My good buddies, my pals, mes amis Catherine, Joey, and Alec were in Paris from Thursday to Sunday this weekend. While most of my group went to Dublin to celebrate Unofficial, we hung out in the City of Lights to celebrate Unofficiel (French version). I've mentioned it before, but it's incredibly difficult leaving behind all of your family and friends and your general social life for a completely new situation. I'm very fortunate to have such an amazing group of students from Illinois with me here in Paris - this experience would be a bit more gloomy without them. That being said, it is incredibly refreshing to see and hang out with old friends. The same thing happened when I saw my friends Jordyn and Lauren in the past few weeks.
So C, J, and A arrived Thursday afternoon. I met them at their hostel in Montmartre, in the north part of Paris. Montmartre is home to the Sacre Coeur church, the last gigantic church built in Paris in the 1800's. In my opinion, the view from the Sacre Coeur is the best view of Paris. Even better than the Eiffel Tower, because from the Sacre Coeur you can actually SEE the Eiffel Tower. The same thing could be said for the Arc de Triomphe.
We ended up grabbing some dinner later that night at an excellent crepe restaurant in the Marais, called Breizh (Br-eye-shh) Cafe. They make the kind of crepes that have meat, cheese, eggs, and veggies in them. So frickin' good. Especially with the cider and cheese samples that came with.
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| My smoked salmon, creme fraiche, chives, and lemon crepe. |
Friday was a jam-packed day. Catherine Alec and Joey hit up the Louvre museum a bit early in the morning, and I caught up with them after noon outside the pyramid of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe is about an hour's walk away from the Louvre. It is possible to walk straight towards the Arc from the Louvre, without turning once. You walk through the Tuilleries Garden and enter onto Champs-Elysees, the beautiful wide boulevard of lore. We gradually made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, stopping of course for some pictures and delicious macarons, courtesy of Ladurée.
Delicious. Anyway, we did more touristy things that day, including buying some delicious falafel in the Jewish Quarter. The night was the highlight of our Friday though. On Friday night we explored some bars by the Bastille area, in the east of Paris. There's a really fun street called "Rue de Lappe" which is a bit touristy but definitely more affordable and full of students. We grabbed a pint in honor of Unofficial St. Patrick's day, we grabbed a late-night crepe at a stand, and then we went out towards the bars.
On Saturday morning my buddies took the train to Versailles to explore the palace and enormous gardens. We ended up meeting in the afternoon to walk around the Montparnasse and St. Germain des Pres neighborhoods. I don't have a video readily available, but we spontaneously stumbled upon a street band playing their original music. I'll try to post it when I upload it from my phone. The band played on the street corner as dozens of people stood around and tapped their feet. There were a bunch of children dancing around right in front of the musicians. Adorable. That night we met up with Sarah and her friend Mackenzie, who were in Paris for a couple days. We all went to the Eiffel Tower for the sparkly lights show that happens there most nights. After that, we made our way to a bar called "Le Bar Dix" (Bar Ten) - a sangria bar! The sangria was cheap and extra-fruity. It was a cool end to a jam-packed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I met up with Catherine, Joey, and Alec for a short while on Sunday for a shady brunch in a student cafeteria near Notre Dame. Then it was goodbye's - hopefully not for too long!
I started this post on Tuesday and just finished it today, Saturday night. Here's some more stuff that I've been up to since then.
Saisha and I decided to check out "L'Institut du Monde Arabe" (Institute of the Arab World) on Thursday after our last class. The place is, for the most part, a museum for the history of the Arab World. It was fascinating. They had a rooftop tea lounge with a beautiful view of the city.
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| The front of the building |
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| Old Torah covering from an Arab country |
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| Blurry pic from the top of L'Institut du Monde Arabe |
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| Got drinks with Saisha at the top |
That's all I want to say for now. Stay tuned for the next couple weeks' posts - I'm travelling to Rennes and hopefully Amsterdam!
-Noah
On My Way Home - Gregory Porter
I found this song by Shazam'ing the music my cab driver was playing on the way home this weekend at like 3 in the morning.
The Holocaust Survivor Band - Tablet Mag
President Obama Selma Speech 2015 on 50th 'Bloody Sunday' at Edmond Pettus Bridge, Alabama - Youtube
Cuba now has free, public Wi-Fi - Business Insider
