After a bit of a hiatus from writing, here is my next installment of Ain't Life Grand (I know all my readers have been waiting anxiously). As many of you know I went to the City of Lights, the lovely Paris, this past weekend. For a country with a war record about as impressive as Charlie Weis' coaching record, it was amazing. Brian Dondanville (one of my flatmates and someone who comes in great handy in Paris due to his local knowledge and French speaking skills), Chris Smith, Larry Stickley and Peter Balestracci accompanied me on this epic adventure.
On Friday we went to the French War Museum. We were a bit surprised to find out that to go to the museum cost 9 euro; however, after a little thought we figured the French needed the money after a century of being Europe's doormat. Surprisingly the museum was pretty cool. It had a great collection of old swords and armor. With that said the WWI and WWII exhibits were fairly weak especially when compared with the Imperial War Museum of Britain (which is free). I felt like that WWI and II exhibits should have been a large American flag with the words THANK YOU underneath but apparently the French don't agree. It was interesting to see how they portrayed the war from a French perspective. They didn't necessarily downplay America's role but they definitely implied that they helped more than they actually did.
After looking at a bunch of guns, we figured we would treat ourselves to a little culture so that night we went to the Louvre...AMAZING!! As my family knows I had already been there and remembered several of the paintings but it was nice to see them again many years later.
Saturday morning we ventured to Versailles. While Brian's French had come in handy prior to this here is where he really came through. We figured if the Louvre charged so would Versailles but little did we know the ticket would be 20 euro!!! Feel free to insert your own comment about how the french are greedy here because I can assure you the woman at the ticket office heard some from us. However, there was a catch. Students studying in any European Union country get in free. Well upon hearing that we were thrilled but we weren't off the hook yet because the French apparently are not that trustworthy and did not believe 5 American students were actually studying in Europe (I guess they thought we decided to randomly travel to France for the weekend from America who knows). Anyways I digress, Brian spoke to another worker and convinced him we did in fact study in London and went to a Catholic school. All I understood of the conversation was "Catholique? Oui! Oui!" So as much as I have made fun of the French, their being nominally Catholic and hence liking Catholic universities saved us each 20 euro. Versailles was another place I had been in the past with my family but it was great to go back.
Saturday night was possibly the best night of the trip and also the cheapest! Literally all we did was roam Paris, specifically around the Eiffel Tower while enjoying some of France's finest 3 euro wine. And when we finally got hungry we simply went into a bakery/pastry shop and ordered some croissants and baguettes. Yes it was simple and yes it was amazing. Every hour for five minutes the Eiffel Tour's lights blink and it looks beautiful.
Sunday morning's adventures were not quite as low budget as Saturdays. We woke up and went to what we thought would be an English speaking Mass at Notre Dame. Upon reaching the Cathedral we learned the mass was in French, but nonetheless that mass was spectacular. After mass we decided to splurge and go to Cafe des Deux Magots. The same cafe that the likes of Hemingway and Picasso frequented!!! I don't want to give my readers a heart attack so I won't give the specific price of our lunch but I will say the restaurant certainly knows that tourists want to come and eat where one of the world's greatest authors ate and drank.
After our meal we made our way to the Champs-Elysees and the famous Arc de Triomphe also know by my friends and I affectionately as the Arc de Friendship or Arc de Irony. Jokes aside the Arc was impressive.
Our final destination in Paris before heading back to good ole London and the land of English speakers was also our funniest. We wanted to go to the museum d'Orsay famous for its great impressionist collection. Well we are roaming the streets and come across an impressive looking building advertising for an art exhibit and for some reason we assume this is d'Orsay...oh how our assumptions were wrong! We pay our 6 pounds get inside and literally see 49 pills of clothes with one huge pile of cloths in the middle with a construction crane continually picking up clothes from the center pile and dropping them back into the pile. That's right we paid roughly $10 to see old, dirty clothes being dropped from a crane. Yep folks that is apparently art. It also turns out we were in the some impressive looking building built for the world's fair in 1900 which now hosts absolutely idiotic art exhibits. The exhibit was actually so stupid and comical that we were not too upset about paying to go see it because who could put a price tag on an experience we can laugh about for the rest of our lives.
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