Leaving on a Jet Plane

Woke up early Monday to shower and get to the Louvre by opening. Well, the shower in the apartment was only spitting out cold water, so I ended up just wiping down with a washcloth and layering deodorant. Because Terra wasn’t sure when they would be back, I needed to take my suitcase with me. Thankfully, the Louvre has a free baggage check, so I wouldn’t be lugging everything around all day. I wanted to walk, not because I was feeling particularly energetic, but I didn’t want to pay for the metro for a short distance (like, twenty blocks, maybe?), and I needed to get supplies for lunch and dinner from the supermarket on my way there, anyway. I got to the Louvre with ten minutes to spare and went to the secret-not-actually-a-secret entrance from the metro and got in line (there was still a pretty long line, but not nearly as long as at the pyramid. The security at the Louvre seriously is lacking! There are signs all over the place saying (well, picturing) no food or drinks, and so when I put my backpack and suitcase through which was packed with food, I was expecting them to confiscate it, but no one said anything. Well, it was the opening rush, maybe they just didn’t have time to bother, or maybe they don’t actually care. I figure most people wouldn’t even try getting food through once they saw the signs.

I got my (free) ticket, from a guy behind the counter who, when I said, “C’est bon?” responded, “Non. C’est pas bon,” and then smiled mischievously. I love sarcasm. Especially in different languages!

I, like everyone else, started with the Italian paintings and the Mona Lisa 

(which is correctly spelled with two N’s? Did not know that), which was lovely and very crowded. There were a lot of other things I saw that I recognized or that I really liked but hadn’t known about. I actually crossed rooms off as I went through them so I wouldn’t repeat anything accidently, and so I could get through as much as possible in the time I had. I probably saw about 2/3 of the museum, but I didn’t spend any time in the garden since I’d already been there with Jenn last time, and I took two breaks in between sections of the museum (it is GIANT) to eat or just sit and not look at anything. Museum fatigue is a dangerous and common disease in Paris, you know, and you have to be careful.

Eventually, I decided I had had enough of the place and wanted to go do something else. That was around one and my train left from Gare de Lyon at 6pm (I checked that time SO often, this time), so I decided to spend some time in Bastille. I took the metro, since I was getting tired of walking with my suitcase, and had some trouble with getting the suitcase in with me (or, more accurately, me in with the suitcase), but an employee came over and helped me learn the trick of putting it under the turnstile and then walking through and I made it pretty easily after that. I saw Bastille 

and the Opera House, 

and then wanted to go to Victor Hugo’s house. 

I walked over and learned that it is closed on Monday’s. Stupid Hugo. So I sat in the park in the middle of the block where he lived and people watched and tried to concentrate on reading HP7(F), but only got a few pages in before I fell asleep.

I slept off and on for a while and then ate some food and went to find a bathroom. I asked one of the park workers, who told me that there wasn’t any in this park, but he was about to walk two blocks to the next park, and there was a bathroom there, so I could just walk with him. I did, and we talked very briefly because there was really not much to say after introductions and “where-are-you-froms” and he was working, anyway, so he was on the walkie-talkie a lot. I didn’t stay in that park long, simply because I wanted to start heading toward Gare de Lyon, since I wanted to walk instead of paying for the metro again. It is only a few blocks away, so it wasn’t that bad at all. I stopped in a couple shops, still looking for presents for a couple of people, and then went to wait at the station for my train. There wasn’t much to do at the station besides wait, and I didn’t want to think about that fact that I was leaving Paris, so I looked around all the little shops there too for a while, to distract myself. It mostly worked, and then, all too soon, I was on the train and leaving Paris.

Geneva

boooring. Seriously- Geneva is boring. Not that I got there at a particularly exciting time- 10:30pm on a Monday night, but still. 

I got into the station and had absolutely no idea where to go. There were no information centers or anything, no one who could tell me where to go for public transport, etc. I knew the address of the Hostel I was staying at, but not how to get there from the station or even where the station was in regards to the rest of the city. WHERE AM I?!

I figured out on the map provided at the bus stop where I was going, but didn't know which direction it was in and eventually I just decided to take a cab. Well, thankfully, when I told the cab driver where I needed to go, he just said "Oh, you really don't need to take a taxi for that. It's only five blocks from here, and a very easy walk. Just go on this street here for five blocks and then turn left and you're there."  

I just appreciated that he didn't just take me and have me pay for something I could easily do myself. So I walked five blocks and got to the hostel in no time, checked in and went to bed. 

I woke up, showered, thank god, and walked to the supermarket after checking out of the hostel to get my breakfast- I love fresh croissants (literally still warm from the oven, amazing). Got to the station, took the train to the airport, and began my long journey home. Nothing too dramatic or intense or scary happened- mostly just long periods of flying and then waiting, with short periods of hurry-hurry-hurry in between. The girl who sat next to me on the plane from Amsterdam to Boston was German but lives in the US so was flying home from having visited her parents for a while. We both watched "Water for Elephants," and "Win Win," which were great movies, especially the latter. 

I got into Boston and went through customs in no time which was surprising but wonderful. I told the customs guy I had chocolate and he smiled and said "okay, you're all set." and I went to wait for the bus that would take me to the right terminal for my flight to KC. 

I was very, very lucky to get out of Boston. It was storming pretty badly and we were only delayed for forty minutes- there are some flights that were supposed to leave a little later than that which are still at the airport now because of the weather. Thank god because I was so tired at that point I was legitimately having trouble keeping my head up. I got to use the free-for-an-hour wifi, though, and managed to contact my mom and let her know I was okay and in Boston; she hadn't heard from me since before I left Annecy, whoops. 

The flight home was short but probably the worst one because I was so ready to be done with traveling. I either wanted to move constantly or sleep and I couldn't do either in that stupid tiny plane seat. Whenever I wasn't sleeping, I was looking out the window. Traveling west that late, we were just chasing the setting sun the whole time and once we got to KC, everything was dark and all the little city lights lit up the ground beautifully. It always surprises me how visible everything is at night when you're flying over a city. 

But anyway, I got off the plane, saw my mom and dad waiting for me, and made it home. 10pm Liberty time, 5am Annecy time, jet-lagged as hell and ready for bed. And tomorrow begins another adventure! 

Paris Part Deux Part Deux

Sunday began very early for me. It was a long day. I started at 7 in order to get to Notre Dame in time for mass and get into the towers before too many people had arrived. I went into the beautiful church, trying to walk as quietly and take as few pictures as possible because mass was going to start soon. 

