I landed around 8:00am on Friday morning and managed to maneuver my unnecessarily preponderous luggage onto a bus to get to the Gare de Lyon to rendezvous with Lauren who was also just getting in to Paris (for the second time that week - she spent Christmas there with her family). I was then happy to completely hand over the navigation reins to Lauren while we took the metro to a flower shop to pick up apartment keys, then made our way to said apartment...
So, as to our Parisian accommodations, we had quite the stroke of good fortune (and a helping of Toad friendliness to go along): around late November Lauren and I were trying to solidify our New Years plans, including where to stay. I happened to remember that a girl in one of the classes above me in high school had studied abroad in France, and while we were never close friends back in the day, I figured it was worth a shot asking her advice on where to stay while we were in Paris. The first thing I saw when I pulled up her Facebook page was that she hadn't just studied abroad there, she was still living there, and, (talk about luck!) had posted that she was going to be home mid-December through mid-January if anyone wanted to rent her apartment during that time. I emailed her and she was incredibly helpful and more than happy to let us stay! I had no idea where her apartment was in relation to things of interest in Paris, but Friday morning we found ourselves in the heart of the 6th district near the Quartier Latin in an incredibly charming and cozy typically French apartment, complete with exposed rafters (don't ask why, but somehow I thought that touch gave great character to the place). I freshened up a bit, sent a quick email to the family to let them know I was safe and sound, then still feeling surprisingly not jet-lagged, Lauren and I decided that the best way to start our Parisian stay would be with food.
We went to a crepe place nearby that Lauren wanted to try out... well, backtrack. We wanted to go to a crepe place nearby that Lauren said was supposed to be really good, we went to a crepe place that was really good, then as we were leaving, realized that the one we meant to go to was next door, but it was closed that day, so we probably would have ended up at this place, La Crepe Rit du Clown, anyway. Google translate tells me that means "the Crepe of the Clown Laughs"...? As you might expect, we had totally delicious and semi-healthy crepes stuffed with cheese and veggies, followed by crepes filled with chocolate for dessert. So far I was liking France. We then wandered to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens, Jardin du Luxembourg, which was really pleasant to walk around, and I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be in the summer when everything is green and flowers are in bloom!
Lauren then indulged my interest in the performing arts with a guided tour of the Paris Opera House, Palais Garnier, despite having gone with her family the previous week. I had already been starting to think that Paris might even rival Vienna in terms of grandeur and appeal on many accounts, and the opera house only furthered this opinion. I now completely understand why it's one of the world's most famous opera houses. It was built from 1861-1875 and designed by Charles Garnier in Beaux-Arts style with elaborate and ornate decoration adorning every surface. Minute details everywhere! Look, just look!!:
Even though we only arrived half an hour before the final English guided tour of the day, luckily it wasn't full so I learned all sorts of tidbits about Palais Garnier, including some more well-known things such as the fact that the 'new' ceiling of the opera house was painted by a 77-year-old Chagall. Although in stark contrast to the rest of the decor, the vivid work capped off by a 7 ton chandelier is a stunning homage to the works of fourteen composers.
The yellow section depicts Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Adam's Giselle; the red features Stravinsky's The Firebird and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé; white shows off Débussy's Pelleas et Mélisande and Rameau; the green is Chagall's interpretation of the love stories of Berlioz and Wagner, Romeo et Juliette and Tristan und Isolde, respectively; while the blue fifth shows off Mussorgsky's dramatic Boris Godunov and, last but not least, Mozart's Magic Flute. Bizet, Verdi, Beethoven, and Gluck are also represented along with famous Parisian landmarks. As for a tribute to another perhaps more well-known work, Palais Garnier reserved a box for the Phantom of the Opera.
Lauren and I were more or less free to wander the opera at will after, which we did before poking through the gift shop on the way out; I thought these were neat (not that I would ever want one for decoration in my house).
It was approaching 4:30pm when we left and we just happened to be right down the street from a little hidden spot Lauren knew of. Well, probably not so hidden to a local, but I doubt I would have come across it without her expert guidance. There was a very large shopping gallery catty-corner to the opera house which we stopped in first so Lauren could show me the phenomenal stained glass,
then we continued a little further down the street, perhaps to a building called Printemps. We started out in the wrong section of the building, which led us to yet another vibrant stained glass dome, this time above a restaurant,
but we eventually made it to the rooftop, and likely just in time for the sunset... except that it was overcast and occasionally spitting rain. Still, we had a great view of the skyline of Paris, and lingered long enough for many of the landmarks to begin getting lit-up for the night.
Eiffel Tower and Basilica of the Sacred Heart
Though, had the weather been as cooperative for me as it had been for Lauren's family, we may have had a view more similar to this:
Palais Garnier
But, hey, still not complaining; I was in Paris after all!
We had a bit of time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we went and got coffee with Colin, Lauren's boyfriend, and some of his friends at a brasserie. Then onwards to Dans le Noir, a restaurant where you are served by blind people and eat in a pitch dark room to heighten your senses. I'll say, that was a new experience. Lauren said she was a bit disappointed by the service compared to the last time she was there - we thought perhaps the waiter was new - but I'm really glad we went. Although I was a bit surprised to discover that I don't really think my sense of taste was piqued in any way; I had a very difficult time determining what it was that we were eating (they served from a set menu). Perhaps I'm more of a visually-minded person than I thought.
After that I was starting to feel my travels and decided to call it a night, though I must say I was impressed that I had made it through the day with only one tiny little lapse into sleep on the opera house tour (those plush orchestra seats while we were learning about Chagall's ceiling were just so comfortable!). As the hour was still relatively early Lauren went out to see Colin for a few hours while I drifted off about as soon as my head hit the pillow...
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