Wow, what a weekend it has been! I spent Thursday from Sunday in gay Paris! I did and saw as much and physically possible, it was basically the Paris death march. What an incredible city though, and I must say the French stereotype of hating English speaking people is way off. I didn't meet a single ill-tempered or angsty French person while I was there; in fact they were nothing but patient, understanding, and helpful.

So I suppose I should start from the beginning. We woke up at the ass crack of dawn... and left for Avignon, which is about an hour bus ride to pick up the bullet train. We had to get there REALLY early because you have literally four minutes when the train pulls up to get your ass on and sit down or else they shut the door and leave you behind. They even have a conductor guy who has a pocket watch and yells all aboard (in French of course). So we got on our way to Paris, and this train is like nothing I have ever rode before. It’s so incredibly smooth, and your moving at 100+ miles per hour! So that was about a two-hour ride to Paris, and I was amazed to see which station we pulled up to. For those of you who know me I am a HUGE UBER Moulin Rouge fan, and if you recall in the opening scene Christian arrives in Paris in 1900 in a train station made of iron and glass? Well it’s the EXACT same one! As I got off the train I felt like I was right in the movie, about to go find truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things... love.

So we walked to our hotel, which was a pretty big hike, and Paris was initially totally overwhelming, after spending four weeks in itty-bitty quiet Lacoste. So we arrive at our hotel room, which was a corner room (Just like in Moulin Rouge AGAIN), and it was pretty darn big as European hotels go. After settling in we were free to get some lunch. A few of us went to an Indian restaurant (called the Maharaja, more Moulin Rouge) and it was REALLY good, better then most places in the states. With our bellies full of curry it was off to none other then the Luvre! Holy shit the Luvre is huge, some would say ginormous even. The two photos I have online do not do it justice. Its one of the biggest museums I have ever been in. Which was working against me because I wanted to see all of it, and we only had three hours. You tend to get lost looking for what you really want to see, but end up seeing something else instead. Some of the highlights were a collection of Van Dyke paintings, and the Rueben’s room, which I spent like 30 minutes in just starring at his work. They also had a lot of Renaissance painters, some Rembrandts, and a bunch of other paintings I recognized from art history classes. Unfortunately I ran out of time and I wasn't able to see the Mona Lisa, which I didn't care so much, but I really wanted to see "The Raft of the Medusas", which is one of my favorite all time paintings. Oh well, there is always next visit.

The next day was action packed as well. It started out with a trip to Versailles. For those of you who don't know, Versailles was built by Louis the XIV to be the new capital, and he made all of his government come there with him. He fancied himself as the "sun king" and as such was a bit of a control freak. Before Louis Versailles was nothing but nasty icky swampland, he turned it into a lavish sprawling garden and palace. This place is so big that he had a great canal built in the middle so he could sail his personal galleon and pretend he was a seaman. It also contains the famous hall of mirrors inside the palace. However the visit was a dud, if not down right bad. There were NO flowers in bloom, no fountains turned on, and many of the monuments were under construction or completely destroyed. Even the hall off mirrors had the floor torn up, chandeliers gone, and the statues and other decorations gone. Even with it all torn up I still understand why the people rose up and slew the royalty... let them eat cake indeed.

We departed from Versailles and I went to Notre Dame where I sat and drew it for a couple of hours for an assignment. It was cool though because at six o'clock there I am drawing the towers and the bells went off for about 15 minutes. There was some magic in the air as cheesy as that sounds. After that I got some dinner at a cute Italian restaurant, explored Paris a bit, and headed to bed.
Saturday was really busy as well. We started out by going back to Notre Dame and this time we got to go inside. It was very stunning inside, amazing gothic architecture. However the center was blocked off (construction, AGAIN) and it broke up the church layout terribly and most importantly you couldn't see the famous rose stain class window! However the next visit a block away was Sainte Chapelle. It’s a small cathedral that was made for royalty only. Its gothic architecture at its highest point. It also contains the "supposed" crown of thorns Jesus wore at the altar upfront, although you can't actually see it. The walls are made almost completely of stain glass, so the room is completely filled with colored light. Also notable is there is a row of paintings on the wall going around the entire room depicting quite vividly the many deaths of the various saints. People being axed in the back, gutted, burned etc... Somewhat amusing in a primitively drawn morbid way.

After leaving Sainte Chapelle I went the Mussee O'Drossey, which is a smaller art museum then the Luvre and by far much more manageable. It’s also famous for its Impressionist collection, which I am a HUGE fan of, Monet in particular. When I walked into that wing it was like the gates of heaven opening up (winged cherubs and heavenly music included). First room FULL of Van Gogh's, and he best ones at that! Next room was Monet, and I most of spent an hour in there. You can get right up to the paintings, no glass at all, although there is a small rope to keep you an inch or two back (unlike the national art gallery in DC). After having an hour-long conversation with Mr. Monet, I moved on to Manet and Picasso. After recovering from my Impressionist orgy I made my way down to the dessert room, where they had a buffet of all the desserts you could eat. You tell the fancy French servers, "That one! (Pointing) That one there, it pleases me." and they bring it to your table. It was the best dessert I have had in France yet, and it was by far one of the fanciest rooms I have ever eaten in. I have pictures of it below.

That night I had dinner at a restaurant the specialized in Indian Ocean seafood, and those of you who know me I don't eat seafood, but they did have a coconut chicken that was amazing and the Indian Ocean version of fried dumplings and pina-colada. After dinner I met up with Reid and we headed over to do the Eiffel tower. I was expected it to be cheesy and touristy, but I must say I was very impressed. It’s MUCH larger then I had thought, and it’s all lit up with spotlights. However every hour flash bulbs go off for about five minutes and it is simple breath taking. We went to the top, which was very much worth the ten Euros I had to pay, and I got amazing photos of the city all lit up. The white beam you see is the spot light that spins at the top. After a bit the cold air and strong wind convinced us to head out. Once I got back to the hotel I met up with some other students in my room, who had found some cute German girls who were there for the weekend. Some how about 15 other people showed up at as well and we ended up having a sort of loud party in the room that I am sure the hotel management loved us for.

Sunday was my final day in Paris. I headed out with another fellow named Grant to the big famous Arch. Unfortunately we had run out of the great sunny weather we had been having and it was cold and raining. So we only stayed long enough to get a few photos and walk up to it, but we didn't bother to pay to go to the top to be wet and colder. We then headed to the National Armory Museum. The wing we went to had thousands of uniforms, guns, swords, and other artifacts dating from Napoleons time. They also had his deathbed, death mask, and some clothes he personally wore. Another section we stopped in had a bunch of real Med-evil medal armor. As usual our time was short there and we didn't get to see the other wings, which had artifacts from WW2, to current stuff. After that was the trip home, which I slept most of the way as, you can imagine.

Well that is Paris in a long nutshell. It was VERY cool and anytime any of you want to go, I will be more then happy to show you around. Because there are SO many photos from Paris I am a little behind on photos and artwork from Lacoste online, so be patient, I will have those soon.