Monet, The Cathedral of Cathedrals, and New Year's Eve in Paris

Saturday, 31 December, 2011 - I slept the peaceful undisturbed sleep of a baby right up to the moment that Lauren came back in to the apartment with armloads of breakfast goodies, pastries, and bananas for us to feast on for breakfast. Talk about a good friend! I think I had slept for ten hours (and unconsciously loved every minute of it).

We started our tour that day with a trip to the Musée de l'Orangerie, the art gallery at the opposite end of the Tuileries Gardens from the Louvre. Although it's most well known for housing eight of the Water Lillies (the Nymphéas) murals by Monet, it also has works by Matisse, Modigliani, Cézanne, Picasso, and Renoir. Unfortunately there was already a line by the time we got there, but it moved relatively quickly (note: you can purchase tickets online and skip the wait), and while it sprinkled some - yes, we had to wait outside - there were no downpours so it wasn't too unpleasant. We started in the two oval rooms containing the Water Lillies, I think my favorite of which was Matin:

Photo curtesy of the Musée de l'Orangerie website

It's interesting how much of a difference it makes to either stand across the room and look at it or have an up-close view; they're certainly meant to be admired and pondered from afar. We then spent probably another two hours perusing and discussing the other works there before succumbing to the not-so-furtive desires of our stomachs.

Lauren again treated me to a lovely surprise of some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had at Angelina's across from the Tuileries Gardens on Rue de Rivoli. Not to mention the macarons (not macaroons, mind you... To get a better grasp of the difference, here's an interesting article passed along by Claire and Lauren) were melt-in-your-mouth good.

Okay, so perhaps this doesn't quite qualify as a 'lunch' (sorry Mom), but it did well to curb our appetite.

Lauren then led me briefly through Place Vendrôme with its octagonal look, consistent architectural style, and Colonne Vendrôme, the column erected by Napoleon to commemorate the victory at Austerlitz. The column is made out of 1,200 cannons that were taken from the Austrians and Russians following their defeat.

We then began the stroll up the Seine towards Notre Dame, window and Les Bouquinistes (little antique book stalls along the river) shopping a little along the way. We may have purchased a thing or two. Though neither of the following:

Paris fashion. Wow.

We eventually made it to Notre Dame de Paris as night was falling after passing a two bridges covered with Love Locks, which I had only ever seen in movies.

The cathedral was breathtaking, especially walking up on it from along the Seine! I learned a lot about it in my Gothic Cathedrals course at Wake, so I've been eager to see it for some time.

We had to wait in line for about ten minutes to get in, and it was certainly worth it, but I really wanted to go back in the daylight to see all of the magnificent stained glass, especially the rose windows. Still, it was mightily impressive all lit up at night; very awe-inspiring and sobering. Though I think I may still prefer Stephansdom. Or perhaps that's only because it's in Vienna...

We were again beginning to feel the pangs of hunger, so after sufficient gawking we started heading towards the nearest stop of the Metro line we would need to take to get back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.

The hope was that by moving away from the more touristy districts we would find better food at better prices. We stopped in at a brasserie at random which turned out to be delicious; I had duck for a little over €12, while Lauren ordered a salad with some of the local cheese which was equally satisfying. We were also amused to see that one of their dish's translations included "tunny fish".

Sated, we returned to the apartment to shower and get ready for New Years Eve. We had considered going out to a bar first, but the location of the apartment party that Lauren's boyfriend had invited us to was a little out of the way, and it was going to be about 10:00 by the time we arrived, so we opted to head straight there.

I was admittedly bracing myself a little for being a bit of a wallflower given everything I've heard about the French not looking kindly upon people who don't know their language, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. Lauren had been teaching me a few phrases, so I would try to introduce myself in French and they would laugh and switch over to English and every last person was incredibly friendly and tried to help with my pronunciation of things. They loved Paris and loved that I loved Paris and asked all about the US and what I was doing in Europe; it was a blast!

Giving their best "American" smiles - teeth showing

The whole night was relatively laid back and the party fluctuated between twenty and thirty people throughout the night. It mostly consisted of mingling between the handful of rooms and listening to music. Not too much dancing, and I was a bit dismayed to see there was no TV to watch the ball drop, until I remembered that we were six hours ahead of that happening. But we counted down to midnight, then did bise, kisses on the cheek, all around to celebrate the arrival of the new year.

We were excited when we left to discover the metro was still running (and free)... but it didn't stop at every station, which meant we still had to walk for over half an hour (in heels) to get back to our apartment; hailing a cab was not going to happen considering the lines of people waiting impatiently by the streets. But we made it back without a hitch around 4:00am and promptly fell into a deep and wonderful sleep.