Oh, man: Rodin!

Yet again, a glorious breakfast awaited me after my shower. No breakfast photos, but it was, of course, delicious. Those clementines really are delightful. Then, after writing a paper for one of my courses (see? I am doing real work!), I dashed out the door; of course, I was running late.

I met another student outside the Musée Rodin, and we took our time exploring the museum. Quite unfortunately, the main building and the fountain were closed for remodeling, but, regardless, we had quite a nice exhibition and garden to explore.

The lace (hard to see here) was incredible on this bust.

Oh, and Invalides is hanging out just past the museum.

Hmm...

This is Balzac. Yes, he looks like a zombie (the society rejected the piece!)

This is the main building that was closed. Well, the façade is lovely, at least.

His signature is fantastic

Requisite tree-lined path for any given French garden

Any Stanford person ought to recognize this

Since I didn't pass by on the way to school this morning, I took a special photo.

Très Parisen

Any Stanford student who does not recognize this, has been skipping class (it can be found in the center of the main quad)

We met up with another student in the gardens, and headed off for lunch. After deciding that the cafés in the near vicinity were either nonexistent or exorbitantly-priced, we spontaneously decided that we were going to Montmartre to find some reasonable prices. We took the Métro, but it required quite a bit of stair-climbing.

Paris from above

"above" = just climbed this crazy staircase

After scouting out the deals that seemed reasonable, we went with the cheapest option of purchasing crêpes à emporter but I do not have a picture, partially because I scarfed down the steaming food before it could chill in the frigid air, and partially because, while tasty, it was by no means one of the higher quality crêpes I have known. We then headed over to Sacré-Coeur, because how can you not, when you've made it all the way to the top of the Butte de Montmartre? After all, that was quite a trek!

Paris from Sacré-Coeur. Not incredibly beautiful today

Thankfully, Sacré-Coeur was beautiful as always!

For the record, the two preceding pictures are indeed from the same day, taken within five minutes of each other. it is amazing how quickly the sun ends and clouds budge there way in. After the detour, we headed back so we could do some homework (yes, real work!). I made some stops on the steps.

Charlie à l'ombre

Is the red supposed to represent blood?

This is a theatre. In the middle of a block-long staircase. Just because.

Having climbed the 115+ stairs out of the Métro and escaped with our sanity and (eventually) our breath, we had no choice but to take the stairs back down. They were the windy sort, and, in truth, quite a work out.

Stairs; Métro style

Before settling in to work, we stopped to grab crêpes sucrées for dessert. Mine was with nut paste, and was absolutely fantastic.

My exceptional crêpe

The latter half of my crêpe

My friend shared some of hers. Banana-nutella. Yum!

Then, we set in to work. I actually fell asleep (probably because I am up so late, involved in some crazy endeavor wherein I write about the crazy adventures of the day, trying not to fall asleep doing so (or else I write something that makes no sense at all!), to entertain the masses and keep track of what I've done.

Luckily, when I woke up, I had plenty of time to do my work. I even had time to take a picture from the window! After all, who doesn't like to see the Eiffel Tower hovering over the rooftops of Paris from dozens of different angles each day?

Eiffel Tower hovering over the rooftops of Paris

Six of us made dinner plans while I was working, so I set out at 19h to join them. We were meeting at 20h, so you may be thinking I am nuts. Well, perhaps I am, but I definitely did not set out too early; in fact, believe it or not, I was late. I walked 3.5 miles there, which was, as always, a great way to see random parts of the city that you don't set out to visit every day.

The restaurant itself, Krishna Bhavan, was fantastic. For the kindly price of €6,50 I got a mountain. Quite literally, it was a mountain. I was so hungry and excited that I forgot to take a photo until later, so it looked quite a bit more dramatic when it arrived, but here you go with my Dosa Beurre.

This. Was. Delicious.

To get some scale for height.

Really, you can't get better than that. Some of us went to join the others at the place by Odéon that we visited last week. I was lucky enough to gage in an existential conversation, to discuss the existence or nonexistence of objective morality, and trains.