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…
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...
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