This is something I'd never wear in LA, but something that felt very natural here.
After dropping off her stuff and eating some baguette and cheese, I took Sarah to Notre Dame de Paris where I dropped her off before running to class. That night in front of Notre Dame, I ran into my roommate, Taylor, and the two of us waited to meet Sarah before returning home. Sarah was starved for something hot and delicious, so I took her to my local pita shop for some pita and frites. Yum! We got to talk a lot about our abroad experiences -- it was really nice to hear about England.
We returned home to plan out our trip to Versailles. I don't have class on Tuesdays, so we thought it would be the perfect time to go. As round trip tickets are about 6 EUR, you really want to make a day out of your trip to Versailles. As we later figured out, we could have even brought lunch with us (they have a complementary bag check, if you want to bring food).
After getting off to somewhat of a late start, we arrived in Versailles at 10am. After some negotiating with the ticket guys, Sarah and I got in for free and trotted along to the entry to the chateau with our Rick Steeves guidebook in hand. We noticed we were not the only tourists accompanied by mr. steeves.
On our way into the building, we noticed there was some random modern art on display amoung the golden gates and cobblestone courtyards. We were not superfans, especially in this setting.
We began our tour with the aid of Rick Steeves, but ended up just following the pack of tourists with audio guides and took in the sites ourselves. Points of interest in the castle: the hall of mirrors, the room of war and room of peace on either end, the king and queen's chambers, the gambling room. There's also quite a large gallery of wall-sized paintings of battles which chronicle Napolian's rise from Emperor to General, as well as some interesting things from Louis-Phillipe's era, but Sarah and I were mostly interested in the extravagance that was Louis and Marie Antoinette.
Sarah and I spent a lot of time redecorating our dream houses -- the decorating at Versailles was incredible. I loved the wallpaper and the draperies. Not to mention the chandeliers and chairs.
We were lucky and didn't get any rain, so we followed up our chateau tour with a jaunt about the gardens. Lets just say we got a workout -- these gardens are HUGE! We decided to head over to the domaine de Marie Antoinette for a tour of her little playhouse and gardens (we got in for free yet again). I was surprised to find that I prefered this part of our visit to the Chateau. The cottage was gorgeous -- pretty luxerious for a cottage -- and all of the great artifacts were on full display. My favorite room was (surprise surprise) the kitchen, which still had all the brass cookware on display.
After a visit to the cottage, we explored the gardens. We began at the "temple of love," cracked a few jokes, and headed on to the Queen's hamlet. It was pretty clear why Marie Antoinette had spent so much money making this fully functional imitation farm village and why her subjects became so enraged with her because of it. The place was clearly a playland. The best words Sarah and I could come up with were: "mini golf." It was that fake, that quaint, and that adorable.
We enjoyed walking around amoung the swans, the overwhelming adorableness, and the beautiful scenery.
At around 3, we got pretty hungry and barely made it back to the metro without a snack from the nearby mc donalds. We snagged baguettes and chowed down before hitting up the musée carnavalet before closing. The museum is free and packed full of incredible art and artifacts from the middle ages, to the revolution, to modern art. We enjoyed not only the art, but the building itself, which is an old hotel particulier.
After the musée, we hit up the best french onion soup place in Paris: Au Pied du Chochon. A pot of the good cheesy mess costs about 7 EUR, but is more than I could ever eat. I will definitely be going back here. The restaurant is also 24 hours, so you can go whenever you want -- this is a big deal as the Mc Donalds here aren't even 24 hours!
During our trip to the latin quarter, I took Sarah to a place I was sure she would remember: the latin corner. I had orignially heard about this place from Sam, but I was still unprepared for the experience. Sarah and I arrived at 8:30 for happy hour and the bar seemed normal enough, except that bras were hanging from the ceiling and every waiter was wearing a shirt that said, "fuck me?" on the back.
We ordered our drinks and expected to meet up with Sarah's friends later, so we took our time. At 9:30, however, something changed. We were handed sparklers, the euro-beat started blasting, and the waiters started taking off their clothes! Sarah and I couldn't help but laugh as they were wearing Calvin Klein underpants -- only in Europe! We witnessed was was surely the batchelorette of the night recieve a very creative drink (and lap dance) from one of the bar tenders and then decided we'd had enough man-butt for one night.
Wednesday began with a quick walk around the Luxembourg gardens, some croissants for breakfast, and a tour of the quartier montparnasse. I then left Sarah while I went to school for a couple hours and met up with her again just in time to hit the louvre. Being a holiday (armastice day) we only had enough time to catch the Venus de Milo and the Jacconde, though I encouraged Sarah to return on Thursday morning since our tickets were free. Post-louvre, we went to Montmartre and hit up the moulin rouge, the café deux moulins (from Amélie), Sacre Coeur, and a crêpe stand.
Thursday morning meant photo class, so I took Sarah to the Louvre and headed off to a critique. I met Sarah later for lunch where we had falafels at the best falafel place: l'as du falafel on rue des rosiers. YUM. I then sent her off to the Eiffel tower where she was to meet Jay who was just coming back from Brussels. I love the my friends and my boyfriend get along so well -- I'm sure they had a good time touring the tour together.
Friday was move-in day for Jay, and while I was touring Saint Denis for my sociology class, Jay made himself right at home in a cute little apt. in the 11th. :D
Today we've been relaxing together while I finished up some work.
Total Damages Saturday:
1 banana nutella crêpe: 3,50
1 baguette: ,90
3 frozen pizzas: 1,50
Photos are up at http://s818.photobucket.com/albums/zz101/E_Grossman/
I'll post to blog soon.
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