Just another day in Paris

I realized I haven't written anything in over a week. That's because I haven't done anything big, just lots of little trips around the city. For example, last week I had to buy all my books for my classes. The French don't believe in textbook stores, like at universities or anything. Instead, you have to go to a bookstore. If they don't have you book, you go to another store. I had an interesting couple of days trying to find my long list of books at the few bookstores I knew about. Note to self: look up books beforehand, so that you know whether you should be looking in the poetry section instead..

Last week, on average I took at least 5 different metro trains per day. It's pretty cool that it's no problem to get across town without a car and with minimum walking. But I'm finding that you need to leave plenty of time to get somewhere.. Like, I was trying to get to Saint-Michel in the Latin Quarter, but the connecting train was broken down. So I just got out at the station and decided to walk the rest of the way. While it was a cool walk (past the Justice Center - the one where Marie Antoinette was locked up, and through Ile-da-la-cité), it was not quite as short as I had expected. But it was cool walking down the street like a "local."

Last weekend, for Valentine's Day, my friend's roommate came to the city to visit. So we spent the day doing some touristy stuff, like the Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, and Saint Michel, and some other places. It felt very stereotypical standing in front of the Eiffel Tower taking pictures for the lovey-dovey couples everywhere. We had some surprisingly sunny weather too! Later we got dinner at a cute little place in the Latin Quarter. Overall, not a terrible V-day.

Yesterday I had to go to the Louvre for my Paris Museums class. (quick note, I'm taking a course about Museums in Paris. It's a sort of Art History class, but focusing on French art, and specifically, the French art displayed in Paris). That makes my third trip to the Louvre so far, and I have plans to return this weekend to research for a paper. I've stopped taking pictures of all the paintings I see, because I'm starting to feel dumb. But if you have a specific painting that you want me to look for, let me know and I'll try to take a picture of it for you.

Today was interesting because my Paris Musuems class went to the Manufacture des Gobelins. Contrary to its name, this place does not do anything related to goblins (I was fooled at first). It's actually a tapestry gallery and manufacturing place. We got a tour of the tapestry manufacturing area - it was so cool! We walked into this long room where there are about 10 huge looms set up facing giant windows (the weavers use the natural light). At each loom was a person threading their loom. Actually I'm not sure if that's the right terminology, because what they were doing was not really threading. They were weaving the string in and out and pushing it down and changing the colors and switching the strings... I really wish I could have taken a picture because I can't even begin to describe what the loom really looked like. They have pedals that push down every other string on the loom, so that they can weave the string through. And they were all working off of a design that was blown up to precise points. Seriously, making a tapestry looks like hard work.

Then we went to the Gallery and looked at some old tapestries from the 17th century. Most of them are copied from paintings that were popular at the time. Also, they were all super huge. I guess there must be a rule that all tapestries must cover the average wall size of a king's palace.

Last but not least, I saw a huge march today in the street! On the way to the Gobelin Musum, we saw a street that was completely filled with people for blocks and blocks and blocks! It was part of the student/teacher protests that are going on now. I don't exactly understand all the details, but the teachers and students are striking because of something wrong in the university system... ? But it was cool to see my first Paris March!