- the Picasso museum
-the Louvre two more times (that makes 9 this trip)
- Sainte Chapelle (beautiful church from the 13th century on the same island and Notre Dame. What is amazing about it is that it is entirely made up of stained glass windows that depict all of the stories in the bible.)
-Friday I went with the Zouari's (our family friends) to a restaurant in near their house. It was Pascale's, their eldest daughter, 28th birthday. Pascale and her boyfriend, Julien, picked me up and we miraculously wove through traffic, thanks to Julien. It was great to be with all of them and boy did we eat well. I had a wonderful glass of champagne to toast the occasion, which as most of you know is not something I do normally but it was delicious.
-Friday nught a bunch of my friends from my program and I decided to get together and have a pique nique on the quai of the Seine. We all got there around 9 and just hung out, drank, ate baguette and strawberries on the riverbank. Countless tourist boats floated by and the sunset was fantastic. There were a ton of other groups of people who had a similar idea to ours. There is no open container law in France, so everyone was taking advantage of the warm weather. At one point a group of kind of shady guys were next to us and then all of sudden, one of them shot off. More followed at an incredible sprint. My friend's host brother and his friends were there and they said that a drug deal probably had gone down and there was an undercover cop in the group. This was confirmed when other officers descended and more scattered. We had numerous other interesting encounters in our little picnic: there were a group of 40 or 50 people who were wearing the weirdest outfits. They all had these berets that were covered with toys, random object, and colorful stuff. They also were wearing capes... I looked for a human sacrifice but I couldn't see anything, maybe they were going to do that later. Random guys came up to us selling beer out of buckets, but that was not something that surprised me. My friend Brittany and I stayed until 1 or so and then headed home since we live next to each other. What a night!
-Saturday was when I went to Sainte Chapelle, and then Brittany and I grabbed din at our favorite Greek place in Boulogne Billancourt. I went out with Thomas and Anne-Carole (our family friends in case you have not gotten that yet) for another whoopla to my weekend. We went to grab a drink in the St. Germain area, which I adore. The bars and cafés are great. Thomas and I went to Chez Georges, a favorite of which I think I have mentioned before. A bunch of his law school friends were there so we joined them. They were true "bobos" which is a term for a bourgeois bohemien. They all pretty much lived in the 6th and 7th arrondissement and were proud of it. According to them, my host family was not truly "Parisian" because they did not live in the city limits. Oy. But they were all really nice and it was a good night. Anne Carole drove me home in her cute, very bright, Fiat 500. She just got a new one (their father owns a Fiat dealership). I went right to bed.
- Today I went to Versailles with my host parents. I had been there once two years ago but you can never go too many times. Plus, I have been studying Louis XIV and his palace in my art and architecture class so everything was a lot more meaningful. We were some of the only Parisians there since it is a three day weekend. Whenever we were waiting in a line, my host mom would go through the people and guess if there were French/Parisian or not. She usually got it right. It was a fun game. There was a super temporary exhibit at Versailles about court fashion. My host mom and I were in awe. It was probably my favorite exhibit I have seen in a long time. They have the actual garments worn by kings and queens, plus jewelry and crowns etc. I have seen pictures many times in portraits and such but it means so much more when you can see in person a painted silk dress with intricate lacing and a bodice covered in diamonds and pearls. Wow, just wow. It was really special. The three of us toured the galerie des glaces, the grands appartements, and the appartements du dauphin. We did not get to the gardens this time but we watched all the fountains turn on at 3:30. Bertrand, my host "dad," decided he would buy Versailles however he is looking for gardeners, so if anyone is interested in trimming hedges for the rest of their life, please let me know.
Tomorrow I have the first of my three final exams. One Monday, one Tuesday, one Wednesday. Then I have an IES goodbye lunch and I leave on Thursday the 14th. I started getting stuff out today to see about packing but gave up because that means that the date is not as close as it actually is...
