First we headed off to the Montemarte area in search of the Lapin Agile cafe. There's a whole background story on why we would want to see one particular cafe. In high school I did a show called Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The Lapin Agile is a cafe where Picasso and his contemporaries would hang out and be losers, brilliant losers, but losers none the less. Anyway, so I did this show in high school and it so happens that UET, my university Theatre Dept, is doing it this spring. One of my best friends at UE is playing Picasso and so we promised him we would go and take a picture. We had attempted to find it the day before when we were looking for Sacre Coeur, but had failed. So Dani and I were determined to find it today. Well apparently my internal compass was still broken because we got lost again, but miraculously we found our way to it. We couldn't go inside because it was in the morning, but we took pictures of it and danced about in the morning sun.
After that we set off for the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera is said to be from. Again my romantic notions got the better of me and I was a bit dismayed to see this beautiful opera house squished between department stores. It was still pretty spectacular. We didn't go inside because it would have cost an arm and a leg, but we admired it from afar. Following that we went in search of the Paris Hard Rock Cafe because Dani's dad said he wanted a shirt from there. She and I both think he's crazy for wanting that, but like a good daughter she complied with her father's requests. We got lost on the way but eventually found the Hard Rock Cafe. Stopped in for about 3 and a half minutes to get the shirt and then headed out. Our next point of interest was to be the Picasso Museum down near the Bastille/ St. Paul area.
This littler excursion to the Picasso Museum ended up being my favorite part of the trip, and I think Dani's too. We got off at the stop near the Picasso Museum and discovered we were in this quiet little neighborhood in Paris. It was wonderful and very much like our excursion to Abbey Road in London. She and I just walked along the tiny little streets going in and out of the shadows of the buildings until we arrived at the Picasso Museum. We didn't have the time to go through it, but we stopped in the gift shop to get a postcard for our friend playing Picasso in the play back home. This museum is another I would like to visit if I have the time to go back to Paris. The neighborhood around it was perfection to me. It was quietly nestled in the middle of a huge city. It had character and love permeating from the little cafes as well as the delicious smell of bread and pastries. I am such a carbohydrate lover at heart despite my habit of eating rabbit food. We finally tore ourselves away from this neighborhood because we were running tight on time on meeting our friends for our Valentine's Day lunch.
We got back on the metro to connect back to our hotel, but randomly we got on the same car that Brelyn and Becca were already on heading back to our hotel. It was a miracle or something to that effect. We decided that instead of going back to the hotel first we should just go to lunch. We got off at the next stop and turned ourselves around and found the line we needed to get on to go to the restaurant recommended to me by my Women and Politics professor who lived in France for several years. We got off in the St. Paul district, which is a lovely little neighborhood, but not quite as quiet as our secret Picasso neighborhood. Because I had thought we would be going back to the room first I hadn't brought the piece of paper with the name of the restaurant on it and so we had no idea where we were going. I must have been a really good person in a former life, or just incredibly lucky because we just happened to walk into the very restaurant that my professor had recommended. We ordered and I had the most delicious slice of Quiche Lorraine. It was heavenly goodness. After lunch we indulged in dessert which was even better than the main course. Dani got a tiny cup of espresso that we all tried and it was surprisingly good.
After lunch we left the St. Paul area and headed for the cemetery where Jim Morrison and Moliere and Chopin are buried; the Pére Lachaise cemetery. Great way to spend Valentine's, no? We were actually surprised at the number of people at the cemetery. It was about 4pm or so and the sun was casting beautiful shadows over the graves. This cemetery is HUGE and in the middle of the city. Burial stone after burial stone was squished in there. (Please see my shutterfly website for pictures). We saw Jim Morrison, Moliere, Frederic Chopin, and Oscar Wilde. It was quiet and somber, but wonderful in a melancholy way. After we left the cemetery we headed to the island to see Notre Dame.
Seeing Notre Dame at sunset was probably the other highlight of my trip. We didn't get to go inside or even walk around the entire building which was a little disappointing to me personally, but you have to make sacrifices when you travel with other people. Anyway, we saw the front of it and it was awe-inspiring. I wish the bells would have rang while we were there, but just being there as the sun turned it's gray face burnt orange was good enough for me. After leaving the plaza in front of Notre Dame we walked around the island a bit more and then went in search of a chocolate shop, seeing as it as V-Day. We couldn't find one in the down town area so we just got some from the little grocers near our hotel. Then we went back to our hotel and had a dinner of sandwiches and cherios with a glass of white wine. Classy, no? Hey, you can't always be classy when you are a starving college student abroad. What's more important is the time we spent, not what we were eating or drinking. So we had our wine and then some champagne and I discovered that I dislike champagne... alot. Perhaps it was just this champagne, but if all champagne tastes about like this than I am going to have a round life of not being able to toast.
The rest of the night we just sat around and listened to music and talked till we all fell asleep. Best Valentine's Day I've had to date, but that's not saying too much seeing as I scare all the gentlemen away. Hard-Hearted Hannah.
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