little bitty girl

We woke up to a very light rain in Paris. As we walked towards the nearest Metro, we saw people who were carrying bunches of flowers and pulling their personal shopping carts. They were obviously doing their weekend shopping. I had been told by a number of friends who lived in Paris that French people have very small fridges in their kitchens. This is mainly due to lack of space but also to the philosophy that everything they cook has to be fresh. So people do food shopping often. The fridge in our rented apartment is a size of what a regular cupboard space at home would be. I have to say that I really like the philosophy of eating fresh, buying produce regularly.

Then we passed by the local marche. If the local marche doesn't inspire you to cook or eat fresh every day, nothing will. Food is displayed in such a glorious manner. It makes me want to move here. Such a silly reason for uprooting everything I know and love, but a country that loves, fosters the love of food (among many other things) has much to recommend them.

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We then headed off to the Bastille Market. Even though we were running a little late, it was curious to see that the market was closing up so soon. It turned out that we were actually an hour behind; we had forgotten about the daylight savings time in Paris. Regardless, we managed to see some really cool stalls. The seafood here is unreal. If we did not have other things to see or do, I would have bought a whole bunch and taken it back to our apartment to devour.

We've been traveling everywhere by the metro or walking. The metro is quite easy to navigate once you know how. Luckily our friend Kevin, who had lived here for awhile gave us the great tip that you need to know where the end of the line is, to figure out the direction of the subway. We would not have figured that out on our own.

We then headed off to Musee D'Orsay. When we first arrived, the line to get in looked impossible. It was probably due to the fact that all stores are closed on Sundays and museums were open. Luckily, the line moved quickly enough and we got in within half an hour. I don't know whether this is true of all museums but at this one, anyone under 18 got in for free. And people under 30 got a discounted rate. For some reason, the cashier assumed we were under 30 and we got in for a fairly decent price.

There were a lot of teenagers there. Which was fine, in fact, I think it's really incredible. It's really important that young children get exposed to culture as much as possible. I just think it's such a wonderful opportunity for the dwellers of this city to have such amazing resources at the steps of their doors. If I lived here, I do think I would spend a lot of my time at the numerous museums here.

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Musee D'Orsay was everything friends had recommended and more. I don't know why but the Impressionist era and the art eras surrounding it are the ones I remember the most out of my art history lessons. I even wrote a paper on Paul Cezanne. So to be able to actually see these masterpieces under one roof was such an exhilarating experience. I am afraid that I went a little snap happy here. It absolutely couldn't be helped. We did not have time to really go through the museum as thoroughly as I would have liked. It is definitely one that I would return to in the future.

I really wish I could speak more intelligently about art. But I think being able to feel large emotion towards it is a good start.

We spent the rest of the time walking around and getting lost in the many winding streets of Paris. All I can think of to compare it to is of lower New York. You know how everyone thinks the Soho, Grenwich, East & West Village are the really cool parts of New York? Well, Paris feels like one whole city consisting of all those place times one thousand or even more. We kept finding really cool areas at side cobbled streets. I have no idea how the postmen know how to find any addresses here.

I am so in awe of this city.