Theta-tastic Weekend in Paris!

Well it was a simply fabulous weekend after a not so fun second half of the week. I had midterms Wednesday and Thursday, so I was really looking forward to Thursday evening at 8:20 when Emily’s train showed up (my friend in Nantes who I went and visited a couple of weeks ago). We headed back to my apartment and watched some Gossip Girl before retiring for the evening in preparation for our whirlwind sightseeing tour. Emily had already been to Paris 4 years ago so she wasn’t dying to hit all of the must see spots, so we got to do a couple of different things during her three day visit.

Friday we headed to Le Marais so Emily could try Falafel because she had never had it before! It was yummy as usual and while we ate we walked to Place de Vosges so I could show off some of what I learned in my architecture class about Places Royales before heading to Chez Janou, a restaurant recommended for its chocolate mousse by our French prof, Michel, back at UPS. We ordered the chocolate mousse, a crumble, hot chocolate for Emily and a café crème for me. It was all amazing, but a little cher (expensive). They bring the chocolate mousse out in this huge bowl it’s made in and then scoop some out on a plate for you. The crumble was an interesting assortment of fruit that we decided consisted of banana, mango and perhaps pear? After eating our hearts out we headed back through the Marais towards the Rue St. Honoré where all of the famous designer’s boutiques are so Emily could see them. We also took a quick detour to take a look at the Madeline. After Rue St. Honoré we headed over to the Petit Palais, which has a small permanent art collection that free to view. We wandered through the museum for a while before deciding to head back home to buy groceries for dinner. After dinner we went to a friend, Janelle’s, house from IES to watch scary movies and eat microwave popcorn with Abbey for Halloween. Her host family’s house is amazing! It’s hidden in a courtyard behind and apartment building. There is just this one little cobble stone street with cute and rather large French houses on either side, I had no idea something like that existed in Paris!! It was so nice to just lounge on big comfy couches with a blanket and junk food. We watched Halloween and part of Halloween 2 before calling it a night since we had to catch the metro back before it closed, definitely a great experience.

Saturday we slept in and then headed out in the rain to La Defense. It’s the business district just outside of Paris and has the Grand Arc de la Defense, which can fit Notre Dame Cathedral inside of it, to give you an idea of its size. It’s in alignment with the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and the Arc du Carousel. It was cool to see, but quite rainy so Emily and I chose to meander around the huge, American style shopping mall next door – going in and out of different clothing stores. After lunch and breaking down and buying my one and only Starbucks for the time I’m here (at $6 a pop they’re definitely a luxury), we headed back into Paris to the Musée du Marmottan which has an extraordinary collection of Monets. The metro stop for the museum happens to be in the middle of a neighborhood which houses a lot of ambassadors’ residences. I dragged Emily on a quick detour when I spotted what turned out to be an Iraqi flag. The best part of seeing the Iraqi ambassador’s house was the fact that it had a huge black Hummer parked just in front of it – the only Hummer I’ve seen in Paris in the past 2 months. We also stopped to admire the Italian and German ambassadors’ houses before continuing on our path to the museum. The Marmottan Museum was incredible! It has a huge Monet collection along with numerous paintings by other artists from the same time period and the building itself along with its décor was great to admire too. It’s definitely a favorite in Paris and I am planning on returning before I leave. After the museum we headed over to the Trocadero to get a good view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night. It’s now lit up in the EU’s colors – blue with white sparkly lights ever hour. It was windy and really cold so after taking a bunch of pictures we retreated to the warmth of the metro and my apartment for the rest of the evening.

Sunday we got up early because it was the first Sunday of the month, which meant the Musée d’Orsay was free and also means long lines in France. We met up with Abbey at 9:30 in line and got in relatively quickly. We visited the 2 of the 3 main floors, making sure to get too see all of the Impressionism. After 2 hours there, we said good bye to Abbey and headed to see the Catacombs, but the line was WAY too long so we decided to walk over to the Tour Montparnasse instead and get a good view of the city for slightly cheaper than the Eiffel Tower and with no waiting in line! The view was pretty good (40km) and you could pick out most of the famous monuments of Paris. They actually let you up to the very top of the building on the roof so you can take pictures that aren’t through glass windows! Then it was time to head over to the train station that was just next door so Emily could catch her train back to Nantes.

Sunday night I spent cramming for my architecture midterm that was today and I got up extra early this morning to finish studying. Now I am absolutely beat and going to bed.

My pictures - here!

Emily's pictures from the weekend - here.