22>26

Lest you think my math skills have degenerated since coming to France, let me qualify the title of this post.  Being 22 is far superior to being 26 if you're in Paris, you can prove you're a permanent resident of the EU, and you're standing at the ticket counter of the Musée d'Orsay.  I went to Paris with my roommate Katherine and my friend Lilly for our long Armistice weekend, and we got in free to the Musée d'Orsay, les Invalides (which houses Napoléon's tomb), and the Musée Rodin when we showed our visas/cartes de séjour and asserted that we were less than 26 years old.  I guess all the hassle for them was worth it, after all!  That's one thing I really appreciate about France--they provide a lot of fee reductions for young people, whether you're a student or not.  I've also saved a lot of money on train tickets because I have the carte 12-25, which is the SNCF's reduction card for young people.  


Anyway, Paris was a lot of fun, even if the weather wasn't ideal.  My pictures aren't outstanding for that reason, but I think you'll still be able to enjoy how much we saw, and the great variety of our destinations.


Thursday:
Katherine and I took the first train from Deauville to Paris and met up with Lilly, who came in from Le Mans, at the hostel.  After putting our things in our room and eating lunch we decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay since it's full of beautiful and interesting paintings and because it was raining.  
 

You can't take photos inside the Musée d'Orsay, but that didn't stop many many people from doing it.  These statues are outside of the museum.

 Our next stop was Notre Dame.  The picture is too small for you to be able to tell, but one of the statues outside of the far left door is of a martyred saint who's holding his detached head in his hands.  It's pretty cool looking.

Lilly and me.

 Next we walked around Ile St. Louis and enjoyed some delicious ice cream from Berthillon (I had myrtille, or blueberry).

Lilly and Katherine as we walked around Ile St Louis

 After Ile St. Louis we crossed the river and wandered a bit. 

Place de la Concorde and the Eiffel Tower.  The tower gets all twinkly and neat on the hour, but sadly it stopped twinkling just as I was pulling out my camera to take a photo.

Friday:
After breakfast at our hostel we took the metro over to the Père Lachaise neighborhood where we enjoyed walking through its incredibly long market, full of vendors hawking their bananas or persimmons or whatever their particular special was that day.  Once we left the cries of "Des belles endives!"  and "Un euro, un euro, un euro" behind we entered the Cimitière Père Lachaise.  We spent several hours wandering through this beautiful cemetery full of mausoleums in search of various friends we had studied in the past or that we just wanted to see to pay our respects to.  

A mausoleum in Père Lachaise that I particularly liked because of its statues

Chopin's grave.  I couldn't get very close to take the picture because he was surrounded by people.  I guess he's still quite popular.

The big puffy cat that we enjoyed sitting by in the cemetery.

Jim Morrison.

Oscar Wilde.  I'm not sure what the significance of the flying statue man is. 

He's quite popular, too.

I think Proust had the most sedate famous grave of any of the famous people we visited.

I really liked Apollinaire's grave, too.  I feel like it fits him.  Below is one of his calligrammes, which was below another of his poems.

 After Père Lachaise, we ate a gaufre au chocolat (waffle with chocolate sauce) and in the Jardin des Tuileries and walked up the Champs Elysées until we reached the Arc de Triomphe.  I had never been underneath the Arc de Triomphe before so it was interesting to see the unknown soldier.

The Arc de Triomphe at sunset.  I thought it was pretty.

I took this when we were walking back down the Champs Elysées

Katherine and I thought we should get dinner for free here.

Isn't Paris pretty?

Next we walked around Montmartre, where we got to see the apartment where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a few years, step into the Cafe 2 Moulins where Amelie works in the movie Amelie, and eat an excellent, if garlicky, Italian dinner.

Saturday:
Saturday we woke up early so that we could make the most of our last day in Paris.  We walked around the 9th Arrondissement in the morning and got to see a lot of interesting stores.

The window display at La mere de la famille, a gourmet food store that we enjoyed looking through

  Then we walked across the Pont Alexandre III, which was given to France by Russia,  to les Invalides, where we got to see Napoleon's tomb.  

That pointy thing behind Katherine's head is the Eiffel Tower.

Napoleon's tomb

"I wish my ashes to rest alongside the Seine amongst the French people that I loved so much."-Napoleon.                           I felt like this was a liiiiiitle much.

I always new that Napoleon had an enormous ego, but I don't think I fully realized how big it was until I visited him.  First, his tomb is situated so that you either have to bow your head down to look at him, or, if you're on the level below, you are gazing up at him.  His tomb is also surrounded by these marble renderings of his all the things he did for the French people--essentially, his resume.  It was an interesting experience.
Next we ate lunch at a tasty Vietnamese restaurant where I had pork dumplings served with bean sprouts in a delicious broth, and then we were off to the Rodin museum.  I'd really like to return there sometime in the spring or summer.  The majority of the sculptures are scattered throughout a rose garden, and they were still pretty even on a drizzly, gray day, but they would be even better on a sunny day when the roses are blooming.

Le penseur.  It was pretty impressive in person.

I took this at the Musee Rodin, but the golden dome is Les Invalides.

After the Rodin museum we got crepes (I had caramel) and walked around a bit until it was time for our train.  All in all, a lovely weekend.