Ah je ne sais pas which language ich schreibe in.
It won't be long before I begin writing in Greek as well, I promise you; I am thoroughly linguistically confused after this week.
While everyone was miserably stuck in London on Thursday, I got to take the train to Paris with Alexis. So lucky! Snowmageddon* had apparently melted slightly and we made it there with only 12 minutes delay. (* When there is snow in Paris all transport ceases to function; people will wander over the high way, sleep in their car; it is chaos; it is the end of the world. Or so they say.)
(See you in January Durham!)
(Aha a rare shot of Good Friend Max, playing in the metro.)
We used our time very well, mainly working/playing cello in the mornings, wandering around Paris in the afternoon, and relaxing with several good movies at night. Ah and check out the food (or, my French Alexis collection):
(Serving the food, as usual.)
I even took some much desired photos of his house, Hilary, Michaela, everyone else, I present:
All right, I wonder if I remember...
On Friday we (this from Alexis' memory) visited Quartier Latin and had lunch in the Luxembourg Garden. Later we went to the Louvre - totally free for us by the way! - and we basically saw the Mesopotamian section (ah and Palmyra of course!). Mm, I love the Louvre. I really think it is too overwhelming... but I'd like to live there. Just wander around at night, or really early in the morning when there's no one there yet, and it's very quiet, and all mine. I'd take that over Durham Castle any time. In the evening we went to the cinema to see Days of Heaven.
Saturday I finished a whole load of my pixel work, so we got off to a bit of a late start - oh it feels so good to get a level done though! We went to the Branly museum, which was quite interesting - it reminds me of the Tropical museum in Amsterdam, but then a bit better. I think the thing I enjoyed most about it though was the architecture. Oh and the displays! Mm amazing information displays - err apart from the bit that everything was in French. In fact everything, in the Louvre too, everywhere, seems to lack an English translation. I understand it - but what about tourists? The French just don't care haha. Then afterwards, we got to meet my friend Sébastien in Montmarte; we hadn't met in a long time so this was very cool. In the evening we watched Meetings with Remarkable Men by Peter Brook.
Sunday we first visited Musée Rodin, which was a pleasant surprise for me; of course I've seen his sculptures before but I'd never seen a whole collection, and it's truly very good. Next we went to Musée d'Orsay; unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos there, because otherwise I'd show you one of the building - inside a former train station the main hall is really very beautiful. There was so much to see there, though more cover-able than the Louvre. We saw some van Gogh - but the museum in Amsterdam definitely wins. We also saw Monet, Manet, Renoir, Gauguin, Cézanne, ... Afterwards we passed by the Notre Dame as well - way too many people in there, and no one obeying the 'silence!' signs. At night we watched das Leben der Anderen with Elena. German movie with French subtitles, and my brain is still (somewhat) intact.
On Monday we went to look for some cello-clarinet sheet music. Surprisingly we actually found some too! To be continued. Wait had I mentioned the bookshops yet? Mm bookshops. We walked around Montmartre this time too (there was too much snow blowing around to do anything on Saturday) and up to Sacré-Cœur. Hahahaha, there were a bunch of Dutch people behind us in the Metro complaining about all the stairs. Ah, the Dutch... Anyway, next we went back to the Louvre, to see the Italian section this time. Said hi to Mona Lisa too, or, what could be seen of her through the tourists - even the first time my mum took me to see her, all I remember is a vague sense of disappointment and very many tourists. Hmm. So, then finally, we went French Scarf Hunting. I obtained a French scarf, which shall hopefully psychologically improve our French back in Durham.
Now, some obligatory photos of Paris - I tried to stay away from anything nauseatingly touristy, but a misty Eiffel Tower simply had to be captured:
So once again I miraculously made it home. My train was delayed by about 70 minutes, but I shall not complain after the adventures of Nicolas, Michaela, and just about everyone else. Will I finally be doomed when I try to go to Istanbul then? Or Sweden? Oh dear.
In any case, I found the cookies I had when I was little, I got to eat French bread, and most importantly - still find Parisian Snowmageddon to be an urban myth. It was lovely to spend time with Anna and Elena and see Sébastien.
Merci, Alexis, for a wonderful time.
