Yes, I'm up at 6:10 on a Sunday morning, and this is after I tried to will myself back to sleep for about 45 minutes. The wind this morning is absolutely ridiculous. It seriously sounds like the roof is going to fly off the building. When I went out in the hallway to go to the bathroom, it sounded like the windows were going to be ripped right off their hinges. Because each room has a vent in it, the air flow through this upper floor is unreal! It's actually quite terrifying. I imagine that this is what a tornado sounds like. Anywho, the fact remains that I am up now, and I need to update this mama.
Cáit and I met up on Friday at noon to go to RestoU. So we traversed the 15th , found the RestoU, and show the guard our IDs. (By the way, I can't spell guard. Every time I write it out, it's gaurd, and every time, I need to correct it!) The guard informed us that it had closed at Noon, that it had been this way for many years, and that it was clearly marked online. Although, we're apparently not alone: he said a lot of people ask him about the RestoU.
Oh well! So, we took ourselves across the street to a Chinese restaurant. My limited French with my thick American accent did not mesh well with the server's limited French and her thick accent. After thoroughly stuffing ourselves with fried goodness, we set off on our day's adventure. Thanks to Cáit's beautiful map, I can recreate our journey!
We began with a trip to the Catacombs. Wow! What a terrifying experience! Cáit claims she was on the verge of wetting herself, and I almost ate my pamphlet. Imagine going underground via a little tiny spiral staircase, going beneath the sewers and the subways, coming out in this concrete room with other people looking at pictures and history, heading into the actual tunnels, and seeing no one, hearing no one, and wandering in very poorly lit mines with shadowy nooks and crannies, the whole time knowing that this is an enormous section filled with dead people. I'll put up some pictures to explain:
Tiny, dark winding mines with scary nooks and grates
Bones. Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of bones.
During the Second Empire, a massive cemetery was dug up, and all the bones were brought here. To say thousands of people had there bones' in the catacombs doesn't really paint a complete picture. We wandered fro about 20 or 30 minutes in the catacombs, and every wall of the entire journey was comprised of bones! They had so many bones that they made designs with them! Disgusting.
The exit for the Catacombs dropped us out in the middle of a random side street. We had not idea where we were. So after making our initial wrong turn, we headed off to Rue Mouffetard. The name comes from the no longer extent tributary that ran right next to the street. Apparently everyone dumped their waste in the water, and it stank like skunks, which is moufette in french, and thus Rue Mouffetard. Anywho, it's a narrow street winding up a hillside, and it's lined with little shops and restaurants and bars. We even found a bowling alley! Our souvenir for this leg of the trip was a bag of really stale gummies, the kind of stale gummies that rip your teeth out!
Next stop? The Pantheon. I can't remember why we went in that direction, but we spend a few minutes resting on the steps of the Pantheon before heading off to the Institute of the Arab World, the building that put the architect Jean Nouvel on the map. Essentially, he designed a screen for the all glass façade that is reminiscent of north African wood screens. But this screen is made out of steel, and the openings are equipped with light sensitive apertures, which means that as the sun load on the screen increases, the apertures close, reducing the amount of light and heat that hits the interior of the building. However, the apertures are often breaking. Oh well!
Notice how some of the openings are smaller than others?
Then we wandered to the Garden of Plants, which was ... lackluster. Granted, its February, and not much is going to be in bloom! Then, after misinterpretting the size of Paris, I suggested we walk to the French National Library. Yeah. Not really as close as I thought it would be. It was a fun walk though. All new 20th and 21st century buildings.
Anywho, the Bibliothèque National de France is a large rectangle with a courtyard in the center. The study rooms, reading rooms, and lecture halls are all centered around this courtyard. Then, on the four corners of the rectangle, four L-shaped towers rise about 15 or 20 stories. These are the stacks. I can't imagine that the whole 4 stacks thing works very well, but the French don't seem to mind, so who am I to complain? We headed inside to find a much needed bathroom. There was a cleaning woman standing outside the men's bathroom. I had to say "excuse me" to get by her. Then, after coming out of my stall, she was wiping down the sinks. I waited a reasonable amount of time before saying "excuse me" again. It should be noted that neither time did she express and recognition that I had spoken to her. Then, after drying my hands, following the logical pattern, I decided to leave the bathroom. But her cart was blocking the entire doorway! Once again "excuse me." She gave me an attitude and said "Just push the door open more!" Ok then.
One of the stacks at the BN de F
The BN de F repented for this rude woman by giving us a cool map exhibit. Cáit and I both got to make maps. You should check them out on Facebook! We went to a few shops at the BN de F movie theater, then decided it was time for din-din. So we headed back to Rue Mouffetard, via metro this time. Both our feet were hurting by this point.
Our dinner experience really crowned our day's journey. We found what looked like a nice quiet restaurant with a decent prix fixe. We walk in, sit down, and realize that the only other people in the place are part of an enormous group of American college students. Super authentic! Our waiter came over, and I almost screamed. He was probably the scariest human being I have ever seen! Imagine Criss Angel, but old, and 10,000 times creepier. He was nice and accomodating, but still, very scary. Somewhere between the escargots and the bœuf bourguignon, the lights started flickering, and colored light ball started spinning and the music volume went way up! The rest of the meal consisted of good food, good conversation and Criss Angel doing the Macerana!
After splitting up for the night, I spent two pointless hours going through this website, called "Picture is Unrelated." Quality! My favorite is the image posted below:
Seriously, what is this?!
The next day, yesterday, Saturday, Feb. 27th: whatever you want to call it, I met up with Cáit and Grace for a picnic in the Luxembourg Gardens. It was very enjoyable and very filling. Though, during the meal, it got significantly colder, and by the end of the dessert section, I was ready to get up and move around. We met up with Michel on the Île-de-la-Cité, and sort of wandered around together for awhile. We tried Notre Dame, but decided that waiting in line was a stupid idea. We went to the smallest street in Paris "Rue du Chat-qui-pêche." We hit up Shakespeare & Co. We went to Île-St.-Louis and tried find Berthillon ice cream, because nothing completes and cold and dreary afternoon like ice cream. Then we wandered back to Michel's apartment, saw his place, and discovered his landlord's obsession with turtles, and then split ways once again for the evening. Still exhausted from the day before, I threw in the towel early and went to bed around 10:45.
Then I was woken up by the crazy wind! And now I'm finishing my blog post, 1 hour and 29 minutes after I began.
À bientôt,
Dave
By-the-by, I believe there is a rogue "nt" in here somewhere. Point it out to me if you see it! Thanks.
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