There were several people that were just being so rude and loud, particularly this one little Asian girl (not young enough too have not known better) who just didn’t shut up until one the employee shushed her like five times, loudly. She looked completely taken aback by it, as if she didn’t know you’re supposed to be quiet in a church? Agh.

Anyway, the church itself was just beautiful. The chandelier was hanging out on the ground, 

in need of renovation, and there were a lot of people who it looked like were just coming to mass. I sat near the back for about ten minutes, just watching mass start and listening to an alter boys’ beautiful singing, but very quickly it became clear that I should not stay much longer. This is not because anyone told me to leave, it’s because I am- 1- not catholic, and would have no idea what to say or sing or repeat during a catholic mass and 2- not French, so I REALLY wouldn’t know what to say. Literally the only words I recognized in ten minutes were “Dieu” and “amen.”  I think it's cool that that is the same in French, though I know it's because it is a Latin word. I just like that it hasn’t changed in all this time.

I left the church and went to the place where you have to wait for the towers, only to realize that they don’t open until 10. It was 8:45. I had things to do! I went over to Saint – Chapelle, which ALSO was not open, not until 9:30, and so I walked a little bit along the Seine, looking for shops of interesting things. I didn’t really find anything, so I went back and became the beginning of the line for the entrance to the Chapel. 

There were two or three people who cut me in line, and I just said, “there’s a line,” (but in French), and then realized that they weren’t there for the chapel. The chapel is in the same place as the Palais du Justice- they were there for court-hearings or something. At least, they were clearly Parisian and not tourists, so I didn’t really say anything after I figured that out. They certainly weren’t nice about it, though.

I feel like most of my Sunday was spent with Louis Catorze. There was stuff about him all over the place in Notre Dame, he’s the one who had Saint Chapelle built as well, and I also went to Versailles later, and, well, you get it. Boy did this guy like pretty things. Saint Chapelle was absolutely gorgeous, 

and I was literally the first person in there on Sunday morning. Wow. Practically the whole chapel is stained-glass windows, all of them telling biblical stories. The two windows that are over the places where Louis sat on one side, and where his mother sat on the other, tell biblical stories that relate specifically to the two of them, which I thought was pretty cool. Once I felt satisfied with my experience there, I went back to Notre Dame, since it was about ten. There was SUCH a long line. I may or may not have cut some people to get closer and get in sooner. Possibly.

I got in about half an hour later (see, I still waited! I didn’t cut everybody, just the latter half…) and got in for free (seriously- this student card has saved my wallet), and walked up a whole bunch of stairs. There were WAY more stairs than I expected. I don’t know why I didn’t expect that many, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is all spiral-staircases and so you can only see the stairs directly above and you have no way of referencing how far you’ve gone. These stairs were so old, too, that most of them and had little dips in the middle because of the number of people who had walked them over the centuries. That was very sobering, thinking about the thousands of people who have passed through those halls and enjoyed the beautiful view- just the idea of so many people…

The view WAS amazing, and definitely worth all those stairs. Especially being that close to really old gargoyles who are all just so cool and creepy and unique looking- I loved looking at them. The space for walking is very, very small, no matter where you are, and so it was pretty crowded up there, but I did get to see the great bell and to go to the top and see the view from up there, too (though you’re only allowed five minutes up there because there is only one way up and down, not big enough for two people).

Paris really is just a beautiful city, and SO big. I’m not sure I could ever live in a place that big. I would get so claustrophobic; start feeling really insignificant about being this tiny organism in a giant pulsing body that really wouldn’t miss me if I left. I prefer my less-than-20, 000 people Missouri town.

After admiring the view for as long as I could, I walked all the way back down those many, many stairs, quickly but not too quickly because I was so afraid of falling on the very smooth stones and dipped-steps. And also was a little dizzy from all the spiraling.

The journey to Versailles was interesting. The plan had been to get on the RER at the Notre Dame stop and just go to Versailles, but Paris had other ideas for me. The stop was closed, so I had to wait for a bus that would take me from Notre Dame to Invalides, where the RER started running again and from THERE I could go to Versailles. Boy, I wish I had known that before hand. It took a good half an hour to go the distance of three stops because of waiting for the bus and whatnot. And there were far too many people on the bus to be in any way in line with safety regulations, at least in the states. I got to Invalides and there was, of course, a line to get tickets for the RER to get to Versailles. It was only 6€ for a round trip though, which really isn’t bad, and I managed to fall asleep and take a little nap on the train. I got there and saw that there was a really long line to get tickets to the castle and gardens as well! What is it with all these tourists, huh? Thankfully, I realized very quickly that because I was a student, I could “proceed directly to entrance A with proof,” and that’s exactly what I did. I got in pretty quickly after that, even though there was a long line there, too, and I just showed the lady my id card and she waved me through. Love it!

Versailles was very, very crowded. There were some rooms that I honestly didn’t even stop in because there were so many people; there wouldn’t have been any point. I could not have enjoyed them the way I wanted to. I got to see the Hall of Mirrors, 

which was beautiful and long and big and still full of people. I’m glad I saw it, though; it’s something I’ve wanted to see for a while. I also saw the king and queen’s bedchambers. It’s interesting seeing all the doors hidden in the walls for inter-bedroom traveling. That, and the bed’s are all really short because everyone who was anyone slept upright on lots of pillows in that time. Weird.

The part I enjoyed most, probably, was just the view from the windows into the gardens. They are so elaborate and extensive; it was like looking at a plant city. 

It was another 6€ for the gardens, which I think is a little silly, especially since they advertise it not as “the gardens,” but as “the musical fountain show,” which pretty much just involves recorded music playing through speakers and sometimes the fountains turn on, but not all at once and they don’t do anything interesting, they’re just fountains. 

Whatever.

When I went into the gardens, I kind-of just let myself get lost. I happened upon lots of sculptures and fountains just by walking around, because the only time I looked at the map of the garden I got really confused and disoriented, so I didn’t do that again. It wasn’t like there was any statue that I really wanted to see (or that I even knew existed) there. At one point, I stopped to get some water because I had forgotten my water bottle, and while I was putting my stuff in my bag, I saw this girl set her still half full basket of fries down on the top of the trash can and walk away. People really bother me when they waste that much food (especially when the fries were 4€- who can afford to waste that?). I got to the end of good part and went into the gardens that are free to the public, lay down on the grass and took a nap. It was really nice. For a while, I watched these two kids, sister and brother (I think), the brother teaching his sister how to use his skateboard. It was so cute- he would go between saying “tournes, tournes, tournes, tournes, tournes!” (Turn!) “Bien,” and “Attends!” (Wait!), but the whole time he was so patient with her and seemed like he legitimately wanted to teach her. It was super adorable. I love big brothers that actually like their sisters.

