Paris, Springtime!

Bonjour mes amis,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I hope you're all doing well! As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Paris for the day a couple of Wednesdays ago. It was really nice to get out of Nevers for a little while, it was a GORGEOUS clear day (but still very windy and quite cold) in Paris, and I got to see some parts of Paris I haven't really explored before. I left a snowy Nevers at 6:58AM and enjoyed watching the sun rise during the easy 2-hour trip to Paris. I had planned to start my day at the Musée Picasso in Paris, but when I got there at 9:30, its listed opening time according to the website and my guidebook, I found a sign saying it's closed for renovations from August 24, 2009 until 2012!! THREE YEARS. Fortunately I've been in France for long enough now that this didn't surprise me too terribly much, but I was still a little disappointed that I couldn't visit it. I wandered around the 3ème arrondissement for a while, and visited the lovely Hotel de Soubise, a mansion in the center of Paris that is now home to the Musée de l'Histoire de France and the National Archives. It also seemed to be under restoration, and most of the exhibits had been removed, but it still had a pretty interior, and it was good to get in out of the wind for a few minutes.

One of my very favorite movies is the French film Amélie, and there are a couple scenes in the movie that take place around the Canal Saint Martin, a canal that runs through Paris. Because it's kind of up in the northern part of the city and there aren't many touristy sights or museums in that area, I'd never been up there before, and so I walked up to the canal and walked along it for a few minutes - so now I've officially seen it! I'm sure it's much prettier in summer, when all the trees are green and leafy, but it was still a nice little walk. As this was a day in Paris dedicated to some of the things I've never done, my next stop was the Opéra Garnier, a gorgeous opera house in the 8ème arrondissement of Paris. While I had previously seen it from the outside, I'd never been inside before - it has a beautiful interior; lots of red velvet and ornate ceiling decorations, etc. (Random trivia: The Phantom of the Opera is about the Opéra Garnier)

Eglise de la Madeleine is another one of those Parisian landmarks that I've seen many times, but only from the outside, so I headed there after the Opéra (after a quick browse through the Galéries Lafayette, a HUUUGE department store). It's really nice on the inside, kind of dark and lots of sculpture to see. I tried to walk past the Palais de l'Elysée, the French presidential residence, but there was a ton of security around it and I couldn't actually see the building. I don't know if there was something special going on that day or if they just always have that much security, but at least I walked around some of the perimeter...

I crossed the Seine at my favorite bridge, the Pont Alexandre III, and went into Eglise du Dome des Invalides, the church in which Napoleon has his tomb. It's big and has a huge gilded dome on top, and the area between the church and the Latin Quarter is very nice for strolling. Because I'd now been walking for many hours without stopping and because we don't have a Starbucks in Nevers, I had to take advantage of the many Starbucks around me, so I took an hour-long coffee break on the Rue Saint Michel, people-watching and enjoying my normal, American-sized cup of coffee. I also stopped in a Shakespeare and Co., a wonderful English-language bookstore just across from Notre Dame and treated myself to 2 new books - such a treat! I spent the rest of my afternoon slowly wandering through the Ile Saint Louis, back towards the train station, then ended up getting back to Nevers around 8. I was exhausted, but it was a great day quand meme!

It's really started feeling like spring here in the past week, and the daffodils along the Loire have bloomed, which makes for a much more pleasant walk to school. I even got slightly sunburned reading on my patio on Friday afternoon! (Although, as most of you probably know, that's not saying a lot - I burn very easily.)

That's really all the news I have for now, I hope you are all well.

A bientot!