I think we’re going to find out.  Today was my third visit to Breakfast In America, which I have blogged about in the past.  It’s a fantastic American diner that serves all-American food…perfect for a study abroad student who is craving a (literal) taste of home.  I had a delicious vanilla milkshake, a ginormous cheeseburger with fries…and a pancake with dark chocolate chips and raspberries…decadent, and oh-so-unhealthy.

It’s okay though, because I decided to walk it off afterward.  Caitlin left to explore the Louvre, Lindsey went to meet up with Chris and the others, and I decided to explore Île Saint Louis, which is one of the two islands in the middle of the Seine.  Notre Dame is located on Île de la Cité, so I have been there several times.  Île Saint Louis was exciting though, partly because of its size, and partly because it’s much quieter than the rest of the city.  There is no public transportation running on the little island as far as I know (maybe a few bus lines, but I didn’t see any), and so almost everyone who was there arrived on foot.  I walked in and out of stores filled with adorable and interesting knick knacks, and eventually sat myself down on a little ledge overlooking the river.  I sat there, people watching and soaking up the Parisian sunshine. After about half an hour, I started walking back to the apartment.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention my second visit to Marché aux Fleurs, which is a beautiful market filled with flowers, plants, and unique garden decorations.  They had a lot of other stores with even more trinkets and souvenirs, so I really enjoyed checking everything out.

After a couple of hours at the apartment, Caitlin returned and we got ready to meet up with the others at Sacré Coeur; we were planning on watching the sun set over Paris (my favorite thing in all the land).  We were running a little bit late, but we met up with Chrissy and the others shortly after 8 and snagged some spots on the steps in front of the beautiful basilica.  There must’ve been about 15 BC kids and Chrissy, our adopted BC buddy.  We had a lovely assortment of wine, and were sipping it in quite a classy manner as the sun attempted to set in the hazy Parisian sky.  Although the sunset was less than spectacular, it was still so nice to be in such good company.  A few people were playing guitar and singing in front of us for a while, which was great.  A guy came along a bit later with a speaker, and began to beat box…most unfortunate.  I think he and an Algerian man were pretty close to getting in a fist fight, but for some reason the fight was avoided when the beat boxer gave the mic to the Algerian to do his Algerian pride chant…?

After a couple hours at Sacré Coeur, we left to go to the Moose, which is the Canadian bar just around the corner from my house.  Chrissy and I were ecstatic to learn that they had bottles of Bulmer’s, and thus had a lovely evening reminiscing about Ireland and sipping on our bottles of Bulmer’s.

All in all, an excellent night.

Caitlin and I slept in this morning, and decided to take a leisurely stroll through the Marché Raspail, which is an upscale, organic farmer’s market pretty close to my apartment.  We made our way across the city to Musée Rodin, which I have been itching to do for quite a few weeks now.  Ever since seeing the movie Camille Claudel, I’ve had an intense fascination with both artists and their relationship.  They had a passionate love affair, in which Rodin (who was married at the time) admitted that Claudel was his muse, his inspiration.  According to the (most likely biased) film, Claudel felt that Rodin was using her and her artistic genius to make up for his lack of ingenuity later on in his career.  She claimed that he was only great because she made him great.  It’s debatable, most likely because Claudel became famous because of Rodin and his faith in her art.  Either way, the movie was great (albeit long), and I recommend it if you’re interested in art and/or French films!

Anyways, so the museum!  I managed to finagle Caitlin into the museum for free, even though she lacked her student ID, passport, and actually any proof of identification.  My sweet talking skills in French have finally started to improve, and I’m sure my big, doe eyed look helped a bit, too.  We wandered into the gardens, and the first sculpture we saw was the famous “Gates of Hell,” which was quite impressive.  We walked through the gardens and looked at all the beautiful statues in bronze and marble, marveled over the flowers and trees in bloom, and enjoyed the fountain and the view of Hôtel des Invalides.  We made our way to the actual museum, and saw the rest of his artwork.  We also saw a room with some of Camille Claudel’s work, which I found beautiful.  Her attention to detail was impeccable, and I really enjoyed seeing first-hand the actual pieces from the movie.  The two pictures that I’ve included in this blog are the Thinker (the man is in a *surprise* thinking pose) and La Cathédrale (the one of the hands).  There were so many other beautiful works, but I obviously did not take pictures of them all, and the ones I did take pictures of I just put up in my Facebook album, so you can check those out.

Tonight I believe we’re going out to a bar somewhere close by in the Latin Quarter.  Hopefully it will be cheap and FUN!  Happy Friday, everyone!

…I mean, how could I?  The sun was shining down on my beautiful Paris, and I simply HAD to get out of the apartment and into the Jardin du Luxembourg.  They do say, after all, that a little bit of sunshine is good for the body and soul.

I ran into darling Chrissy, we grabbed a couple of comfy green chairs, and began to strip down to our t-shirts.  She showed me her accomplishments of the day: a brand, new dress from H&M, and a beautiful English cookbook with recipes for traditional French food, replete with a stamp from my personal favorite bookstore, Shakespeare & Co.  We then proceeded to have a lovely life chat while letting the sun beat down on our skin to erase the traces of winter.

After Chrissy left, I finished reading Five People You Meet in Heaven.  I really enjoyed the book, and it reminded me to live life to the fullest and to care about each and every person we meet (or don’t meet) because we are all interconnected in some way.  I have to see the movie, now, which Kelsey said is a real tearjerker.  Can’t wait!

Anyways, I’m off to finish the rest of my policy paper re-write…maybe…

Today was another beautiful day, one that hinted the nearness of spring.  The sun shone down brilliantly on the city, warming it and awaking it from its winter slumber.  The locals are emerging from their hibernation, the artists are once again lining the Seine, and the tourists are beginning to flock towards the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.  Is it bad that I look at these tourists with contempt?  Ah, les touristes, quells idiots!  Ils sont à ma ville, et ils doivent partir maintenant!  (Ugh, these tourists, what idiots!  They’re in my city, and they should leave NOW!)

Such excellent weather is already making it difficult to muster up the motivation to go to class, but somehow I managed to go to French this morning.  After class, I decided to go to Jardin du Luxembourg again, and eventually found a chair after about 25 minutes of looking; the park was absolutely packed.  I made serious attempts to get some reading done, but unfortunately ended up drifting off to a nice mid-afternoon nap in the sun, which is my favorite kind.  I awoke half an hour later, and finally cracked open Omnivore’s Dilemma.

When I got back from the park, Kelsey informed me that the paper I’ve been working on is due March 31^st instead of March 24^th, so I have an extra week to work on it!  I’m incredibly happy about that, as I was starting to realize there was no possible way I was going to finish in time…