I know that I haven’t written in a long while, but I do have the good excuses of first being sick and then having Abbie here to visit. Sadly, she just went out the door to catch her train back to Montpellier. Having her here was so great because it made Paris seem like a vacation, and not just a city that I happen to be living in.

The first day (Wednesday) she had to be a great sport because I was still sick and wasn’t really up to getting out of bed. She went and did some exploring on her own and then came back and kept be company, which was wonderful after being confined to my small room, all alone, for the past day and a half. Plus, she brought movies along, and so we watched Mulan in French.

Thursday I was finally well enough to go to class. So poor Abbie had to again go off by herself and find something to do because I couldn’t be a good hostess. Luckily, Paris has a ton to do (I think that she made it to the Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, La Place de la Bastille, L’Arche de Triomphe all while I was in class!). I made it through the day without feeling awful or getting sick, and was just overall really excited to be up and around.

Abbie and I decided to hit up the Musée D’Orsay Thursday night, since it’s free after 8 on Thursdays for people under 25. It was amazing! It’s so huge, a renovated train station, and there’s so much to see. We only made it to the Impressionist section, but it was incredible. Rooms packed with Monet’s, Renoir’s, Van Gogh’s, and Degas’ and so on. Abbie took a million pictures (no flash of course) which I will have to steal once she puts them online, because my camera battery ran out just as we approached the museum. I’ve decided to take advantage of the free admission on Thursday nights and to go every week if I can. We were only there for an hour and probably only saw the tiniest fraction of stuff that there is to see. It would even be a great place to bring a book and read.

Friday I had to go on a tour of Belleville (yes, like in Triplets of Belleville) in the morning with my class, but fortunately Abbie could come along too. The unfortunate part about the tour was that it was raining, a lot, and cold, and all outside (except the part where the really nice tour guide took us to a café to get hot chocolates to help warm us up). I’m going to have to go back on a nicer day, so that I can really enjoy the neighborhood. It’s a very interesting mix of people. The upper part of the neighborhood is where the people called “bobos” live (bourgeois bohemian) and hang out in the trendy, artsy cafés and bars, and in the lower part it is really working class with a lot of immigrants. That part of Belleville has really been hit hard by the raids for illegal immigrants (sans papiers) especially in the schools, where the police will come and take children right out from there classes and have them deported immediately, even if they’ve been in France for years. There are signs and grafitti everywhere speaking out against the governments’ policy and I think that there was even a protest organized for this afternoon, if I remember correctly. It was the first time I’d really seen any of the places or people affected by immigration policy, and it made it that much more real than just seeing headlines in the paper. I’m sure I’m going to be seeing a lot more of that kind of thing when I start my internship in a few weeks.

When we finished with the tour, Abs and I ran home to get warm and dry, and to plan the rest of our day. We ended up wandering around near Notre Dame and looking in the huge department stores in that area. They’re so enormous and beautiful in their old building exteriors. Then we went grocery shopping for food to cook for dinner, but decided to wait to cook until after we made a visit to the Louvre. The Louvre is free on Friday nights after 6, and so we once again thought we should take advantage of the great deal.

The Louvre at night is amazing. The pyramids that cover the entrances are all lit up, as well as the buildings of the museum itself.

(the pyramids all lit up)

Like Musée D’Orsay, the Louvre is overwhelmingly huge and it’s really hard to decide what to see. Since Abbie doesn’t live in Paris and won’t have the chance to visit the museum again for a while, she got to call the shots (great for me, as I was feeling too indecisive). She decided that we had to see the Mona Lisa, just to see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty easy to find, since there are signs everywhere pointing out the way to see La Jaconde. There was a huge crowd in front of the painting, which made it look even smaller than it probably is. Abbie and I were both underwhelmed, or at least unable to figure out why that is the one thing in the entire museum that everyone flocks to see. We did have a good time taking pictures of the crowd around the Mona Lisa. I’ll put a couple of those below so you can see the large crowd and all the cameras as everyone tries to get a shot of the Mona Lisa.

We also took a ton of pics of the other paintings that have the misfortune of being in the same room as the great lady. They absolutely dwarf her and are utterly ignored by everyone.

