Saturday started with a beautiful breakfast, at the late hour of 9h (I slept late after having been up so late, naturally!). I was given a beautiful array, including a croissant, toast, cheese, an apple and a pear, coffee, and yogurt. Now that is something worth waking up for!
Toast and croissant. And cheese. Delicious.
My apple and pear, all sliced up for me!
I stayed home to work for a bit, and then went out to meet my friend at the Jardin du Luxembourg since she had taken the morning in the museum. Unfortunately for me, by the time I arrived she had long since left! My other friend wanted to go to the Chinese neighborhood in a quest for a papaya. After spending a few more minutes in the park, because it was sunny and only slightly frigid, and the air was fresh, I headed out for Odéon so I could take Ligne 12 to Ligne 7 to Porte d'Ivry.
Sunny day in the Jardin.
I found my friend at the Métro, but the papaya-hunter was far, far behind. My friend and I went on a small walk; I could honestly say that this was not the tourist-trap idealized "China town" you see in a lot of cities. We did find one restaurant, but it was expensive. Other than that, it was rather industrial. I have no photos, but maybe I will go back because the grocery store was cheaper! I bought a box of cookies for the friend whose house we keep going to, partially because we ate his cookies! On our way back, we thought we identified papayas (although it turned out we were each referring to a different item!), and, mission somewhat-accomplished, completed our loop.
After heading back to the Métro and chilling in the sun for a while (when I say "chilling", I do not in fact refer to the current, popular use with adolescents meaning "hanging out", but, rather, the literal term that we were steadily developing a chill in the cold; don't let the sun fool you! You aren't in California any more, Toto).
When she joined us, we proudly pointed out where we thought we had found the papaya. My slightly more educated companion had found a mango. I had found persimmons. It is always a bit awkward when you find you have mistaken your favorite fruit for a papaya…
Luckily, she knew where to go. We found a supermarket (the supermarket, in fact), and, immediately, found a papaya. On the way out, I bought a knife. We also saw a pigeon. Afterwards, we wanted lunch, but the only restaurant was the one my friend and I had found, which was about double our price range. We took the Métro up to the Louvre, and went our separate ways, because I had plans. I walked over past the Musée D'Orsay to meet important people.
My new supermarket pigeon friend. I think he's looking for the worm aisle.
By the Seine. Sunlight is real.
I ended up in the small park at the end of the rue Rémier, where I tucked myself onto a bench and read my book for a bit. Then, I met up with some family friends, who had been planning to visit the street art exhibit. First, they took me to a lovely café, where I had a nice coffee and quite a good chocolate cake (which was lucky because the lunch plans hadn't worked out!).
I don't know about this picture, but the coffee was perfectly normal...
A gâteau built for three...
The expo was really cool. It discussed the evolution of graffiti (yes, Brassaï's book was included!), and the boundary between what was art and what is defacement is fascinating. I took a couple pictures for you guys, but you can also just look out your window and probably find something interesting! The variety was surprising; even between the simple tags and lettering, the styles were extremely diverse.
Entitled "Waiting for Climate Change"
I just liked the picture.
I headed (very quickly!) to the Musée D'Orsay to meet my friends for the RER C. Of course, our fourth friend (including me as one) was fifteen minutes late, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the chilly night! There were even stars. Finally we got the RER, all of our connections, and made it on time to the Lights concert! This is my friend's favorite singer, and I didn't know her at all, but it was really fun. I had never been to a non-classical-music concert, so it was quite an adventure. We were also VERY close (she was handing out high-fives. We were right in the front. I didn't raise my hand. I thought she would be sweaty). It turns out that her opener recently graduated from Stanford! I strongly preferred Lights to her opening person, but it is a cool coincidence nonetheless.
Musée D'Orsay and waiting
They always remind you it's France, just in case you've forgotten
Requisite concert photo with weird lights and too many sweaty people
Farther picture (had to lean back to get all of her in there!
