Eurotrip continues!
May as well keep on trying to finish up france, right?
Day 4 of Paris: International City of high, high heights.
We woke up early and ate breakfast, and then went to Notre Dame!
A word about breakfast: Every day we got pastries from a Patisserie around the corner. It was heaven! Waking up to 2 Pain au Chocolats is gauranteed to make your day a good one.
Anyway, Notre Dame. The actual church part was a real disapointment to me...it was full of people, all of them snapping pictures like maniacs, and there were little vending machines where you could buy coins with Saint Anthony and other people on them. It sucked, it was like a giant gift shop, although the gigantic rose window was still really cool.
Luckily Notre Dame redeemed itself when we went up in one of the towers. The architecture was really beautiful, of course, and it was much less crowded and manipulative. The stairs were very narrow and windy...I didn't really mind them but Kristin hated it. She also isn't a big fan of heights. But I really loved the view from the top...
The gargoyles up there were pretty cool too:
And this girl made me laugh. You can't see it because of her hair, but the whole time we were up there, she was talking on her cell phone.
Being the nerdiest nerdy Victor Hugo fan, I was awestruck by being able to see the bell that Quasimodo rang. Well, I know it was only a book, but it was kind of cool being in that setting anyways.
It took us ages to get down from the tower, because there was some kind of mixup and a group ended up coming up while we were coming down, and the stairs were not big enough for both parties! Finally it all got sorted out and we went to get lunch, and then wandered around shopping for a while. I was sorely tempted to buy some of these for all my friends:
By the way, 3 euros is an outrageous price for condoms. That's like 5 dollars.
After unsuccessful shopping, we all went to another church called Sainte Chapelle. The guestbook was of particular interest to Kristin and me...
The above signing wasn't us! It was some completely different Jamie and Kristin, visiting on the same day, and one of them has the same handwriting as Kristin! We wrote the exact same thing underneath their entry, except we put Tempe Az instead of Chicago. WEIRD.
Finally we left the guestbook behind and went into the actual church. The lower level was kind of boring and empty, but if you go up a staircase on the side, you come up in this room that is absolutely mindblowing. I didn't get a good picture, but here's one from Wikipedia:
The walls are totally covered in beautiful stained glass windows, it's a really beautiful place. I sat by the staircase and listened to people gasp as they came in.
After Sainte Chapelle, we went to the Eiffel Tower to complete our touristy-ness. We waited in line for the better part of an hour, while I people-watched. Every single person there was a tourist, except for the two most thugged out Parisians, who were awesome.
Later on that week, we passed by those dudes and a bunch of other people having a breakdance contest, which really made my day.
Anyways, we took the elevator (NOT the stairs!) to the first level of the tower, and then another one to the top level. It was REALLY high up. I discovered something I hadn't known before, which is that there is graffiti and notes written all over the tower.
It was literally covering up all the available spaces, so being me I photographed it obsessively. This one really made me laugh.
On the first level there was a room with signs on the wall that told you how far you were away from any paricular place, if you faced in a certain direction. Arizona obviously wasn't on there, so the closest I could get was LA.
I guess I'd better show some pics of the actual view, right? Well, I only have one. My battery died after I got this one. Thanks a lot you goddamn camera!
We had dinner and went to bed...on the fifth floor of our hotel. There is no such thing as ground level anymore.
Day 5 of Paris: International city of dead people.
We spent most of this day in the cemetary at Mon Marte, where lots of famous people are buried. I was all fired up to see Oscar Wilde's grave, which turned out to be a shitty disapointment. I know I'm kind of naive and silly, but I had kind of hoped that I would be able to be alone with the grave for a moment. Oscar Wilde is not only one of my favorite writers, he's a real inspiration to me as a person too, and so it was a real disapointent to get to his grave and see a gigantic crowd of Japanese tourist clustered around it taking pictures and NEVER FUCKING LEAVING.
The grave kind of bummed me out too...I'd heard that there was writing all over it, and I'd thought it was kind of a sweet way to pay respects, but when I saw his actual gravemarker, it just looked seedy and sad.
I left pretty fast, because it was all quite depresssing.
Later on in the cemetary, we met a really nice German lady who hung out with us for a while. She was a research chemist or something, very smart, and we talked about the job market in America. Being the stalker that I am, I took a shady-ass photo of her.
Jim Morrison's grave is also in Mon Marte, and so we paid a visit to that one too, which was kind of cool. His grave was a little out of the way, so people weren't being such jackasses about it.
