Monday, February 23

Gypsies in Paris



Day One in Paris:
So we finally arrived in Paris on Thursday morning. Delirious and technically without a place to stay, our friend Clare (who is from Maine!) called us as we are sitting on the runway, wow nous avons la chance! We meet Clare at her friend's apartment and take showers, eat, and take a quick nap. Then we decide to head over to the Musee d'Orsay - but because of a strike (surprise surprise) we are unable to take the bus. So we end up walking, which was great. I have absolutely learned that the best way to learn a city is to walk EVERYWHERE. As we are walking there, my bff from camp, Julia (who is studying in Paris) calls me, and as we are planning to meet up, it turns out as we approach the entrance of the museum I learn she is just leaving ... freaky! We say hello, and plan to meet up later. Then we walk around the impressionism level for 2 hours, which is incredible. I really love Degas, Henri Edouard Cross, and Toulouse-Latrec, all incredibly talented. We then take the bus home, make a delicious (and healthy!) dinner and crash.

Day Two in Paris:
The next morning Emily decides to head back to Rennes and Lindsay and I pack up all our things and head towards the Bastille. We then find our way to the Musee Carnavalet, which is a history museum of Paris. We stay there for some time and get painfully lost looking for the Jewish Quarter. But we finally find it and eat the best falallafel - a recommendation of Lindsay's friend Becca. Afterwords we kill time and buy some challah bread and wine for Julia and her boyfriend, Brayden, for letting us stay with them. On the way to her host mom's apartment, we saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and la place de Concorde - it was like a free tour! When we arrived at Julia's the four of us split a couple bottles of wine and talked for almost two hours - it was great conversation and the four of us got along so well. We decided to head out to dinner, we grabbed a quick din and come nutella/banana crepes (but we peaced early due to my sighting of a mouse in the restaurant ...) and then decided to walk to the Republique and grab a drink at Julia's favorite Irish pub - where Julia and Lindsay became bff with the owner, Kevin. We took the night bus home, and were very entertained by the drunken french students on the bus.

Day Three in Paris:
We had the best nights sleep since we have been away - and the four of us wake up late and have challah toast and slowly make our way to the Grand Palais, where we heard there was a two day exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge. YSL died in June, and we assumed it would be a collection of his clothes - but we were mistaken. It had open at 9 am, and there was already a 4 hour + wait! We chatted with a photographer who was photographing the line of people, which was insane, and who lived in LA. We decided to bag it but moved towards the VIP line to people watch. As we are standing there, the security guys come over and start speaking to us really fast in French, we discovered they were asking if we were in line and that only I could go into the exhibit with one person to accompany me. We stayed silent the whole time, just looking awfully confused, and somehow, the four of us got into this exhibit in 10 minutes! It turned out to be the personal collection of YSL and Pierre Berge, from their home. When I say personal collection, I'm talking furniture from Louis XIV and Louis XV and paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Degas, and Mondrian. Not to mention sculptures from BC. It was absolutely incredible. So 8 rooms and three hours later, we head to grab sandwiches. We eat them in front of the Louvre, by a pond. It is amazing we are here! We continue to walk around, grab pastries in the Latin Quarter, and say our goodbyes. Lindsay and I make our train by seconds but we arrive safely back in Rennes that night. I had such an absolute blast in Paris, and I am so excited to have my family come visit in only a couple weeks. School starts back up tomorrow ... and I'm already ready for my next adventure!

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