(just to give you an idea of how large the paintings are in the Louvre)

(one of the huge paintings that no one looks at because they are too busy crowding around the Mona Lisa)

(the crowd taking pictures...notice how small the Mona Lisa is!)

If you really like renaissance painting, then the Louvre is great. If you’re not that crazy about it (like me) then that whole wing with the Mona Lisa in it is impressive but not that captivating. After going to Musée D’Orsay, it was very clear in my mind which museum I’d like to spend more time in. But, there are a ton of great statues all over the Louvre, huge rooms full, and Abbie and I had a great time not only looking at the great artistry but also taking pictures posing like the statues. At one point we attracted a small group of admirers that kept following us around to see how we would pose next. They must have thought we were pretty weird. We did have a great time. We even convinced Daniel to do one, which was pretty funny. I think that I actually enjoyed the sculptures way more by taking those silly pictures than if we would have just walked through room after room of marble figures.

(Abbie as my favorite statue, La Victoire de Samothrace)

(Abbie as the Venus de Milo...this is where we attracted our fan club)

(Daniel joins in too)

(Abbie as the Dying Slave)

Today Abbie and I got up relatively early so that we would have enough time to fit in a trip to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. It was beautiful out today, really sunny (even if it was a little cold) and perfect for wandering through the winding streets around the basilica. It seemed like everyone in the world was there, but I suppose that’s what we get for going to Sacre Coeur on a Saturday. The church is beautiful, inside and out, and according to Abbie, much less touristy/sold out than Notre Dame (like for instance, you are not allowed to take any pictures in Notre Dame and silence is required). It still functions as a church with mass everyday, and has an abbey of nuns. Mass started while we were still inside and so we got to hear a little of the organ music, which was really amazing. Outside, on the steps of the church there is a great view of Paris (the pictures below). These were the same steps Amelie visited so many times during that movie (neithr Abbie nor I could stop comparing the real area around Sacre Coeur to the one shown in the movie, since they don’t seem to be exactly the same…there’s no carnival, but there is a carousel).

The neighborhood around the basilica is really interesting. At the top of the stairs it is very touristy, with tons of expensive gift shops selling postcards and souvenirs. There are also a ton of artists’ shops and a square full of artists trying to sell their work or draw your portrait. It felt almost like the art fair at home.

At the bottom of the stairs there are a ton of souvenir shops as well, but they are less expensive and mixed in with miscellaneous other cheap stores, like discount linens and clothes. It was like walking from one world into another, going from the top to the bottom of Sacre Coeur. One moment you were in the heart of a tourist trap, and the next you were in a working class Parisian neighborhood like you find all over.

(Sacre Coeur)

(view of Paris)

(artists' stands)

(the stairs of Sacre Coeur)

(the carousel at the foot of the basilica)

We didn’t have much else on our list of things that we wanted to do together before Abbie had to catch her train, but she did have her heart set on going to the Pont Mirabeau while she was in Paris (it’s a bridge, and there’s a poem about it that we had to memorize in one of our high school French classes. She can still recite it). The bridge has a great view of the Tour Eiffel and of Paris’ own Statue of Liberty (yes they have one, it’s just a lot smaller than the one in NYC).

(Pont Mirabeau)

(the other Statue of Liberty)

We ended the afternoon at Les Halles, an enormous outdoor/indoor mall with really amazing glass architecture. Just looking at the buildings is fun, let alone going past all the shops inside. We had a really fun time going through some French toy store, which turned out to sell almost the exact same things as ones in the U.S., but did have very cute children’s books.

(the amazing Les Halles)

So yes, that was my long weekend with Abbie. It was so wonderful to have her here, I wish that she were studying in Paris instead of Montpellier. But, it does give me a great excuse to take the train to the south of France once it gets a little warmer. So there’s that to look forward to. Plus, doing all this sightseeing has given me great ideas for what I want to see again or do again and what things will be fun to do when other friends come to visit.

Wow, this has turned out really long. I will stop there because I need to start writing my paper that is due Monday (it was nice not to think about school while Abbie was here!). And yes, I will be gloomily going to bed instead of staying up til all hours of the night to watch the Super Bowl. But Dad and Keith, I expect a full account!

Love to you all, and miss you very much!

Liza