Chopin wins the prize for most flowers. His grave was absolutely covered in them, all of them new and fresh.
There was also an interesting statue kind of nearby...I think this guy was a hero of some war, but for the life of me I can't tell whether he's fighting or dancing. He wins the prize for the liveliest statue-all the other statues were just sitting, looking grave (har har).
Seeing Colette's grave was much better than seeing Oscar Wilde's. Colette is another one of my literary heroes-she's a woman who hung out with the ex-pats and wrote a really amazing book called Flying. Her grave was properly respectful and I was able to say a little thank you to her for being such a great inspiration.
As I was leaving, this guy who was a total anachronism came up and bowed to her grave. I thought he was the coolest and classiest dude ever. He seemed kind of like a ghost himself actually.
We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and then went to a museum called the Orangerie, which specializes in impressionism and has Monet's Water Lilies painting among other things. It was weirdly small (only maybe 3 rooms!) and Kristin and I got done with it very quickly, retreating outside to take shitty myspace-y photos of ourselves.
There were these bugs that looked kind of like ladybugs EVERYWHERE outside of that museum, they got all over us and ended up freaking us out a bit. It was kind of gross.
After our bug scare we went (with our parents and Grandma of course) to another museum, this one of modern art, called Juis de Pomme. They had some very interesting photography and a video exhibit in the basement. One of the videos really made me laugh, it was a woman talking into the camera about going to the house of a family friend, and she was describing everything as nice. "They live in such a nice neighborhood. All of their neighbors are really nice, and their house is nice too. It's by some nice schools and they all have a really nice time." I wanted to know if the video was filmed in Nice.
We ended up going back to the Louvre after that, because we still hadn't seen all of it. We walked through a park to get there and saw a gigantic spider statue!
Paris has the best taste in art.
My dad and I went on another whirlwind tour of the Louvre, this time looking at Italian and French masters. There was a contemporary exhibit in that wing as well- an artist named Jan Fabre who makes crazy modern art out of insect carapaces, taxidermied animals, and pins. He had an intensely creepy peice which involved a giant worm with his face lying on a pile of tombstones, while the sound system played a loop of voices whispering in latin. It gave me the heebie jeebies.
Anyway, we almost made it to the art noveau section, and then the museum closed. Dammit! I still haven't seen more than half of the museum.
Day 4 of Paris: International City of high, high heights.
We woke up early and ate breakfast, and then went to Notre Dame!
A word about breakfast: Every day we got pastries from a Patisserie around the corner. It was heaven! Waking up to 2 Pain au Chocolats is gauranteed to make your day a good one.
Anyway, Notre Dame. The actual church part was a real disapointment to me...it was full of people, all of them snapping pictures like maniacs, and there were little vending machines where you could buy coins with Saint Anthony and other people on them. It sucked, it was like a giant gift shop, although the gigantic rose window was still really cool.
Luckily Notre Dame redeemed itself when we went up in one of the towers. The architecture was really beautiful, of course, and it was much less crowded and manipulative. The stairs were very narrow and windy...I didn't really mind them but Kristin hated it. She also isn't a big fan of heights. But I really loved the view from the top...
The gargoyles up there were pretty cool too:
And this girl made me laugh. You can't see it because of her hair, but the whole time we were up there, she was talking on her cell phone.
Being the nerdiest nerdy Victor Hugo fan, I was awestruck by being able to see the bell that Quasimodo rang. Well, I know it was only a book, but it was kind of cool being in that setting anyways.
It took us ages to get down from the tower, because there was some kind of mixup and a group ended up coming up while we were coming down, and the stairs were not big enough for both parties! Finally it all got sorted out and we went to get lunch, and then wandered around shopping for a while. I was sorely tempted to buy some of these for all my friends:
By the way, 3 euros is an outrageous price for condoms. That's like 5 dollars.
After unsuccessful shopping, we all went to another church called Sainte Chapelle. The guestbook was of particular interest to Kristin and me...
The above signing wasn't us! It was some completely different Jamie and Kristin, visiting on the same day, and one of them has the same handwriting as Kristin! We wrote the exact same thing underneath their entry, except we put Tempe Az instead of Chicago. WEIRD.
Finally we left the guestbook behind and went into the actual church. The lower level was kind of boring and empty, but if you go up a staircase on the side, you come up in this room that is absolutely mindblowing. I didn't get a good picture, but here's one from Wikipedia:
The walls are totally covered in beautiful stained glass windows, it's a really beautiful place. I sat by the staircase and listened to people gasp as they came in.
