Hello everyone! I've been getting some great e-mails from all of you out there reading this blog... well, there haven't been any e-mails, but at least none of them were bad! I changed the settings so that if you want to comment on here you can.
I finally got in touch with the lady I am to stay with in La Rochelle tonight. Turns out I was dialing number incorrectly (I feel really bad for the lady who kept getting my voicemails). She is going to pick me up at the train station tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I'll make it to the train station tomorrow morning without incident. I must say that I am quite ready to be settled. I decided to stay an extra night at my hotel when I couldn't talk to her yesterday, so I got to change rooms for my trouble. On the plus side, there's a bunk bed in here along with a double bed, so maybe I can finally live the dream of getting to sleep on the top bunk.
What an exhausting two days it has been. I am already tired of the commute into Paris, but it does give me an opportunity to eavesdrop on French speakers. Of course sometimes they talk to me directly, which makes me more nervous than Sylvester Stallone at a spelling bee. Most of the French people I have met are very friendly and personable. Some have even helped me, like a nice couple who sat next to me yesterday at lunch. They taught me the French word for asking for the check. Seems like the sort of thing I should know after so many years studying French, but I wasted all my time learning vocabulary for impractical things, like poetry and literature. They sat next to me while I tried escargot for the first. The texture is surprisingly similar to sautéed portobello mushrooms, but it wasn't bad at all.
Yesterday I went to Notre Dame (be sure to pronounce it in the bastardized American way). It was a nice change from the baroque cathedrals I saw this summer in Rome, but I didn't feel up to climbing the tower again (I've done it once before). After I left the cathedral I wandered over to the Panthéon. It was pretty cool seeing where all of my favorite Frenchmen are buried. I thought it was kind of funny that Rousseau and Voltaire are entombed right across from one another, since they were practically nemeses in life. Afterwards I took a brief walk to the Sorbonne (the major French university in Paris). It was neat, but the real treat was the philosophy bookstore that was nearby. They had an entire shelf dedicated to Quine (probably you don't care or know who I am talking about... it's never too late to crack open a book).
I wandered around Paris a bit more before I got bored and wound up in the Jardin de Tuileries. I got some friendly Americans to snap of photo of me (see above). Parts of the garden are a bit like a carnival. I found myself getting in touch with a more childlike Logan... well, maybe he's never very far away. I went up in the giant Ferris wheel and got to see the city. The Eiffel Tower is back to its regular yellow lights, now that 2008 is over. A family with two little girls rode in my car on the way around. They started singing "Champs Elysees" in a perfectly adorable fashion. I rode back to my hotel and went to sleep, after only getting lost just a little.
Today, Jet-lag really caught up with me. I was so exhausted on the train back from Paris, I could barely keep my eyes open. I managed to make it back to my hotel without getting lost (my first time this trip). It's a shame I'll be leaving Villepinte tonight, I think I'm finally getting to know my way around. I spent all day today at the musée d'orsay. They have some really bitchin' impressionist paintings, as well as a new exhibit on Picasso's interpretation of Manet's dejeuner sur l'herbs (google it!) As well as a temporary exhibit on pastels. I know... I'm kind of a museum nerd, so much so that I wandered around in the museum for over four hours, but to be fair I spent part of that time eating in the restaurant upstairs. There were just too many pretty things to look at. I decided to skip the Louvre on account of the fact that I've been several times and really love the musée d'orsay. Besides, La Rochelle is only about two and a half hours away by train, so I might come back to it eventually.
Anyway, I've got to get packing for my trip to La Rochelle tomorrow. I hope you enjoy reading these posts more than I enjoy writing them. Frankly I find this whole thing to be a bit narcissistic... even for me. Oh well, at least you can comment now!
