The RyanAir flight landed at Beauvais, which is actually in the Picardy region of France and is fairly northern. It's three times further from Paris than the Charles de Gaulle airport and you have to take a special bus to get to Porte-Maillot in Paris. The bus can take anywhere from an hour to three hours, depending on the traffic. Luckily, it took about an hour for me to get there.
Fran (Aunt Leah's aunt) and Bob were my gracious hosts for the evening. Fran picked me up from the bus station on Wednesday evening and walked me back to their apartment in the 17th arrondissement. Fran made a delicious dinner and then we took a walk to L'Arc de Triomphe. They live about ten minutes away, so we got there just in time to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle, which it does on the hour at night.
This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc, looking out on the Champs Elysee:
The next morning, I met up with Eric. He needed to get hair cut so we went to Space Hair in Le Marais. It was definitely the most unique salon I had ever been in. Catered towards gay men, it had disco balls and suspicious magazines. Oddly, the TV was playing "Little House on the Prairie" on mute.
After that, we went in search of food. We were trying to walk towards a cheaper area, but got caught in a flash storm so we just ran in to the cheapest creperie we could find. After lunch, Eric had class and I wanted to go to the Louvre, so we started walking in that direction. We went by Hotel de Ville, the city hall, which is extremely ornate, and Notre Dame. I was in awe of the building...and the line to get inside.
Once inside, I went up to the ticket desk in hopes of getting a student ticket. It turned out that if I showed my University of Edinburgh ID, they would give me a free ticket! This ended up saving me a significant amount of money throughout the trip. Fran had given me a pass for a free headset, which was really amazing. I just walked around the museum, listening to experts talk about all the art. It was great to see things like the Mona Lisa, but it's hard to enjoy the really famous works of art because of the crowds. My favorite part was the Mesopotamian section, which was nearly empty. The best part was, obviously, Hammurabi's Code.
After the Louvre, I wanted to go to the Musee d'Orsay. I figured I would walk through the Tuileries Gardens, which proved to be a small challenge. Even though it should have only taken a couple minutes to get to the other side, I couldn't find the exit. I ended up trapped for about twenty minutes which was pretty hilarious. The gardens looked pretty much like a park because of the crisp fall weather, but it was still beautiful
After the gardens, I crossed the Pont des Arts. There are bridges all over Europe with locks on them and this is the one in Paris. The idea is that couples put the lock on and then throw the key in the river.
Once I walked on to the bridge, I saw this older couple walking around. This is my favorite picture from all of the Paris trip (I don't think it needs much explanation):
On the way back to the apartment, I spotted a statue of Thomas Jefferson. It was in the Place des Etats-Unis. There are lot of small monuments to America/Americans in Paris and I was so excited to see my favorite president in France! I have to admit, one of the reasons I started French in middle school was because of how much I loved American history and Thomas Jefferson.
The Musee d'Orsay was great, but I barely had the energy for it. There was an exhibit on "Oscar Wilde's England," which was fantastic. A lot of the building is being renovated now, but it was worth going.
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