Bonjour mes amis! I'm throwing a lot of information out there to you guys tonight so don't feel bad if you want to take this one in two parts! haha.. Now....for the weekend!
Saturday Kerry, Ashleigh and I met at 11 am on the southeastern side of Paris near Parc George Brassens for a book market. "Marché du Livre Ancien et d'Occasion" to be exact. They sell books by the kilogram and honestly most of the books are a bargain!! There are some new books mixed in on the tables, but for the most part there are lots of beautiful, old books in French and English.
There are also old collectible comic books, children's books, maps, Bibles, anything you could need. I bought a copy of the Swiss Family Robinson printed in the late 1800's (in French of course) for 2 euros! I am trying to read a page a day as suggested by Kerry, and it is easier because I know the general story.
Walked across the street to Poilâne, a famous bakery in Paris. I had a gâtise, which I had never seen before. It was a pastry filled with melted cheese....um, yum. Does it get much better than French bread and cheese.... much less all rolled into one? I don't think so.
We had rather open plans and were just going to see where the day took us. There wasn't anything else nearby, so we decided to go to the mosque in Paris. They supposedly serve a great sweet mint tea and couscous, along with a quick guided tour of the mosque-what could go wrong? Actually....a lot. Turns out you can't wear skirts (which Kerry and Ashleigh were) and the closet that had other options for them to change in to for the tour was closed. (We figured this out after a very confusing exchange of words.)
As we turned around towards the street still mumbling to ourselves and asking each other, "What exactly did he say?"... we mumbled our way to the general consensus that we were all hungry. Sat down at a random restaurant we chose after looking at 3 or 4 neighboring café's, picked out what we wanted on the menu, used the restroom, only to learn that the kitchen was closed for the afternoon. Ugh. How many times were we going to be turned down today? Turns out....quite a few.
We found a good restaurant that was open and actually serving lunch so in we went. For dessert I had my first official crème brulée. It was good...but I will have to say that mine is better!!! Maybe I am a bit partial.....
A few more girls were going to join us at 5 for a grand excursion to the top of the Eiffel Tower and we still had a little time so we did a flash visit to the Musée du Quai Branly. I had no expectations of this museum, so anything was fair game. Honestly, I hadn't heard about it until Ashleigh mentioned it last weekend. It's this amazing structure, with a whimsical entry. All of the art, costumes, and artifacts are from non-Western cultures/countries and is suppose to have a more "innovative and diversified" approach. I believe they succeeded. It's only been open 4 years now and still has that new "novelty" museum feel to it.
We were all amazed by the floor leading into the museum. This "river" of words is in many languages, all of course using the same letter system for consistency.
After, we ran through the museum and headed back under the Eiffel Tower to meet the rest of the girls. Once we were all there, we popped over in a line to head up one of the pillars.
About 20 minutes later with 3 people in front of us, a man came out saying it was closed with no explanation. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? We have planned this 3 times and it just hasn't worked out. Maybe it's not meant to be? We quickly looked around to see if the other pillars were open....nope....all were closed. Later we found out that there were technical difficulties so I guess I'm glad we weren't at the top...but still! There were some very angry people at the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night.
Sat down at a nearby café to gather a plan for the evening since our plans were quickly shut down (for the third time that day), had an overpriced chocolat chaud, and hopped on the metro. I pass by the Moulin Rouge every day but the girls have never seen it, so that was our next stop- to take some more photos of course!
Met at the same time on Sunday morning, but this time for the Chinese New Years Parade!! It was pretty far on the other side of Paris, but we wanted to go to the grandest parade in all of Paris for this day! As soon as I stepped off the metro I could smell delicious Chinese food. There were elderly Chinese women on the sidewalks selling what I'm sure were some amazing delicacies. I'm not much on chicken feet and snakehead soup...so I didn't venture that far. We got what was supposedly a pretty good view right behind the barricades. Unfortunately, as soon as the parade started about 30 people ran out in front of us so their heads are in all of our pictures.
It was really pretty amazing and I give major props to my stepbrother in Taiwan. It's one thing to go somewhere like Europe where the cultures are somewhat similar and the languages are decipherable. But being in a country with completely opposite views, cultural opinions, and languages is probably exhausting, confusing, and oh so different!
After the parade, the other girls dispersed and the three musketeers (Ashleigh, Kerry, and myself) were planning to go see The King's Speech late Sunday afternoon. Guess what? Sold out. We hung our heads lower than they've ever been (strike 4 for the weekend) and sauntered away to check out Kerry's book of Paris. The closest thing was the BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Why not? We crossed the park in Bercy, found this amazing bridge over the Seine, and discovered a pool....floating on the Seine!! How awesome is that?!
It's the Piscine Josephine Baker which right now is an indoor pool. According to the info, after a certain date in summer they take the top off and voila! An outdoor pool in Paris. More of a "swimming pool barge" I would say. Definitely on my list!!
The BnF was designed so that the buildings look like books, and the ends similar to pages. They did a pretty good job at replicating that. All 4 of these buildings are part of the BnF connected in the center by a courtyard and "mini forest" if you will. How massive is this collection of books?! On each wing there are hands-on learning opportunities and mini museums for all ages as well as café's, book shops, and auditoriums.
I love stumbling upon things so fascinating as I wander around Paris with friends! Just as we were about to head towards the metro-what do we find? A movie theater!! AND The King's Speech was playing an hour later AND it wasn't sold out yet!! Hooray!!! It was a tiny little surprise that was set up for us at the end of a long day. Not to mention they served Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Absolutely lovely.
It's the little things.
I did do fun things today as well, but I will wait and post them tomorrow as I am very tired of looking at a computer screen. Do you all prefer the slideshows of pictures or like this blog, posting individually? Just curious.
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