This past weekend was the 'Journees Europeenes de Patrimoine,' which is this big festival all over France, and probably the rest of Europe, during which monuments, museums, expositions, churches, all kinds of things are open for free! There are sort of way too many options to choose just a few, but somehow I did and I had a really excellent time. On Saturday afternoon, Molly, Laura (another AU enclave person) and I went to the 'Aquarium Tropical' which is in the southeast of Paris right on the Bois de Vincennes. It's in a huge, amazing building that underwent recent rennovations, and it was really a cool place. Of course it didn't even compare to Baltimore's, but does anything, really? There were all sorts of little tropical fish as well as some really cool huge guys, and there were lots of rays, some eels, and I think four different kinds of crocodiles!! There was also a photo exhibition called 'Femmes et Mers' and it was all really nice photos of women all over the world who work in/on the sea...fishing for seaweed, fishing for fish, selling fish, drying fish, cooking and selling fish...the only gross ones were the ones from France, which were of sardine-packing plants (packt like sardines in a crushed tin box, anyone?)...since the other ones were all Asia and Africa, it wasn't mass-production fish plants, so the pictures were just nice. Anyway the best fish in the aquarium was the 'Napoleon,' it's a humphead wrasse in English, but it makes sense that they would call it Napoleon. I'm putting up his picture, he was so beautiful and so human-like, we watched him for a really long time. He looks only blue but all his fins have so many other pretty colors on him, it was neat to watch him move. If anyone's ever interested in going back it's only 3 euro and not very far from my house...
After the Aquarium, we sat on the edge of Bois de Vincennes for a while, and then Molly and I left to try to go to the 'Maison de Culture Yiddish' in the eleventh arrondissement. I was really excited because I thought it was a museum and library, but when we got there, it was really small and there was maybe one lecture room and a small bookstore. A lady brought us in and she was really nice, I felt bad for not staying because she said we could come to the lecture (about Yiddish literature but in French) but really I had just wanted to see a museum so we didn't stay. But it was nice, I walked with Molly for a while, and that was fun, we went to the natural grocery store and I got some oatmilk and some plain yogurt for my granola and some 'soycissons' or something, veggie sausages. :-) I haven't tried them yet, but I have high hopes. That night I just relaxed and watched a Bollywood movie, which was of course thoroughly enjoyable, and then went to sleep so that I could get an early start for Sunday.
Sunday was great - I started out by going to the Musee National de Moyen Age a l'Hotel de Cluny, which is one of the most amazing museums I have ever seen! (No, really...) The place just smelled so old and every room was something incredible It was really like walking into another world. There were so many interesting things, old statues and carvings and tapestries (of course, like the Lady and the Unicorn and the Grape Harvest), and the ancient baths, old weapons and ironworks, huge old locks...it was really just amazing. The old chapel was probably the coolest part, along with the tapestries, it just felt so totally old and the architecture was really phenomenal. I wanted to lay on the floor and look at the ceiling so badly...I also wanted to touch eveything but...you know, you're not allowed. My friend Sebastian (from my MICEFA class) met me halfway through the museum, so we hung out for the rest of the day. After Cluny we walked to the Pantheon (and there's a great marketon rue Mouffetard on the way!) which was really worth seeing. I think it's normally free to walk in, but maybe you have to pay to go up, I don't actually know...I walked all over the building for a long time, it's just so beautiful, and then we went up - there's an upper level inside and then another outside upper level, and then you can climb up to the dome. I didn't actually want to go all the way up, but apparently once you start, you have to go all the way. The stairs weren't too narrow, and the view was really beautiful, because it's a lot more central than something like Sacre Coeur. I'm really, really glad we went there!
Then we were heading to the Galerie des Gobelins, which I think is now a textile museum but used to be where they made tapestries. We were early for the second opening (they close for lunch), so we went to a place to get beers (yes, it was the middle of the afternoon...) and I got to have a Krieck, the Belgian cherry beer! It was so exciting and delicious, but sort of a huge beer. It was funny to talk to Sebastian, because we're really not that much alike but he's very nice, so it's interesting to talk to him. Anyway we headed back to Gobelins, but there was a HUGE line, so we decided not to wait because I can go in there for 4 euro any other day where I'm sure there won't be as many people. So I was going to go home (and Sebastian did go home) but then I saw a sign for the Val de Grace, the random church I saw one day when I was waiting for my MICEFA appointment, and I went to see if it was open - it was, it's actually a whole complex that used to be the military hospital as well as a school for people to then work in the hospital, I'm pretty sure, and also the church. Now there's a new hospital, but there's a museum in the old one. It wasn't really very extensive or coherent, and I wanted to see the church more than anything, but it was cool to walk around the building - the architecture there was great. The church was really pretty inside - the dome was the best part, there's a really cool painting on top. It was definitely worth going in there! After that I actually did go back, and then I wrote all about my weekend for my French class!
Yesterday was sort of a huge and stressful saga about MICEFA and my courses - I'll spare the details, but suffice it to say that the courses I want to take at ILPGA (Institut de linguistiques et phonetiques generales et appliquees) - part of Sorbonne Nouvelle - are sort of unknown to MICEFA, and the date for international student registration there was September 12, so I was really fretting because I thought I would not be able to take those courses (including Finnish). I went there this morning, however, and the secretary told me I could come on Friday and register then. So nothing's set in stone yet, but the likelihood that I will take the classes I want seems to be bigger than it seemed yesterday. Though yesterday evening I did get to meet Sasha and have dinner with Anne and Jean-Francois, which was great! Sasha's so nice, she has a thick Russian accent, it's cute. She's pretty quiet so far, but part of it I think is just getting used to Paris and French (and English!) and everything. We went to Notre Dame together today after my class, and I think it's way too dark in there (same reaction as last time)! We walked a lot, and it was nice. We're going to have lunch with Anne's parents on Sunday - apparently they're coming to visit! - but hopefully I will see them both before then.
Sorry for the huge post, but there was a lot to say! But now I think I should get started on the homework and then get to bed early...I definitely didn't do last night's homework until after I got home from Anne's at midnight!!!!!
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