Montmartre and Memories

The semester is screeching to a halt, and I can barely believe it. I turned in my last paper of spring semester this morning...it hasn't quite hit me yet. I still have two final exams to go, but no more essays! I can't believe how four months have passed already. I feel like I'm just starting to blend into this city. I've had an incredible time here, though.  It felt like everything came full-circle today. Early on in the semester, I visited Montmartre with my friend Sarah, and we talked about how we envisioned the semester playing out.  I remember commenting about how everything--the weather, the flowers--would be just starting to get nice by the time we had to go. I was right. BUT we are taking advantage of everything by cramming in tons of last minute sightseeing. 

Today we squeezed in all the things we missed on that first trip to Montmartre. We had an overpriced tourist snack at Le Café des Deux Moulins, the restaurant in Amélie. It looks the same, just a bit smaller and minus the tabac.  The place was packed solely with English-speaking tourists. 

I even ordered crème brulée to crack the sugar with my spoon. 

Afterwards, we managed to find the Montmartre Cemetery, which we missed the first time around. 

I finally saw Degas! 

This picture doesn't show it well, but Paris is absolutely packed with tourists now. Huge school groups flood the streets and the métro, and I hear English everywhere. It's good preparation before going home, I guess.  

My French, though still far from where I'd like it to be, has improved quite a bit. I laughed at the name of this store: The Monkey who Reads. 

Another week of school, and then it's summer! I have a little while in Paris by myself before heading over to London and starting a crazy adventure with my sister. 

"Louis XIV was the Lady Gaga of his time"

Went on a 3 hour walking tour today! Stopped at/walked through/looked at: Marais (Jewish/gay neighborhood, where everyone gets along; shops also are open on Sundays), Latin Quarter (students, the Sorbonne, cheap food), the Seine (picnics when it warms up, cars=bathrooms, toxic water), Notre Dame, the Louvre (good place to walk when it's cold outside since it goes on forever), St. Michel, the Arc de Triomphe, and more (see below)!

We started at the center of the city, in the plaza of Hôtel de Ville. The ice skating rink in the center was blasting American pop music. It was strangely anachronistic, looking at the old architecture and hearing annoyingly catchy songs associated with Sarah rocking out in the passenger seat of the car.

The carousel also had a hilarious giraffe hidden on the inner part of the circle, but he was moving too quickly for me to capture a shot.

Parisian cousins of Patience and Fortitude (NYPL lions)?

 Notre Dame

 AHHHH!!!! So excited! Can't wait for it to reopen!!

 Tourist street...the advice was to go at least 5 blocks away from any monument in order to find cheap, good food.

 La Seine

Lovers' Bridge/Pont de l'Archevêché

 Accordion music!!

 Reflections in the Louvre pyramid

 Tuileries- Fashion week sets up here, and apparently people can move the green metal chairs right outside the models' tents, stuff their face with hamburgers and other foods off-limits to models, and heckle them. Also, the way to spot a local is to look for a person with three chairs: one for themselves, one for their coffee/cigarettes, and the last for their book.

Random seagull

Guillotine street, basically...apparently those who were famous and executed walked down this path while spectators pelted them with tomatoes.  They also sold souvenirs including "playbills" listing who was to be killed that day and handkerchiefs for children to write down names of the condemned and dip them in leftover blood to wave as they sang songs and cheers. Quality family entertainment.

 Just like being back at Washington Square...yeah, right.

 Didn't buy macarons today, but I might once school starts. There's a nearby boulangerie that sells macarons the size of hockey pucks.