grey day

Today was a trying day. We had to change hotels in the morning so all of us girls had to drag all of luggage 5 blocks through the steep hills of Montmarte. My muscles still ache. To catch a breath we had some coffee and lunch at the next door cafe, and the waiter was very rude. It took 40 minutes for him to bring the bill. Then we thought that shopping would lift our spirits, so after multiple metro stops we ended up in central Paris where all the shops are only to find out that everything is closed on Sunday! Feeling defeated we headed back on the metro being crammed into the car like sardines. Paris is not as perfect as I thought. I'm ready to dive right into my studies. Tomorrow we're visiting Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) for a discussion on the roles of NGOs and Civil Society in the sector of Public Health and complex emergencies.

Jeanne Moreau-Le Tourbillon De La Vie (in Jules et Jim)

I was walking along the Seine this afternoon and I found a beautiful copy of Henri Roche's book Jules et Jim in French. I always catch myself humming this song after watching the film

Day 4

Saturday, we had a whole free day, so I planned a full day. For breakfast I ate at the Two Windmills Cafef, where Amelie was filmed. Only the counter really looks like the film, but it was still very cute. I started off at L'hotel Ville and walked across to Notre Dame and walked across the Seine to the Left Bank and stopped into the bookstore Shakespeare and Company. I've always wanted to go. Its an English bookstore, full of nooks and crannies. Then I walked past the Sorbonne and towards the Luxembourg Garden, I walked around there and drank an Orangina. It was lovely. Full of sculptures, fountains and flowers. Then I trekked to the Cemetary Montparnasse, I wanted to visit the grave of Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Paul Sarte and Jean Seberg are buried there as well. I wandere around for awhile it took awhile to find everything I was looking for. Then I took the metro over to the Louvre and walked around by the Tulleries and the outside of the Louvre. It was too beautiful of a stay to go inside, I'm saving that experience for when we come back in December. Paris is full of tourists now and it becomes overwhelming. It's becoming hard to get by not knowing a lot of French. Everyone knows English, they just do not want to speak it.

Night out

This was at a bar right across the street from our first hotel in Montmarte, and on our way back, there was a group of people twirling fire

Day 3 in Paris