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Published: September 10th 2007
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Venus De Milo
In the background I think the gentleman is demonstrating that because the Venus does not have arms she could never do this. Bonjour!-
I am finally getting around to posting my weekend activity! And, to my surprise, there was no shortage of interesting encounters and activities.
I am getting accustomed to speaking French at a very rudimentary level but some folks still don’t appreciate the effort. I am outed as an American pretty easily. I tried to order ice cream last night and before I could even say, “Bonjour”, the server said, “Hello, what would you like.” Another time, I sat down at a cafe and ordered off menu as I didn't want a salad or a $34 entree. So I ordered a chicken sandwich. The waitress informed me that, "This is not what one eats in Paris." Oh well, she made it anyways. Guess you have to make concessions when a huge portion of your economy is tourism. By the way, it was bad.
As for the ice cream guy, in a way, I was thankful I didn’t have to muster up some horrible French. Although, for what it’s worth, another American who speaks a good amount of French told me I had a nice accent. Even though that’s coming from an American, but I’ll take it.
As
The Venus De Milo
The real Venus De Milo. Perfectly chiseled. for the weekend.
Friday night I went out in a touristy district and watched some rugby. The 2007 Rugby World Cup is being held here and the streets were packed. The little bars had lines out the door and every side street I went down people were pouring into the streets. Pretty fun. Except for when I ordered a "Sandwich Thon" thinking it looked like shredded beef. It wasn't. It was tuna and I ate half of it before I could figure out what it was. I got duped again.
I was fortunate enough to get a taxi home (while others waited for literally two hours). My cab driver asked if I had been to Las Vegas. I told him I had and he became very excited. He had never been to the States but we chatted about Motley Crue, Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson.
“Married two time,” he said.
“Tres bien,” I replied.
Ah, nothing like cultural fusion. Tommy Lee, Pam Anderson and Elvis. Three great Americans known the world over.
He was a huge Elvis fan and wanted “very much to go Graceland”. So as we parted ways I gave him a
The Louvre
The pyramid below the entrance of the Louvre. Da Vinci code rocks! tip and said, “Un avion Graceland” which means, in the most broken French ever, “Airplane Graceland”. He laughed.
On Saturday I ventured over to the Louvre to see the main attractions. The building itself is immaculately kept and really an eyeful. I stood in the courtyard for almost as long as I stood inside. I am no art buff, but the Louvre offered some great sights. The Mona Lisa, the Venus di Milo made the cut. Others, however, were left out of my tour. I wanted to see where heads rolled!
So I went over to the Place de Concorde where the guillotine was used during the French Revolution. It was in the middle of this plaza that people surrounded the guillotine to witness executions including those of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. To me, that is awesome. Probably the great moments in the history of capital punishment! And what an illustrious history that is!
On Saturday I went to the Palace of Versailles, which has been, by far, the highlight of my trip. The place was enormous! However, it was under restoration and could have looked more appealing. My pictures suffered because of that. But,
The Louvre
This painting was behind the Mona Lisa. Check out the scale of this bad boy! then again, my pictures suffer mostly because the photographer is amateur at best!
The Hall of Mirrors and the King and Queen’s bed chambers were among my favorite spots at Versailles. In the Queen’s bedroom there are hidden passages that Marie Antoinette used to escape the mob of Parisians that entered the Palace to kill her. The King used to wake up with an elaborate ceremony including people to bathe and feed him. It was basically just like living with my parents!
The Hall of Mirrors is a breathtaking space both physically and historically.
All in all, it was a successful weekend! Lots of walking, but hey, that’s what Europeans do, right? Had class today. Yeah, that's about as exciting as that got. Dinner at some French journalist's house tonight.
Hope all is well with everyone!
Au revoir!
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Lisa Felder
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=)
Benjamin! I love your blog and am so jealous you are in Paris right now! Eat some crepes for me!