April in Paris

I made my second visit to Paris this weekend with Carolyn and Sanjay, who work with me at the lab. We had both Friday and Monday off for the Easter weekend (got to love the European holiday schedule) so we had a lot of time to travel to the City of Light. After a light lunch on Friday we checked into our hotel, Hotel des Sans Culottes, which in French means “without pants.” It has something to do with the revolution, an appropriate theme since it’s located in the Bastille district. The hotel was a little seedy, but in a great location on a really trendy street close to the Metro.
We went to the Eiffel Tower, which I’d visited the first time I was in the city. But it was great weather and it was interesting to see the difference a month makes in terms of the flowers and landscape. After waiting in two long lines, we finally made it to the very top for a great view of the city. In a way, I’m grateful it took so long because we got to see the tower in daylight, sunset and darkness, when the lights are turned on. My one real annoyance of the wait was a girl named Mackenzie. Standing in front of us with her college friends, Mackenzie (who I couldn’t help but eavesdropping on) complained about everything, including her name. “I guess it’s not so bad,” she said. “My parents almost named me Kendra, and I’m like, mom, dad, thank God you didn’t name me Kendra.” I almost instinctively said, “But my name’s Kendra.” Then I stopped myself and resorted to glaring at her while we slowly moved through the line. Thanks, Mack.
That night, we had a late dinner on the Champs Elysees, where I had authentic French onion soup.
On Saturday, we went to the Picasso Museum, which I really enjoyed. Although my mom is a pretty big art buff, I don’t know too much about famous painters. All I really knew about Picasso going into the museum is that he painted really weird stuff. The featured exhibit was about his work made for an eight-year period in the 1930s and 40s while he was dating photographer Dora Marr. Most of his work on this time is based on her, so the exhibit was filled with different version of the woman: Dora with green skin, Dora made up of squares, Dora with her eyes on the back of her head and her lips on her neck. The exhibit also included photos of the couple, which added some reality to the otherwise really out-there work. I was also generally impressed with the sheer number of work Picasso made. In addition to the many Dora paintings, many others were in rooms around the museum, which we weren’t able to finish.
After the museum, we went to the Notre Dame cathedral. It was raining, so not the best time to admire the church, but I still paid my respects to Quasimodo (see photo). We missed the viewing of the crown of thorns by a day, which is brought out every Good Friday. I’m amazed that the crown still exists; wouldn’t it have disintegrated by now? I had a Nutella crepe at lunch, really tasty.
On Sunday, we went to the Louvre, which is just as big, if not bigger than you might have heard. We concentrated on some of the paintings and the Greek sculptures, making stops at the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. Later on, we walked down the Champs Elysees and checked out the arc de Triomphe.
There’s still a great deal more I want to see in Paris. I probably won’t make it back during this trip, but I definitely want to return in the future.