After Sainte Chapelle, we went to the Eiffel Tower to complete our touristy-ness. We waited in line for the better part of an hour, while I people-watched. Every single person there was a tourist, except for the two most thugged out Parisians, who were awesome.
Later on that week, we passed by those dudes and a bunch of other people having a breakdance contest, which really made my day.
Anyways, we took the elevator (NOT the stairs!) to the first level of the tower, and then another one to the top level. It was REALLY high up. I discovered something I hadn't known before, which is that there is graffiti and notes written all over the tower.
It was literally covering up all the available spaces, so being me I photographed it obsessively. This one really made me laugh.
On the first level there was a room with signs on the wall that told you how far you were away from any paricular place, if you faced in a certain direction. Arizona obviously wasn't on there, so the closest I could get was LA.
I guess I'd better show some pics of the actual view, right? Well, I only have one. My battery died after I got this one. Thanks a lot you goddamn camera!
We had dinner and went to bed...on the fifth floor of our hotel. There is no such thing as ground level anymore.
Day 5 of Paris: International city of dead people.
We spent most of this day in the cemetary at Mon Marte, where lots of famous people are buried. I was all fired up to see Oscar Wilde's grave, which turned out to be a shitty disapointment. I know I'm kind of naive and silly, but I had kind of hoped that I would be able to be alone with the grave for a moment. Oscar Wilde is not only one of my favorite writers, he's a real inspiration to me as a person too, and so it was a real disapointent to get to his grave and see a gigantic crowd of Japanese tourist clustered around it taking pictures and NEVER FUCKING LEAVING.
The grave kind of bummed me out too...I'd heard that there was writing all over it, and I'd thought it was kind of a sweet way to pay respects, but when I saw his actual gravemarker, it just looked seedy and sad.
I left pretty fast, because it was all quite depresssing.
Later on in the cemetary, we met a really nice German lady who hung out with us for a while. She was a research chemist or something, very smart, and we talked about the job market in America. Being the stalker that I am, I took a shady-ass photo of her.
Jim Morrison's grave is also in Mon Marte, and so we paid a visit to that one too, which was kind of cool. His grave was a little out of the way, so people weren't being such jackasses about it.
Chopin wins the prize for most flowers. His grave was absolutely covered in them, all of them new and fresh.
There was also an interesting statue kind of nearby...I think this guy was a hero of some war, but for the life of me I can't tell whether he's fighting or dancing. He wins the prize for the liveliest statue-all the other statues were just sitting, looking grave (har har).
Seeing Colette's grave was much better than seeing Oscar Wilde's. Colette is another one of my literary heroes-she's a woman who hung out with the ex-pats and wrote a really amazing book called Flying. Her grave was properly respectful and I was able to say a little thank you to her for being such a great inspiration.
As I was leaving, this guy who was a total anachronism came up and bowed to her grave. I thought he was the coolest and classiest dude ever. He seemed kind of like a ghost himself actually.
We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe and then went to a museum called the Orangerie, which specializes in impressionism and has Monet's Water Lilies painting among other things. It was weirdly small (only maybe 3 rooms!) and Kristin and I got done with it very quickly, retreating outside to take shitty myspace-y photos of ourselves.
There were these bugs that looked kind of like ladybugs EVERYWHERE outside of that museum, they got all over us and ended up freaking us out a bit. It was kind of gross.
After our bug scare we went (with our parents and Grandma of course) to another museum, this one of modern art, called Juis de Pomme. They had some very interesting photography and a video exhibit in the basement. One of the videos really made me laugh, it was a woman talking into the camera about going to the house of a family friend, and she was describing everything as nice. "They live in such a nice neighborhood. All of their neighbors are really nice, and their house is nice too. It's by some nice schools and they all have a really nice time." I wanted to know if the video was filmed in Nice.
We ended up going back to the Louvre after that, because we still hadn't seen all of it. We walked through a park to get there and saw a gigantic spider statue!
Paris has the best taste in art.
My dad and I went on another whirlwind tour of the Louvre, this time looking at Italian and French masters. There was a contemporary exhibit in that wing as well- an artist named Jan Fabre who makes crazy modern art out of insect carapaces, taxidermied animals, and pins. He had an intensely creepy peice which involved a giant worm with his face lying on a pile of tombstones, while the sound system played a loop of voices whispering in latin. It gave me the heebie jeebies.
Anyway, we almost made it to the art noveau section, and then the museum closed. Dammit! I still haven't seen more than half of the museum.