Paris

I will attempt to break from tradition and not include any pictures of La Tour Eiffel - I do not know why, I just feel like being different. Maybe it is because while La Tour Eiffel is beautiful I find other sites in Paris more inspiring.

Paris highlights: having the first question asked of me in French was "ou est le Moulin Rouge?", being the authority of the French language and culture, meeting up with a high school friend and grabbing dinner baguettes from a little boulangerie and eating along the Seine watching the night boat tours and catching up, walking from the Louvre to La Tour Eiffel by myself at night, eating copious amounts of crepes, figuring out that I can navigate by myself in Paris, getting scolded in French by an angry French waitress at the family classic "steak and frites", and just enjoying life. After the Paris visit I was a little sad that I had not chosen to do the Paris Study Abroad (I still love London) as it was invigorating to use my French. But then I remembered that I would be living in the French house next semester so I will get my French fix.

I think the most inspiring image to me was the view of the bridge in the Latin Quarter. I could have sat there for hours. There is something I love about rivers - the Thames and the Seine will always enthrall me no matter how many times I have seen it. I loved going up all the stairs at le Sacre Coeur and la Notre Dame seeing the different views of Paris. Oh man my suppressed francophile definitely came out during this Paris trip. I have not been back to France since my Junior year of high school when I did a French exchange program and I did not even realize how much I had missed it.

Unfortunately I had to rush through the Louvre to meet my friend and all the while I was trying to justify it by saying that I had already been in my life and I will go again but in all honesty I could not suppress the feeling that I was betraying art and that I would probably not have another opportunity where I would be currently studying the art. Oh well! At least I was able to appreciate le Musee D'Orsay, in my mind that is the far superior museum of the two so it was okay.