(Yesterdays post, oops.)
PDA in Paris is really somethin else. People are really grabby and kissy all the time. Especially on the metro.
The metro is the greatest thing. I have seen some of the best things on there. Last night, someone spilled a whole bottle of white wine in our metro car and it was just sloshing around the whole ride. Just before that, I saw a really sweet Italian women helping her cute little son to count how many stops they had left in Italian. On my way home tonight, the metro was up above ground and we past the Eiffel Tower as it was twinkling. These little Japanese girls started crying and screaming for joy when they saw it.
Today I did one of our assigned Paris walks. (Walk #1--I have to write about these as part of the assignment, so sorry if anyone gets bored). As I was crossing the bridge over the Seine to the Notre Dame there was an accordion player playing "La Vie En Rose." They do it for tourists, but I happen to think it's amazing.
Emily, Melissa, Olivia and I visited the Conciergerie which was used for a prison for enemies of the revolution. More than anywhere else I've been I could honestly feel the history of the place. I went into Marie Antoinette's holding cell and got chills. I remember in my history of France class this last semester my professor told us that guards reported that from this cell, Marie could hear the trumpet announcing the death of her husband and that she immediately fainted. I just stood there for the longest time staring at the stone floor with the eeriest feeling.
After that moment of depression we all went for lunch and ice cream. Emily and I (both fans of the Da Vinci code) were itching to see Saint-Suplice (the church where Silas kills that nun and breaks the tiles searching for that thing) so we set off in search of that. I am convinced that Paris has some sort of magic because thus far I have yet to use a map (other than on the metro). I just wander where the wind takes me, occasionally reading signs, and I always end up finding what I'm looking for, or something cooler. Saint-Suplice was beautiful, a renaissance inspired structure in the middle of 16th- and 19th century buildings (something my walk book calls the "confluence" of history), and I took a picture of the Rose Line. (Walk 12).
Last night Emily and I left FHE a little early so we could go see the Eiffel Tower as it was being lit up. I hadn't gone to see it yet and this seemed the perfect moment. It was pouring rain and I didn't have an umbrella, which I prefer. From up close, the tower was a bit of a let down. It's massive and surrounded by yucky little souvenir shops. Also, I had always thought it was on a beautiful lawn but it really sits on concrete. Emily and I hiked up the gardens to get a better view and I got exactly what I had been dreaming about. I turned around just as they turned on the twinkle lights, and because everything was wet with rain, the lights reflected so beautifully. It was amazing. We went to a little café in Tocadéro for hot chocolates and when I went downstairs to use the ladies room (a tiny little closet) I had to wait about ten minutes. When the little door finally opened, two men walked out laughing and said "Bon soir." to me. Viva la France!
Flying Buttresses
Notre-Dominating
Inside Saint-Suplice
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