Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-08-01 01:40 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2007-08-01 01:40 am
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I know it's stereotypical to fall in love with Paris but I don't care.
Might just be dumping more photo posts on you guys, since the routine seems to be "get up early, do as much stuff as I can before 8 p.m., get dinner, go back to hotel because shops and museums are closed."
Random things for my own personal reference: Montfermeil is served by the 601ab bus line, which runs between the RER station and the hospital and should take me right past the Fontaine Jean Valjean. The rue du Champ de l'Alouette is not terribly far from 50-52 blvd de l'Hôpital, and is closest to the Glacière metro stop.
Tomorrow I'm going to the Louvre. o_o If I manage to get out without spending all day there, I'll probably also go to Notre-Dame and the Palais Garnier. Montfermeil is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, as well as whatever other stuff I haven't done--the catacombs come to mind. My plane leaves Friday afternoon. ;____; I don't want to go.
Today's wanderings were pretty much entirely LM related--yes, I know I have a problem. *g* Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis is lovely and I have many pictures to post; 11 rue Sévigné, where Thénardier escaped from la Force, is actually just up the street from the church; Hugo museum was neat in theory but a little disappointing in practice; Place de la Bastille was neat if only for the July Column, even if the opera is hideous and the cafés charge 5 euros for a cup of tea. Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire looks like it was a fine bourgeois type of place back in the day, but no. 6 is among the less-posh newer buildings. I didn't devote as much time to the Panthéon as I should've, but what I saw was all kinds of cool. And I'm not sure whether the modern 50 blvd de l'Hôpital is where Hugo pictured the Gorbeau tenement, but it's definitely in the right area--you can see the Salpêtrière from the corner.
It took me forever and a half to find the Musée des Égouts, because the location on the web site is utterly useless unless you feel like wandering up and down the Quai d'Orsay for a while. They could've just bloody said it was right off the Place de la Résistance, sheesh. The sewer itself was pretty cool--I wasn't terribly interested in the equipment they use to maintain it, but they had a nice exhibit on the history of the Paris sewers. And it had a map of the sewer system in the 1830s, and they traced the route Valjean took with Marius. (Which, for the record, is a really damn long way.) Excuse me while I bounce up and down for a while.
Speaking of which, some of the souvenir hawkers who hang out by the river sell prints of old maps. It is a symptom of my one-track mind that I will probably only buy one if I find one of pre-Haussmann Paris or an old map of France under the revolution to tack on my wall. Most of the ones I've seen have either been from the 1500s or post-1860.
I think I have shown admirable restraint so far in keeping myself away from the entire area of the left bank that faces the Ile de la Cité, which is practically wall-to-wall bookstores. Maybe if I have lots of money left on Friday morning...
...oh, and are flats in this season or is that a French thing? Because every time I go shoe shopping in the US I end up running screaming from the endless array of heels, and here the stores are stuffed with really cute shoes that you can actually walk in. For 10 euros a pair! I love it. I also wandered into a couple of the sex shops around my hotel and was sorely disappointed; all the interesting gadgets were out of my price range. Oh well.
Gah. I want to stay here forever.
Random things for my own personal reference: Montfermeil is served by the 601ab bus line, which runs between the RER station and the hospital and should take me right past the Fontaine Jean Valjean. The rue du Champ de l'Alouette is not terribly far from 50-52 blvd de l'Hôpital, and is closest to the Glacière metro stop.
Tomorrow I'm going to the Louvre. o_o If I manage to get out without spending all day there, I'll probably also go to Notre-Dame and the Palais Garnier. Montfermeil is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, as well as whatever other stuff I haven't done--the catacombs come to mind. My plane leaves Friday afternoon. ;____; I don't want to go.
Today's wanderings were pretty much entirely LM related--yes, I know I have a problem. *g* Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis is lovely and I have many pictures to post; 11 rue Sévigné, where Thénardier escaped from la Force, is actually just up the street from the church; Hugo museum was neat in theory but a little disappointing in practice; Place de la Bastille was neat if only for the July Column, even if the opera is hideous and the cafés charge 5 euros for a cup of tea. Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire looks like it was a fine bourgeois type of place back in the day, but no. 6 is among the less-posh newer buildings. I didn't devote as much time to the Panthéon as I should've, but what I saw was all kinds of cool. And I'm not sure whether the modern 50 blvd de l'Hôpital is where Hugo pictured the Gorbeau tenement, but it's definitely in the right area--you can see the Salpêtrière from the corner.
It took me forever and a half to find the Musée des Égouts, because the location on the web site is utterly useless unless you feel like wandering up and down the Quai d'Orsay for a while. They could've just bloody said it was right off the Place de la Résistance, sheesh. The sewer itself was pretty cool--I wasn't terribly interested in the equipment they use to maintain it, but they had a nice exhibit on the history of the Paris sewers. And it had a map of the sewer system in the 1830s, and they traced the route Valjean took with Marius. (Which, for the record, is a really damn long way.) Excuse me while I bounce up and down for a while.
Speaking of which, some of the souvenir hawkers who hang out by the river sell prints of old maps. It is a symptom of my one-track mind that I will probably only buy one if I find one of pre-Haussmann Paris or an old map of France under the revolution to tack on my wall. Most of the ones I've seen have either been from the 1500s or post-1860.
I think I have shown admirable restraint so far in keeping myself away from the entire area of the left bank that faces the Ile de la Cité, which is practically wall-to-wall bookstores. Maybe if I have lots of money left on Friday morning...
...oh, and are flats in this season or is that a French thing? Because every time I go shoe shopping in the US I end up running screaming from the endless array of heels, and here the stores are stuffed with really cute shoes that you can actually walk in. For 10 euros a pair! I love it. I also wandered into a couple of the sex shops around my hotel and was sorely disappointed; all the interesting gadgets were out of my price range. Oh well.
Gah. I want to stay here forever.
no subject
Have fun at the Louvre tomorrow - it was easily the most overwhelming museum/building that I've ever visited. Most people make a bolt for the Italian Renaissance and poop themselves out, which is a shame, because the Louvre has beautiful and (relatively, compared to its more famous wings) ignored Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Islamic wings. While you're there, keep an eye out for Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People! You also might as well try and leave an hour for the Palais Garnier, since the two are such a short metro ride from one another, and because it's also ridiculously cool.
I know what you mean about wanting to stay forever - I'm already saving up for my next trip/trying to convince my mom to let me study there for another semester. Sigh!
no subject
Damn you, giving me an excuse to go over there. XD Now I'm not going to have any money on Friday and I'll be begging in the streets for 10 euros for the airport shuttle. (Which leaves from the Rue Scribe, so the Opera might turn out to be a day-of-departure thing.)
no subject
no subject
And yeah, working out the notes beforehand is good. I got all turned around this morning looking for the Rue du Champ de l'Alouette, before I realized the metro exit dumped you out facing the opposite direction than the one you have to go in. Stuff like that would be so useful to know in advance, haha.
no subject
I know what you mean about Paris. Eee. Have fun at the Garnier, it's goooorgeous.