Place: A little street off of Montparnasse
Anyway, what was it, yesterday? We went to the beige building that SF city hall is modelled after only city hall is more white. At least in my mind it is. I'm struggling to remember San Francisco and I have to do a presentation on it on lundi, from memory in French. I can barely remember how describe where the creperie is never mind talk about my city. Oh well, it should be interesting. Ouais, tres interessant. Inside the building, lies the big tomb of Napoleon. Apparently, his family thought he should get a big tomb. Besides the size, the ceiling, the statues around it and the hole in the floor above, it was unimpressive. Yes, Blank Esquire was not impressed by Napoleon's coffin, 'tis true.
We had a test that day and we're getting another test tomorrow. I want to whinge and complain but alas, who am I going to complain to? Today, we practiced the snoring, back of the throat noise to say "tr" so yeah it was like fifteen minutes of fourteen people trying to pronounce "tr" because of tres, treize, trois, and trente. I was going to do it when I asked for my key but err...non. It didn't happen.
Also yesterday I had my first encounter with the post office of France. The first one I went into was intimidating and the second one was better and more helpful. I shall go to the second one à côte de la rue de Condé. Ha-ha!
Today, I went to class and then got lunch while waiting fifteen minutes for the 58 bus or le numero quinante-huit bus. THen we went to Musée d'Orsay. Now, if you're like me and you love Manet, Monet, Van Gough, Renoir, Delachoix, Marisot and love little facts on how they built Le Eiffel Tour, then it's a lovely museum. It used to be a train station and was acutally Gare D'Orsay because in Paris there were hundreds of stations that were owned by private companies so every company had it's own station and in Gare d'Orsay's case it's own hotel. But unfortunately for the Gare d'Orsay it could not stand the test of time because trains were getting longer and longer and they didn't fit in the station so oh well. It was later turned into a museum at some point and then an Italian architect wanted to make it look like there are trains inside so you can see on either side a sort of train like shape to the exterior of the galleries where the paintings and scultures are held. WHen you go to a certain point there are escalators hidden in the museum, I say hidden because you have to go way in the back to find them. Unfortunately for tourists and fortunately for the paintings, no cameras, no pictures are allowed. However upstairs by the the clock facing outside towards the Ferris wheel, you can take pictures of the outside. I took two. It's sort of Monet House, you can't take pictures of the inside when inside but nothing is stopping you from taking pictures of the outside from the inside. So no pictures of the inside of the museum from me. There are a few brave folks who did sneak some pictures but usually I try to not to get caught doing things here because even Blank Esquire doesn't want to get lectured in French by an angry French guard. There are pictures everywhere so if you don't understand French, you should know what the picture means... unless you come from somewhere odd where no means yes, then maybe you have an excuse.
THere's another thing that annoys me, in French museums when you are part of a big group, you get separated by age. It keeps happening and it's really annoying because all the fun people [in this group] are apparently older than me...grumble, grumble mais c'est la vie.
Anyway, in Musée d'Orsay, there's a room that if you don't like sculptures or paintings, you have to see. It's called Salle des Fêtes. It's very beautiful, with pillars that look like marble, sculptures of naked angels, painted ceilings, gold leaf on the ceilings and walls, wooden floors, crystal chandeliers, glass flower lights and it's the nicest room I have ever seen in my time here so far.
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