Days 3 and 4: Why do I have class?

Sorry for not updating for a bit. I know, I know...everyone depends on reading all about my exciting life. There's just this thing called "homework" that I actually have to do. I mean it is called study abroad, not just abroad.

I don't have any pictures from Alex's third day here. Why? Because we did nothing worth really taking a picture of. I had French class that morning, and after that, I came back to the hotel to pick up Alex who I had left to wander in the area near our hotel for the morning. Luckily he didn't get lost.

He came with me to the area where my school is that afternoon. I had another class, but I figured it would be more fun for him to walk around in the area than sit in our hotel. Once again, he luckily didn't get lost. It was hard for me to concentrate in that class though, because who really cares about the economics in the EU when your boyfriend is with you in Paris?

After class I showed Alex the buildings of my school. We were both pretty tired from walking, so we sat on a bench outside for a bit. Disclaimer: the rest of this story is based around poop.

There was a woman walking an ADORABLE puppy around and around in the middle of the street. It was really fluffy and rambunctious. The woman was talking on her cellphone and walking in circles. Alex and I were pretty confused about what she was doing until her dog took a squat. The woman fumbled in her purse for a baggie (still talking on the cellphone) when a few cars came by. The first two dodged the pile, the third one didn't. The woman looked down, shrugged, put the baggie back in her purse, and brought her dog inside.

Alex and I could not stop laughing. We're very mature people.

When we got near our hotel, I announced that we were having pizza for dinner. I hadn't had pizza yet since I had been in Europe. There was a restaurant near our hotel and we stopped by to look at the menu. Alex asked if I wanted to just get the pizza to go, which I was all for, because I wanted to watch the Twins gameday on my computer.

I ordered two pizzas to go (they were pizzas for one, just so you know). The restaurant owner asked in a mixture of French, Italian, and English "Why don't you eat at my restaurant. It's a beautiful!" I lied and said that we were meeting people. He said to us "You are Yanks! I give you something while you wait for your pizza!" He pulled out a bottle of red stuff and poured it into glasses with green sugar on the rim. "These are the colors of the flag of my country. Do not forget this!" We thanked him and enjoyed the wine-ish drink until our pizzas were done.

Those pizzas were SO GOOD. I could have eaten both by myself, but left some for Alex out of common politeness.

After walking around our area a little bit more (and buying some more food at the supermarket) we decided to call it an early night. I had class early in the morning and we needed to pack in order to move to the other hotel (we saved about 40 euro by changing hotels on the last day). We watched a bit of a soccer game and went to bed.

The next day, I lugged all of my stuff to class with me, and I sent Alex to the Musee d'Orsay for the five hours I had class. It was cheap for him to get in and it had a bag check for him. He apparently had a pretty good time. The d'Orsay is full of really cool impressionist paintings. It is my favorite big-time museum in Paris.

Meanwhile, I sat through class bored as ever.

After class we met and went to our new hotel. This was up in Montmartre (the good part, not the part with the strip clubs) and was pretty decent. We dropped our stuff off and went in search of something cheap to eat. We found a grocery store and bought some cheese and some chocolate cookies, and on the way back found a boulangerie that apparently had won prizes for their baguettes. We bought two. (They were AMAZING!)

That night, we decided to go to the Champs Elysees (the main road in Paris) to go shopping, see the Arc de Triomphe, etc.

We started out at Place de la Concorde where the obelisk is:



We walked up the road (which is not a short walk), stopping in a few stores. Neither of us bought anything though. We (Alex) decided that we wanted to walk up the Arc.

I had been up the Arc the last time I was in Paris. There is no elevator. Just endless winding stairs. My mom had insisted that they need to install a half-way sitting room for people to catch their breath. Since I was recovering from my swine-flu cough, I saw what she meant this time.

It was very beautiful up there though. The Arc is surrounded by a giant roundabout, and major streets go off in every direction. Here is the Champs Elysees:



Talk about how scary it would be to drive in this. And there are traffic cops standing in the middle of that! I wonder how many get hit.


There was a kid with a MAJOR mullet. That's a boy.


It got dark while we were standing up there, so we saw the day scenes and the night ones!



The gift store offered a replica Napoleon pistol for only 47 Euro! I don't know if it works or not...

I ended up buying Alex his material birthday present here, it was an eraser that was made out of stripey rubber.


