Paris, Day 2

Paris, Day 2 (first read Paris, Day 1, located below the Feria post)

The next morning we met up with Elly and her class at the Bastille square, which was close to both our hostel and Elly's hotel. It is near the modern opera.

Elly mimicking the statue in the middle of the square

Then we headed to the Catacombs. While the Catacombs weren't at the top of my list of things to see in Paris, Elly's class wanted to go. They were definitely interesting. Basically, the catacombs are are an underground ossuary in Paris that contain the bones of more than 6 million people. They are a series of winding tunnels 100 feet under the city of Paris where bones were moved when the church cemeteries became full.

We descended a narrow spiral stairwell 19 meters underground to the dark, silent passageways. The first room we came to was a hallway of stone with displays about the former mines. Then we went through a long (about 1.5 km) hallway and stood before a sculpture that existed from before the mines became a tomb, of a fortress created by a former Quarry Inspector. Soon aver that we came to a stone portal, the ossuary entrance, with the inscription written in Latin "Stop, this is the empire of Death."

Long Hallway

And then began the bones. There were hallways and hallways of them, all neatly and carefully arranged, almost in an artistic fashion. I couldn't believe how many there were-- the passageways kept going on and on. It was hard to believe that each skull once belonged to a human being-- they seemed fake, like something you would find on skeletons at the health adventure. It felt almost wrong, being there, like we were intruding, being that close to dead human beings. It made me think about how short this life of ours really is, in the grand scheme of things.

Elly, pretending to kiss a skull

There were hallways and hallways like this. A LOT of bones.

Surprisingly cute picture from an eerie place

Going back up the second narrow, long winding staircase

After the Catacombs, Alyssa and I broke off from Elly's school group and FINALLY found our little pastry shop. I had an éclair. Delicious.

Later that afternoon we met up with Elly and Caroline in front of Notre Dame!

Reunited sisters <3

We all were wearing our sisterhood bracelets!!

Caroline couldn't stay for long because she was with her friend, who lives in Paris. But after she left Madame Delange gave the group some free time and Elly came with Alyssa and I to tour the Notre Dame.

Inside Notre Dame

After touring we tried to go to the Saint Chapelle, but it was too late in the afternoon. So instead, we followed Elly around town as she looked for a French rapper CD to give to Kyle. Then we took Elly back to her hotel to meet up with her group.

Bridge over the Seine river

Since we had been very stingy with buying food up to that point, mostly living on French bread, Alyssa and I decided that we deserved a fancy dinner on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous streets in the world known for its high-end restaurants, cafés, cinemas and specialty shops. It's the second most expensive strip of real estate in Europe, with rents as high as 1.1 million euros for 1,100 square feet of space.

We started at the arc de triomphe, which again reminded me of Mary-Kate and Ashley.




And before long we were on the Avenue Champs Elysées, surrounded by Gucci, Louis Vuitton and limos.

Louis Vuitton window display-- a zebra juggling handbags

The street

We walked up and down the street a few times looking for a semi-affordable place to eat-- even though we wanted a fancy dinner, we refused to pay 40 euros a meal! We ended up at a delicious Italian place where I got a 5-cheese pasta and we could sit on the street to people-watch.

Dinner

After dinner we had to go to the Laduree, a very fancy sweets shop on the Avenue Champs de Elysées. One of Alyssa's friends who had studied abroad in Paris had told her "If you don't do anything else in Paris, you have to get a vanilla macaroon from the Laduree." So that's what we did. We took them to eat by the Eiffel tower.

the sweets

In front of the Laduree with our fancy bag of macaroons

Feria

I have been working on my Paris post, but I'm going to take a break to tell you a little bit about about Feria, because it is pretty much the most amazing event I have ever been to.

The Feria de Abril began in 1847 as a livestock fair and eventually evolved into what it is today. It is always held two weeks after Semana Santa, so it's usually in April but is later this year because Easter was so late. Usually Feria falls in the midst of classes and exams, but this year we get to end our study abroad experience with the most amazing fair in the world!

The Feria fairgrounds are huge, and are only used this week. They are located far away from my house and across the river in the neighborhood Los Remedios. People set up casetas, or tents on the fairgrounds to make a temporary city. The tents are elaborately decorated with thousands of paper lanterns, and they are so ornate that they look like miniature houses. The casetas are hosted by various aristocratic families, who invite all their friends to show off their wealth. Most of the tents are "invitation-only," meaning you can't get there unless you know the right people, but some are public.

During the day feria is full of horses, carriages, children in flamenco dresses and sevillanas. During the night there is a completely different atmosphere of bullfights, rebujito (manzanilla wine and sprite,) and dancing sevillanas.

Nearly every woman wears a gypsy-inspired flamenco dress. All of them are beautiful, form-fitting with a layered skirt at the bottom. Some are more elaborate than others, but they can include bright colors, ruffles, lace, embroidery, polka dots or all of the above. Women wear big earrings, shawls (mantones) and flowers in their hair, either on the tops of their heads or on the side. The elaborate outfits sound silly, but when the entire city is dressed for this week-long costume party, it is simply incredible.

