Paris

I know everyone wants to hear about how Scotland is going and my classes and things but I feel like I need to get down my experiences in Paris first then i will back track and tell you about my first couple weeks in Scotland. Hopefully now that I actually have a blog up and running it will be easier to keep up with (oh and in case you were wondering pure dead brilliant = super cool in American). 

So, Paris. My weekend started early Friday morning. my Alarm had been malfunctioning so I was super paranoid that i would miss my bus to Edinburg, this was compounded by the fact that I *thought* I knew where the bus station was (turns out I did). So after about two hours of sleep I walked to the station, rode the bus, transferred to an airport ferry, checked into my flight, and waited. For like two hours...but at least I was there.

I actually sat next to two american girls on the flight (one was from Rockhill, NC) which was sort of surreal. I then preceded to follow the signs that I though led to the train station (by virtue of context clues, yay french nationalism) had the girl at the Info booth point out my stop and bought a ticket... which took forever because the touch screens were terrible and this little old German couple a few people ahead of me couldn't work it. But anyway I got a ticket hopped on the train and made it to the stop in about an hour.

So what I'm trying to illustrate is that travelling in Europe is easy and sensible enough that it doesn't matter whether or not you speak the language as long as you are possessed of some common sense.

So I find the hotel, after being brushed off by the information booth at the station in Paris, and somehow walk right past Aunt Sis who is sitting outside waiting for me and Uncle Claude has to come to the lobby to rescue me.

Then I see Paris. We ate at the now famous Place-where-Ma-ordered-steak-tartar which was amazing and everything you would expect of a French dinning establishment.

We followed up our meal with the Road Rage Tour commercially known as Paris By Night. Most of the commentary consisted of "CRAZY DRIVE-AIR! CRAZY DRIVE-AIR!" which was at least an accurate description and more than I can say for the rest.  Apparently Marie-Antoinette was the Spanish Queen before she married Louis XVI and Notre Dame it a whopping 100 years old. the best part was when he spent five minutes making fun of the place we had just had an amazing meal at.  It was a pretty hilarious adventure all in all.  Oh I almost forgot since we were all Americans he took us to a super out-of-the-way part of town to show us a statue of George Washington. Great Night.

The next day we finally got Aunt Sis the l'orangerie to see Monet's waterlilies. Which were incredible I could have sat there all day in a content meditative state and stared at them. They were as much of an artistic religious experience as the Sistine Chapel. And Aunt Sis got me a lily pad ring based on the painting so I feel like I have a physical link to that experience.

She told me it was my birthday present, like meeting her and Uncle Claude in Paris wasn't one ;)

The rest of the day we spent hitting most of the major Parisian landmarks and eating my now requisite beer and pizza (beer and pizza in every country is my new life goal) but my pictures tell the story better. I have them mostly on facebook but i'll have to put them on Picassa so I can link them here. Notre Dame is stunning, the Eiffle tower is massive on a scale that no photograph can convey and the Louvre and it's gardens are like nothing I've ever seen.

We spent part of the evening trying to follow Alyssa's directions to great place to eat near Champs de Elysee but as they were turn left at the Arc de Triumph and walk until you see a cafe that's not like the rest we ended up getting Italian. I had beer and ravioli this time. And the GAP was closed just as we got there (another road rage tour lie, the shops along Champs de Elysee do not close at midnight).

Since this post is getting long and I lazy I'm going to cannibalize part to the message I sent Aunt Sis about my adventure on Sunday after they left.

I took the metro to the Eiffel tower to try to get some morning shots but it was cloudy and didn't work. It was still cool to see the tower one more time and I walked down the river to the next station so that was nice as well.

I got to the Louvre a few minutes after opening and only had to wait a few minutes to get in. I started out with the notion that I could take the whole museum systematically wing by wing. *lies* maybe if I'd had three days and a surveyors map. That place is a maze especially when you are trying to follow the audio guide instructions. The audio guide was pretty cool though especially or some of the paintings that I knew existed but didn't really know much about, like four seasons. I went through the antiquities wing first which was spectacular. I had no idea that that many Mesopotamian artifacts still existed and of course I had to see Hammurabi's code and the winged bull sentinels. The egypt department was spectacular (though the audio guide was sure to tell me that Napoleon had nothing to do with that). Then I broke down and did the masterpiece tour with venus de milo, mona lisa and the winged victory of samothrace. I honestly think the victory was my favorite it was just so well presented and stunning in it's own right. I love da vinci but it was just too hard to get a feel for the mona lisa with the crowd, the same for venus. So i spent the entire day there (probably cut it a little close for my flight but only because I didn't know the blue line to CDG was under construction and you had to take a bus part way). My knee actually gave out for a second walking down a marble staircase but it was totally worth it. The coat room wouldn't take my little leather bag (people were leaving big hiking packs with them) so I had to carry it.

I even bought the extra ticket to the arts of arabia exhibit even though I really didn't have time and had to rush a little but it was beautiful as well as really well set up. It followed the entire arabian peninsula (partially in english) from the advent of archaeological history to how the modern day country was created.

I could have spent the week there. Even the gift shop had old texts and amazing (read expensive) replicas. I ended up getting the biggest english version of the museum guide that they had (to read on the way home). When we were in Rome all of us got post cards of our favorite works but they didn't have a huge selection just real prints. I do wish I had gotten one of the victory of samothrace. I didn't spend a whole lot of time in there though. too many other things to see. All in all it was a great day now I just need to go back and finish exploring. Somehow I missed psyche and eros.

Anyway I think that was my day other than the trip home and subsisting off those little bread things (they were yummy) because I didn't want to stop to eat.

So that was Paris... I'll tell you about my classes and flatmates and the trip we took to Perth yesterday soon.