Oh Paris, still my favorite place in the world. There's something magical about being able to walk down a completely normal city street, look up, and see the eiffel tower glowing before you.
Harry and i arrived with surprisingly little issue, especially considering our history with trains. After walking for about ten minutes in the wrong direction once we got off the metro, we finally turned ourselves around and ended up at our hotel. it was a nice little place, literally five minutes from the eiffel tower (just as they'd promised), so we dropped our things off and decided to head up to the top. we walked to the first level, then took an elevator the rest of the way. we got there just at sunset, with the whole city lighting up as we stood and watched. needless to say, i was in heaven. i can't imagine a better place in the entire world.
after we came back down, we wandered over to the louvre and then strolled arm in arm down the champs-elysses (mostly just for the pure entertaining irony of it. we looked ridiculous). after awhile we stopped for dinner at the restaurant hippopotamus - it's sort of like france's answer to applebee's, except better. hehe.
we headed back to the hotel after that for a good night's sleep. on saturday, we had a breakfast on the go of water and a baguette while we took the metro and walked to the centre pompidou museum of modern art.
let me tell you, there was some WEIRD stuff in there. blow-up furniture from the 60s, an exhibition called 'air conditioning unit' of nothing but empty rooms, and another room filled with rolls of felt and one grand piano. i can't say i enjoyed all of it, but i think it definitely widened my perception of what i consider art to be. i looked past whether i personally liked it or not and instead focused on what the artist was trying to say ("intentionality", as my english professor calls it). very interesting - definitely not the sort of place i would have gone on my own, but i'm glad harry suggested it.
after that we headed over by notre dame to the shakespeare & company bookstore, which might be one of my new favorite places. it's in the latin quarter and literally overflowing with books. new, old, stacked up on staircases and pianos, the place looked like something out of a children's book. not to mention the fact that a bunch of british guys were working there (including one named percy. fantastic.) anyway, i was thrilled to death because i finally got to pick up a copy of "Rebecca", which i've been dying to read since anushka lent me her copy in venice.
we stopped back at the hotel for a quick nap before freshening up and heading up to Montmartre for the evening. it was wonderful up there - i even got some video on the steps of sacre cur of the eiffel tower lighting up and sparkling. honestly, every single thing about paris is storybook-like. we wandered around for awhile before going to eat dinner at a little place that i can't quite remember the name of, but where i consumed the best chocolate cake of my LIFE. seriously, it was incredible. words can't even described.
in the interest of money, we stopped and bought a cheap bottle of wine and headed back to the hotel room, where we spent the first part of the night drinking out of the glasses provided for us by the hotel and watching BBC news about tax evasion.
i kid you not.
however, we did get it together and go out to a bar near the eiffel tower later on. good times, good times.
the next morning, after breakfast at mcdonald's (i'm not proud of it, but hey, it was there and it was cheap) we headed off to the train station and back to Luxembourg.
the only thing i'm disappointed about really is that i didn't get to see my friend ben, who is living and studying there. although i suppose that just gives me an excuse to go back...
love,
me
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