Ikea

So today I ventured out to Ikea.  For those of you that don't know (gasp!) Ikea is a huge Swedish-based store that has everything for your home and more for CHEAP.  Great quality, but I mean cheap.  Comforters, can openers, couches, dishes, even shampoo and conditioner if you so desire it.  There are several in the States, the closest one to Tennessee being Atlanta, but Paris boasts 7 stores alone.  I did some significant internet research last night to find the one that was easily accessible by public transport.  Well, turns out, none of them!  There is one out near Charles de Gaulle airport that was a little closer than the rest, and the bus stop put me within a half a mile walking distance from the store.  Note to self:  don't buy anything too heavy to carry.

I got on the metro this morning and it was still fairly calm.  I switched to the RER B at Gare du Nord only to find that my card didn't work for some reason.  There was no one at the ticket counter so I had to buy a ticket.  Fail.  It was 100 degrees down in the depths of the RER today and as I was running to make the train that was there I realized it was super packed.  Like, more packed than I have ever seen any train in my entire Parisian life.  So, I pulled a very French thing today.  I did one of those, "as soon as the buzzer sounds for the doors to close, flop your body into the train and hope you don't fall over onto millions of people and just shove your way in."  And hope all your body parts make it into the train.  So, after a few seconds, I got my grounding...and all was good. Only to realize I was on a train with a million high school kids dressed up like weird creepy characters.  As if it were Halloween or something.  I so wanted to take a photo for you, but I could not move enough to get anything out of my purse.  By the time we reached the next stop, I was sweating through my shirt.  I could barely breathe.  Neither could anyone else.  I kept hoping all these people would get off but no, they didn't get off until I got off.  30 minutes later...naturally.  

There were hoards of people who got off dressed up and they were all going to the Parc des Expositions.    I was trying to find the correct bus I needed to get to the "Centre Commerical" and of course we were going opposite directions.  I eventually found the bus and it wasn't but another 10 minutes via bus until I was dumped in a gigantic parking lot.  I could see Ikea in the distance though...so exciting!  I guess that Ikea isn't accessible to public transport because they hope their customers come by car and buy loads of cheap furniture.  Now that I look back on it, it wasn't so difficult getting there.  

I walked in through the exhibition rooms and found the difference in the Ikea in Paris and the one in Atlanta striking.  The showrooms here in Paris were so tiny.  And every single one was about fitting as much into a little space as possible.  While that is still the idea at the store in Atlanta, they allow themselves much more square footage to play with.  My original purpose for this pilgrimage out to the suburbs was to see about finding a foam mattress topper for my bed.  Its rather hard and so I thought I could at least check it out.  The cheapest one fitting my bed being 200 euros (about 290 USD), I decided against it and came home with some other great loot.  A couple of new dishtowels, a frying pan, some popsicle makers for Marie-Césare and I to use next week, and some hangers for my new makeshift closet.  It makes it even better when those 4.99 dishtowels are on sale for 1.99.  Genius.  It was so worth the trip out even though I didn't get what I went for!  

The RER home was much less crowded.  I was even able to find a seat.  Although I did see a few more dressed up stragglers who didn't get quite as early of a start as the others.  I dropped my things off at my apartment and headed up to Montmartre to meet Cathie, Rebecca and Omphile.  There is a 3 time world champion rollerblader who was jumping from the top of the steps at the Sacre-Coeur over the fountain and down to the next veranda.  No way I was going to miss out on that!

We met up and climbed a few stairs to the middle section, and found a teeny-tiny spot on the grass where we all squished in.  We were about 45 minutes early, but thank goodness we were because there were so many people they had to close the gates.

Of course there was all kinds of hype going on and the emcee trying to get the crowd going.  They had interviewed his family and girlfriend so we heard all about how nervous they were and how this apparatus was constructed...yadiyadiyada.  Finally, the moment we had all waited for...his jump.  And I was ready with my camera, only to look down after it was over and realize that I missed his jump! ha!  After another hour had passed (technical problems I believe) we witnessed another jump, and this time I got it on video.

I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.  He didn't seem to be going very fast, and he just jumped into big foam thing....sounded kinda fun actually.  I'm sure in reality it was scary and very dangerous, but I'd like to think the optimistic way.

Rebecca and Cathie

We left after the 2nd jump since there was so much time between the first two, although as we were fighting crowds we ended up seeing the 3rd and 4th as well.  Its been a long day! I feel like I've been up forever.  Am going to attempt to get up and go to Hillsong tomorrow...its been so long and I'm so glad to go!  Afterwards, meeting Cathie and Omphile for some sort of carnaval on the Champs Élysées.  Hopefully taking Cathie to have her first Ladurée macaron....well worth the ridiculous price tag!