April in Paris

Notre Dame
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach

No, I left just before April, but any excuse to dance around the living room listening to Count Basie is a good one, don't you think?

So, Paris was basically amazing. I was only there for three days + I took 400 pictures. I've only uploaded 1/4 of them, but for now here is a list of what I did:
-Mount Martre
-The Louvre
-Notre Dame
-Sante Chapelle
-The Royal Opera
-Arcade Shopping
-Versailles
-Delicious Amazing Dinner
-Eiffel Tower
-Arms Museum
-Le Grande et le Petit Palais

So I still managed to accomplish an awful lot. When I called my dad up to tell him about it, I went through about an hour long narration on what I did, + while I won't inflict that on you, I will tell you my favorite story from my weekend:



I decided I wanted to see the inside of the Royal Opera house, because it looked very fancy from the outside + it was pouring, so that would give me something to do inside. However, when I went inside there was a sign hanging up saying that there was a performance at 2:30, so the tours would not be operating. I looked down at my watch, and it was 2:30 exactly.

So I picked up my handy dandy pocket guide to see what else was in the area that I might want to see, and the doorman came up + told me that if I bought one of the cheapest tickets (seven pounds!), I could see the show and the opera house.

So I buy my ticket, and I sort of wander around the lobby, and then an usher (in a fancy suit and bowtie, mind you) stuffs me into this fancy elevator + takes me up to the third floor, where he passes me off to another usher. She leads me around the corner and unlocks (!) the door to a booth, and asks me if I speak French. When I tell her that I don't, she takes me in, opens a second door, and leads me into pitch darkness by the hand.

Once I sat down, I realized I had no idea what kind of a show I had come in for- it was a ballet. I could only see 1/3 of the stage, so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was a selection of classic French ballets- Le Papillion was first, and the lady was wearing the excessive glittery head-thing, and had little wings on the back of her costume. The two dancers were smiling at the audience the whole time, like "ooh, look at me, I'm the greatest thing ever." Kind of hilarious.

The opera house itself was lovely- totally opulent and bizarre. I had been in a little booth- six chairs arranged two by two, with a couch and a coat hook behind them. It was really much fancier than anything I had ever seen before.
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The food in Paris, and the weather on the last day are what really got me, though. It seems like New York, but flatter and older. I would love to go back some day, and when I do I'll do research so I can do what I want to, rather than the main touristy things. I would also allocate a whole day to the Louvre, take a cruise down the river, and search out better restaurants.