Once I felt legitimately rested, I returned to the better park just in time to see the big fountain do its thing, and I sat with my feet in the water and just enjoyed the sun. My feet did hurt a lot, though, what with all the walking, so the water felt really wonderful. After that I wandered some more, trying to stick to the part of the park that I hadn’t already seen and purposely getting myself a little lost. I happened upon a path into the woods (very small woods), and saw this door randomly leading into the ground. It seriously looked like the entrance to a crypt or something. I decided to pee while I was there, since the lines at the restrooms were really long (and halfway across the park), and then I just walked around for a couple minutes, enjoying the solitude of the tiny forest. Then, this guy in a tan uniform came in and just kind-of stopped and stared at me. He wasn’t security for the park; I think he might have been a custodian or a fountain-worker. He didn’t say anything, so I said, “This isn’t a path, is it?” (In French, of course), and he kind-of just shrugged and shook his head. I left, but I honestly think that if I had stayed, he wouldn’t have cared.

I wandered some more, happened upon a weird sculpture of a big plant head thing, 

which is a sculpted representation of a painting, and got back to the beginning of the gardens and decided I was pretty much satisfied and could leave. I walked around the souvenir shops for a bit before getting back to the train station and returning to Paris (I napped on that train, too).

I mentioned earlier that I had planned on making a quiche for dinner for Terra, Amanda, and I. However, I got back to the area around six, and it was Sunday, so all of the supermarkets were closed. We probably could have found a place to buy ingredients if we searched hard enough, but we had all (Hailey and her friend Roslyn came over, too), had long days filled with walking, so we decided to just find a nice, not too expensive restaurant and eat there. We walked around for a bit, looking for something good, and got into a part of the city where an entire street was just restaurants and shops, everything lit up with the neon signs like it’s daytime. We went into a place that had a “16.90€ combo plan,” all of the choices of which looked amazing. It was, too. Our waiter was really weird and kept doing things that were kind-of flirtatious, but mostly just odd, like when he found out Hailey was from Texas, he just started calling her “Texas.” The food was amazing, though.

I had a shrimp and avocado dish with a small lettuce and tomato salad on the side. The shrimp was still entirely intact, something I have never had to deal with before, so it took me a while to get through each piece. I had to rip the heads off and figure out how to get the meat- apparently you can eat the shell- I was not aware of this. And it was really creepy that they still had their little shrimp legs. The resulting combination of avocado, shrimp, lettuce, and tomato was delicious, though, and definitely worth it. And that was just my appetizer!

For the meal, I had muscles with creamy penne pasta, something I knew I would like, and it was so wonderful. I really was hoping to be able to get muscles sometime while in France, since they do them so well, and I am really glad I did. I couldn’t even eat the whole dish, I think I ate about two thirds and then I was entirely full; too full, really. And then there was still dessert! All for 16.90€, that’s really awesome. The last time I got a “meal combo” from a restaurant for less than 20€, it was almost as bad as airplane food. This meal was legitimately amazing. I had apple pie for dessert (it was cold, but I guess that’s normal- I prefer hot), and then we decided to walk back to get more clothes because we were a little chilly. By the time we got back to the apartment, I was really tired, so I just went in and went to sleep- said goodbye to Amanda first.

I felt better about this goodbye because it wasn’t prolonged or sad, it was just a goodbye. I hate emotional goodbyes; they make me sick to my stomach.

I packed my suitcase, which was still mostly packed and just needed minor reorganization, and went to sleep... 

Paris: Part Deux

A lot has happened in the last four days. Most of it good.

My Friday night was… interesting. I went home after the park with plans to meet people for dinner before my night train. I considered leaving my suitcase at my host-moms, but then she mentioned how late it would be and that it would be noisy, so I just figured not only do I not every want to see her again; I don’t want to see her now. So I left- luggage in tow.

We met in front of the Munich (surprise!) and ended up going to a pizzeria- a really good one. I had already spent a lot on Thursday, so I ate my grocery-store food before I got there and then just sat in the restaurant enjoying the company of my friends. We stayed there for a long time. Around 10:30, I left for the station to make my night train. I walked quickly, but not quickly enough.

See, when I thought the train ticket said it would leave at “23:22,” which is 11:22, it actually left at “22:32”, 10:32. I got there at 10:45. Frustrating? YES.

I hurried back to the restaurant just hoping that they would all still be there (they were), and told them what had happened. Lisa’s dad (who had come to visit from Germany- god I’m jealous of Europeans!) looked completely horrified, and kept asking if there was any other train or a person there I could ask about refunding my ticket, etc. Terra, one of the girls I met from Hawaii, offered for me to stay in her room at her host-moms’ house for the night and then just take the train to Paris with her in the morning. For about two seconds, I considered going back to my host-moms’ house, and then decided I just didn’t want to deal with it so I took Terra up on her amazing offer. However, before we went home, we went to the park with everyone. We walked for a while, which for everyone else wasn’t a big deal, but since I still had my giant suitcase with me, it was a little miserable there for a bit. We eventually stopped (thank the lord) on the sidewalk next to the lake (close enough to put our feet in the water) and ate (guess!) bread, cheese, and drank wine. We are so French. I was so tired, though, and was just lying on the edge of the boardwalk, listening to everyone talking and laughing. I enjoy listening to people almost as much as I enjoy talking to them.

Terra was, thankfully, also tired, and we soon headed back to her house. She still had to pack before the 8:30 train (which, as a professional packer, I could not ever imagine doing), but by the time we got back, she just decided to get up early and do it in the morning. I kind-of just fell over onto the bed and slept.

I’m not sure exactly what I will do (can do) about my missed train in regards to my EuRail Pass. I had already written the information in to my train log, and technically I didn’t use another day with the morning train, and even if I had, I have three days left that I could still use). I just don’t know what they do when they see that I took two trains to Paris on the same day, even though I didn’t. I’m just afraid that they’ll think I let someone else use the pass. Sais pas. I’ll figure it out, though.

