Day 3
Day Three, on which we shop, we cry, we go bohemain ex-patriate / existentialist
10:12 a.m.
OH. MY. GOD. We totally have our own "ugly naked guy!" I just crawled out of bed. My bleary eyes have barely adjusted to the light of day when I stumble over to the window to check out the weather. My meteoric reveries are cut short as I look down and notice a naked man at the window one floor down and across the courtyard. Instinct takes over and I shy away from the window before I can confirm that he is, indeed, ugly. But believe me, folks, he is definitely naked! Any moment now I expect Chandler and Joey to bust through our hotel room door - lol!
Yesterday, I wondered about what surprises today might hold. I think I can safely say that I wasn't expecting that one! The rest of the day will likely be tame in comparison ;).
9:58 p.m.
It's late, we've eaten, we've showered, I'm lying in bed typing drinking a bottle of Smirnoff ice (hey, we've had wine and beer all day, it is time for something different!)
Today was another very fun day. I don't think we walked as much as yesterday but I'm still dead tired. I don't think I'll be staying up until 2am tonight. Good thing since we have a 7am train tomorrow.
We got another late start today - so no cafe and croissant. We headed over to the bon marche - the oldest department store in Paris. Cris really wanted to see the gourmet food market they have and I thought it would be neat to check out the store, but was fairly certain that I wouldn't buy anything. After having read that it was the also the most upscale department store in Paris, I knew it would be out of my range. They were having some sort of tribute to Marc Jacobs but I couldn't figure out what that meant for the store, except that they had a fragrance named after him. The subway signs advertising the exposition are really funny: "Marc Jacobs - the most Parisian of the New York creatures". Nice. Lol.
The store had beautiful clothing but, as predicted, was way out of my price range. According to Cris, it was NOT a bon marche. It was a tres cher marche!
Now I was in the market for a denim skirt. I had enjoyed wearing my skirt the day before but was terrified to sit anywhere for fear of dirtying it up. I figured denim would be durable enough and wouldn't show the dirt too badly. Cris was in support of this plan as apparently, he likes it when I wear skirts. Yesterday I got a little cheer for wearing one. Who knew?
We decided to head over to The Samaritaine and shop there. We would also have lunch in the rooftop cafe that supposedly gives a great view of the city. We had tried to go there last winter but it was closed. Well we had even worse luck this time - the entire store was closed!
At this point, getting caffeine into my system was becoming imperative so we stopped for lunch at Cafe du Ponte Neuf. I asked for a croque monsieur and got a croque madame instead. Oh well, it was really good. It was probably punishment for not only ordering my coffee with milk, but also asking for it with my food. G-r-o-s-s!
I had read about another department store in the direction we were headed so we started walking. I found a cute skirt at C&A a large clothing store. I would have loved to take my time and shop in all the boutiques but I didn't want to spend a whole day in search of denim. They had another skirt that I just absolutely loved but the black one was just a touch too tight. Maybe Julie and I can recreate it when I get home (as if she's sitting around bored waiting for projects! Ha!)
Our next stop was a big one - the Musee D'Orsay. Oh. My. God. It was so beautiful! The architecture was breathtaking - the renovated inside of an art noveau train station with a beautiful giant clock. It was already around 4pm and my legs were tired so we decided to head right for the Impressionists. Most of them are located on the 5th floor. When we got up to that floor, we encountered THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SIGHT. It was our favorite moment of the day. There is a large clock face on the outside of the station on the 5th floor. You can see through the middle of the clock over to Monmartre. Prefectly framed between the iron structure and clockwork mechanisms was the beautiful Sacre Couer church sitting on the hill and overlooking the city. Just down the hill, you could see the opera house. We took about a gazillion pictures of this as we are hoping that one or more were good enough to frame for the living room.
Here are a couple of samples:
When we finally tore ourselves away from this view, it was time to view the Impressionists. This was honestly the first time I had had my breath taken away by paintings. They were so beautiful, they brought tears to my eyes. Would I lie about this? :) The Degas, Manets, Monets, and Renoirs were my favorites. There were some cool Neo-Impressionists who I really liked as well but I'm too lazy to go get the book I bought and tell you who they were. We spent forever and a day looking at all of them.
I found that the Cezanne's didn't really grab me and all I could think about with the Gaugin's were his French colonialist / pedophilic tendencies. But oh, the others more than made up for it. It was so cool to view them from far away and get closer and closer and closer to see the way the images were composed. I wanted to beat some dumbass that was taking pictures on him camera phone. Your camera phone? Really? What kind of dumbass goes to a museum with only his camera phone? And why are you sticking it in my shot and taking forever because the damned thing cannot take a good picture? Why should the rest of us suffer because you were too cheap / too dumb / too forgetful to bring a real camera? I guess I should just be glad he was moved enough to take a photo but it seemed like the breaking point of three days of watching idiots use camera phones to document all of these incredible things.
Here are some shots of some favorites:
This has deepened my resolve that one way or another, we have to get to Giverny to see Monet's house and the Japanese bridge over the pond. Plus Rouen will now be a one-two punch: 1. Joan of Arc and 2. The cathedral that Monet painted multiple times.
We were determined to get back to our hotel early tonight since we have an early wakeup tomorrow. So we decided to head for a nearby caf鬠get some dinner, and head back to the hotel. We chose the Les Deux Magot - former hangout of Sartre, Simone di Beauvoir, and Hemingway. Another great meal with lots of atmosphere.
The blurb about the caf頡nd the surrounding sights:
Well, if we are really going to turn in early, I better sign off. I need to do some research on tomorrow's destination - Geneva!
