It's official: Paris has overwhelmed me. There's just too much to take in. Not only is the city sensationally insane--crawling with Parisians, tourists, mopeds, cars, buses, and trains rushing to and fro; medieval streets zig-zagging in all directions; six-story buildings rising on all sides; noises, smells, and colors pressing in from all directions--but it is also emotionally over-saturated. So much has happened in this place, and the reality of this history follows me everywhere I go. "Who has walked here before me?" is a thought runs through my head frequently.
Unsurprisingly, a lot has happened since my last post. One of the biggest developments is probably that we've begun to use the métro, and using the métro means we have started to venture outside our quartier (neighborhood). My realization on this point is that we are staying in a really nice part of Paris (a.k.a. the part reserved for tourists and the rich Parisians). On Saturday a group of us decided to go to Montmartre (north Paris) because it was a clear day and the view from Montmartre (if you climb the hill to Sacre Coeur (cathedral of the Sacred Heart)) is fantastic. Professor Barjasteh warned us to be on our guard because the pick-pockets are notorious in Montmartre, so we were all clutching our purses and cameras pretty voraciously. The view was indeed gorgeous, and we had fun taking out a map and picking out all the monuments that we could see as we looked out over the Parisian skyline (Panthéon, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Centre Pompidou, etc.). After exhausting our Kodak moments for the day, we split up and Taryn and I took a walk around the quartier to find the Musée de l'Erotisme (yep, the Museum of Eroticism--what a place!). Contrary to the Latin Quarter, this neighborhood was filled with deteriorating buildings with graffiti smeared on their walls. Trash was scattered about the streets and a a foul-smelling stream of sewer water flowed down the center of the alleys. A good portion of the immigrant population lives in this area, and poverty is a major problem. But this place, too, plays a part in the great drama of Paris. Possessing its own sense of vivacity (and maybe even humor, if you can appreciate the ridiculousness of the sex shops boldly proclaiming their services in flashing neon), this area contributes to Paris's personality, taking it out of the fantasy world of croissants and the Eiffel Tower and plunging it into the more tactile reality of a modern city where real people live, work, and struggle to survive.
Journeying back to the land of fantasy, on Sunday we spent the day shuffling between Notre Dame and the Louvre. We went to a Gregorian Mass at Notre Dame in the morning, then walked to the Louvre to spend an hour or so with the French masters. (Ellen and I focused on David's Les Sabines: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Sabines .) After a light lunch à emporter (to go--it costs more to sit at the restaurant) in the Tuileries Gardens, we walked to the Conciergerie (where, among other things, the prisoners of the French Revolution were held before being guillotined) and then returned to Notre Dame to listen to the organ audition (an organ prodigy plays every Sunday afternoon in the cathedral). We had just exited Notre Dame when we heard an explosion. Unsure of what had happened, we waited until we saw a stream of people running toward us to decide we needed to get out of there. Another stream of people greeted us as we crossed the Seine, and that's when I realized that it was some kind of organized demonstration, a grève (strike) or something similar (quite normal in France). We calmed down, especially after seeing the police out in force, but man, what the adrenaline rush, especially after our visit to the Conciergerie! As it turns out, the explosion was a firework and the over-excited mob was a religious group honoring St. Genviève. They paraded en masse past our hotel, banners and lit torches in hand as I watched from my balcony.
Another piece of big news: yesterday we (the Rennes group) met with the students that we will be studying with in Rennes. There about 40 of us total, all hailing from different universities around the United States. Everyone was super nice, and we enjoyed a laughter-filled dinner together at a restaurant near the Louvre. I'm really looking forward to going to Rennes. I have about eleven days left in Paris . We bought our train tickets today. I will arrive at the train station in Rennes to meet my host family (ma famille d'accueil) on Sunday, January 23rd at 4pm France time.
We go to Versailles tomorrow. I have been dying to go to Versailles for over seven years, ever since I became obsessed with Marie Antoinette in 7th grade. At last, j'y irai!
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