After a lovely stroll, we decided to knock another item off my "Things to see in Paris before I leave on May 9th" list. So we headed up to Saint-Denis, which is the birthplace of the French Gothic, and also the French royal necropolis. It was a really pretty church: the stained-glass, the gisants, the architecture - plus the burial site for Clovis I, Carloman, Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XVI, and Marie-Antoinette.
After leaving, Taylor and I felt a bit famished. So we went to a little patisserie/boulanger by the metro stop and got a donut each. While we were waiting in-line, a young banlieue resident came up and grabbed a box of Kinder Bars from the counter. Why? Because that's how to be cool! What a grown man would want with an entire box of Kinder Bars is beyond me.
Later that night, Taylor and I joined up again and watched Clueless, which he had never seen before. Simply shocking, I know. Anywho, it was fun and I think Taylor really enjoyed the movie, which is great!
On Saturday, just after lunch, I met up with Taylor again, but this time at the Musée Carnavalet, which we needed to visit for a class. It is a great museum, and I want to go back and explore the rest of the beautiful rooms. After that, we just kind of wandered around the Marais trying to find a street fair that Taylor had seen a sign for.
We eventually found the fair - it was a vintage clothing/furniture expo held in the strangest space I had ever been in. There was no flow, no natural path. The rooms were just sort of randomly stacked one on top of eachother, which resulted in a Hogwarts-esque result.
Continuing on, we eventually ended up at the Centre Pompidou. Taylor wanted to go to the top of the escalator to see the view, and I had never done it myself, so we got our tickets and headed up the tube. It really is a spectacular view! We then decided to see what the museum had to offer, as neither one of us had ever been. Strange.
I really do not appreciate the turn that art has taken in the post-WWII society. In order to view most contemporary art pieces, the onlooker needs to be wealthy, well-educated in art history, and have lots of time to spend in front of an œuvre. That is ridiculous. Art should not be alienating the public, but rather embracing the public. But enough of that rant!
After Pompidou, Taylor and I decided to head to our respective apartments to eat dinner before Meredith's birthday party. However, on the way to the Metro, we came across KFC, and decided to get dinner there instead. Yum. We got a true dinner and show: we sat at the counter that overlooks Boulevard de Sébastopol, and saw a fight between to banlieue-iens. It was pretty violent - one of the guys had an eyebrow ring which resulted in a lot of blood shed. Then a few minutes later, we saw a group of tourist girls (they were all blond and wearing hoodies that said "I *heart* Paris") who came up the window and took pictures of themselves in front of Taylor and myself. Very peculiar.
Meredith's party was a lot of fun. However, I did not get in bed until 6:20 this morning. So I am dragging a bit.
Recently, I've started compiling a list of all the things I want to eat when I get back to America. This is what it includes at the moment:
- Goldfish
- Cooler Ranch Doritos
- Napoléon from Cosette
- Grilled chicken sandwich from BK
- NY pizza
- White American Cheese
- UTZ Cheese Curlz
- 28th Street Noodle from ThaiNY
- Fried Chicken and biscuits
Ok, that's it.
-Dave
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