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.