Bonjour!
Well, I am writing this final parisian blog from Missouri. I have been back in the states for just over a week now. But now, I will rewind two and a half weeks...
view from the Centre Pompidou
After the few days that I packed with exhibitions (all the buttons and Yves Saint Laurent), I was planning on continuing to see all the other "little sights" that I hadn't been to. I believe I posted them in the last blog (Victor Hugo's House, Museum of Tea, and a few others). I'm somewhat sorry to report that I did not accomplish the entire list. The list just changed. Daily. Nicole and I were pretty worn out that Saturday morning--we were actually going to school all week ya know. We ended up hanging out around the apartment for a lot of the day then just wandering around later that night. My first stop was the Centre Pompidou, the National Museum of Modern Art. There was an exhibition I had been wanting to go to, and I finally made it. The exhibition was called "Dreamlands" and was based off of a theme park in Coney Island. It described the many dreamlands we try to create, from theme parks to Epcot at Disney, to multicultural themed resorts all over the world (Las Vegas for example), as well as the ideas for Utopias that were never executed. It also included a lovely model of the World's Fair when it was in Paris. I ended the evening by meeting Nicole up in Montmartre for some coffee and dessert at a café. The next day I had a lot of things scheduled in, the biggest being the end of the Tour de France. This event also took up the entire afternoon, which was not exactly the plan. It was, however, a good experience and definitely worth going despite the hours and hours we waited! Perhaps my favorite part of the day was the carnival that is in the Tuilerie Gardens during the summer. It was full of cotton candy, candy apples, crepes, rides, games, and everything else that goes along with carnivals! It was so fun to walk around and watch all the kids having such a great time...not to mention all the sugar I consumed in such a short time :)
Dreamlands
le tour de France
Our last week of school was super relaxed--mostly because our grades were already in. We continued learning and actually progressed into some much harder grammatical topics, which I assume is to give you a taste of the next level (for those who did not have to leave Paris). I spent most of the afternoons just wandering around the city with my friends, eating at cafés, and trying to get packed...
water fountains that are all over the city
escargotOn Wednesday, my cousin Ida arrived in Paris as did Nicole's parents. So the six of us spent the majority of our remaining time in Paris together. We hit up all the main tourist attractions-- Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Centre Pompidou, Opéra Garnier, Champs-Élysées, etc. I'm really glad that I took the time to re-see all of the big things and make my way all around the city a few more times. The one new place that I did go was to the Catacombs. It was a little creepy and damp, but it was definitely one of my favorite places. Te catacombs run under the southern part of the city. The streets are even marking within them so that you know where you are. By the 17th century, the city's cemeteries were becoming so overcrowded that they were just throwing all the bodies in piles, and it became quite unsanitary and rather unbearable for the Parisians--thus the need for the catacombs. I also spent a lot of time in Montmartre (my favorite part of town) because that's where Ida's hostel was. I also finally made it the BHV (Bazar d'Hotel de Ville). This is perhaps my favorite store in the entire world. It pretty much has everything that you could ever need all in one store! We finished up the summer eating at lots of cafés, walking by St. Martin's Canal, and sitting on the steps of Sacré Coeur eating a baguette from the boulangerie that was voted 2010 Paris' best baguette. I'm not sure I could think of a better way to end it.
I don't have that much to write about this time, since my last few weeks were not necessarily spent seeing new things I hadn't seen before. Rather, they were spent revisiting all my favorite places and mourning my upcoming flight over the Atlantic. Oh yeah...the flight. After being evacuated from the airport due to security, being pressured to volunteer to stay an extra night because the flight was overbooked, and waiting an hour to check my two bags, I finally made it on the flight. The next 9 hours were fairly pleasant. I watched a few romantic comedies, read some of my french Harry Potter book, and ate a lot of gummy bears. Then I got to Chicago. Everyone else was moving through customs rather quickly, but not me. Nope. Guess where my two checked bags were? Yep. Sitting in Paris. I guess I should've stayed the extra night as they suggested. After a short flight to Springfield, I stepped out into 95 degree F weather at 8:30 at night. It was unbelievably hot and humid. Welcome back to Missouri, Trisha.
The house of Vincent VanGogh
Two days later, we picked up my bags from the airport, and I moved into my new apartment in downtown Springfield--a tiny one bedroom. It's cozy, and I like it :) I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, but it promises to be a busy month. Traveling a little to see friends and visit med schools, finishing up med school apps, and working on the independent study class that I should have finished a month ago. I am certainly experiencing a little backwards culture shock, and I never thought driving a car would feel so strange! I do miss Paris, more and more everyday. But I so look forward to returning, hopefully sooner rather than later. Ernest Hemingway said it best, "America is my country, but Paris is my hometown."
Paris, tu me manques
Thanks for following my blog this summer. My life at home is much to boring to blog about, so this is the last one. Merci beaucoup :)
Bisoux et au revoir!
Trisha