So I woke up and ate breakfast with Terra’s really awesome host mom who I totally would have loved to live with so much more than mine… and then hurried to the station to buy my ticket. The reservation cost on the night train had been less than two Euros, so I just didn’t worry about asking for a refund (the actual ticket is paid for through the pass), and I just got the ticket for this train and went out onto the quai, Terra coming up from the stairs right after me having just finished packing. Amanda was there, too, but we were all in different cars so we just said “hello, goodbye,” and got on the train. I spent a good portion of that day being still mad at myself for misreading the time on the ticket.

Getting into Gare Du Lyon, I decided to walk with Amanda and Terra to the apartment that Terra’s mom/grandparents use/rent out in Paris. It is literally blocks away from Notre Dame. I am very glad I walked with them, too, because once I got there, Terra offered for me to use the pull-out couch for the next two days instead of paying for a hostel that is a two-hour walk from the city, and a 30 minute metro ride. Yeah, that seems like a much better plan! And it was.

The remainder of the day we spent mostly together. We went to the nearest grocery store and got supplies (wine, of course, but also water and food for dinner). I went out for a couple hours to visit the Pantheon 

and the Cluny Museum (which has the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries). It was definitely worth it- I didn’t go into the Pantheon, but it was really cool to see this glorious Greek structure in the middle of Paris, with the same Parisian apartment buildings surrounding it as are everywhere else in the city. I walked to the museum after that and got in for free (I LOVE being a student of the European Union under the age of 26!- this is really the most perfect time to go anywhere in Europe in my life). Most of the art/relics there were really, really old. Statues that didn’t have limbs or faces consisted of the majority of the collection, but also tapestries, pottery, and one room that was full of swords. It was a really cool room- they had a little nook with a sword that you could pick up and feel the weight of through the glass,

 and they had several TV screens throughout the room that were showing various scenes from movies involving sword fighting, including the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was a very cool room.

I made sure that the Lady with the Unicorns room was the last that I went to, so I could spend as much time there as I wanted. The tapestries have such an amazing story. They were commissioned in the 1400’s and have, miraculously, managed to stay together, all six, that entire time. When the museum got them in the 1800’s the last foot, maybe two foot on each tapestry was in bad condition and had to be re-sewn and re-died; but, the dye they used was chemical instead of natural and very quickly the re-dyed fabric faded, so you can see the exact line when they were all re-dyed. The tapestries tell the story of this virgin woman who, in every tapestry is accompanied by a lion and a unicorn, and sometimes either a monkey or a maidservant. In the first five tapestries, the woman is tempted by each of the five senses, 

taste, 

smell, 

sight, 

touch, 

and hearing. 

In the final tapestry, though, she is doing something like putting a necklace back into her jewelry box, which somehow signifies that she’s choosing the path of righteousness, not temptation. They are all just beautiful pieces of art. Probably one of the favorite things I have seen here in Paris.

I headed home, having gotten slightly lost because I totally forgot my map, but I found the place again pretty quickly. Amanda cooked an amazing pasta-dinner with homemade tomato sauce,

 and then we decided that tomorrow I would make a quiche for us. I love quiches. And so very French!

We didn’t do all that much afterward because we were all so tired, but I felt like I at least got something productive in after having unintentionally missed half of my day due to the train-fiasco.

La semaine final- Talking About The Trolls

A lot happened this week that I really want to remember. I tried to write it all down so I could type it up later, but I'm just not sure I got it all. For instance, I really don't remember what happened Tuesday at all. I had class all day, though, so I'm sure it wasn't very interesting.
Wednesday, though, after class, a group of us decided that we needed to go to the Monastery that lies at one of the highest points in Annecy and overlooks everything. But, not so much in a loomy way as in a pretty, old, building in the country way. It's nice.

It was closed, of course, when we got there (at like six), but we didn't really care; the point was to go and see it, not to spend an hour inside staring at windows. We wanted to find a really good view for taking pictures of Annecy, and we asked this guy who told us (in very VERY fast French) where to go. We only got a few of the words, though, like "wall," and "under," and "campsite," so we set off in the general direction that he pointed us in to see what we could find. We did eventually find the campsite, after debating at nearly every branch in the road which way to go, regarding our insufficient map, and dealing with Mike insisting that he would find the way with his "magic baguette," which had, at this point, become a standard joke for us. We went in to the campsite (after missing the door and having to turn around) and realized that there really was no way we were going to get that perfect view; there are too many trees in the foreground of any picture you take, no matter where you are. Unless, maybe, a roof, which we did consider doing but decided against it.

(Ominous clouds are ominous)

The sky continued looking ominous and scary the entire time we were there, and we decided to skip out and get dinner in a cafe somewhere in Veille Ville. It began raining about the time that we got back down to the main street in Veille Ville, and those of us in the group who had dinner with their host parents wandered on home. Mattias, Jessica (pronouced "Yessica") and Lisa and I all went to a cafe that was literally on my doorstep because I knew they had Tartiflette and I knew that I needed Tartiflette at least once before I left the region which made it famous.
It is a famous dish for a reason. It was SO delicious. We got a mini salad with the meal, and we all shared a bottle of wine and then none of us spoke for about twenty minutes because we were just eating and seriously enjoying our Tartiflette. I was just about to die it was so good. It's a cheesy dish with potatoes and ham and cheese and some more cheese (YAY lactose intolerance!) and it was SO SO SO good. I want it forever and always.
So then we were really full and just sat and talked for a while. Eventually we (somehow) decided that we wanted dessert. They had... ice cream. And some more ice cream. Oh, this night. We each got a thing of ice cream, and for a while, we kept pondering amongst ourselves about the meaning of "cantilla" which came with almost every dish. We finally just asked the lady, who made a circular upward motion with her hand and a whooshing sound with her mouth. Whipped cream, everybody.

