I Wish I had Eyes in the Back of My Head
Today, my friend and I took the bull by the horns and embarked on a day of ambitious sightseeing. The first item on our agenda (because I insisted) was the Musée de l’Orangerie to see Monet’s rooms of water lilies in the round. Because I wanted to save these for last, we started with the museum’s permanent collection and ended with the water lilies. Due to Monet’s style and the nature of impressionism, the water lily paintings look quite simple up close at first glance, but the way the swirling, streaking brush strokes fill each canvas and the beautiful pallet of purples and blues and greens with bits of pinks and yellows, and sometimes very dark shadows… it completely enthralls me. I could have sat in the center of those rooms for hours. I told my friend I wish I had eyes in the back of my head so I could take it all in at once. The water lilies were donated to the museum shortly after World War I as an offering to Parisians of a “haven of peace, inviting them to contemplate an image of nature invoking infinity,” (from the back of the museum’s map brochure). Apparently Monet approached the project with this in mind: “’Nerves strained by the work would relax in its presence, following the restful example of its stagnant waters, and for he who would live in it, this room would offer a refuge for peaceful meditation in the midst of a flowering aquarium.’” (This is a quote of Monet’s also found on the map brochure.) I really loved this sentiment. So of course I had to get a small souvenir poster of the water lilies. My friend and I also discovered that the museum was largely organized by a woman whose husbands’ (yes, she had two who were involved in the art world) collections make up the permanent collection. Yay female power!
After the museum visit, we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries towards the Louvre. The Louvre was just a little more than we were willing to take on so we decided we could settle for some classic pictures with the glass pyramids and call it day. These sentiments were reassured when we arrived to sea a solid sea of people in the main square; we were not emotionally prepared to handle such crowds. We continued on our walk across the river to have lunch and then carry on to Shakespeare and Company, an English language bookstore in Paris. After reading up a bit, we discovered this store was also founded by a woman! The store was cozy-cramped just as a book store should be. Books both old and new of all different genres filled the shelves to the ceilings. Where there weren’t books, there were pasted collages, painted designs, or tacked paper on the walls with lovely quotes or tips for good writing. On the second floor level, there was a small wall covered with sticky notes with quotes about life and love. To complete the cozy romantic atmosphere, next to this wall was a long cushioned seat-shelf with a cat dozing peacefully next to a sign that said “Please let me sleep!” encouraging visitors to not disturb the sleepy feline. There was also a piano in a reading room on the upper floor. This hole-in-the-wall bookshop was like a fairy-tale dream. Ironically, I bought a book in Spanish in this English bookshop in Paris…
After visiting the bookstore, we decided to take on the churches of the area starting with the Notre Dame. We only went into the main church and did not ascend the tall towers (mainly due to the incredibly long, stationary line). Afterwards, we headed down the street to Saint-Chapelle where, somehow, we got to skip the line and get in for free since we’re technically students in the European Union (my friend more so than I because Switzerland is technically not in the EU)! Both churches are spectacular in very different ways but I am more drawn in by that of Saint-Chapelle. The Notre Dame is incredibly large with intimidatingly high stone ceilings. Saint-Chapelle on the other hand feels like it is made purely of satin glass. The incredible color and storytelling that takes place in the windows of Sant-Chapelle completely blew me away. Some fun facts about these windows: (1) only five colors of glass are used, (2) 1,113 scenes from the bible form Genesis to Christ’s resurrection are depicted throughout. How crazy is that? I could have stood and stared at these windows until my neck was permanently bent backwards it was so awe-inspiring.
After we visited these churches we headed on a bougie errand: buy macarons at the fancy Ladurée macaron store. We ended up each getting five (because obviously you can’t just get one) of flavors such as earl grey chocolate, passion fruit, caramel, and lavender. My friend and I split each of ours so we got to try the others’ flavors and we gave them each a thorough rating. It was amazing how floral and perfume-y some of them were! I applauded the caramel one for having actual caramel in the middle instead of a caramel flavored filling. After eating our macarons in the park, we rested our feet and stayed to chat for quite some time, which was really lovely.
Finally, we decided we could meander our way back to the hostel since neither of us were very hungry after eating so many macarons. Little did we know it would be so taxing on our feet! We ended up walking about 13 miles that day. By the time we returned to the hostel we were that kind of hungry where you have a grumpy demeanor and low energy but don’t actually feel hungry so we grumbled through Yelp and decided to pursue a Venezuelan restaurant, of all things. To our delight, the food was incredible and we had an absolutely charming waiter. We inhaled the guacamole; we both deeply missed eating good Mexican food around LA. Who knew that Paris would supply such delicious South American food?!