Paris! Then... Home!

Alright, so I've not been so good about this whole updating thing, even if the internet is now readily available, but I've a semi-legitimate excuse: I've been sick. A bit about that and life back at home after the fun and exciting bits (y'know, the stuff about Paris?).

Je Me Repose un Peu
So after my wandering Parisian adventure during La Fête de la Musique, I definitely wasn't going to spend all day wandering around museums. I crawled into bed at about seven that morning and finally slid out again about four thirty in the afternoon. Managed to type up that update about the previous night and get my photos onto my PC before rushing (late) to mass at Notre Dame.

A gorgeous cathedral in a large city with people from all over the world and great music has got to be mass the way God intended it. Mass in a setting like this, with so many people (happy to be there, I might add), really heightens the spiritual connexion, even if you are half-an-hour late. Normally I'm quite happy with private faith, but I'm definitely going back if I'm ever in Paris again.

After mass I tried to make it back in time for dinner but only made it back a little late. Happily, I had some bread and a sandwich and a small tart that I'd picked up on the way back. Bed sometime, getting ready to go out the next day.

Les Musées sont Fermées
Monday morning I get up at a reasonable hour and manage to get out of the building by 10 or so, heading over to the Museum d'Orsay and Rodin Museum for the day. Turns out the Museum d'Orsay is closed Mondays, so I start walking toward the Musée Rodin via the National Assembly. Got some photos of the National Assembly and carried on down a small-ish street toward the museum.

Down a side street, since this is Paris, I saw two random churches and decided to head over to investigate. Turns out the larger of the two is the Basilique de Clotilde (if I remember correctly) and in the middle of the second reading, so I stop in for Mass. If I remember correctly, on his way out, one of the priests thanked me for being there (I assume because I'm young and the Church isn't so popular with the youth?), and we had a little chat, which was nice. I hung around for a while, walked the Stations of the Cross and thought/prayed a while.

After a good hour or so in contemplation, I continued toward the Musée Rodin, only to pop in the smaller church on my way past. Just so happens that there's a group of musicians in the chapel, preparing for a concert, so there's no expression of surprise when this random guy shows up and watches for a while XD

Finally make it to the Rodin Museum and find out that it, too, is closed Mondays. Lovely.

Sacré-Cœur et Dali
Having been thoroughly disappointed with the museums (though understanding that they need days to do restoration and so forth), I hopped the Métro and shot across town to Montmartre. Wandered up to Sacré-Cœur, grabbing a cheese hotdog en route and managing to be duped by a street vendor (fun and shameful story; for more details, ask), and went for a wander about the basilica. I never quite realised before that visit that Sacré-Cœur was a continuous prayer center: people pray twenty-four hours a day for the Church and for the World and Humanity. Pretty cool, eh?

Anyway, I recalled that there was a pretty cool, if touristy, courtyard around the corner, where we ate escargot when I was here with the exchange program in high school, so I made my way over there. Artists set up on the street and tourists eating ice cream wandering around and dining in lovely outdoor restaurants set the backdrop for my discovery of a random piece of advertising which informed me that I could (within two minutes) find a Dali Exhibit.

Unable to resist such a surreal opportunity, I convinced them to accept my UGA student ID and let me in for massive savings! (Four eurobucks.) The exhibit was really something else: lots of sculpture and stuff you never knew Dali did mixed in with the traditional melting clocks and so forth. I've since decided that if I can take a course on Dali or otherwise discover more of his life and works, I'll jump at the opportunity.

At the moment, I don't much remember how I spent the evening, though I think I made it back in time for dinner.

I'll write about the last day tomorrow, but wanted to submit this before it sits open on my screen for another 24 hours.

Mata ne.