Rue de la Huchette

Rue de la Huchette is a total tourist trap.

And I love every bit of it.

Actually, in the off-season, you'll find just as many French people enjoying lunch there as foreign visitors. There is Greek, Chinese, Indian, Italian, and I don't know what other kinds of food offered on Huchette and the small streets winding off of it.

This street is just off of the Place St-Michel as well. (I'm not lying, it's a great area).

I spent a lot of time in this area because it was right by the school where I took grammar classes 5 days a week.

But I would never get a hotel room on that street. Way too noisy late at night. Just get a hotel nearby, and then you'll have access to the St-Michel Metro and the St-Michel/Notre Dame RER stops. You can pretty much get anywhere from this part of the city.

Institute Dances in Paris...

... are basically the same as church dances in Utah.

Except in Utah practically everyone is white.




There is line dancing...

...and girls have to dance with each other if they want to swing, because there just aren't enough guys to go around.

I loved making friends at Institute. It was such a relief to know that whatever happened during the week, I could go to Institute and feel (somewhat) normal.

The best friend I made in France. He's the bomb-diggity. He's also learning English, and he understood me better in English when I faked a British accent. (I'm glad he stayed friends with me, even though I squashed his dream of serving his mission on Temple Square when I told him that mission is really only "staffed" with Sisters.)

A blurry goodbye picture. Should have turned on that flash. :)

Drinking Fountains in Paris

In Paris you will rarely find a regular drinking fountain. The one pictured below is on the Place St. Michel, about where the Metro symbol (M) is on the map below.

But of course, there are always these fountains if you've alread got a bottle handy.

Promenade Plantee

I think it was the Design*Sponge Paris city guide that pointed me toward the Promenade Plantee as something worth visiting. I had never even heard of it, but it was a beautiful escape from the crowded, noisy sidewalks. I spent at least an hour walking along the promenade, which is built on an old viaduct that used to be the home to a set of elevated train tracks.



Some of the things I saw as I walked:

(My sad attempt at capturing myself on the Promenade. Let's be honest--this picture could have been taken anywhere. But I had to try.)

The Jardin de Reuilly park. A total hidden gem. (Well, not totally hidden, as you can see. But not packed by any means.)

If you visit Paris and have an hour or two that you'd like to escape the city for a while, this is definitely worth your time. I enjoyed it a lot, and I decided I wouldn't mind living in that area--it seemed pretty cool.

To access the promane plantee, take the Metro to Bastille, and you'll find the promenade plantee behind the opera building.

The Pompidou Center

I spent a lot of time at the Pompidou Center during my time in Paris. And a lot of time in their bookstore.
I rode these escalators many a time to check out the exhibits. The views of Paris are not too bad from the top floor, either.



The Eiffel Tower through the window (and the rain).

Another great thing about the Pompidou Center is that the bookstore and the bathrooms don't require entrance to the museum. You just have to go through security. I'm not gonna lie--I totally took advantage of that a time or fifty.

Home Sweet Parisian Home

I don't think I ever gave y'all the grand tour of my apartment. Here's a quick look at the place I called home in Paris.

My room. I think I showed a picture before when I was showing you the sad and cratered state of my mattress.
This was the day before I left, so it looks like a hurricane swept through. But you get the idea. It was actually really large, which was great since there was no storage.


A quarter view of the very skinny kitchen.


The kitchen. That white appliance between the stainless counter and the stove? The one with the platter on it? That's the washing machine. If there is anything wrong with this apartment, this is the one thing that (although it had problems) was very, very lovely. I don't do laundromats. I did get used to doing dishes by hand, though, since there wasn't a dishwasher. I still forget about the dishwasher sometimes, which puts me at the receiving end of some very curious looks.

Our 'balcony.' Really just a way to get to the garbage chute.

The shower. Please note:

1) There is no permanent shower head. Each day I had to insert the hand-held shower head into the pipe sticking out from the wall. Weird. But whatever. It was set up that way on purpose, probably because when the building was first constructed no showers were planned as a part of the plumbing.

2) The only real problem I had with the shower was that there was no curtain. That's right, folks. This means I had to wipe down 1/3 of the bathroom every day because I sprayed water everywhere.

Notice the drying rack in the back of the bathroom. I also sprayed any and all clothes that were out drying in the morning as I showered. That's right, I'm amazing.

The entry. You can see the front door just to the left of the bookshelves. My room is the open door you can see on the right. The kitchen is the doorway you can barely see on the left edge of the photo.

My landlord's room was on the right just out of the frame, and through her room is the entrance to the bathroom.

The water closet is out of the frame to the left, past the kitchen.

I'm estimating that the whole apartment was maybe 800 square feet.

This is Alfred Roll street, where I walked every day to the RER and Metro.

There were two teensy grocers within 30 seconds of my front door, as well as a Chinese take-out place, an Italian restaurant, a cafe/bar, pharmacy, and of course the lovely farmer's market one block behind my apartment complex. And underground parking right below my complex, as well.

All in all, a great location.

Playing Catch-up

I'm trying to get caught up on all of my posts from Paris, since I've been home almost 4 months now. (Ah!! I've been home almost as long as I was there!!)

So you'll be hearing a lot from me over the next few days.

Montmartre

I wandered around Montmartre one sunny day and took a few pictures before enjoying a banana split at an extremely touristy joint that looks onto the big square full of artists.

I think the Sacre Coeur is a gorgeous building.

Palais de Tokyo

I went to the Palais de Tokyo.

It was disappointing to say the least. I think maybe I missed most of the museum.

Maybe not.

When I got there and pulled out my money to pay, the cashier asked me if I was a student. I said yes, but I was older than 26, so I don't get the discount.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh, yep. Pretty sure."

"And you don't qualify for any other discounts?"

"I don't think so."

"You're sure? You're definitely older than 26?"

"Yep." (Seriously??) (Although, apparently almost everyone in France though I was 23, so I guess I can't blame her.)

"Well, okay then. It's 10 Euros."

I should have taken that as a bad sign. If even the museum staff doesn't think the exhibit is worth the entrance price...


This was the coolest thing in the museum. And it was in the gift shop.


This is the cafeteria.

This is a piece by Jim Shaw called "Heap." It's a big pile of McDonal's Happy Meal toys turned into a creepy sea monster with resin, green spray paint, styrofoam, and metal rods. This was the next most interesting thing in the museum.

In the background you can see the security guard. I was the only person in the museum. (Yet another clue.) When I asked if I could take pictures, he said, "Yeah. You can also stay here and flirt with me for a while if you'd like."

I just laughed like he was joking and went on my merry way, trying to get pictures in the ridiculously low lighting.

Don't know who did this or what it was called. But it was built to look like it had smashed through the wall of the museum.

So that's it.

Disappointed?

Well, I'd be lying if I told you I was surprised.

Musee de l'Armee

I think I already mentioned how on the first Sunday of each month all of the state-owned museums in Paris are free of charge.

So one of those Sundays I decided to check out the Army Museum. Not something I would pay for, so I figured I would at least make the effort to check it out when it was free.

The main thing I wanted to do was see Naploeon's tomb... but (classic) that was the one part of the museum that isn't free.

So I decided to just quickly check out the chapel in the complex and call it good. (I then proceeded to get lost in the neighborhood because by this point I wasn't in the habit of taking my map with me anymore. Woops.)