July 20th, 2009:
We met with Pierre in the lobby today so he could personally escort us to the train station and onward to our classroom. Eartha, who's like a science project gone wrong, was at his side the entire time- flooding him with questions of Paris rediculousness.
Some people cannot figure out the easiest stuff. For me, the Paris Metropolitan subway system is waaaaay easier than the Tube in London. What was kinda funny was watching Professor Simpson's wife Victoria- who has been in the shadows lurking behind him this entire trip- get stuck in the doors of the train and left behind at the last train station.
(The doors manually close, I might add, so how the hell that happened, I will never know.) Our classrooms were very nice and modern and class itself with both teachers was ok. It's hard to keep focused on your first real day in Paris.
We lunched quickly, then began our city tour of Paris. With stops at Arc de Triumph
(this isn't it, btw.)and the Eiffel tower,
this would have been a fun tour…had it only lasted an hour.
After the 3rd hour, we all could use a little Parisian wine or at least a good ol' fashioned British beer. Our crazy French bitch of a tour guide raced us through Notre Dame like it was the Indy 500! That church is absolutely stunning! Apparently the stained glass windows of Notre Dame are the finest in the world- and I certainly wouldn't disagree with that. I was bummed that we didn't get to spend that much time in Notre Dame, but also relieved to learn it was the last stop of our whistle tour of Parié.
We were then set loose on our own to check out the city. Some of us wanted to go wine tasting, others wanted to go Absinthe tasting. Some wanted to go shopping. Me and my small posse? We decided to get food and talk about our current situation.
(That situation was that we were nearly out of pot. The little we had smuggled on the Chunnel was running severely low, so us eating was also opportunity to discuss our game plan.) We decided our best course of action would be to head to the Red Light District to see the Moulin Rouge. (And to buy drugs! We had very little trouble finding what we were looking for: hash, which is apparently all the rage in Northern Europe.)
The Moulin Rouge was cool but had obviously been recently remodeled in the last few years and looked less cool than in pictures or in the Baz Luhrman movie. It's been revamped and remodeled so much that it reminds me of Dorian Grey: an entity trying to remain young forever but altering its appearance to appear more younger and vibrant than ever!
I persuaded the few of us with me to head to the Marais (the gay area of town) for our nightly drink fest. We had a blast there and I met my first Parisian friends: Tim and Thomas!
