Afterwards, since we didn't want to spend the day in a museum, we opted to just get a few photos of and around the Louvre. We found ourselves in the underground mall by the Louvre, Le Carrousel, where we saw an inverted pyramid similar to the one inside the Louvre and then came across the old wall that was part of the fortress wall built by Philippe Auguste around 1200.
We were getting hungry and James had a plan for us to buy some food and go eat it on the steps of Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre, so off we went on the metro. We got off at Abbesses station and after hoofing it up some serious stairs we settled in for lunch with a spectacular view of the city. It's pretty incredible to just sit there for an hour and watch the influx of visitors around you.
However you are also subject to ridiculousness of some tourists. First up an American mother and her (likely mortified) teenage son asked another tourist to take their photo, but then the mother insisted on this stranger taking no less than twenty photos of them in front of the basilica because there were other people in the background. Lady, I hate to break it to you, but you're in the most tourist-heavy city in the world! James and I had a bit of a laugh about that one. Then a young eastern European couple distracted the vast majority of people on the stairs by engaging in the longest public makeout session I have ever been witness to. No joke, almost 10 minutes long. It got uncomfortable at times! But it was somewhat entertaining because in Paris, I guess you just get caught up in the moment.
We were getting kind of tired but wanted to see a different side of Paris so after a very delicious albeit sticky snack of crepes, we took the metro to La Défense which is the business district of the city. After seeing endless old buildings it was almost jarring to see modern architecture.
After a long day of exploring we caught the RER train (comparable to GO trains) back to the hostel instead of the subway since it's much faster stopping at only a couple of stations. We had a little rest before getting ready for the U of T alumni event we were attending that night. It was kind of by chance that I discovered this event while still in Toronto and the timing just worked out. It was hosted by an alumnus of the Faculty of Music, a jazz pianist, and his wife in their home. Being my first time at an alumni event and taking into account that it was happening in Paris, I had no idea what to expect. But it was a great experience meeting a wide variety people from all over who'd at some point or another lived and studied in Toronto. We spoke in both English and French and I even got to sneak a little Spanish in there!
One of the craziest moments of the night was when I met Nita, originally from Ottawa now living in Paris with her Swiss French husband and their family. I mentioned that I worked at U of T in the Speech-Language Pathology department and before I could mention Elizabeth's name (the prof I worked for) Nita asked me if I knew Elizabeth Rochon. Turns out she was friends with Elizabeth's sister back in Ottawa and when Nita and her husband moved to Toronto they became friends with Elizabeth and her husband, who is also coincidentally Swiss French. Small world!
After much chatting, snacking and imbibing of wine we thanked our hosts and headed out. We ended up wandering around the 17th arrondissement getting somewhat lost and then stopping for one last drink before meandering back to the metro. We slept soundly and in the morning we made it with ample time to catch our 7am train back to Lyon. A la prochaine, Paris!
However you are also subject to ridiculousness of some tourists. First up an American mother and her (likely mortified) teenage son asked another tourist to take their photo, but then the mother insisted on this stranger taking no less than twenty photos of them in front of the basilica because there were other people in the background. Lady, I hate to break it to you, but you're in the most tourist-heavy city in the world! James and I had a bit of a laugh about that one. Then a young eastern European couple distracted the vast majority of people on the stairs by engaging in the longest public makeout session I have ever been witness to. No joke, almost 10 minutes long. It got uncomfortable at times! But it was somewhat entertaining because in Paris, I guess you just get caught up in the moment.
We were getting kind of tired but wanted to see a different side of Paris so after a very delicious albeit sticky snack of crepes, we took the metro to La Défense which is the business district of the city. After seeing endless old buildings it was almost jarring to see modern architecture.
After a long day of exploring we caught the RER train (comparable to GO trains) back to the hostel instead of the subway since it's much faster stopping at only a couple of stations. We had a little rest before getting ready for the U of T alumni event we were attending that night. It was kind of by chance that I discovered this event while still in Toronto and the timing just worked out. It was hosted by an alumnus of the Faculty of Music, a jazz pianist, and his wife in their home. Being my first time at an alumni event and taking into account that it was happening in Paris, I had no idea what to expect. But it was a great experience meeting a wide variety people from all over who'd at some point or another lived and studied in Toronto. We spoke in both English and French and I even got to sneak a little Spanish in there!
One of the craziest moments of the night was when I met Nita, originally from Ottawa now living in Paris with her Swiss French husband and their family. I mentioned that I worked at U of T in the Speech-Language Pathology department and before I could mention Elizabeth's name (the prof I worked for) Nita asked me if I knew Elizabeth Rochon. Turns out she was friends with Elizabeth's sister back in Ottawa and when Nita and her husband moved to Toronto they became friends with Elizabeth and her husband, who is also coincidentally Swiss French. Small world!
After much chatting, snacking and imbibing of wine we thanked our hosts and headed out. We ended up wandering around the 17th arrondissement getting somewhat lost and then stopping for one last drink before meandering back to the metro. We slept soundly and in the morning we made it with ample time to catch our 7am train back to Lyon. A la prochaine, Paris!
No comments:
Post a Comment