My host sister Ana has been planning her flamenco dress for Feria since February. She drew out pictures, cut out photos from magazines, went downtown for the fabric, got it made and fitted to her, bought all the accessories. Since dresses are so expensive, she gets a new one every two years.

Two of my friends, Delaney and Stephanie, were able to borrow flamenco dresses from friends of their senora. Another one of my friends, Colleen, received money from her grandmother specifically to buy a dress, and spent a week going shopping until she found the perfect one.

As much as I wanted one, I never had the intention of buying a flamenco dress. Alice and I decided we'd wear little black dresses and dress them up with flamenco accessories: flowers, belts, maybe a shawl, combs and jewelry.

Alice, Colleen and I were downtown looking for said accessories when I found it. I decided to try on a dress, just for fun. It was too much fun, so I tried on another, and another. And then I tried on The Perfect Dress. It was a light lavender color, with flowers, a thick layered skirt and frilly sleeves. It fit me like it was made for me. And the best part: it was about a fifth of the price of the cheapest flamenco dress in any normal store.

When I came outside the dressing room Colleen gasped and told me "Mary, it's not everyday that you find a dress that pretty, that fits you that well, the day before feria. It's meant to be."

I justified myself because I had been planning on traveling to Lisbon this weekend, but had ended up not taking the trip. I would have spent far more money in Lisbon than I was spending on the dress. And so I bought it.

That day began the crazy week of photoshoots, friends, churros, manzanilla, ferris wheel, horses, blisters on my feet, meeting new people, people-watching, and best of all, dancing the night away and one of the most incredible weeks of my life...

My host sister Ana, me, and my señora Ines

At Alice's Feria photoshoot

With Colleen walking across the river to Feria

At Feria, my dress

Dancing Sevillanas with my instructor



From my Feria photoshoot:




These shoes gave me blisters the size of quarters.





For more pictures from my Feria photoshoot, check out http://lookinglensphotography.blogspot.com/

PARIS

We arrived in Paris on a beautiful early Friday afternoon. We flew with RyanAir, an European airline that has unbelievably cheap flights-- and we quickly found out why--the RyanAir airport was an hour outside the city. We took a bus into the city, then a metro to check in to our hostel.

The first thing I did upon arriving to the hostel, and putting my bags in the dungeon-like storage room downstairs (our hostel was incredibly awful) was call Elly's teacher, Madame Delange to find out where they were. Turns out they were standing in line for the eiffel tower. So my travel buddy Alyssa and I jetted across the town once again on the metro.

Seeing the Eiffel tower for the first time felt like a dream. It looked exactly like I had always pictured it. I had visions of Passport to Paris (Mary-Kate and Ashley movie that Elly and I watched hundreds of times growing up) and quotes and songs from the movie played through my head. I took a million pictures.

Elly was already up on the tower when we arrived, so we stood in line, then began the ascent up the staircase (stairs are cheaper than elevator.) When we reached the first platform I scanned the crowds for her, then finally found her class sitting at a little table in front of a small cafe. She spotted me at the same time and we ran towards each other like something out of a movie. Meeting on the Eiffel tower-- how perfect. How picturesque.

Sisterly reunion on top of the Eiffel tower. When Elly saw me she started to cry


Elly, me, Alyssa


First glance

When I saw the tower's peak for the first time I grabbed Alyssa's arm in excitement and squealed


Alyssa had to lie on the ground to get this photo


The long ascent up

Just as soon as we were reunited, Elly and I were torn apart again; her class had already climbed the tower, but Alyssa and I just go there! Elly headed to the Louvre museum while Alyssa and I decided to pay the extra 3 euros to go all the way to the very top of the tower!

At the very top!! Incredible!



Coming down, via a long, long elevator ride


Alyssa laughed at me because as we were walking away, I stopped every few steps to turn around and snap a picture. But I couldn't help it, the tower was so beautiful!

After we hiked the Eiffel tower and stopped for a speed-dinner we again took the metro to the Louvre. On Friday nights the Louvre is open later than usual. We took advantage of our free student entry, and decided to see the Mona Lisa while there were less crowds, and come back the next day to see the rest of the museum.

In front of the pyramid, entry to the Louvre

Mona was much smaller than I thought she would be. She is kept behind a thick glass case and during the day there is a huge crowd surrounding her. We luckily got to get up close

Me trying to mimic the mysterious Mona Lisa smile. I think she does it better

We ended up not meeting back up with Elly, so Alyssa and I were on our own for the night. We walked around trying to find a pastry shop for a long time (we'd assumed there would be pastry shops everywhere, but they were more difficult to find than we thought) and finally made do buying chocolate, strawberries, cookies, croissants and cheap wine at a grocery store. We took our picnic to botellon in front of the Eiffel tower.

There were a ton of students from all nationalities gathered on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower when we got there. Some were playing frisbee, but most of them were just sitting on the lawn drinking and talking. What a place to spend your Friday night! We laid out our picnic and reflected in the amazing fact that we were actually in Paris!

Every hour on the hour at night, the tower sparkles. It was magical



Our picnic