It was much more like this
Afterwards, we all left and wanted dinner. Half the group wanted McDonald's, which is apparently better in France, and so it was that, for the first time in years and years and years (and ever, in France!) I bought a McDonalds' "sandwich". I will have you know, I could have actually bought a bigger and better sandwich at Coeur de Blé (although not at 10h30pm, I admit). I got a chicken sandwich, because it seemed to be the most reasonable item, and I even included photos.
Burger in a box. Except chicken, not a burger.
It had lettuce. Healthy, right?
We tried to watch a movie ("The Proposal"), but a) we were too tired, and b) the Métro has an irritating habit of closing between 1h30 and 2h on Saturday nights, so we quit and went home. I had to take a photo of my stamp for posterity's sake, but, since it is still here, I don't think there was any hurry!
Look, fancy hand!
So, that was last night. Then I wrote the blog post in which I could not finish the photos. I fell asleep way too late and woke up at 8h16 when I had to meet the group at 9h at a Métro station 20 minutes away. This was disastrous for my shower time and for my breakfast time, bien entendu. I leapt into clothes, and my famille d'accueil was kind enough to give me a cup of coffee and two rolls of brioche and an apple and a clementine, so I scarfed down the coffee and a role, and brought the latter three items with me for the ride. Sorry, no time for photos!
The group of 8, four from Stanford, four from ISEP, met up and went over to (wait for and) take the RER to Versailles. It was a decent ride, and well worth it, if only to have been. The building was beautiful, and they didn't take my knife! I was, however, disappointed with the expo, and we moved too fast for me. My partenaire linguistique from ISEP was AMAZINGLY nice, and had prepared me a sandwich parisien (that is, jambon, gruyere, beurre in a baguette) and had brought cookies and beignets and so I had a delicious and free lunch. What could be better?
Le Palais (with parking log)
Standing in lines is a great photo opportunity!
I captured the gate, but wanted it closer up...
…at which point I realized the zoom really wasn't functioning for some reason!
But, all-zoomed-out, the building was quite pretty. Yes, the sun came out!
A singe on a buc. I do not know why.
The gardens were perhaps the high point.
They wrapped all the chairs, but the whole room was roped off, so it wasn't like anyone would be accidentally sitting on them anyway...
Some people actually have doors and ceilings like these in their houses.
He holds curtains open. I think. Maybe he is just decorative...
I would accept gardens like these.
And chandeliers happen
And yet more gardens
Lights are cooler in black and white
Bases of lights should always be like this.
Colorful chandelier. With that ceiling...
Now THAT is a bed. I was really tired, too…No, I did not try to nap in it.
Appreciate the violin.
This bed looks even more inviting.
The view from Versailles
Good thing we missed this line! This is in color, not B&W
Because you can't have 100% matching buildings.
So that was my morning adventure. We all returned, and I went home to try to get work done. However, the grandchildren of my Père d'accueil and both of his daughters were over, so I decided to be a bit friendly and they gave me a crêpe à nutella so I spent some time playing with a 2-year-old garçon and then left to meet my friend at the Musée D'Orsay, which was fantastic. Both of us have visited the museum far too frequently (often together! or with her partenaire linguistique and friend from Germany, who, through the process of exploration and, of course, coffee, became my friend from Germany), and so, if you remember the beginning of this run-on sentence, we were able to visit just our favorites.
Afterwards, we went our separate ways (the museum closed, so we had to leave at 17h30), and I got home by 17h45. After saying goodbye to the guests in passing, I decided to take a 30-minute nap. It was 18h and I was really, really tired. I woke up at 20h30.
Thankfully, my famille d'accueil had eaten late and weren't too hungry, and had waited for me! We had a tomato soup, followed by a paté with cornichons and charcuterie, and some delicious ravioli, some salad, followed by fromage (Thome d'Abondance, Thome de quelque-part-d'autre, gruyere) and a clementine and some gâteau, and then I set out to work. Here I am (no, not working).
I therefore conclude that it has been a successful weekend. Q.E.D.
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