Encore un fois

At the same time I was in Paris, my best friends from Loyola, Kate and Alissa (they study in Florence) were also there. I really wanted to see them because I hadn’t since the summer and I spent the entire weekend texting Liss to meet up. It turns outs Paris is a bigger city than we thought because while my hostile was located next to the Louvre there’s was by the Eiffel Tower on the other side of the city. On the second day the Erasmus group had gone to Sacre Coeur and Montemarte which was closer to their hotel and they were at the Louvre. When I finally got back I ran to the Louvre with AM and I literally spent 10 minutes saying hello, hugging and goodbye because they hadn’t been in the Louvre yet meeting me. Talk about a brief encounter. On the third day after we woke up early to go to the Champs D’Elysees and went a little sweater happy in H&M we went to the Louvre as a group were we saw the Jaconde and my favorite Eugene Delacroix painting. After were allowed to do our own thing so I suggested to AM that we  go to the Pantheon and the Pere Lachaise cemetery because I’d heard it was a must see. Together armed with our metro day passes we figured out the Paris subway system which really wasn’t as complicated as I’d heard it be? We found the Pantheon and I was incredibly happy because as it houses the bodies of the most famous French revolutionaries like Rousseau, Voltaire and Zola for a political science major as myself it’s like approaching the holy grail. The Pere Lachaise cemetery was naturally on the other side of the city as well close to the Sorbonne and we were on the subway for at least like 50 minutes. The cemetery is huge but morosely romantic. It was a sunny day and the rays of light caught the stained glass of the sepulchers in just the right way. I knew I wanted to see Jim Morrison’s grave as well as Edith Piaf’s tombstone and of course Oscar Wildes’. It took a lot longer then expected because they aren’t anywhere near each other and while we had maps they didn’t really help when it came to finding tombstones. When we’d finally seen Oscar Wildes we ran to catch the metro to head to the Eiffel Tower and meet up with the rest of the group. Of course we got lost again because we were late but thankfully we met up with our Belgian friends and they were able to find our larger group by the Northern side of the Tower. It worked out pretty nicely actually because we were late and we didn’t have to wait on the line. 622 steps later we had made it to the second floor. It was beautiful but with wire meshing (I guess partially a support structure as well as a preventative measure against potential suicides) it was kind of overrated. I think I enjoyed the walk up more than once I got there. The view from the Arc du Triomphe was much more clearer and in my opinion prettier. The only really cool thing about the view from the Tower is that you can literally see all of Paris and it was interesting to be able to point out, “Hey look there’s the Pantheon, we were just there!” It’s funny the way a view from the top can make such a big city seem so small or easily attainable. On the way back I had the most amazing sushi for 12 euro and the most pleasant conversation with the restaurant owner’s little French Asian toddler regarding her Happy Meal toy. After we collected our bags from the hostile we headed to the train station and while I was sad to leave Paris (it really is such a beautiful city) I was happy to return to Montpellier because at the end of the day Paris like London or NYC is exciting and fast and flashy but it’s not the place you call home. It made me incredibly grateful that I’d chosen to go to the south of France and endure having to take classes in French instead of taking the easier way out and going to the American University of Paris and taking my core classes in English.