French History mixed with Italian Gelato

Each day here has been quite the adventure! I love it! Yesterday, the seven of us (5 teachers, one husband of a teacher and our BYU professor] met in the hotel for an hour of class before we got started for the day. It was exciting to meet up with friends and we all greeted each other in our loud, teacher voices. The reception lady glared at us right away and we had to remind ourselves that the French love quiet settings...we were imposing on their peaceful setting. We quickly brought our voices down to just above a whisper as there were other people around us and tried not to let the others see how excited we were to begin our great trip.

After class, we took the metro downtown to the LDS Institute building, which is found right across from the George Pompidou Modern Art museum. It is also found in the Gay quarter of Paris. Everything is painted with rainbows and Happy Gai signs. After the second part of our French history class on the Franco Prussian War, WWI and WWII--we are studying this so when we visit Strasbourg next week, we will understand its significance and how it got its German influence--we had lunch at a Happy Gai patisserie. The two guys who owned it were really nice. I got a croque-monsieur--a ham and cheese sandwich, grilled with lots of cheese on top. Mmmmmm!!!

We then took off to see the Carnavalet museum on France's history and then the Centre Georges Pompidou. This Pompidou museum is really cool looking from the outside. It has lots of colorful pipes and clear tunnels with escalators. However, the exhibits inside were not my type of exhibit at all!!! There were some weird and sketchy pictures and video that I was scandalized by and I couldn't believe parents brought their kids to see. I guess I just have to remind myself that we let violence pass in the USA and the French see nudity as okay. Anyway, that was the first floor. The second floor rooms contained works of art that were nothing more than an orange canvas or blue canvas or colorful paint slapped all over. Not my definition of art.

After that tiring art museum, Ali, Dan and I decided to try some Italian Gelato. Can I say that this stuff was to die for?!! Best ice cream ever!!! I got this chocolate orange cinnamon flavor that I think I am going to have to have every day now. I am already addicted. There was a guy working there who was a super nice, cute guy. I asked if I could take his picture [I am taking all sorts of pictures of French people] and he got all smiley. He said, SURE, and then waznted to see it afterwards. He said that he gets off work every day at 11PM and asked the three of us if we'd like to get a cafe with him. This could be an adventure, I thought. I asked him his name and he said, Frédéric. I about died!! Ali said before coming here that she was going to meet a Frédéric in France...what are the chances? We couldn't believe it. I told her it was destiny. So one of these days we are going to come back to see Frederic at 11:00 and take him up on his offer.

The last thing we did last night was get tickets for Harry Potter. The movie theater was packed and they kept us out of the theater until 7, the exact time our movie started. It was hot and sweaty while we waited and people were pushing to try to get to the front of the line. Inside the theater, some workers walked up and down the aisles, selling popcorn and drinks as if we were at a baseball game. A bit different from movies at home.


Today was also a packed-full-of-fun day! Ali and I accidently slept in until 9:00. I felt a little bad for keeping the group waiting. We took the metro directly to the Basilique Sacre-Coeur, the heart of France. Do you know the difference between a Basilica and a Cathedral? I didn't either, so I asked a nice French guy. He explained that a Cathedral is for a section of the town and performs ordinaces such as marriages and baptisms while a Basilica is for everybody and performs no ordinances. We paid 5 Euros to walk a tiny, windy staircase all the way to the top of the Basilica. There were 300 steps. There was a great view from the top, though several of the steps had little puddles of urine midway up. We were kind of grossed out by that, but the view made it worth it.

After our visit of Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, an artist section next to the Basilica, we stopped for some chicken and cheese crepes in the Red Light district, right across from the Moulin Rouge. We got tons of interesting scenery during that lunch. We were ready to go after a few minutes and took the metro again--don't you love the metro system?-- to the Hotel des Invalides. This was built by Louis XIV to house hurt soldiers and has Napoleon's tomb today. I think it must be the largest tomb in the world, it is enormous! It is funny to think that Napoleon was such a little guy too.

We then went to see Notre-Dame de Paris--beautiful! Made me want to watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We stopped at a little cafe afterwards and enjoyed people watching as we ate potato tomato crepes and drank water from tiny glasses. I got some good pictures of the French people eating dinner. The others in my group think I am a bit weird for taking peoples' pictures without always asking--I do ask lots of times--but they will make great conversation pieces to use in French class!

Tomorrow we are going to a Flee market and then taking a train to see Versailles. They have a Saturday afternoon fountain show so we are going to have a picnic there.