July 15, 16 & 17th:

The past 3 days have been so full of walking, my feet are still sore.

Wednesday: I woke up late, ran to the corner Boulangerie for a croissant, drank a big cuppa tea, ate my croissant and 1/2 pampelmousse, or in other words, grapefruit. Best breakfast ever. Blogged about the previous days fireworks, took a shower, etc. Time to go out into the sunshine. I grabbed my book, glanced at my map and decided to head to Les Halles. Pierre and I had plans to meet at a restaurant in the general area before going to a screening of Warhol's screen tests set to music. I wanted to find a grassy place I could sit and read. So I got off at Les Halles, walked through the weird, underground shopping mall, made my way passed some guys doing tricks on a skateboard ramp... it might have just been a statue they were using as a ramp, not quite sure... I found a nice spot under a tree right infront of l'Eglise Saint Eustache. I sat there for a while, watching the tourists taking pictures with the statue without a body and giggling at the rediculous book I'm reading (actually written by my friend's dad... a classic Swedish teen novel. You Swedes out there might know it: Jack by Ulf Lundell). After an hour or so, I got a text from Pierre saying we'd have to postpone our plans... his boss had just been laid-off and they were all required to say in the office late: Luckily, the same screening was showing the following day, so we decided to move our plans to Thursday. After sitting there a while longer, I got up and started walking in the direction I thought was towards Notre Dame... eventually figured out I was going in the oposite direction... so I turned around, this time with a better sense of where I was going. By this time I really needed to use a bathroom. After searching in vain for a public toilet, I went into a bar and asked if I could use theirs. They said it was only for customers, but if I bought something to drink... so I paid 1.80 Euro for a small bottle of water. And the bathroom. Of course, after walking about a block, I saw a big sign for public restrooms down a flight of stairs. Typical. Oh, well. I guess that's what it's like to be a tourist. I was a little hurt though. In NY, they almost always let me use the resroom if I ask nicely. Or at least they would have told me there was one down the street. Whatever.

I crossed the bridge at Point Neuf, walked along the Siene, and passed by Notre Dame for the 3rd time.

Went into a bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., feeling immediately at home. The people at the cashier were speaking English to each other and all the books were in English. New books, used books, Moleskin notebooks, ahhh... Walked down the very touristy streets between Notre Dame & Saint Michel bought some really, really yummy gelato (yogurt & "inimitable", wich is basically Nutella. SO good.) Wandered around for a while, making my way down Boulevard Saint Michel, eventually ending up at the Jardin du Luxembourg. As I was walking in through the gates, a young man I had passed on the street came up to me and asked if we could get to know eachother. What the hell. An oportunity to practice my French! It's not the first time I've been aproached on the street in Paris. Not even the first time today. And he seemed pretty harmless. So we walked around the garden, chatting a little (I didn't take any pictures! Grr, distractions. I guess I will have to go back). He tried to guess what I was studying: literature. Nope. But when I said theater, he said "ah! Tu as triché!" After making a little loop in the center, he confessed he had to go back because he had left his friend at the entrance to come talk to me. Nice. So we parted ways. I was able to wriggle out of giving him my info by taking his instead. He said he wanted to be my tourguide of the Opera. Ok, maybe... whatever you say. These French men are much more persistant than I expected! Now the things people have been saying about Italians are beginning to worry me a little.
I started walking towards my arrondissement, and I ended up walking all the way home.
I have a pretty good understanding of the layout of Paris, now that I've basically crossed the whole thing on foot. I bought some fruit & veggies & milk at the store, made a big salad and, after eating, crawled into bed.
I love going to sleep when your whole body is screaming for rest. It's like you just sink through the mattress and lose yourself in the darkness.

Thursday: Another late start. I've been having such lazy mornings, it's the best. No early-morning classes, no rehearsals or homework. I love Summer!
Pierre had promised to send me some recommendations of places to go, buthe hadn't had much time to send me anything. So it was a great surprise, when I turned on my phone, to see the text message saying I should go to Montmartre, and more details about the Metro, streets, etc. So I put on a summer dress and my most comfortable sandals, filled my water bottle and was on my way! I walked up Rue Lépic, really long & winding, with lots of cute cafés and little tiny alleyways with housed covered in flowers & ivy. At the top, Sacré-Coeur. So beautiful. I don't think the pictures do it justice, by a long shot. But I'll put them up anyway. I went to Espace Dali, just as I did my first time in Paris, 11 years ago. I had 2 sketches drawn, they wouldn't leave me alone. One guy did it absolutely free. And spend the whole time trying to convince me to marry him. Seriously. I spent several hours walking around, taking photos, eating ice cream....

