My Second Visitor
After my dad left it was just Mati and I left to wander around Paris, get lost even more, and possibly walk even more. So here's what we managed to do in one week in Paris (which is way more than I usually manage to do):
Wednesday: Moulin Rouges and Le 404 with my dad
Thursday: Walked to Jardin des Plantes (botanical garden) and got tickets to see a combination of the Museum of Natural History and a special exhibit called Night that featured nocturnal animals, interesting facts about outer space and light pollution, mythology surrounding night time creatures like vampires and the boogeyman, and theories behind what drives our dreams. After we went to the Grande Mosquée (the Grand Mosque) where we sat in a gold embellished room with little birds freely flying around and sipped on traditional arabian mint tea and sharing a non-traditional vegetable crepe. Still hungry, I knew where we had to go. All California residents, and now Reno residents apparently, have an obsession with Mexican food - which means an obsession with Chipotle. I maintain and will always maintain Qdoba is much, much better - but Mati love Chipotle. So, breaking my habit of only walking if it's daytime, I agreed to take the metro to the one and only Chipotle in Paris so he could have his favorite meal - the quesarrito. The quesarrito is a quesadilla/burrito formed by folding a tortilla over cheese in the grill as if to make a quesadilla, but then opening the crispy (and breakable tortilla) to fill it like a burrito. Mati has memorized what you can have for free such as two scoops of beans and two scoops of rice - which means his burrito never closes and in fact always has to go into a salad bowl since it's hopeless to put it in a normal aluminum wrap. Chipotle had an outrageous price of 9.30 euros for a burrito so we got his burrito and he happily told me about the greatness of Chipotle as a company and the documentary he watched about its founders. Right. Once the quesaritto was consumed we WALKED (which made me happy) home and then met friends for wine by the Seine.
Friday: Woke up and made Matzo Brei (matzo bread and eggs) since it was passover (which means no bread allowed - not an easy thing in Paris). Satisfied after a delicious meal of eggs, matzo, fruit, hummus, and coffee we attempted to go to Musée d'Orsay only to discover a massive line that we had no intention of waiting in. We decided to continue our walk to the Arc de Triomphe and for the first time ever I went to the top. What a view! We took the traditional tourist route and walked down the Champs Elysées which had massive crowds of non-Parisians blocking the streets and driving me crazy but eventually we made it back to the Seine and went to dinner at Mexi&Co where I had my second taste of Mexican French food - which was like the first - SO FRENCH. No American Mexican vegetarian burrito would have a carrot, potato, white rice filling with melted french cheese inside...still, the guacamole left me with no complaints.
Saturday: Walked to Place d'Aligre to pick up fruit and vegetables for the week. In Jerusalem everyone goes to the Shuk to get produce, and in Paris the Marchée d'Aligre is the equivalent - except less loud and chaotic - and apparently in Jerusalem they don't try to pick the fruit for you. Oh cultural differences..In the afternoon we went to Jardin du Luxembourg and shared a fancy hot chocolate with whipped cream piled on top and read our books. In the evening we went to the Pantheon to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle from one of the best viewpoints in the city and picnicked with friends, then went to the student bar street called Rue Mouffetard.
Sunday: Met friends for Easter/Passover brunch at Eggs&Co where we had a three course brunch of fresh pressed orange juice, cappuccinos, a fancy omelet, pancakes, and a fruit salad. Kaeli was the talent behind the search for a passover friendly brunch place in bread obsessed Paris and managed to find this place and wow us all! After we went to Centre George Pompidou where we saw some great Russian modernist artwork (we took a class last year on Russian art so to see it live was incredible). We did a bit of second hand store shopping in a Kilo Shop (nothing has a price in one of these shops - rather everything is priced by weight and material) and I found a jean dress while he added to his collection of white lenin shirts (yes he has a collection of white lenin shirts). Next we went to the heart of the Jewish quarter - Rue des Rossiers, a street with the best falafel in town which was closed for Pesah (passover in French). In the evening we watched the Hunger Games Catching Fire and made dinner in my itty bitty kitchen.
Monday: Went and saw Monet's masterpiece "The Water Lilies" at Musée de l'Orangerie and then took the metro (I'm so kind) to Montemartre where we went to Espace Dali - a tiny and extremely well put together Salvador Dali exhibit hidden in the 19th arrondissement. We then took ANOTHER metro back to Rue de Rossier to meet a friend he grew up with who is in my abroad program and had afternoon tea at Le Loire dans le Thiere (an Alice and Wonderland Themed, completely overpriced, tea salon). Despite the outrageous cost of a post of tea and a slice of pie, it was a relaxing way to spend a long day of museums.
Tuesday: We took the big day trip out to Versailles, waited in a 1.5 hour line only to discover you could go through the exit and use a ticket machine with no line, and then spent 3 hours touring the beautiful castle. That was all we did Tuesday because let's face it, Versailles is drenched in French bureaucracy and wore us out with its incredibly long and unnecessary lines. Besides, Wednesday we had to get up early to finally make it to Musée d'Orsay.
Wednesday: We took our time walking through the beautiful impressionist paintings on exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay. We planned to go to Musée Rodin afterward to see the famous statue, The Thinker, but in the end with our limited time we just had a nice picnic on the grass (illegally on the grass - the French DO NOT let you sit on their precious grass ever anywhere at all) and then went home to pack for our next adventure - Prague.