French Art at its Finest

Starbucks = First on our list. We stopped by a Patisserie as well and I got a cheesecake with 'framboise' or raspberries. Mmmm! We both ordered chai tea and we ate at a little table in the back of Starbucks. Then we got on the metro to go to Sainte Chapelle. A church with huge stained glass windows. We waited in line for about 1/2 hour and just as we were about 15 people from the door they came up and said it was closed. No warning or anything. It was just closed. However it was really the first problem we had had in our trip at all so we couldn't complain too much.

We wandered over to Notre Dame and though it we could go up in the towers we would try but the line was so long and it just didn't seem worth it since we had already spend the majority of our day waiting in line. So instead we went looking for a little bookstore that my good friend Siri Preston said I had to go to when I was in Paris. I couldn't find it right away so I text some people to ask them if they could tell me where it was, and in the meantime we went into a few souvenir shops. I got a French flag and a large purse with Paris on it! I hadn't got a text back so we decided to wander to find it and we found it right away. It was so cute! The books were stacked up to the ceiling and there were ladders to get up to the high ones. There were little couches and chairs for you to sit in and read, and upstairs was my favorite. There was an old typewriter that you could actually use, but it was out of ink, and a very old piano that barely worked. I played it for a little while and Mamie took a video of me doing it.

From there we left and took the metro to the Musée Rodin where we saw lots of Rodin's sculptures including The Thinker and The Kiss. Pretty neat. The Kiss is my new favorite work of art and I took lots of pictures. Initially we missed that part of the museum and I asked Mamie where it was right before we went into the exhibit and left, so we both went back individually to see two of his most famous pieces of art, while the other held our place in line for the exhibit.

The Thinker and The Kiss by Rodin

After the museum we were exhausted so we came back to Kim and Scott's and took a nice long nap before going to Musée d'Orsay. It was huge. A lot bigger than I thought it would be, but there were some really great pieces of art there. It's actually an old train station they turned into a museum so there is an awesome clock that I took too many pictures of. We stayed there for probably 2.5 hours and then we wandered out to find something to eat. It was about 9:00pm by the time we reached the restaurant but our croque-monsieur was great. I also got a glass of white wine that tasted pretty good. After dinner we walked home and ended up talking to Kim and her oldest son Danny for a good half-hour about the French/American school system. There is quite a big difference and Danny is getting ready to take his Bac (like an ACT but harder) next year. Kim is trying to decide if it's worth it for him to stay here and be killed by the French system of if he should get him out of it somehow. We decided a mix between the two school systems would make it about right. Day 3 in Paris!

(Musee d'Orsay)

Some crazy things I saw: There are no street lanes here in Paris. They are just wide streets and I guess you just drive on one side or the other. I wouldn't try to drive here!

A guy was balancing about four 2 by 4s standing straight up in the air on his moped. I saw him drive by while we were waiting in line at Sainte Chapelle. I wonder if that is illegal here.....