No Rest for the Vacationing

Sorry for the intermittent updating. I'm just so busy, kiddos! I have officially one week left until I go to Grenoble for a petit voyage to see Gaby, and then when I come back Papa and Baby L arrive the day after. So I really only have seven days (well, six now...eek) to do everything I have left to do. Which is weird, because if you take a look back through this blog, I really have done in insane amount of things in Paris already. I went through my guide books and checked off page by page the things I had visited/seen/eaten and almost the entire book was full of check marks. And yet, I still have a list the size of the fifth Harry Potter novel to get through. Maybe Definitely, Paris is not the city that never sleeps (it was yet another jour férié today, jokes all around), but there is such an incredible wealth of things to do and see that you will never run out. Buy a Pariscope on a Wednesday at a tabac and see what I'm talking about - that thing is like 200 pages of lists on lists of free or almost-free expositions and spectacles throughout the city. I've been working hard though to accomplish what I want to get done, so don't worry (I know you're all very worried for me).

Here's a sampling of things I've done since school ended and since it finally stopped pouring every day! (We are now into high 70s and sunny all the time...don't worry the French are all still in long sleeves and pants.)

A lil' taste of home with (soy) burgers and milkshakes at Breakfast in America:

This girl <3

I saw an insanely good Grimes concert at La Flèche d'Or:

I did the European Museum Night, where most every museum in various cities across Europe stays open until midnight or later (and is free for everyone). Naturally, lines abounded, but I did manage to go to two museums earlier in the day and then two more that night. I saw this amazing expo at the Danish Museum where this man made beautifully intricate sculptures out of normal 11x14 paper... of course I forgot my camera, but here is his website. Click click click, it was so cool! At night, I visited the Arts et Métiers museum, which was rather confusing since it was mostly about inventions but it didn't really explain what anything did. It was a lot of moving gears and such. We did make it just in time to see a mini little show where they demonstrated all sorts of animatronic dolls (I think that's what they're called? Le yikes...) and paintings that moved when wound up, including one that belonged to Marie Antoinette and is said to have her hair as the doll's wig. The museum also made me realize how standard our Statue of Liberty is, since they had one outside and at least two more in the museum (still "dedicated to America", which is weird that they are still in France. Maybe they were practice statues?) Then, we made it out into the middle-of-nowhere edge of Paris to the science museum to catch the midnight showing at the Planetarium. I learned all about how the Earth was formed. Science!

La liberté

I learned how to make macarons! It was surprisingly easy! This might be due to the fact that the woman who taught us had every fancy piece of baking equipment ever!

Mes amis awkward

Hard at work...

Finished product!

Heaven

I enjoyed that beautiful weather, visited the Modern Art Museum along the way (which was for the most part an enjoyable experience that did not feature too many bizarre things... although there was this one glass box that had nothing in it that was called "The Glass Box" and that apparently the museum actually paid to buy. Lolwut), and took a tour of the Musée Rodin:

Closed museum across the street from the modern art museum but which had, appropriately, modern artwork installed on the side of the building

Never gets old.

Musée Rodin

Dôme des Invalides peekin' over the hedge

Zee Thinker

I was one with the Frenchies and picnicked on bread, cheese, wine, and fruit in Parc Montsouris. And then I was as far from being one with the Frenchies as possible and did a nighttime Seine tour on one of the Bateaux Mouches:

Hey guys, it's nananananana!

Les touristes

Then, I left Paris for the day and headed out to Chantilly (only 25 minutes by train!) to visit the Chateau and everything that came along with it. It was gorgeous! There was so much to do just within the grounds... we saw a horse show in the giant stables that were basically nicer than my house (where they demonstrated different dressage techniques aka all the weird things people make horses do to win medals... highlight was this one horse who was a newbie but highly enjoyed the applause and so kept trying to show the audience everything he had ever learned ever even when it wasn't his turn, and then nudging his trainer to see if she had any cookies as rewards every five minutes. I feel ya, horse), we visited the giant woods with tons of flowers and random little corners with statues just hanging out, we checked out the fancy gardens, and of course we sampled the chantilly! (The word means whipped cream in French, since it is in this town that it was created... and ohmygod it was good. And so different from any other whipped cream I've had. This was the real deal y'all.) Oh. We also visited the chateau and its museum. It was also about 1000 degrees outside (be careful what you wish for I suppose) and I now have the skin of a lobster as a result. Oh it burns guys. It burnnnnnns. I am basically bathing myself in burn cream at all hours of the day and night. (....sorry Ma)

À l'approche...

The stables

Chateau!

Horsies

Showin' off

Anna getting lost in a MAGICAL FAIRY WONDERLAND

"I'll have the whipped cream with a side of ice cream please"

Pre-lobster

I also saw a great concert again at Salle Pleyel (although I don't think I ever mentioned that I went during spring break with Maman... Brahms 2 and Brahms 4, dead, all the feelings, will never get over them)... Beethoven Leonore III Overture, Schumann Concerto for Cello, and Dvorak New World. It was also the conductor's last concert in Paris before his retirement... so, in typical Parisian style, he did not one, not two, but THREE encores. Count 'em! I basically saw a double concert!! At the end there were free programs for next season and I essentially salivated over all the amazing concerts coming up next year that I will (sob sob sob) not be able to see.

Anyway, today we went to the Père Lachaise cemetery. Is that weird that a cemetery is a tourist attraction? Yeah. It's kinda weird. You visit famous people's graves and you're like "Sooooo thanks for being born and contributing to society! Kbye!" Also, having lots of tourists mixed in with people visiting their family and friends is a very strange combination. That being said, you guys want to see pictures of famous peoples' graves?

The love of my life? uh, it's Chopin y'all

Jim Morrison (note the beer cans)

Edith Piaf

:)

 And then, in the far corner of the cemetery, there was an entire section devoted to Holocaust memorials. It was very unexpected, and a very different kind of memorial... the statues were quite horrific, featuring these emaciated and tortured bodies. Below them were buried the ashes of victims from different concentration camps. Eek eek eek. I took pictures just because I'd never seen anything like it:

The cemetery itself is very different from most American ones; it is packed with giant tombs and statues and monuments all one on top of the other, and it goes on and on and on! It's also on a giant hill, thus making it even more typically French as it's not very practical.

Glass protecting the tomb of Oscar Wilde from all them kisses

Making her mark

  Tonight, Brigitte took me out to dinner and we met up with her friend, also named Brigitte (lol) who I met back in February at the Salon du Livre. It was incredibly lovely and I felt very French. We, of course, had champagne to start, and I had my choice of not one, not two, but four vegetarian options(!). The restaurant had its doors wide open onto the terrace and the breeze was blowing in and the food was excellent (I finally got my first French créme brûlée!) and ugh just typical perfect Paris. Here's an older photo of me and Brigitte at the Midd party looking our chic-est that Enyi sent to me, in case you forgot what we looked like (although Brigitte thinks she looks very "ugly" in this photo so don't tell her it is now out on the Internets okay?):

Okay it's 2am and as I am on a very strict tourist schedule I need to get to bed. It's a rough life I live but I'm managing. I cannot believe I'm leaving so soon... I prefer to ignore this fact entirely and remain in fantasy-land, where I never have to leave this incredible city.

Bonne nuit!

x R.