Sunday, September 13, 2009

Communism in Paris

Some sweet Graves

Part of
Publish Post
the Cite
..and some more
The Portugal House

On Friday, I went on a nice little tour of "Le Marais" on Friday. The sciences po welcome committee hosts a bunch of tours every week in different parts of Paris. So, I went to the Marais one (which means Swamp by the way) with some of my friends after class. It used to be a swamp, but then all the royals moved on in during the 16th century. When they left (it was too small compared to Versailles) the neighborhood declined and immigrants inhabited it, mostly Jews. It's still considered the Jewish district, but it's also become very trendy and expensive.

There are a lot of Jewish bakeries there that I want to go back to, as well as place des vosges which is a huge building (used to be for royalty) that surrounds a gorgeous park.

This weekend there was an antique fair on Rue du Jourdain, the big street in front of the cite. There is a lot of cool stuff, but most of it is for the house, thus I have no real use of it. I did get a ring that looks a lot like the one that I lost/was stolen (cough linnea cough) so that was good.

After that, Nina and Gomez and I went to to the Sacre Couer. Wow, I've been there before and I do not remember it being so ridiculously touristy. It just wasn't a pleasurable experience. A list of the touristy tings there:
-a woman dressed up as if she was from the 1900s playing an accordion
-a man making animals out of pipecleaners
-a band singing on the steps
-a billion touristy shops

All of this in front of a beautiful Church. It completely took away from the view, the church, the peace fullness that should be there. I'm thinking I'll try to go again in the winter when it will hopefully be nicer.

Then we walked around the Luxembourg gardens and sat in their nice little green chairs as the sun set. It's very odd to be hanging out with them in Paris instead of the south side of Chicago, ha.

We tried to have a "Communist Party Party" at the Cite last night because there's a Cuba house here. Only Amanda and I dressed up (fail) but a lot of people came, so it was fun none the less. The kitchen in the French house looks like Avec, this trendy restaurant in Chicago. That's where we hung out, so it felt like you were out, not in a dorm.

Okay, so the Cite. My house "Club Portugal" as we call it because it looks like a cross between a W hotel and a club, is nice, can't really complain, but the houses built before 1950 are SO nice. As in, they have pianos, bars, and libraries in them. And they look like castles. Then there is the random Africa house that Nina lives in which is so sad. The danish house even has a little backyard that's surrounded by a high wall of trees so they have privacy. Last night they were having a dinner party! Jealous. Damn, Scandinavia!

Today I went to Pere la chaise. I've been there before, but I didn't really remember it, so I decided to go again. Even though it's a cemetery, it doesn't project death and sadness. It's just a very quiet place that's perfect for a long walk. It makes you think about the history of Paris and all the people who've lived here.

We tried to find the graves of famous people, but the only one we succeeded in finding was Jim Morrison's. I just followed an Israeli couple who seemed to know what they were doing, and there it was! Nothing special, just a grave, but still sort of cool. They had some really beautiful old graves with statues on them, or antique doors leading to family tombs. It was a good day for it too, grey and chilly and all the leaves were falling.

And then I came home and gorged myself on bread, cheese, fruit, salami, and a raspberry tart. SO good!

I've "liberated" two more glasses from bars. I'm not doing it from nice places, just overpriced bars that are crowded. Plus, I need glasses!

1 comment:

  1. So Linnea's old enough to steal your stuff now? I can't believe it! Seems like only yesterday my main hobby was stealing Jena's things.

    ReplyDelete