Visiting Romans

This weekend Anna and Janine visited. We’re had so much fun showing them around! They got in Thursday night, very late, so they just settled in. Friday morning I had class, so Clarice took the girls to a little market by our apartment for breakfast. Unfortunately the metro is down for a strike, so we have been doing looooots of walking. Luckily we live near within somewhat reasonable walking distance of all the big stuff, so it is not fatal for our guests. So after the market Clarice, Janine and Anna walked to Musee D’Orsay. I had class at Louvre for my Renaissance art class, which is across the river from the Musee D’Orsay, so I met the group at the D’Orsay. Clarice and I did tag team, because she had to go to her class for the afternoon. I walked with Anna and Janine to Notre Dame. On the way we stopped for lunch and I had an omelet. It was a bit overpriced because it we were in a tourist section, but it was good. Then we continued on to the Notre Dame. Anna and Janine were wowed by the cathedral. Its fun taking visitors to sites, even ones I’ve already been to, because I can relive discovering them through my friends. We went up in the towers of the cathedral, which was the first time for me. We had to walk up a huge spiral staircase, it took forever and I got out of breath. However it was really cool when we made it to the top. We got to see the gargoyles up close and the view was beautiful. After climbing back down the very long spiral staircase we did a bit of shopping. We hit up the touristy shops around the cathedral, and Janine fulfilled her dream of buying a Parisian scarf! She bought a very pretty pale one that matches her coat very well. I finally bought a pair of gloves, as my hands have been freezing for the past two weeks. They are pink and fuzzy, and go with my purple and pink scarf. Then we tried to go to the Cluny museum. However, when we got there we found that it was closing already. The atmosphere was very odd; we saw a demonstration approaching from far away down the street. We were near the Sorbonne, so it was probably a student demonstration. We also saw lots of police vans and police men running around. I was afraid there was going to be some kind of riot or something, with all the metro issues going on. However, I couldn’t see any problems happening, and I didn’t read anything in the news about a massive riot or anything. I guess I’ll never know what was going on. Then we shopped a bit around the Latin Quarter and found some small funky shops. That evening I had my program called Les Jeunes ont La Parole. That’s this cool program AUP has with the Louvre, where on student night at the Louvre, which is Friday from 6 to 9 where students get in free, art history students stand in front of paintings and give little speeches to visitors. It was by far the coolest thing I’ve done yet in Paris. I got to talk to people from all over the world- I talked to a Japanese lady, a Russian couple, Americans, Spanish people, and of course lots of French people. I did my talk on St. Michael Trampling the Devil, by Raphael, 1518. After the Louvre we walked back to our neighborhood and went out to dinner at Clarice and mine’s haunt the restaurant down the street from us. We had a great time catching up. Then we went home and collapsed in bed, exhausted from a long day!

On Saturday we had another busy day. We first went up to Montmartre to get some fondue. Unfortunately metro strikes caused problems again. It took a long time to get there b/c only a couple lines were even barely functioning and we had to go a circuitous route. Then when we found the restaurant we wanted to go to it was closed! I’m guessing b/c the workers couldn’t get there. We went to another restaurant, but they only had meat fondue which was disappointing. Oh well. Then we rushed over to our Riverdance show which was at 3:00. Yes, we saw Riverdance! I’m not a huge Irish dance fan or expert, but I enjoyed it! What surprised me was that the whole show wasn’t just Irish dance; there was also Spanish, Russian, and tap. I knew there were other dances, but it seemed like Irish played a smaller role than I was expecting. But we all really enjoyed the show, it was awesome!! Next we went up the Eiffel Tower! I had been up halfway, because the top was closed. However this time we went all the way up. Clarice once again conquered her fear of heights and went up! We were so happy that she came with us. The view from the top was beautiful; it was cool seeing everything from far away and being to point out everything I’ve been to. The lights were so pretty. Then we made our way home, and Janine cooked us a yummy dinner. I’ve missed Janine’s cooking!

Sunday we fulfilled Anna’s dream of going to the Champs-Elysees. Sadly, all the big name stores were closed! It was weird, the American stores like the Virgin Megastore and the Disney store were open, but none of the super dooper brand names. Well except for Louis Vuitton. I was sorry to disappoint Anna, but it was still fun to window shop and look at clothes that I will never ever be able to afford. And as always I had a great time hanging out with my friends.

That afternoon and evening we were so tired, after a busy weekend, not to mention it was freezing cold. However we did drag ourselves to the Eiffel Tower for a photo shoot, I can’t wait to see Anna’s pictures! We went back to the same restaurant for dinner. Then we turned in early because Anna and Janine had to leave at 5 am!! We all woke up then and Clarice and I made sure Anna and Janine got a taxi to the airport. Then they left L I miss them already!!