A Week in Paris

I just realised today that I have now been in Paris for four days and haven't had a single glass of wine. How pathetic is that? The problem is that I've been too lazy (and too full from lunch) to bother going out for a proper dinner. I'm in the food capital of the world and all I've been eating is donair and turkish food.

Part of the problem is that I'm not actually in Paris itself. I'm staying out in a small town called Noisy le Grand which is where the class is being held. Although it would only take a half hour on the train to get into the centre of the city, I just don't have the energy to do it. By the time I get done class and get back to the hotel and get changed and then think about how much studying I have to do for class the next couple of days, I'm about as likely to go on the next lunar mission as I am to hop on the RER into town.

Lara is coming out tomorrow morning for a couple days (hooray for Aeroplan points!), so I'm sure that I'll be spending the next couple of nights in the city.

I went into the city on Sunday which was an incredible 18C and sunny; a near-perfect day. I spent the day mostly walking around Notre Dame, along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower and then back to the Musée d'Orsay. The Musée d'Orsay is a must see for me anytime I'm in Paris (haven't missed it on a visit yet). The third floor of impressionists and post-impressionists is one of my holy places. Seeing the thickly streaked globs of paint on a Van Gogh self-portrait, or the oranges, reds, and greens of a Cezanne can send shivers up my spine.

I got to class super-late on Monday morning. Who would have thought that any town in its right mind would have two streets with the same name and locate them about a mile apart. I walked for an hour before I found the location (which I found only through luck). I had no cell phone nor phone card so I had no way of getting in touch with anybody. It was surreal wandering through a French suburb with my laptop completely unable to do anything about my situation. Just a helpless man wandering lost and alone through underpasses and efficient yet soul-less 8-unit apartment buildings. How very postmodern.