paris-fest(?)

Much to my dismay, I didn't go to Octoberfest this weekend....so instead I justified my staying in Paris as an opportunity to save lots of money, really look forward to next weekend's trip to Amsterdam, and do lots of cool Parisian things! I spent Friday afternoon shopping in the Saint-Germain de Pres area with Esther and Julianne. It is definitely one of the most touristy places to shop, but it still has a lot of good stores. We found a Zara, the Longchamp store, and two very cute (and expensive) boutiques that I had been to with my mom and Adele two years ago: Les Petits Hauts, and American Retro.


On Saturday, Juliet and I went to the Centre Pompidou, unlike the first time, we had all day to wander around the museum and got to see most of the permanent collection. I didn't realize before how very modern the art is, a lot of it is by current artists. We saw a lot of photographs, multi-media presentations and even a toilet and kitchen pod, which somebody considers art (not me)! Afterwards we walked around the surrounding neighborhood and even paused to watch a Native American dancer who was preforming outside the museum....we were a little confused as to why there was a Native American
dancing in the middle of Paris!? Mme Boudet and her son were both gone this weekend, so Esther and I (and our Spanish roommate) had the apartment to ourselves which gave us a good opportunity to use the kitchen for as long as we wanted and make ourselves a "gourmet" dinner. I was very proud of finding artichokes at the market on our street for only 1.5 euros -- a lot cheaper and fresher-looking than in the U.S.! Unfortunately Esther's not a fan of artichokes so I made one for myself and she made her own fancy pasta creation. Due to the fact that Mme Boudet did not have any pots big enough to cover my entire artichoke in water it took a LONG time to cook, but was well worth it!

On Sunday we had absolutely beautiful weather, so it was a perfect day to walk around Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It is a very old cemetery on the outskirts of Paris where tons of famous Parisians (as well as other notable people) are buried. I had no idea that Chopin, Moliere, Colette, Rossini, Proust, and so many other that I'm forgetting, are buried there! The most notable people to see (for us at least) were Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Oscar Wilde's grave was covered in lipstick kisses and was by far the grandest of the three. Edith Piaf's was very small, in the middle of many other graves...had it not been for the crowd surrounding it we may have walked right past! Jim Morrison's grave seemed to draw the most people.
It was also pretty small, but had 3 barricades surrounding it so people could not get within 20 feet of the grave...yet there were still flowers, lyrics, pictures, and even a whiskey bottle that someone had managed throw on top of his grave. It was a chilling experience to see his grave, and the others as well. The cemetery itself is HUGE, and although we were there for 2 hours the only graves we saw were those three and Colette's. We noticed other tourists with maps marking all of the famous graves but the four of us never found one and so we wandered around pretty aimlessly and were lucky to stumble upon the 4 that we did!

After Pere Lachaise, it was back to work for me. The week marks mid-terms already and I also have my oral "expose" (very Euro, says Susie) so I will be busy with work until this weekend when we are off to Amsterdam!