Paris, the end.

-Tuesday-

I’m on the train to Versailles right now. The sun is shining. I’m on a two-story train, and I’m going to Versailles. Just a year and a half ago, I thought, “One day…one day I’m going there.” I never thought ‘one day’ would be so soon, would be now.

-later-

Today, my feet are killing me. This morning, I walked to the catacombs, where I met Dana, Meghan, and Jen. The catacombs were insane. Such a crazy person like me’s paradise. And, apparently, Robespierre and his followers’ bones are in there. (The catacombs were built after a bunch of cemeteries were flooded, so they had to exhume bodies and move them to the catacombs). So, yeah, I was pretty excited.


What a wonderful city in which to simply take walks.




My favorite street name, perhaps ever.


Brave souls venturing into the deep.




The workers made this - astounding!












Then, off to Versailles. The palace was amazing. As palaces go, it was not really my favorite, but the history…my word, the history! Of course, the Hall of Mirrors was also amazing. And there was a room dedicated to Napoleon, which greatly excited me.


The town looked cute.


My heart froze at the sight.

























I didn’t have a chance to really explore the gardens due to time and feet-exhaustion, but I saw the main part when walking to Marie Antoinette’s hamlet. Oh my, was her hamlet the place of my dreams. Modified goal in life: get rich, move to England, build a replica of her hamlet – or, rather, just one building of it – and live there for the rest of my life.








One day, this will be my house.















What a day, but now every step I take my feet are screaming at me. I have a feeling they won’t be liking me much tomorrow, either.

Back from Versailles, I met Sara at the BU building in Paris. A weird bit of familiarity, especially when I walked toward it and passed group after group of girls speaking English. Almost like I was back in Boston.

Sara and I went to this restaurant recommended to me by one of the fellow BU-ers here in Copenhagen, called Le Bistrot du Passage. She called it the best meal of her life. I don’t know if I would go quite that far, but it was absolutely delicious, and for a very good price, too! The waiter didn’t know English very well, but he was trying, when Sara told him I couldn’t speak French. It was funny, though, when we finished our meal and he said, “Dessert? Is it the same word in English?”


A special type of crème brûlée.

We then took a little walk to find the location of the stories from my French book – 4 Rue du Cardinal Mercier. That was rather entertaining, and to find out who really lived in the building.

On the way back home, I managed to take Dana’s favorite Metro line – La Ligne 14. Dana’s a little obsessed with it, but, in all fairness, it is an extremely nice line. I wouldn’t mind one like that in Boston (however, I wouldn’t mind really any metro line in Boston other than the T…except perhaps the New York subway, not a big fan of that one).

-Wednesday-

Wednesday was a busy, whirlwind day. If I thought I’d already seen a lot…I think, by the end, I managed to see everything a tourist would need to see, and I am fully satisfied with my Paris adventure.

I woke up a little early in order to see Saint Chapelle. It was also right next to the Conciergerie, which I was interested in but not sure if I had time. Luckily, I decided to go ahead and buy the joint ticket, because as nice as Saint Chapelle was, it was not worth the money on its own. However, the Conciergerie was amazing. The building was a once palace/seat of government, then became the location of the Parlement, then a prison, and then the location of the Revolutionary Tribunal and prison during the Revolution. Amazing.


I cannot get over how cute the streets are.
















Here the Revolutionary Tribunal sat






The prisoners' courtyard





From there, I headed to the Louvre, with a little less time than I had planned for, but though I didn’t see the Venus de Milo, I did see the Mona Lisa, some nifty decorative art, and a whole bunch of French art, which, seeing as my favorite art tends to be French, was pretty neat. Also, there were quite a few artists doing studies/copies of paintings, which was really cool to watch. One of the paintings I actually liked better than the original! I ended my visit with the Code of Hammurabi – woot, archaeology! One thing to note was how confusing getting around the Louvre is. It’s so huge, and to get to one side or the other you have go through such complications!




Everybody's searching for...








Napoleon III's apartments









I met Meghan outside. We stopped to get me a quiche for lunch, then, surprisingly not painting-ed out, we headed to her favorite museum, the Musée d’Orsay. I can see why it’s her favorite, and I’m so glad we went. It’s housed in an old train station, which is cool in and of itself. The exhibits are mostly impressionist and post-impressionist, and I would say it’s probably my new favorite museum, as well. I absolutely adore impressionism, especially Monet, and I also love French realism. If I knew anything about art, I would be a French art-o-phile.









From there, we met Dana and Jen at Invalides. Once again, thanks to Dana’s confidence, I got in free by virtue of being with her and her free-ID. Napoleon’s tomb is both impressive and unimpressive at the same time. It’s ironic that around it is such a beautiful religious display, since he was an atheist, but it does add to the grandeur of the tomb. The tomb was also cooler once we learned that it was all made from a single block of wood. And, well, the fact that Napoleon is in there, of course makes it awesome.







Somehow we also got into the argument that started with Dana and Emily and has gone on for at least a year and a half now about whether the defining event of the 20th century is WWI or WWII. The arguments: WWII influenced basically everything, vs. WWII would not have happened if not for WWI. Neither side, I think, will ever convince the other, but it can be quite an entertaining debate (even if the same arguments occur over and over and it ends up being circular). Thoughts?

Alas, after paying tribute to Napoleon, I had to then say goodbye to Dana and Meghan. Paris would not have been the adventure it was if not for my dear friends and so it’s very hard to say goodbye yet again, even if I will be seeing both of them later on in the year.



I then met up with Sara for one last goodbye to Paris – Sacre Coeur. I started Paris with a view of the city from Notre Dame. Marked the middle with a view from the Eiffel Tower. And ended with a view from Sacre Coeur/Montmarte. What a sendoff.













However, my French adventure was not quite over. At the airport, I had a little hitch with my Coke bottle in security. Though empty, they of course did not know that, and I had to take it out of the bag to show them, but the security man was extremely nice. He just laughed and told me not to hit the pilot in the head with it. Then, he shook my bag, heard my pills, and gave me a hard time about drugs, but didn’t even bother searching it, which I’m pretty sure the U.S. would have done. They say Parisians are unfriendly, but if the universally unfriendliest people are government officials and airport workers, then I’d say Paris passed its test with flying colors.

And one last occurrence: Albert Einstein was in line with me for the plane, on my plane, and waiting for the train with me in Copenhagen. Seriously, I have never seen anyone look more like anyone else than this man looked like Albert Einstein. I almost took a sneak photograph it was so uncanny.

With that, I returned to Copenhagen to delightfully find no snow on the ground and the sun shining. It may not be warm, but spring is coming!