This past weekend was the second long weekend built into my abroad program's schedule for the semester. Two friends and I went to Paris for the weekend, and a friend of mine from Bowdoin (Nicole) joined us. Paris was the first place in Europe I ever went, way back in 4th grade (11 years ago!). I remembered loving it then, but prior to this trip I was really curious to see how my impression of the city would have changed. I couldn't tell whether my lasting memory of the city was that of a naive, idealizing 4th grader's mind or if Paris simply made an impression because it was my experience with Europe in general, or if I in fact did possess some sort of particular inclination toward the Parisian way of life.
What did I discover? Turns out my tastes haven't changed much since 4th grade. The only difference is that now I care a lot more about the art than I did back then. In fact, that first trip made me momentarily averse to any sort of impressionism because I think we saw every single Monet painting in the city.
I enjoyed taking the museum-going at a much more leisurely pace this time. We started out our visit on Friday morning by going to the Louvre. Knowing I'd been there before and gawked at good ol' Mona I didn't feel the need to frantically hit every possible well-known work. We strolled through many of the collections stopping when we felt like it. Highlights included some clay models (bozzettos) by Bernini for sculptures I've seen in Rome, the Nike of Samothrace (beautiful but admittedly would've been more impressive on a sunnier day), Cupid and Psyche (which I could stare at all day) and some mildy illusionistic paintings by someone named Pannino that were made up of multiple paintings of scenes in Rome, most of which I'd been to and recognized.
Lunch was french onion soup (check that off the list!) and then we walked around Le Marais district. We stopped in some interesting little vintage stores, the church of St. Paul and St Louis and eventually ended up at the most amazing chocolate store. They had chocolate everything from chocolate champagne bottles to ruby slippers to mussels.
They also had a self serve which we took full advantage of, looking up all the mysterious french descriptions on Nicole's trusty blackberry. I think the best mistranslation was something that translated to "dirty butter". We later discovered that mean salted butter. Same idea....
We ate dinner just down the stairs from our hostel at a nice place recommended by someone at the hostel. We were staying right near the Lamarck-Caulaincourt Metro stop in Montmartre. It's such a cute area. Of course I liked it because it's typically seen as the more artsy, bohemian district. But anyway it was filled with cute shops, patisseries, restaurants, and sets of stairs up the hill to more of the same.
Saturday the sun came out, as weather.com led us to believe it would. While partly to mostly cloudy kind of works with the Paris aesthetic (much better than in Rome at least) the sun was very exciting.
That morning we went to Saint Chapelle. The line was long but moved quickly enough. The chapel was gorgeous. It's practically entirely made of stained glass, known for being like a little jewel box. There was a woman in the chapel who was seemingly caught up in the spirit and singing to herself a little too audibly. My friends found it a little strange and I did too until she was near enough for me to hear what song she was singing. It was Sweet Honey in the Rock's "We Are" that I sang in high school chorus and in the Sydney Opera House, among other places. How crazy to hear someone singing that of all songs in a church in Paris! We also went to Notre Dame that morning. 
All the stained glass and gothic styling in these churches was a nice change from the baroque, illusionistic, and often overdone decorations I've gotten used to in Roman churches.For lunch we headed to Rue Cler, which according to the journal from our 4th grade trip (that I wrote in about as religiously as I do this blog) was my favorite place. It's a lovely little pedestrian street lined with bakeries, cheese shops, cafes, and grocery stores. We ended up sort of having a progressive lunch as we walked, picking up baguettes, chocolate croissants, cheese, and strawberries as we walked up and down the street. I could definitely get used to that...
That evening we headed to an area of Montmartre filled with restaurants and ended up sitting outside at a place that had a special deal for one savory crepe and one sweet crepe and a glass of cider. It was perfect and my sweet caramel and salted butter crepe was to die for. Later that night my friend Jenn and I headed back toward the center of the city to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up because I seem to have an affinity for European cities at night.
We had a lot of fun, took a zillion pictures and accidentally caught the tower right when they were lighting it up with extra flashing lights at midnight. It's things like that that are touristy on the one hand, but also ground you in a specific city. This whole abroad experience is so surreal some of the time that you need something like that to remind you that you actually are in Paris, for instance, not Rome or DC or NYC or anywhere else.
Sunday we tried to pastry shop right across from the hostel (yum!) and then walked up some windy streets and long staircases to the part of Montmartre where Sacre Coeur is situated. The spot offers a gorgeous view of the city and the church itself it pretty spectacular. Mass was going on at the time so that added a little extra ambiance. It started to drizzle so we ducked into a cafe and got brunch.
My first version of real breakfast or brunch food since I've been over here! Obviously I was really excited about that. From there we wandered over a beautiful-looking cemetery to the Moulin Rouge for some photos, and then headed to the Musee D'Orsay. It was pretty packed because it's free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month but this visit reaffirmed my interest in some impressionist and post-impressionist art. I loved getting to see Renoir's Bal au Moulin de la Galette, discovering that reproductions do absolutely no justice to that painting. Too bad I couldn't take photos...After grabbing some pastries and an asiago cheese covered baguette for the road we had to head toward the airport. Several hours and about six different forms of transportation later we made it back safely to Rome. It was quite the whirlwind but I got to do everything I wanted and more. And by about Saturday evening I'd already decided I needed to come back for a more extended period at some point in my life, so that took the pressure off feeling like I had to hit everything possible in one weekend. Now I'm back in Rome and everything's in bloom and absolutely gorgeous and I love it. It's wild and falling apart and full of history and a little frayed at the edges, but could I see myself living here? Probably not. Paris on the other hand...? Let's just say I need to start working on my French....
click link to album below to see more photos.
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