Fitting it all in...(Part 3).

Yesterday (Wednesday), I finally made it over to the Musée d'Orsay, which is a museum inside of the old Orsay train station. For some strange reason I thought that it was a modern art museum nad I was so confused as to why there was so much impressionism and postimpressionism paintings, until I figured out that I had been gravely mistaken. It's a pretty good museum, not my favorite, but not too bad. One of the things that I found the most interesting though was the way that they turned a train station into a museum and their use of space.


Here's a picture of the main floor, with a view of the famous clock.

The had a special section on the Opera Garnier that was really cool. This is a side split view of the entire operahouse. I never realized how much space there was behind the stage.

I also just wanted to note (because I don't think that I've ever mentioned this, though maybe I did?) that NYU gave us id cards that say we're all art history students on the back, and that gets us into every public museum for free, which is awesome!


Today was an action packed day:

After my final, I visited my friend Rachel's class. She's in an advanced conversation class that meets with a group of French students who are studying English (I've mentioned them before, way back at the beginning of the semester) and their big project was to make 5 minute movies with the French speaking English and vice versus. They screened the movies today and they were all really good and funny (though of course, Rachel's was the best). Interestingly, I had a really hard time understanding the French people speak English but it was pretty easy for me to understand the NYU students speaking French.

After that was finished, I went to Belleville with Sara and Kelsey. It's a neighborhood that's in the northern part of Paris and according to Sara and her guide book, there's lots of cute little shopping. Au contraire though. Pretty much all I saw was a thriving Chinese neighborhood, dirty streets, and a couple of parks. Oh, and there was a canal too, which you can see in the movie Amelie. It was nice to say that I've been there though. One more part of Paris discovered (if only a little bit).

I left Sara and Kelsey shopping in Belleville to go to the Latin Quarter and go to Shakespeare and Co. for the first time (I know, how have I been in Paris for 4 months and not gone yet?? I don't know either...) Shakespeare and Co. was pretty much what I expected, a tiny cramped little bookstore, reminiscent to the Strand back in New York. And they all spoke English! I found a copy of Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (the book that saved and made famous the decrepite church) for only 2 euros and the cool thing about that is that Shakespeare and Co. is literally right across the Seine from Notre Dame. When I was standing at the outside books on sale cart, looking at Notre Dame de Paris, I could see the real Notre Dame out of the corner of my eye, which I'm pretty sure makes the book extra special. Then, when I was paying for my purchase, I struck up a conversation about the ballet Raymonda which I went to see with NYU last week and despite the fact that I was sitting directly underneath the lights (so hot) and couldn't see the right part of the stage. The cashier guy was playing music from the ballet and had the Wikipedia page up for it, because, as I found out, he was going to see it for the second time tonight. Then he suggested that I check out this other ballet at the Opera Garnier on Saturday night before I leave. Thanks NYU in Paris for making me cultured!

Then, I got a phone call from a friend of Aleja (my past and now future roommate), who is living in Paris. I met up with him to have coffee and it was really nice to meet someone new. Now I have a second invitation to visit Colombia (where both Aleja and her friend are from), which I think pretty much means that I'm obligated to go...

After that it was dinner time. I went to the same steak-frites place that Mom, Brad, and I went to on their last night, but unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately?) there was no tooth incident. It was one last nice dinner with all of my friends in Paris before we all leave.

I hung out with some more friends after that, but soon we (Kelsey, Sara, Ferris, and I) found ourselves on a late night walking tour of Paris, which was really awesome, especially since it suddenly today got really warm here, like close to 50 degrees. Here's some pictures from our adventure:

Notre Dame with a Christmas tree! Right in front of the Christmas tree is a sign on the ground that marks that spot as the center of the world, because it was the point where everything in France used to be measured from. I stood in the center of the world and it was awesome.

This is something really cool. Haussmann, the man under Napeleon III who completely changed Paris and made what it is today (wide sprawling avenues, beautiful buildings, sanitary, etc), attacked the Ile de la Cite (the island that Notre Dame is on and which was once where all of Paris was) drastically reducing the amount of people who resided on the island and building government buildings in their place. In destroying all of these houses, he widen streets and stopped them from being dark, crowded, and small. How small? you ask. Well, lucky for us, they left a little marker showing exactly where a street used to stand in front of Notre Dame and here is a picture of Kelsey standing on the "street" so you can get an idea of how ridiculously little the streets were. The two strips of white stones mark where buildings would start. Imagine walking down those roads, with people throwing waste out their windows on you. Not to mention that the houses were tiny and tall, making them incredibly susceptible to collapsing. On top of you. Not fun. Can you see how small that is?? You could fit maybe 3 Kelseys and she's really small.

View of the Seine.

Another view of Notre Dame, but farther away.

After this we proceeded to try and find a cab, which was close to impossible. After going to 2 ridiculously long cab lines, we finally ended up at a moderately long one and then waited in line for about an hour to get a cab. I have no idea why so many people were taking taxis tonight, but it was frustrating. NYC subway, I miss you...