just call me grace...

8/3/2008

well today was one for the books! one would think that as a former dancer i would have a little bit more grace, but one would be very very wrong!

we started out with a walk through the latin quarter, where we are staying. the first site on the list was the pantheon, memorial for many deceased who have had an impact on france, both famous and unknown: voltaire, emile zola, marie curie, victor hugo, and many others. the upper interior was of course exquisite and dtailed. connected to the end of 220ft cable, suspended from the center dome, is focault's pendulum which he used to display the earth's rotation. the crypt below was eerie to say the least but at the same time i felt a sense of greatness around me.

after leaving there we made our way to place de la sorbonne to view the main entry of the university and have a rick steves recommended lunce. our first choice, the bakers dozen, was closed, so we chose the one next to it, l'ecriverian... i think. i had a croque-monsieur and kathy had another omelette - she ventures out a lot! on the way our i decided to make a scene by knocking over the glass mustard jar. ugh! i was mortified as glass shattered and mustard splattered. our waiter looked at me with such disappointment but the little man that came to clean it up was understanding and tried to comfort me.

happy to leave, we ''had to'' stop at the gap and then we continued towards luxembourg palace, home of the french senate, and gardens. before arriving though we stopped at a shoe store so kathy could buy her paris boots!

after strolling the gardens we dropped the boots at the apartment and headed to two more art museums. l'orsay was the 1st stop and by far my favorite. degas, cezanne, gauguin, monet, manet, pissarro, renoir, sisley, toulouse-lautrec, and van gogh - of course my favorite! we were so disappointed to make our way to l'orangerie after this... after cafe and vin rouge though we set out for the much smaller and disappointing museum. the best part was the 2 oval rooms covered in huge paintings by money, a design requested by the artist himself. i felt as though i was actually in his art comme mary poppins!

shortly after entering we were ready to leave and make our way to la tour eiffel, yet again, but this time for a sightseeing boat cruise of the seine. before arriving i prooved my grace once more... i set kathy's camera on a stone ledge so we could take a picture with the timer like ever other tourist. as my stupid luck would have it, the wind/bad karma blew it over. somewhat luckily it fell towards the street instead of backwards into the river. unfortunatley it broke. we could look at pictures already taken but could not take new ones. of course kathy's attitude was it's just a camera and mine was utter remorse. after my 2nd clutzy move of the day i was in a foul mood to say the least and fearful of breaking something else - bad things come in threes! the boat cruise cheered me up though a little bit. the tour guide spoke at least five languages to perfection and i. was. envous!

cold, exhausted, and hungry we made our way home, stopped to eat again at the cafe across the street. another long day and i am ready for bed. but as a side-note, i can understand why paris is called the city of love. not only do i fall in love on average every 3.2 minutes with guy, monument, park, museum, but also, everywhere you look there is a happy couple kissing, embracing, walking hand-in-hand. they are surrounded by at least 2 million people, but are so alone with each other.

paris, je t'aime!