(Ice-cream with cantilla)

After the delicious and way-too-dairy-based-for-my-body-to-handle dinner, we agreed to go home and change and then meet up with everyone else at the Munich at ten (it had, thankfully, stopped raining at this point). I went outside and walked into my building (I was serious when I said it was right there: I literally just had to step out of the restaurant and walk five steps to the door), and I promptly, after having had too much wine, went to sleep.
Needless to say, I did not go out that night.
Thursday
In the morning, I had to take the TCF (French level standardized test) which sucked, because not only do I hate standardized tests, but it was in French. Also, the CD for the oral section of the test skipped a lot and there were several questions that I did not understand because of that. The proctor wrote down the questions that skipped, but I don't know if the answers will be forgiven or not. I hope so! By the time I was done with the test, I didn't care anymore.
Class involved learning slang phrases in French, including "Caisse-toi, pauvre con," which roughly translates to "F**k off, a**hole," and which the French President said to a man who refused to shake his hand at a greeting or something (I'm sure you heard about it on the news), but I didn't understand the big deal at the time. Kind-of like when Obama called Kanye as jackass, just worse.
We also got our tests back, which I got an A on (yay!) but that was all that interested me in class.
After class, though, Amanda, Martin, Mattias and I went to the supermarket and got alcohol for the night, while, right next to us, our teacher Isabelle stocked up on chips. It was amusing. After that, Amanda and I went to hang out in my house. We listened to music and I packed my suitcase and we ate some pre-dinner dinner. We walked over to the student dorms for the picnic dinner which was going to be inside because it was raining. Everything was set up in the community kitchen and there was so much food! Bread and cheese and wine, but also a stir-fry and rice and then someone brought a giant stack of crepes with nutella. Daniel had his guitar and we all sang a bunch of songs. It was really fun, and we were there until about eleven (so many people were taking pictures all the time), after which we went to the park and... did more of the exact same thing. The police came by a couple times and stopped, not to tell us off but to listen to our singing. It was pretty funny. My throat hurt the next day from all the singing and alcohol but it was worth it. What a fun night.
The view from the lake was really beautiful, as well.

(Also, because of the rain, the ground lights in the park were smoking). 

Friday morning class wasn't productive at all, we spent two hours talking about homeless people and then we all went into a room and watched Vilaine, which is a mockery of Amelie and was really funny.

We went to "graduation" which was not at all well organized (there were a few people who weren't there because they hadn't told us about it until a couple hours before), and got our Diploma's. I am officially level B1+ in French and got the grade of "très bien," which I sure hope is an A.

We left school (technically I still had a class in the afternoon to attend but I figured since I just graduated, it would be okay to skip...) and went to a restaurant that serves fondu, since that is a speciality of this region. It's a specialty because, after a long day of mountaineering, it is a very filling dinner... so French people ONLY eat it after long days of exercise. It's a big tourist attraction, though, and we just had to try it. I didn't end up buying any because I was already full from the after graduation snack bar, but I did try a piece or two and it is, indeed, delicious.

My favorite part of that meal? Not the food. We were talking about a couple of Swedish students that hadn't ended up coming with us, and Martin (also Swedish), said "Talking about the trolls- they're coming." The immediate reaction of all of us Americans was... what? trolls? Where? Why are trolls coming? What are you talking about? WHAT? 
"Don't you have that expression in English?" 
I was the first to get the translation problem.
"OH. Martin- you mean "Speak of the devil."
"Right! That. Sorry. In Swedish, it's "talk about the trolls."
I don't think I've ever laughed harder than I did then. And I plan on using that expression ALL the time, now. So get ready.
After Fondu, we wanted to go swim in the lake (for most of us, the last time), and we thought about going to the beach but somehow just ended up in the park and jumping of into the water from the sidewalk. I don't think it's entirely legal, but it's one of those things no police officer will site you for unless you're being dangerous. We spent a lot of time just laying in the sun (the first sunny day in what feels like forever), and enjoying each others company. We, of course, made plans to visit each other in the future, involving the idea of everyone just moving to Hawaii, where the majority of Ifalpes students from this July live. I know, from years of camp experience, that I will most likely never see any of these people again. The whole day, whenever I've had a moment to myself, I just get this sick feeling of regret that will only be satiated by my return home. Thankfully, my three days alone in Paris will not actually be alone, as Tarra, Crystal, and Amanda and going to be there, too. We may not do everything together, but at least we'll be in familiar company some of the time.

I am really going to miss the people here. I feel like this past week has been the one when I've actually started making real connections, finding my group, and making real progress with the language. Next time, I'll come for at least a semester (though I think even that will not be long enough in any one place). There will always be too much that I will want to do and see and live through for me to have been in a place for "enough time." That idea simply doesn't exist for me...

The (Not so) Sleepy Way Home

Once we left Notre Dame, we got Jenn to her station so she could check in for her bus and be really early, just in case.
This is when things started to go wrong for me.
I left Jenn, feeling very empty and sick inside at the idea of not seeing her again until the school year, and I went to find the way from where I was to Gare du Lyon. That's where my train was leaving from.
Or so I thought. You know, because that's the place my train came into when I came to Paris, and there is, of course, only one station in Paris that could possibly go to Annecy. Well, I got on the metro and looked at my ticket, just before I was getting to the stop where I needed to get off in order to get to Gare du Lyon. But I needed, in fact, to go to Aucherlitz! I grabbed my metro map (that, thank god, Jenn had gifted to me for the journey so I would not have to get my own the next weekend), and frantically searched for Aucherlitz- I had no idea where it was or how to get there. I found it, quickly, and was ever-so-thankful that it is only a couple of stops away from Gare du Lyon and that I could continue on the line I was on in order to get there. The adrelanline had me breathing like a track star, I was so nervous. What if I was late? It was only 9:50 and my train didn't leave until 11, but I was still scared; I'd already mis-interpretted one thing on the ticket, what if I missed another thing?
One thing that really, really bothers me here is the use of the 24 hour clock. There are only twelve numbers on a watch- WHY do you have to include 24? People here know what you mean when you say "7:30pm" so I just don't understand the point of using army time at all.
Aaanyway, I got to the station, half an hour before the time left and made it on fine and everything. I settled in, read a bit of Harry Potter, and eventually fell asleep with my head phones in.
There were several times in the night when I woke up, realizing we had stopped or just because I had been in one position for too long. Those chairs are not comfortable for sleeping; not for that long. Eventually, I managed to fall into deep sleep.
I slept.
And slept.
And when I woke up... I looked around. We had stopped again, and there were very few people left on the train. I asked the lady behind me what time it was.
"8:30."
Hmm...
I got into my backpack and got out my ticket, and realized that I was supposed to have gotten off at 6:52.
Here's the thing: I'm really bad at traveling. I kind-of just assume that things are going to happen and they never actually happen. What I assumed this time was that the train would go from Paris to Annecy and just stop. I figured that was the point of a night train: you take it, get from point A to point B, and then you're good, you're done.
What I had not considered was that there was no possible way that all these people in this night train could possibly be going to lil' old Annecy: there are always other stops. Why I had not considered these things, I do not know. Maybe I was just tired from a weekend in Paris.
The point is: I woke up and I was not where I was supposed to be. We were an hour away from Annecy by train, and this station did not look like it got a lot of traffic. I had no idea how this was going to work.
Luckily (Luckily!!) the next train to come through on its' way to Annecy was in an hour. How am I this lucky, seriously? I went in and explained the situation to the woman behind the counter. And you know what? She didn't even make me buy a ticket; she just wrote a note on the ticket I already had and told me I was good. So I got back about three hours after I thought I was going to, rushed to my house, took a nap, and got ready for my afternoon class. It was quite an adventure in Paris.

