One moment from Day 13's post I forgot to include: when I was at the Monet museum, standing in a room filled with his most famous artwork, I saw a woman slowly walking to each painting, then looking down at her left hand and smiling before moving to the next one. Here's what I perceive to be some of the most beautiful art ever created, and this woman is constantly starting at her engagement ring. My guess was that she was recently proposed to in this "city of love," and this made me smile for the rest of the day. Extreme cuteness.
Anyway, on to Day 14 (this will have been June 1; I am very behind). The morning was wonderful because we didn't have French class anymore and film class was postponed to the afternoon, so most of us slept through it (the morning, not class for once). A "normal sleep pattern" is something I most look forward to upon arriving home in the US - a lofty ambition but I'm going to try.
But the movie of the day was Cléo from 5-7--pretty much the last New Wave film we watched (which brings the total to...four?). This film was an almost real-time account of two hours in the life of a self-centered singer worried about her health. I really enjoyed this concept, and the film's general manipulation of real-time through the eyes of the characters. There were still elliptical edits, so it wasn't really just two hours (and the film time was something like 1:30) in the film world, but more or less it was faithful. I also was interested by its undercutting of the Hollywood concept that every narrative element (love interest, conflict, etc.) must appear at the beginning minutes of the film.
After the movie, Aliko (our professor) took us on a walk to the Place des Vosges, which is the oldest square in Paris. It was commissioned by Henri IV in the early 1600s. Wanna live there? It's only 1,390,000 euros.
Places des Vosges
Victor Hugo lived there!
Later in the evening, the boys in the group, my roommate and I went to L'Arc de Triomphe to make the climb. I'm growing a little weary of the statement "it's the best view in Paris!" because of its constant usage to describe a lot of different places, but the view was very beautiful. Atop the L'Arc a family heard us speaking English and asked us to take a picture.
"Where are you from?"
"Wisconsin, how about you?"
"Colorado. Go Badgers!"
Yeah, that's right; he didn't even know we were students at UW. Greatest state in the Union.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - a flame that hasn't gone out since 1920. And Jackie O had JFK's eternal flame lit because they visited this one together in 1961.
The best shot I could get of la Tour Eiffel
Not a great picture of me (I've had terrible luck), but the Eiffel Tower looks cool.
After we were kicked out at 11, we saw the sparkling light show on the Eiffel Tower and made a very important decision: to go to McDonalds on the Champs Elysées. For those who don't know, this is a very chic, expensive part of town.
Classiest McDonalds in the world.
A glimpse of the inside.
Check out how small that Coke is. And it was 2 euros.
The meal was expensive -- 6,80 euros I believe -- but I have to admit, I did get better service there than I have in the past at the McDonalds near my house. That is to say that no McDonalds employee had taken a bite out of my cheeseburger prior to giving it to me.
Walking total: 7.6 miles.
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