I see some museums

Well, I refrained from the breakfast food pictures because, honestly, it doesn't change much. Then again, I am equally excited for it every day, so that could be noteworthy. Yet again, I was almost late as I dashed out the door with 12 minutes to spare. Something always comes up. Luckily, I wasn't so short on time that I couldn't capture the customary morning view of the Tour Eiffel on my way!

Eiffel Tower this morning.

Unfortunately, although I made it three minutes early, I was still late because, naturally, I dashed up to the classroom. Inconveniently enough, I had forgotten in my haste that we were meeting in the lobby for a walk! To gain an appreciate of the Seconde Guerre Mondiale and its effect on Paris, we headed out on a tour of (some of) the commemorative plaques in the neighborhood. It turns out there are a ton, most of which perch on walls gathering dust, ignored by just about everyone who passes by. Between plaques, I found a slightly newer commemoration.

Commemoration of Charlie Hebdo, 2015

I wonder what this commemorates? 2015

The plaques were actually quite interesting. I would hope so, as I have to write a report on them! The Palais du Luxembourg was built by the Germans as a ruling center (and is now the French Sénat, so go figure), and therefore the Jardin du Luxembourg was quite an epicenter of the battles to liberate France. Many of the buildings are to this day pockmarked by machine-gun scars. After 70-odd years, perhaps nobody reads the plaques but there are other memories etched in stone here.

Two of the plaques, surrounded by war-damaged wall (edge of Jardin du Luxembourg)

Fontaine de Médici. It has nothing to do with the war, but it's a cool fountain.

We learned, among two-pages-of-notes' worth of other things, that every school was given a commemorative plaque to note its Jewish students who were deported by the Nazis. These were the most elegant plaques, I found. While some were quite decorative and lined with symbols and flags and floating boats, these are sleek, black, with simple gold lettering. Of course, they are also quite a morbid sight for a first-grader heading into his first day of school. Good thing he can't read yet at that age!

School commemoration plaque

While, by Chicago standards, the weather wasn't terribly frigid, in Chicago I wear warmer gloves. By the time we were done (okay, to be honest, by the time we walked half a block), most of the class was frozen, including my unfortunate fingers. The professor was kindhearted (and probably freezing as well!) so he took us to a café and bought us all un café to warm us up a bit.

Afterwards, I was free. My weekends this quarter begin at 10h30 Thursday morning. They end 9h00 Tuesday morning. I live a hard life. It was not a time to be idle, however: I had very important plans to attend to. I grabbed a couple other students who professed interest and we hopped on the Métro towards the Marais, which is not dangerous, and is most certainly not one of Fox News' precious "No-go Zones". While "L'As du Falafel" is purportedly the best felafel joint (if you recall, I went there last Tuesday), my little culinary birdies (i.e. the internet) tipped me off that "Chez Hanna" just down the street was a hidden gem. Two blocks further down rue des Rossiers, I met up with a lucky friend who, not having a morning class, slept until 10h30. There, we ditched the people I had brought, who were waiting for another friend and had no interest in Thursday Plan Part B (Operation Museum), and bought a couple falafel à Emporter to accompany us on our stroll towards the museum.

I can truthfully say that Chez Hanna, while perhaps less well known, prepares the superior felafel. In fact, I almost forgot my food-photo, engrossed as I was in devouring the treasure. You miss out on the delicious eggplant they put on top (because why not put a slice of eggplant on a felafel sandwich?).

Lunch

Another angle. This is quality food, so it deserves a couple shots.

After a decent walk in which we followed my sixth-sense for direction (this translates to: I know vaguely where it is and walk confidently in that direction, assuring everyone that it's correct while privately hoping I'm not 180˚ off), we stumbled upon the museum of choice (based on a great tip-off): the Pavillon de l'Arsenal.

Taken from across the street… I didn't want to get the cars. Hence strange cropping.

The exhibition, "Matières Grises", was incredible, fascinating, inspiring. The title is a bit of a pun, because it can reference the grey matter in the brain, in the singular, or "grey materials" in the plural, which is like grey-water in that it is a once-used but potentially re-usable resource that is generally thrown away thoughtlessly.

The exhibition consisted of information and photos of different sites and projects where people and firms had constructed buildings out of materials that had previously been used for something else.

We saw buildings like this

Which was made out of this (bottles).

There was also a section where they explained the waste problems in modern-day construction.

20 Eiffel Towers. This is the amount of metal per hour consumed in the world.

There were also helpful wall illustrations that explained concepts.

Simplicity is genius

One of my favorites was a public structure that folds up into a house-shape, but can be easily unrolled into benches to form a public gathering space for the community. The accompanying video was extraordinary.

Process by which a house becomes a stage.

The exhibition was unfortunately not long enough to take up all of our time. We were fascinated enough to stay, but, having run out of items to see or read or discuss, we set out to find a cafe in the true Parisian style. After a brilliant price-comparison survey of cafés, we chose a nice place that just so happened to have a view of the Bastille.

My friend had a beautiful cappuccino

I'm less interesting. Un cafe élongé works just fine for me!

We were going to walk back (she was gong to the Archives for her class, and I planned on hitting the Louvre), but, given the frigidity of the day, we took the cowards' way out and jumped in the Métro at Bastille. We couldn't leave, however, without taking a picture!

Here you go. My vertical ones are better, but I thought I'd give you something right-side-up for once

I did indeed head over to the Louvre. One of the huge advantages to that gorgeous museum is that you can easily enter it without walking outside, if, for instance, you don't have warm enough gloves but do have extremely sensitive fingers. Slipping in from the Carousel du Louvre, which was quite a pleasure with my Louvre card, as I got to skip past the dauntingly long line of impatient tourists. I headed to Richlieu to visit my good ol' friends the Dutch Masters.

This part of the Louvre is incredibly modern. Note the shiny escalators.

From the top floor, I had a great view of the building as I admired works by Rubens, especially (they have an enormous Rubens collection).

It's amazing how tiny the tourists look from the top of the Louvre

I also think I found Paris' guardian angel

Did you know the Louvre has a halo?

Hey, Eiffel Tower. Don't think I don't see you sneaking into all my photos.

After having walked all morning, I was fairly fatigued, and the main Flemish section was, unfortunately, closed for the time being. taking full advantage of my free, open access to the largest museum in the world, I plopped down on a bench in the gallery lined with Rubens' Médici series, cracked open my book, and read for a solid hour. What can I say? The lighting was ideal.

After wandering the galleries for a bit longer, I concluded that a good chair would do me wonders. I headed back home, but, on an impulse, leapt off the Métro (yes, I was being lazy again) at the stop for ISEP, where I holed up in the library to work my way through the readings for Tuesday.

Tour de Montparnasse + Moon.

I walked back (yes, on my own two feet. Two Métro stops is a bit ridiculous, even for me), and had yet another beautiful meal. A salad of some sort, with beets and eggs. A mystery fish cooked in broth. Pesto pasta with parmesan cheese. Olives. Then the fromage. Several types. A real feast. Then clementines. Then nothing. No evening adventures. Sorry to disappoint.