Behold the staircase of death:


The eternal flame for the unknown soldier


After the Arc, we took the metro over to the Bastille neighborhood, where I knew we could get some food. We picked up some spring rolls and walked to the Seine. I took us to the place where there had been salsa dancing one night, only to find that people were swing dancing!


For those who don't know, Alex was in the swing dancing club in Jr. High/High School. He asked me to dance. (Awwwwww...) It was really fun, but I was hopeless compared to all the other people dancing, who were in Paris's swing dance club. We danced a few numbers and then sat and watched.

We went back to the hotel after a bit, knowing that the next day Alex would be leaving.

It was a very nice evening.

Day 2: Finding things to do on a Sunday

Almost everything is closed in Paris on a Sunday. I found this out the hard way my second week here when I tried to go to the grocery store and found out that pretty much only small places far away from me are open.

Since the weather was so nice, I looked up what kind of markets existed on a Sunday for me and Alex to stroll through. A website told me all about the bird market that springs up near Notre Dame every Sunday morning. It sets up near a flower market that we discovered the first time I was in Paris (it was cool!). I asked Alex if he was game, and off we went.
There was every kind of bird and every kind of bird seed imaginable. I was surprised that they didn't have to protect it all from the pigeons.



I loved the African Gray Parrot that was at the Minnesota Zoo, Alex!


Some people were selling adorable bunnies which I got to pet. This cured my withdrawal from my dog for about two minutes. They were very fluffy.

It was so cool to see a wall of different-colored birds. I of course wanted one, but that chirping would get annoying fast.

There was one place that sold more unusual fowl, like baby ducks:

and EXTRAORDINARY PIGEONS. I bet the common street pigeons were sad that they are not this good-looking.

And "extraordinary" chickens (Why they still make that calendar and not the extraordinary pigeons one is a mystery...)
I must admit that this chicken was pretty fancy.


Another adorable rabbit for sale. It was giving itself a bath.

Gophers! (Chipmunks?) These were crazy. One kept doing back flips off the ceiling of the cage.


After leaving the market, I steered us into a cafe to get a sandwich and then over to Notre Dame. We walked past Ile Saint-Louis:

For those who don't know, Notre Dame is on an island in the middle of the Seine and in the middle of Paris.

We sat out front finishing our sandwiches and tourist watching until going inside.



It was interesting because an actual mass was going on. Incense was burning and there were priests giving communion. Imagine going to church in a tourist destination! I wonder how many people actually go there every Sunday. Most of the crowd were probably tourists (French-speaking though, because English-speakers couldn't understand the sermon).


Another thing that has made me a little disillusioned is that there are NO water fountains in France. They do not believe in people being thirsty in public.

Alex and I did find this rather interesting one across the street.


We filled up our water bottles and were ready to plan where to go next.


I suggested that we head to the Marais, the Jewish district of Paris, because we knew that things would be open. It was also the location of some pretty famous sights like Paris's City Hall (Hotel de Ville):

We happened upon the Pompidou Centre--it was hardly fitting with the village's rustic asthetic. Not that hard to find.

The French don't necessarily like it. It's only a series of tubes, like the internet.

There was a crazy fountain outside that had a bunch of moving parts in it:




Georges Pompidou (below) was a French President from the 70s. They named this huge library after him, and it has a modern art museum on the top floor.


We didn't feel much like paying 8 euro to be bored by "art", so we walked through the gift store free! It had a lot of cool objects. All outside our price range though.

Walking more through the neighborhood, I stumbled upon this "House of Europe" which was advertising for the EU.
After getting some rest at the hotel, we decided to go to Montmartre for the evening.

First, we visited the Moulin Rouge. Alex thought this was cool.

Fittingly, we next visited another church, Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart for you Scrubs fans out there). This church was built on a hill high above Paris. It is on the city's border almost, so you can see everything from up there. Or, you usually could. It was pretty foggy/smoggy the day we were there.


Some interesting guys were breakdancing for the tourists:


There is a smaller, cooler church just around the corner--St. Pierre's. It was built in 1147! That is old.


Alex turned around too fast. Beyond that door is a spooky graveyard.

We went to this place called "Croq'Minute" for dinner. That is the site of the best French onion soup. Alex ordered it, and he totally agrees with me.

After eating, we browsed in all of the cheesy gift stores and I gave Alex a short walking tour.

I still don't really understand the significance of this statue:



We got some ice cream for dessert and ate it on the steps of Sacre Coeur. Yum. Unfortunately, I had class the next day so I needed to get back so that I could wake up on time. Fun day!