I eventually made my way back down Rue Lépic and strolled along the streets wandering in the general direction of Dédé la Frite, the restaurant I was to meet Pierre at. I still had about 2 hours to kill, but I thought it would be best if I had an idea of how to find the restaurant. I walked for a bit, oggling at all the beautiful old buildings. It seems like on every street there is some magnificent Cathedral, Hotel or just a plain old rediculously gorgeous apartment building.
I even walked by a firehouse with all these firemen playing volleyball outside in the courtyard. I was so tempted to take a picture (I really should have) but I was afraid of making a scene. There were so many of them. Bare-chested. It was such a beautiful old building too, with "Caserne de Pompiers" over the gates.
In any case, I found a little park with a fountain just across from the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris and lay down in the grass to read.
At 8:20pm I made my way over to Rue Montmartre. It took me some effort to find the restaurant... I walked up and down the street a couple times, thinking I had passed it, but it was a little farther up the street. I found Pierre sitting at a table outside, waiting for me. I sat down and ordered one of the only things on the menu without meat, a really yummy croque-something, with pesto, tomato, mozarella, and I think another kind of cheese, all melty and toasty. Yum. With salad and fries on the side. The fries were so good! At first they came out with our food and my sandwhich was just meat and cheese. Definitely not what I ordered! But Pierre was able to sort it out, and I finally got my sandwhich.
We were finished just in time to jump on the scooter and zip over to l'Eglise Saint Eustache, the same church I had sat outside the day before, for the screening of "13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests". It was hypnotizing. I really enjoyed it. It was amazing how strongly you're affected by the people on-screen. When they would laugh or smile, I would respond in the same way. The girl who cried made me choked up. Or you would just lose yourself in the deep black of their eyes. It was even more dramatic with all the thunder and lightning outside. Just as we got inside, it started to pour. And when we left, it had stopped =)
So we went to Café Noir for a drink. I really like that place. It feels so Williamsburg or LES. Totally kitchy, so fun. And they play really good music. And the bathroom is disgusting. Yup, totally NYC. It started to pour again and we had to wait a while for it to clear up so I could get on the train. It was too wet, and the threat of more rain was too great for Pierre to give me a ride home. Too bad, since I'm totally in love with scootering around town.
Another really long, exhausting day. But so much fun!!!

Friday: I woke up early, which was weird, considering I've been sleeping so late. Couldn't go back to sleep, I ate some breakfast, took a quick shower and since it looked like it was going to be a rainy day headed over to the Louvre. It is so huge, if you haven't seen it, I can't help you. It's undiscribable.

And the best part is that, as an EU citizen and under 26 years of age, it's free! You just go up to the counter, show them your passport and they give you a ticket! Good thing, because there's no way you can see everything in one day. I'm going to try to go back again before I leave.

After walking around for several hours, looking mostly at paintings from France and other parts of Europe (including the Mona Lisa, of course), my feet and legs were so tired and I was getting really hungry, so I went out and sat on the grass in the Jardin de Tullieries.

It turned out to be a really beautiful day, lots of sunshine. I was way too warm in my rainy-day jeans. I ate my apple and read for a while. Then I strolled through the garden and down the Champs-Elysées.

By the time I got to the Grand Palais (the museum I went to for the Warhol exhibit) it had gotten very gray and windy. Looked like more rain. So I got on the train and headed back home. Bought some groceries and when I got back to the apartment I put on some really bad music, turned up the volume, opened a beer with a fork since I couldn't find the bottle opener, and had a big cleaning party in my underwear. I know, I'm weird, but sometimes I have a ridiculously good time cleaning.
Afterwards, I was completely exhausted. I made some dinner and read some more. Around 10pm, I got a text from Emmanuel, a friend of Sebbe's, asking if I wanted to join him and some friends for a drink. I said yes, of course, but later we decided to take a rain check. Literally. Too much rain. And I was so tired, I could hardly keep my eyes open. So instead of going out for a wild Friday night, I crawled into bed and happily drifted off to sleep.