The
pastry shop where I normally got our breakfast was closed so I had to find
another place. I found a small
little shop that served crepes filled with Nutella. The croissant was even better than our normal place. Ahh you can’t walk five feet in Paris without
running into a good bakery.
After
breakfast we walked to Gertrude Stein’s apartment. We walked down rue St. Michel and crossed the park at rue
August Comte and past The College du France. Outside of the College du France all the students were
huddled together in gossip circles with cigarettes hanging loosely from their
lips or held tightly in their expressive hands.
All the younger kids smoke hand-rolled cigarettes.
I noticed it first when we walked to the Eiffel tower and stopped at a
café. Outside, underneath the
waiter who was stringing garlands from the perimeter of the cafe we saw young
kids smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. We saw it again outside the college and various other places in France. It must be in vogue smoke them but so much worse for the lungs...
After
we visited Gertrude Stein’s apartment we walked to Les Deux Magots café. Les Deux Magots was the intellectual
center of Paris during the 1920’s.
It’s where the literary, artistic and intellectual elites met to eat,
drink and chat. It’s seen the
likes of Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Paul
Sartre.
It
was surreal to walk in knowing that this is likely the spot where Ernest
Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises and other early pieces of literature. The space is wide open with high
ceilings and large bay windows that make it much more well lit than I
imagined. Keeping up the tradition
people ate traditional Parisian foods and shared bottles of wine and large
green salads. The space is still
as noisy and bustling as I’m sure it was in the 1920's but now it was
interrupted by more foreign languages and cell phones and the such. I imagined Ernest huddled in the back
corner, laboring over his long hand notes. For me personally it would not be a good place to write –
too much open space and commotion.
“Pardon.” I asked the waitress. “Do you know where Hemingway sat?”
She
arched her head back in thought and raised her hand pensively to her face. “Yes. Right where you are sitting.”
Cool!
After
yogurt and coffee we walked to the Louvre.
The
Louvre. Wow. Absolutely massive, colossal, gigantic
stupendous, paralyzing…I could keep going with the adjectives.
You
enter the Louvre through a massive glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre
Palace. The museum has over 35,000
objects from pre-history through the 19th century. I
think if the specific art on display interests you (a big if) you probably need
to spend several days at the museum.
I’d also recommend a guide since (to Mena and my great frustration) all
the exhibits are described in French.
I
appreciate the arts but the items on display at the Louvre weren’t of
particular interest to Mena or myself.
We walked through the exhibits pretty quickly. I couldn’t help but chuckle at all the people observing the
works. Some are experts, no doubt, and their vigorous review of the
exhibits is warranted. Others just
want to look enraptured – as if each piece enlightens a dark part of their soul
and helps solve an existential crisis. Squinted eyes. Hand touching jaw.
Pensive stare. You know…
We
saw the Mona Lisa and that was the biggest attraction for Mena and I. Just very unreal to see the most famous
piece of art in the history of the world ten feet in front of you. The picture was smaller than you might
imagine…
As
we walked through hall after hall resplendent with beautifully carved
sculptures I turned to Mena.
“There
are so many statues. Even if you
spent your whole life toiling for recognition and you ended up getting your
very own statue to commemorate your life you still end up an afterthought next
to the Mona Lisa.”
She
smiled.
Afterwards
we took the subway back to our hotel to avoid the torrential rain. I wrote and then we headed out for
dinner. We decided to go back to La
Cantoche for our last meal in Paris.
It was very symmetrical and fitting that we have our last meal at the
place we first ate in Paris. That
and Tal (here name is Tal, not Tara) and Thomas were so kind and sweet to
us.
I
ate raw beef tartare, a salad and pomme frites. Mena ate fish (I cant recall which type of fish!). It was excellent. Probably the best meal I had throughout
my stay in Paris. Mena enjoyed her meal as well.
Mena
and I had a wonderful dinner together and then walked back to the subway to
catch some sleep before heading to Iceland...
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