biggest fattest blog post in the world.
1:
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| Walking along the Seine (if you ever come across Pont Neuf, make sure to play "imitate and guess the face". It's a laugh and a half.) |
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| ugh i'm just so *sPaRkLy* |
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| a bunny. |
One of the best things you can do on the last day of October (when you wake up in Paris - except I didn't wake up in Paris, only my dream self did. I actually took the train), is walk along the Seine.
It's not an elongated puddle of mud, like the Thames, it's alive and deep looking and whispery. And it glitters when the sun is on it and reflects iconic things like Le Tour Eiffel.
!!!!!.
We visited Notre Dame and walked through the courtyard at the Louvre (and pretty much walked everywhere else) and Lisa and I had our first robot bathroom experience. It was powerful.
Also, don't get me started on Shakespeare & Company (it's an old bookstore started by Gertrude Stein. I think that's why they justify taping more expensive prices over the regular ones).
It's piled from floor to ceiling with the smell of books, the feel of them, all of that. If there were any empty spaces on the walls they were taped over with old photos or hand written quotes, and the upstairs had an old and dusty piano (with a boy playing Amelie on it - thank you, boy). Then they had an eclectic assortment of toys arranged everywhere and a little cubby infused with twinkly lights and notes written by visitors (Nan I even looked for yours, where was it) and the babiest little typewriter. I'm moving in.
Later, I basically inhaled my first crepe (nutella banane, thank you), went on a little night time boat tour on the Seine to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle, and now confirm Paris to really be the most romantic of cities (the rumors are true).
It can't even help it. I swear the air is pink. Like roses.
2:
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| if you could smell this picture (and maybe see it better), it'd make you want to become a poet. just saying. |
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| La Musee de Rodin |
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| philosophizing |
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| (I stole this from Emily, thank you Emily) |
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| polaroid hasn't figured out to not be blurry dumb sometimes |
Today was Paris in the rain.
We went to the Musee de Rodin and looked at his sculptures (I also tried writing my sonnet for Creative Writing and failed miserably. The rain even came down and blotted out all my sorry attempts I CAN'T COMPARE TO RILKE, OK - not that he even wrote sonnets, but at least he did Rodin some poetic justice).
Later was the D'Orsay, I got drunk on Bonnard paintings and Vuillard paintings and other paintings.
Laura and Emily and I found a Merrygoround that played old French music and I reveled in the Parisian corniness of it all, it was too wonderful ,except my stupid polaroid decided to be blurry and then jam all my photos. piece of shit. THis is PARIS, you don't just jam all your master's pictures in Paris.
3:
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| kind of looks like a cathedral, huh? |
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| oh dear, another carousel? |
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| but it's ok because this one is in amelie, and looks up at the sacre coeur, and looks really good in pictures. huh. |
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| maybe the most beautiful of all manmade things besides babies |
Versailles was colored like fall, all the leaves were rustic and they smelled SO warm. We rode bikes all around, and I thought of being little the whole time, riding bikes with Mom and Dad.
The evening was spent in Montmarte, watching the sunset at Sacre Coeur, listening to Amelie spill out of cafe pianos, and eating lots of crepes and listening to music boxes (music boxes sound the way glitter would, if glitter were a sound).
Leaving was hard.
We went to the Louvre afterward.This might seem unimaginable, but it was not crowded, and I got all the time and space I wanted for each painting I stopped at. Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People and David's painting of the Sabine women saving their men made me cry a little bit - I mean, wow. Guys, look them up.
My one disappointment for the day: Da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks is on vacation (or rather, a business trip) in Germany.
4:
This morning we went to the Musee de Pombidou. Peter Doig painting!!!!!.
The crowning event of today: Lisa, Katie and I got into the Paris Opera house to see the ballet for 12 euros. !!!!! I love ballet, everything about it feels like being in a dream, from the ambiance and music to the ghostly way the figures move on the stage. Sometimes I'm mad at myself for begging my mom to let me quit when I was little (I hated changing in and out of my tights and leotard), but then I remember all the other things I'm obsessed with and I feel ok. Plus, I get to watch it, and admire my bestie dancer friend named Bekah Doty. Anyway, it all felt very French.
5:
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| Park Monceau |
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| Park Luxembourg |
Laura and Emily and I made plans to go Giverny and visit Monet. When we got to St Lazare, the ticket master broke our hearts and told us that it had closed for the season three days before. WHY!!!! WHY ON THIS BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY IS IT CLOSED!!!!
At least we got to see the station, he painted that, right? No, it's still not right.
We decided to make the day a play day, to make ourselves feel better. We walked through a neighborhood with instrument makers, I liked looking in on the violin shops. Then we read and wrote at Park Monceau (pour la Banane). I took a happiness nap and enjoyed the sun on my shoulders. Anna had recommended seeing a Marionette show in Luxembourg park, so we made our way there to discover upon arrival that Marionette shows were not playing that day (they heard we were coming, I guess). So we had to play in the leaves, which was fine. Great. Until we got kicked off the grass.
I don't know how to sum up the trip in so few words, or in any words, I guess. It's just a magical place that must be felt, rather than explained, like lots of feelings that people have (so I'll leave it at that). I feel ready to return London all refreshed and enlivened and stuff.
