PARIS, JOUR CINQ

Friday.  Day five.  Paris.

Lock Bridge

Our last day in Paris L.  After our full day on Thursday, we were a little slow to get going, but we had mapped out our week well enough so that we didn’t have too much to do on Friday.  Caroline, Ginny, and I started out with Musée d’Orsay, an old train station converted into a museum.  On the way there, though, we unintentionally crossed over the lock bridge (it goes over the Seine between le Jardin des Tuileries and Musée d’Orsay).  It’s covered in locks that are supposed to signify everlasting love, and people come to put locks on the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine.  So romantic. 

Musee d'Orsay

As for Musée d’Orsay, it’s a museum full of pre-impressionist, impressionist, and post-impressionist art, so there are a lot of paintings by Degas, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Monet, and Van Gogh.  I’m a fan of all of those artists, so I really liked the museum and would love to go back.  It was a little crowded, which was kind of annoying, and they’re doing some renovations, but even with that, I enjoyed it.

Centre Pompidou

From there, we went to meet Stephanie, grabbed some street food for lunch, and headed to the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum.  The actual Centre Pompidou building is a work of art in itself; all the escalators are on the outside, as well as all the pipes.  From my picture you can’t really tell, but all the pipes are color coordinated, and I don’t know what’s what, but blue might be all water pipes and green is electric, or whatever.  So even from the outside, I could tell that it was going to be such a departure from all the museums I had been to thus far. 

In a way, the modern art was refreshing after spending weeks in castles and looking at a ton of religious and more stylized art.  I also find modern art a little more approachable since I feel like I could make modern art (if that makes sense?).  I know I could never produce an impressionist-type painting, so modern art, although sometimes bizarre, is more relatable sometimes.  We saw a few Picasso paintings and Matisse paintings, and there were more contemporary pieces that involved photography and video.  There was an entire floor with a feminism exhibit, and we had been warned by Jeff, the straight guy in our group, that it was incredibly disturbing.  Being a girl, it wasn’t as offending to me, but there were still some pretty shocking videos and images.  Centre Pompidou is another museum that I could definitely go back to and explore a little more.

Galeries Lafayette

After the museum, Brittany (who had met us at Pompidou) and I decided to break off and do a little shopping, so we went to Galeries Lafayette.  Naturally, we spent the entire time in the most expensive sections (e.g. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Cartier, Hèrmes or the haute couture) looking at the beautiful bags and shoes and jewelry and clothes.  The highlight of the day was when we spotted Alessandra Ambrosio (the Victoria’s Secret model) trying on sunglasses at Louis Vuitton.  She is gorgeous in person, so of course we stared at her and contemplated stalking her throughout the store.  We did end up seeing her again upstairs trying on Balenciaga jackets, and I got to check seeing a famous person off my personal list of things to do in Paris.  I wish we could’ve stayed a few days longer since fashion week is going on there now.  There would’ve been so many more famous people to stalk.

Alessandra Ambrosio (if you needed a reference point)

After making the rounds through haute couture, Brittany and I decided to find a café for a snack since we had to meet up with the group soon to go to a long play.  We found one across the street, and I ordered a café au lait and crêpe Nutella, which was perfect for a rainy day in Paris.  It was so fun to sit in a warm café, people watch, drink my coffee, and talk about seeing models running around Paris.  What a perfect afternoon.

That night, our group went to see Molière’s play Les femmes savantes at the Comédie Française.  I was pretty tired by then, so it was difficult to concentrate on the fast French for two hours, but I’m glad I can say I saw a Molière play in Paris.  Needless to say, I had to Wikipedia the play afterwards to completely understand what had happened.

After the play, I was too tired to do anything, so I went back with Caroline to hang out in the hotel and repack my bags.  Five full days in Paris was exhausting, but it was so much fun.  I can’t wait to go back!