All the Time in the World

...would not be enough time.
Paris. Sunday. We checked out of the hostel after breakfast and headed over to the Arc du Triumph again, having talked to a fellow traveler in the hostel abut the tunnel that leads from the sidewalk to the Arc and generally involves no death by high-speed cars.

We took a couple pictures with Jenn's camera (like, two, and then it died), and read a few of the plaques on the ground about people who had died for France and various wars France had won (It literally is just this big arch dedicated to the glory and awesomeness of France!). We wanted to walk along the Champs Elysees, because how can you not when in Paris?

(I promise we're in front of a Champs Élysees street sign)

And we did do it, but we were there the day that the Tour du France came through Paris and so pretty much the whole street was a clusterf*** of yellow t-shirts and people wearing the flag of the country they supported as capes/dresses/shirts/bandanas, etc. We didn't stop in a single shop, simply because all we wanted at that point was to get to the Louvre park so we could stop walking. We did, however, find a Monoprix and bought our lunch (and dinner) there: a loaf of cheap bread, slices of sausage, a bag of chips, some cookies and some gummy-candy- all for less than 6€, which is about how much one sandwich would be at any street vender. So I think we did pretty well, considering.
We continued walking along the Champs and were, at this point, less than two blocks away from the Louvre park. And then they blocked off the street completely and we had to walk in a circle around the barriers to get to the stupid park. Damn, I was mad. We kept coming upon the street to turn just at the moment that they were blocking it off, and then had to continue moving away from our destination until we got to the point when they didn't need to block off anything else. Finally. We were so dead tired of walking by the time we got to the park, we just sat in front of the fountain for around an hour, eating, wriggling our toes out of our shoes, and halfheartedly shooing away pigeons who kept trying to bother us. We didn't get any pictures of the fountain, but since I'm going back this coming weekend, I'll see if I can get one or two. (Like I said, Jenn's camera is the worst. It thinks, no matter how new the batteries are, that the batteries are nearly dead, which is very frustrating!).
It was very relaxing, though it was interesting how quickly the atmosphere changed from hot to cold depending on weather or not the sun was out. That seemed to make a huge difference, which was not really something I'm used to. The fountain area was nearly empty when we got there, but by the time we left, nearly every seat was full and a lot of people were walking around. We walked to the Louvre (it's a big park so it took about ten minutes) pretty much just to go to the bathroom. There was a long line in front of the pyramid, but since Jenn is totally Paris-savvy, we went down into the metro entrance and got in after just moments of waiting. The security, in my opinion, is very lax at the Louvre! They just check your bag for a couple seconds; there isn't even a scanner for you to go through! Very interesting...
After using the restroom (free! whoo!), we went up by the pyramids and took the most touristy pictures ever: one of each of us holding down the pyramid with our hands (literally everyone does this- there were at least five people doing it at the exact same time as us).

We decided to go to Sacre Coeur at Montemarte. We got to the area by metro, and when we came out, we saw stairs. (This wasn't the main staircase to the top, it was a side one, so it wound a lot and half the time we didn't even see the stairs until they were in front of us, teasing us...) there are only 235 steps up to the church (as opposed to the 670 to the second level of the Eiffel Tower), but after a full day of walking it seemed like so many more!
We got to the top and found some steps to sit on, admiring the view for a while. We were very lucky, because we happened to be there RIGHT at the time when THIS GUY was performing!

It was just spectacular to watch. Once the performance was over, we went into the church to have a look around. Jenn said she liked Notre Dame better (which I can understand but cannot say for sure as I haven't seen the inside yet), but it was still quite beautiful. The mosaic with Jesus was very large. I'm not sure I really have another way to describe it; it was just plain big. And concave.

(Not my picture- it's from the internet)

Anyway, the church was beautiful but neither Jenn nor I are very religious people, so after sitting silently for a while and just enjoying the peace and quiet, we exited the building. We wanted to go to Versailles, but it was going to close three hours later, so we decided instead to just go to the Moulin Rouge and then spend some time on the beach of the Seine, relaxing. We wanted to go to the information booth near Sacre Coeur first, just to make sure that going to Versailles wouldn't be like super cheap or easy and actually worth the journey out there. On the way, we stopped at a super-touristy shop filled with all things "paris" and bought some postcards and we each got a print of the Eiffel Tower. We ended up getting 12 postcards (I got ten, she got 2) for 2€. Pretty good deal! 

We stopped at the info-booth and the lady gave us directions to the Moulin Rouge. She didn't write them down, though, so we kept thinking we were going the wrong way. It was a much longer walk than we thought it would be (you know how everything looks really close on a map? And how nothing ever is close in real life? yeah, it was like that). 

On the way, we *sweartogodnotmakingthisup* saw a little kid, sans pants, peeing into a drain on the sidewalk while his mother stood watch. I... just... what... I don't get it. The really funny thing was that Jenn did not see it, and so when I was freaking out about it, she thought I was talking about something entirely different that was totally normal and not interesting or strange in any way. It took us a minute to sort out the confusion there. 

Okay, so we got to the Moulin Rouge and it was... okay? It was cool, I guess, 'cause there's a windmill and all, but it wasn't that pretty or well-cared for or even in any way isolated from the city. Next door to it was a money-change machine and a "quick burger" which is a European fast food chain that I think I've already mentioned. The point is; the Moulin Rouge was not worth the twenty minute walk from Sacre Coeur. Not at all. 

(But we took a picture anyway)...

My dumbass moment of the day (really, of the year), happened when we were on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street to get closer to the Moulin Rouge. There was a girl there talking very loudly to three French kids and asking them where the Eiffel Tower was (except that she was speaking in English). Honestly, I didn't even think about the fact that it was a weird situation and that something didn't feel quite right, I just saw these kids and this American all looking really confused. I went over and asked her "What are you looking for?" in English. She stared at me for a second, completely taken aback, and then pointed behind me to the big camera I had walked straight past and said, "No, it's filming." 

