Je t'aime.

ah so last week I went to Paris. So.... this is going to be a long entry.

It was a strange spur of the moment trip- by which I mean I only booked my seat on the Eurostar Rail three weeks before leaving.

I left at 6:30 on Saturday morning, so as to have the whole day. It did not occur to me at the time that this would mean (allowing for the hour + bus ride to St. Pancreas International) that I would have to wake up at 4am. That would have been fine, but my friend Sarah was visiting on Friday and I spent the day walking around Westminster and having high tea at Kensington Palace. That was really fun, actually, cucumber sandwiches and cinnamon tea followed by breaded studded with nuts and raisins and then some sort of cake. We went to see a free jazz show on the South Bank of the Thames, that was fantastic also (Mishka Adams). Anyway, I got back to my dorm at 10:30 ish and still hadn't packed or showered. 

London at 5 am on Saturday morning is an interesting scene. It was mostly quiet except for the people walking and riding to their early morning jobs, or else returning from their very late partying. I made it to the rail without incident, and very much enjoyed the lax security and easy journey into Paris, only about 2 1/2 hours. I walked from the station to the hostel, which was also really a happy surprise, it was about a ten minute walk from Notre Dame and the big blue door opened into a stone courtyard with lots of light and vines on the walls. If you are looking for a place to stay, I'd recommend this place: MIJE Rue de Fourcy.

So I met up with my friend Ashlee and her two friends from Muhlenberg College in PA, they are all doing home stays in Aix en Provence, where Paul Cezanne lived. We stopped at a sandwicherie for lunch (chicken sandwich and chocolate croissant, best ever). Then we walked to the Louvre and through the Tuileries Gardens outside of it on our way to the Champs-Elysees. This was a long long walk that ended with us trying to figure out how to get to the Arc de Triomphe... there were about 8 lanes of traffic and we were seriously considering making a run for it when we noticed the very small sign pointing to steps that led to an underground tunnel to the Arc. It was very cool to see, I loved seeing all the detail that went into the stonework. We walked from there to the Eiffel Tower, then headed towards home. We were exhausted by this time, and so when we saw a metro we were thrilled... until we got on to it and in the crush of people I managed to get pickpocketed. I didn't realize my wallet was missing until we had switched lines, and  deferred my meltdown until the next day, but in my mind I can almost see the hand with grey and brown hair on it reaching into my bag.

This is the second time I've been stolen from in the last four months. 

But Ashlee covered me for the whole weekend, and I got my mother to give her mother a check to deposit in Ashes debit account... it all worked out, but what makes me mad is that both times I had to pay to get a new student ID - $15 at GW and L10 to King's. So unjust. 

Sunday: I have to mention breakfast- it was just at the hostel, a half a loaf of bread with strawberry jam, a small chocolate croissant and a cafe ole and an oj, but something about that petite dejeuner was really beyond incroyable.

 clock in the musee d'orsay

We went to the Musee D'Orsay, which used to be a train station long ago before it became an art museum. There was some really wonderful Van Gogh and Ashlee loved Degas's dancers.

There was also a painting from 1890 called L'origine  du monde, (Origin of the World) and it was a close-up of a women's vagina, by which I mean spread legs. It was very funny, only men were taking pictures of that one, and an English girl whispered in a shocked voice to her companion, "how horrid!"

We got panini's before going to Saint-Chappelle (an overpriced tourist trap church, but there was beautiful stained glass) and Notre Dame (free, and magnificent- but I did feel strangely about walking around while there was a service happening.) We paused for crepes outside of Notre Dame and reflected on how unreal it felt. Then I went and introduced date marry dump to the Muhlenberg girls and we played that with various french and english royalty for a while.

That night we went to a restaurant called Bodega near our hostel. It was so good we went again Monday, they had this walk poulet, chicken with haricot verts and mushrooms and onions, so good with a margarita.

Monday began early, we had breakfast and got to the Louvre by 10, and explored the Egyptian wing first. Then to Greek statues and Italian from there. Michelangelo's Dying Slave was very cool to see, but the highlight for me was Nike of Samothrace, or Winged Victory. I wrote an essay on this statue freshman fall at GW, I've wanted to see it since then- it's just so intense, the wet drapery and the outstretched wings and posture, it's all so breathtaking.  It's headless, which is strange but somehow it just makes the statue more interesting, more scope for imagination.

Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa, and she seemed to watch me everywhere I went, which was fun. It was more impressive live, after seeing so many reproductions though, it was not really possible to be so awing. 

My favorite painting was probably this huge epic masterpiece of Napoleon crowning Josephine- I could have stared at it for another hour, it was - there's no other word- sumptuous.

We also visited Napoleon III's living quarters which have been preserved, they were attached to the Louvre- a lot of red velvet and crystal chandeliers. 

After much walking through the Louvre we went to Angelina's, a place made famous by its rich hot chocolate and guest list (Coco Chanel and Proust were both frequenters). The chocolate chaud was so rich my friend couldn't finish hers, it really did taste like melted chocolate, that thick, and along with it the waiter brought a vase of heavy whipped cream.

Our last visit Monday night was the Eiffel Tower- E12 bought us a ticket to the top on the slow moving elevator, and by the time we got there it was exactly 7, dusk was setting in and the tower was glittering, as it does every hour after dark.

 We stared for an hour at every possible view as it got darker and Paris lit up (City of Lights, after all), then bought some cheap post cards and I purchased a E1 Eiffel Tower key chain from one the many street merchants, one of whom murmured "eh sexy" after realizing I definitely wasn't going to buy something. 

We split a litre of wine with our dinner and stayed up late talking about American and French boys, but without coming to any definite conclusions.

So I wasn't kidding about the length of this thing- but I can't believe it was only three days, still. I left early Tuesday morning so I could get back in time for Jacobean Shakespeare. All day I kept thinking, yesterday at this time I was ___. But it still feels unreal, or maybe everything else seems less real... je ne sais pas, mais Paris est une belle ville.