Montmartre + Le Marais

My dad just reminded me that I haven't updated the blog in a while, hopefully because I'm having too much fun. Unfortunately, it's more like the terrible combination of having too much fun AND having to study! Shouldn't study abroad just be about having fun? I had a test in my phonetics class today, my second test in the main (10 credit) course is tomorrow, and I have to turn in the final version of a composition Monday! It's not really that much work, tests just make me nervous so I study a lot.

On Sunday, a friend from class and I put my Paris Walks book to use and explored Montmartre. The guidebook doesn't include directions, just maps, and twice friendly locals stopped to help as we looked down at the book and up at street signs with confused expressions on our faces. We walked past the same crossing guard at least 5 times towards the end of the tour. Another detour occurred when we were so distracted by the ice cream we bought that it took a minute before we realized we hadn't consulted the map before wandering down the street. The scavenger hunt nature of our tour only added to the adventure!

It's hard to see them, but there are two musicians performing on the steps of Sacre-Coeur, performing American hits from the '90s. The book said this is the second most popular tourist site in the city; we had to fight our way up the stairs and move through the church at a slow crawl because it was so crowded.

The climb to the top was worth it for the view of the city.

I had to take a picture of this statue of St. Denis after we read about him in my book, "brought here by Roman soldiers to be executed at the Hilltop Temple of Mercury. Too exhausted to complete the climb, the soldiers decapitated him halfway up the hill, whereupon Denis picked up his severed head and staggered on for another 4 miles stopping only to wash it in a nearby fountain." (If you can't tell in the photo, he's holding his head)

My book didn't include the Moulin Rouge, but luckily Molly brought a good map with her, so we found it at the end of our tour.

Other notable activities since my last update include my discovery of the vintage stores and another attempted visit to the Louvre. I did some shopping in the Chatelet area but found that a lot of the small stores outside of the mall carry some of the exact same items that only come the vague sizes of small, medium and large. It's pretty cold by the time classes finish and I only have one jacket here (a red one at that-it doesn't even match everything!), but I returned from Chatelet empty-handed. I think the concept of thrift stores is widely unknown to most Parisians, but thankfully, le Marais has at least three! Although, I think they are "vintage," aimed at the styles of yesteryear, rather than simply secondhand. I'm not sure I'll find many actual clothes at any, but they all had a lot of (modern/normal) jackets and I found one for only 10 euro. I think I'll keep an eye on those stores, even on a tight budget, how could I come home from a semester in Paris without any new additions to my wardrobe?

I went from the Marais to the Louvre to meet Philippe for dinner and an evening at the Louvre (open til 10 wednesday and friday!), but our quest of inexpensive eats led us astray and by the time we finished dinner around Chatelet, it was time for me to go home and study. But we're tentatively planning on making tomorrow night a Louvre night...

And as a preview of what's to come, I now have a ticket to see one of my favorite bands, the Mountain Goats, play here in mid-October AND a plane ticket to meet up with my best friend in Amsterdam! I hear wonderful things about biking in that city...