Lazy Sunday and a Trip to Montmartre

Despite my intentions of getting up early on Sunday to enjoy breakfast and a morning walk, neither happened.  Instead I slept in and found it much easier to just get lunch.  So after getting up and dressed, Laura, Kelcie, and I went out.  We walked down to the Seine and then along the river until we reached le Pont de l'Archevêché, otherwise known as the Lock Bridge.

The bridge is covered in padlocks where you write the name of yourself and a loved one (usually someone you're romantically involved with) and lock it on the fencing of the bridge.  Afterwards you throw the key into the Seine, symbolizing love that can't be broken.  It's so cute.

Unfortunately, I was with two people in relationships who couldn't wait to immortalize their love, and not wanting to be left out I had to buy a padlock too.  Only without a significant other I had to be creative.  Who do I want to spend all of eternity locked onto a bridge with?  Much to my chagrin I could only think of one person.  My extremely aggravating and much beloved baby sister.  Being single in Paris is a hard life.

After this, we headed back to our place since the weather was starting to look nastier.  On the way we ran into Shakespeare and Company, one of the oldest and most famous bookstores in Paris, and one of the only specializing in English books.

Inside the place is a rabbit warren of bookshelves, high ceilings, cramped doorways, and tiny rooms on two floors.  The first is the bookstore, the second is a library with books you're free to read as long as you keep them upstairs.  The store has had dozens of famous writers in its hallowed rooms and is still a noted literary salon even today.  It also employs writers who can live above the bookstore, work downstairs for room and board, and devote themselves to their writing.


We spent the afternoon relaxing and doing homework as it was chilly and raining, however around dinner time we heard that a period piece was being filmed just down the street from us, so we went to check it out.  We didn't see much, but it's still pretty cool that they can film historical films right around the corner for me.  It says a lot about the history of the neighborhood.

We called it an early night because we knew today would be crazy so not much else happened yesterday.  Today I was up early and downstairs for breakfast by nine.  Class started at nine thirty, followed closely by our weekly meeting.  We received food money for the week (finally!), got our ballet tickets, and were given some information about the Bastille Day festivities this coming weekend. After lunch we had one last class (french history) then just a few minutes to get reading for our outing. 


Today's excursion was a trip to Montmartre.  We didn't see any of the big highlights (that's for another day) but we did get a pretty good look at the neighborhood.  It's much more bohemian than I expected too.  We passed the Montmartre cemetery, which is packed to bursting with monuments, mausoleums, and crypts.

We were mainly there to see the places that the novel we're reading in literature takes place, which would be the streets and smaller squares.  However we did pass Moulin de la Galette, an old dance hall-turned restaurant that was immortalized in a painting by Renoir.

At the end of the tour we went back to the Latin Quarter and grabbed dinner.  I spent the evening working on homework and hanging out with different people in my group.  Tomorrow is (no surprise) looking to once again be a pretty busy day so I'm making tonight another early night.