Yeah. 

I totally interrupted a movie. 

I'll just let that sink in for a bit while you laugh. I understand. 

We did appreciate the free, public bathroom in the Quick Burger and the cheap crepes from a vender next door, though. I'm just glad that Jenn got a French crepe (even if it wasn't the best). Mine had a liquidy chocolate in it that got all over everything. My jeans, my shirt, my new sweater, my backpack, everything! 

I forgot! Jenn got me a lovely, soft, black sweater and a really cute mini dress with poodles on it (the former, quite english, the latter, very french), and I ended up wearing that sweater off and on all day due to the sometimes-cold. 

So, after we finished our very messy crepes, we went back down into the metro to get to the beach. There is pretty much a long platform along a lot of the Seine bank on one side of one area of Paris, that is filled with sand. It's not so much a beach as it is a walkway where you can get sand in your shoes. We did spend a lot of time there, though, as we were tired enough that sleeping on some hard sand seemed like the best thing to do in Paris at the time. It was really pretty fun. We people watched, especially two hoola-hoop dancers who were hanging out nearby, and a beautiful family that spent some time near us. But mostly, we slept. 

At some point, we both had to use the bathroom, but we still didn't want to leave the beach. Looking back, we clearly should have just waited until we wanted to leave and then gone to find a bathroom together, but what we did instead was go separately. I went first, searching along the street in cafes and such. I walked into a shop with Greek food and must have seemed very obvious because the guy behind the counter asked, "Les toilettes?"

"Eh, oui, s'il vous plaît" I said, putting on my best "I'm cute" face. 

"En bas," He responded (which means, downstairs). 

"Et... ils sont pour le publique?" (loose translation- do I have to buy something first or are they free?) 

"Pour toi, oui!" He said. (Gotta love it!)

"Ah, merci beaucoup!" 

So I used the (surprisingly) clean bathroom. When I came back upstairs, however, the boss had showed up and he bombarded me with questions about what I wanted and what I was going to buy (I seriously felt like I was being attacked), so I quickly got a piece of baklawa (it was spelled with a w, is that normal?) and ran out. I told Jenn about the place when I got back, and she did find it, but that scary boss man was still there, yelling and attacking customers so she left and came back, not yet having found a bathroom. So at that point, we decided it would be okay to leave the beach. I was around eight, I think, then, and Jenn needed to be at the station by ten which meant we'd need to be on the metro by 9:30, at least. We hadn't actually eaten the rest of our food, so we decided to try to find a place with a bathroom where we could sit and eat. Jennifer remembered a little park with a big monument in the middle that had a photography exhibition and public bathrooms, so we went over there, knowing it was very close. It could probably have been dirtier than it was, but not by much. It was in this mini park surrounding Le Chemin du Saint Jacques, and within that was the exhibition of this photographer, Gabriel Diaz, who had gone to several towns and just walked through, taking a picture every eleven steps. There were big tv screens that were showing the pictures in rapid succession so that it looked like motion-stop animation, which was pretty cool; but most of the pictures weren't that great. Lots of road.

We could hear a concert going on at the Hotel de Ville, which we were walking toward, but it was pretty much over by the time we got close enough to see or hear anything. We admired the building while on the move and then hurried over to Notre Dame to finish our cookies and stare at the church. It felt very circular, as that's how our journey here in Paris really started; with Our Lady.

...Chez soi, et à Paris

"Il n’y a que deux endroits au monde où l’on puisse vivre heureux:  chez soi et à Paris."- Ernest Hemingway. 
Translation: "There are only two places in the world where we can live happy:  at home and in Paris."
Saturday morning began with a delicious, free Korean breakfast including (unlimited!) rice, a bowl of miso soup, and some various vegetable or meat dishes to eat with the rice, most of them spicy. It was so good, and so filling. Jenn and I left for the metro around nine and bought day-passes for the metro, thinking we would be using it enough for it to be worth it (we were totally right, especially since it was only 7€ for two days per person because we're 21 and if we'd bought each ticket, it would have been 1€70 each time). While waiting for the metro, we witnessed a few policemen coming in and frisking this guy and talking to him, but we never figured out why. 

We started at Notre Dame. 

Heey Notre Dame, wassup!

The first thing we did was to use the restroom (it was a really gross bathroom with no soap, thankfully Jenn had hand sanitizer, and these two women who were taking tips but not doing anything). We admired the outside of the building, but since Jenn had gone inside the day before (she got there pretty early in the morning on Friday), we didn't go inside. I'm going back to Paris next weekend anyway, so I'm going to go inside, and even tour the towers. We found out that, even though we're students (and that got Jenn into the Louvre for free yesterday), we'd still have to pay 6€ for the towers tour, so we skipped out and moved on the Musée d'Orsay. 

We walked along the Seine to get there, which was beautiful, 

and I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time, which was totally awesome! 

Jenn probably thought I'd gone crazy. I was quite excited. One stupid thing we did at the Museum was to go through all the stuff we didn't care about first (we just happened to do it by accident because we didn't have a good map), and so by the time we got to the paintings we really wanted to see, we were too tired to care. "Museum-fatigue," as the Australian girl Eleanor in the hostel who we had met the night before would say. 

As we were leaving the museum, it was just beginning to rain. There were street venders everywhere selling crappy trinkets and Jenn and I got to see them, upon feeling the rain, rush to a man-hole in the street, open it, and get out giant bags of umbrellas and begin selling them. It was insane! They literally just took them out of the street. One of them came up to me and Jenn and tried to sell us one... while we were both holding our umbrellas over our heads. What?!

After the museum, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. It was raining by that time, which was miserable and cold, but we did come out right next to a supermarket. Instead of getting really expensive sandwiches, we each bought a little euro-baguette, some slices of Gouda cheese, and some little French cookies. We didn't actually have any way to cut the bread, so when we ate our baguettes, we would take a bite of bread and then a bite of cheese. Why yes, we are cheap college students, how could you tell? 

By the time we actually got to the Eiffel Tower, it had stopped raining for the most part (weather changing in fifteen minutes? feels like home!), and so we sat on a semi-damp bench and ate half of our super-cheap, kinda-sketchy lunch, and people-watched (let's be honest; that really is the most fun thing to do anywhere in the world). There was this kid whose parents kept encouraging him to chase after the pigeons, simply because it was hilarious to watch him. He fell down a couple times, but didn't ever cry, just picked himself up and found another pigeon to chase. 

Being under the Eiffel Tower was an experience in and of itself. The architecture is absolutely beautiful- very elegant and impressive, and not a single bit of it could be considered ugly. It is an absolutely lovely creation. 

Jenn and I got in one line for a couple minutes, realizing after a bit that we needed another line. We wanted to take the stairs (because it's about 10€ cheaper than taking the elevator up to the second level). The line wasn't too long, thankfully, and we got in about half an hour after we arrived to the tower. It took about ten minutes to walk up to the first level (which they call the first floor). 

On that level, there is a lot of information about the tower (the building itself, the architect, the reason it was built, etc), as well as information about the famous French buildings that you can see from the tower, even from the first floor. 

That tiny building in the distance sticking above everything else is Sacre Coeur

Some interesting facts you may not (and that I certainly did not) know: 

1. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel designed the Eiffel Tower for a competition for the 1889 World Fair, which coincided with the 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution. 

2. It was originally meant to be a temporary structure, and everyone hated it when it was first built. In fact, one of the only reasons it was kept around is because it had become a radio and tele-communication tower. 

3. It takes 60 tons of paint to cover the Eiffel Tower, and a team of painters repaints it every seven years. 

4. There are 108 stories in the Tower (43 of which Jenn and I walked). 

After we were done with the first floor, and already feeling pretty tired, we trekked up to the second floor. We didn't read much of the information on that level because of our exhaustion, and then we took the elevator (that's the only way to get there) up to the top. It was very cold (about ten degrees difference, I'd say), and windy up there. Jenn and I admired the view and took a picture or two and then hurried into the interior to stay warm(er) and finish our lunch. Another cool thing is that the inside has the distances of many well-known cities all over the world posted. 

 Les deux

La vue

Jenn and I left the tower, but before we left the area, a man in an official tower vest asked us to take a survey about our experience. He really did not understand much of what he was saying (maybe the words, but not the grammar), and whenever we said we didn't use the restrooms or go into the restaurants (since there was no option called n/a or "did not go"), he wrote "very satisfied." Hmm... a little biased, maybe? I do remember that from statistics. At the end of the survey, though, we each got a little tower keychain (which are EVERYWHERE in Paris). 

We decided to walk across the Champs de Mars (the park next to the tower) to the École Militaire, 

hoping it would be open and have free admission. It wasn't open (it is, after all, still a functioning school and it was a saturday), but there was an interesting art-sculpture-thingy across from it which had "peace" written on it in a bunch of different languages, which I found gloriously amusing, because I can't imagine that it's placement in front of the "Military School" was accidental. 

Anyway, by then we were close enough to the Église des Invalides to walk over (we were getting very tired of walking at this point). This was also mostly closed (it was around 5), but the actual Dome of the church was still open, which holds Napolean's tomb (and the tombs of many other famous people). 

 L'Église des Invalides

Jesus with mood lighting

It was absolutely beautiful. Jenn's favorite part was the "mood lighting," which was some serious mood lighting. One area was just this beautiful gold, accented by the sunset outside, and another room was blue. 

This wasn't because of lights; it's because of the color of the stained-glass windows. The church was built by Louis XIV (Versailles guy) and "SL" is engraved all over the place. We were laughing about this church being  dedicated to "Saint Louis," (as in the city in Missouri, USA) but it turns out that that really is what it means; It's for Saint Louis (which totally makes sense; that Louis is such a pretentious bastard). I asked the woman staying at the entrance of the church to count the number of people coming and going what it stood for. She looked like she wanted to die; we're assuming she just really hates her job. Like, really. 

...

We went back to the Hostel for dinner and spent a little bit of time resting and on the computers. On the metro back out, we saw a man with a guitar who was singing in the other compartment. We took about twenty seconds to think about moving to the other compartment in order to listen to him, and then we were at a stop. We opened the doors, ran out, and the train nearly started moving by the time we got the doors on the other compartment open, but we made it! Turns out, though, that the man wasn't singing but just babbling in crazy-person talk and it was really uncomfortable for a good two minutes until he got off at the next stop. Thankfully, a couple stops after that, a young man with an accordion stepped on, and just as we rounded a corner in an above-ground section of the metro line and saw the Eiffel Tower lit up for the night, he began playing beautiful French music. I felt faint I was so happy. 

We were beyond excited to get to the tower, and we rushed out of the metro up to the street, almost instantly happening upon a man playing a piano on the sidewalk (a PIANO).

see that? It's a piano. 

Anyway, we listened for a tiny amount of time, but we were too excited to see the tower to stay, so we hurried over and spent a long time just admiring the beauty of the Eiffel Tower by night. We got there just in time, too, because not only does the tower light up like this every night after sunset: 

But also, for five minutes at 11pm and midnight, for five minutes only; something along the lines of sparkly-moving white Christmas lights dazzle the viewers (every person there made the exact same sound "ahhhh"), and it is just fantastic. Pictures, no matter how professionally taken, do not do it justice. This is the best picture I got, while there. 

We slowly made our way toward the tower, stopping at some point to admire (and then hop onto) a carousel. We did not pay. I tried taking a picture of Jenn, and that's the moment when my camera died, so there will be no more pictures from my camera (we got a few with Jenn's, but not many because every time you take a picture with her camera, it "dies" within a few seconds). We stayed on the carousel until the guy started coming around to get tickets and then hopped off, moving ever closer to the spectacular tower. 

The underside of the tower was even cooler when lit up, but we didn't stay for too long because we still wanted to see the Arc du Triumph and the Louvre Pyramid lit up. 

We assumed the Arc would at least be well-lit, but it really was just there and happened to be lit-ish by street lamps. If you've never been, it is in the middle of a giant roundabout which was impossible to get across with (probably) dying. Jenn and I, that night, did not know about the tunnel underneath that leads to the Arc. Even if we had known about it, it would have been closed. We very briefly considered just running for it, but then decided we would just come back tomorrow in the day time and hopefully find a way across. 

We left, then, and went to the Louvre. We were expecting the Pyramid to be lit (like it always is in all the pictures!) It was not. We asked the security guard who was closing the place up (it was like midnight at this point) if it had been, or would be tomorrow. "Non." Well, whatever. 

So, slightly less excited about the glory of Paris, we went home and slept. 

Next up: Sunday in Paris!