Mon voyage vers la belle France: Two Americans in Paris

Hello from France!
    It is now the end of our break here at Sciences-Po but I managed to get in a quick trip to Paris before it was over. Harry Merck, who many of you know, took a two day layover to meet me in Paris and do a quick weekend visit. It was quite the trip! I arrived early on Saturday morning at the Paris Montparnesse Gare on the TGV from Rennes and immediately went to Musee d'Orsay for a walk through and to see some of my favorite paintings. As always it was packed with people looking at the impressionists but its worth it just to be able to stand in front of paintings like Monet's waterlilies, Degas' ballerinas and Van Gogh's self portrait. By noon I was headed out of the museum. After a crazy few minutes figuring out the Paris metro I was in Montmartre to meet up with Harry. We found a nice brasserie to eat lunch in and sat outside and enjoyed the sun.After a delicious meal of beouf bourginon and pizza Montmartre was busy, lots of street vendors and tourists all crowded around the Sacre-coeur, an extremely famous church at the top of the hill. Anyone who has seen Amelie would recognize it immediately. After climbing the several hundred steps we took a walk through the church and then headed out to find a good cup of coffee, Harry of course being exhausted from traveling and I being a caffeine addict we needed our late afternoon dose of Cafe au lait.
     After walking around Montmartre and watching one of the craziest traffic jams I have ever seen we decided to head to Shakespeare and Company and Notre Dame. Shakespeare and Company is one of the most famous English bookstores in Paris and we spent a half hour roaming around the bookfilled shop and visiting with the resident dog who was very happy to see us. Notre Dame is just across the river and was beautiful at sunset. Then it was off to our dinner destination Chartier. We had to leave ourselves plenty of time because the Metro stop we normally would have transferred at was under construction and it took no less than four to make it around to line 8. We made it in plenty of time though and were quickly sat in the large dining room with lots of other happy and hungry people. Sitting next to us was a couple from Shanghai, and on our other side a group of four french students. Together we enjoyed the amazing ambiance and incredible food. Harry tried escargots for the first time, I as always struggled with the tongs but its always worth it, I am convinced they just use snails as an excuse to eat a lot of garlic and butter. I got really good roast chicken with fries, followed by a really nice goat cheese and finally a chocolate mousse cake with creme-anglaise. Splitting a bottle of the house red we were both full and happy by the time 9pm rolled around. We decided to turn in early because we wanted to get in a full day on Sunday and we were both pretty tired.
      Sunday we were up early to go back to Musee d'Orsay, Harry had never been and I really wanted to show him the exhibit on the new opera of Paris. Once inside we had a long walk around the whole museum stopping to look at the furniture section especially, Harry being an appreciate carpenter. We also found a section that I had never seen before, the ballroom which is tucked away in the uppermost corner of the museum. It is an incredible room with lots of chandeliers and lots of artwork painted on the walls and ceilings. I was excited as it was my third trip to the museum and I was still finding new things to see.
     After the museum we decided to take a long walk to the Eiffel Tower and took a few side trips to walk over many of the bridges and to figure out what some of the more impressive looking buildings were. Finally we reached the Eiffel Tower and spent some time wandering around the lawn. Then we found a small Bistro for lunch where I had my obligatory Parisian chocolate mousse, so good! Then we headed back to metro to take a quick trip to one of the more outermost points of the city and visit the Grand Arche. It was quite a difference, very modern buildings and pretty quiet on a Sunday afternoon. It was a different view of the city and we spent some time hanging out on the steps and enjoying the sun. Then we jumped back on the same metro line to see the Arche de Triomphe and take an afternoon stroll down the Champs Elysees. After stopping into Virgin megastore (never again) to pick up an adapter for Harry we decided to head back to the hotel and take a nap. Later in the evening we traveled down Metro line 12 and did some more walking around to see the sights after dark. Then it was another bistro dinner, lasagna and salad. After a goodbye to the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde it was time for me to head to the train station for my late train home. Au Revoir Paris!
    Of course SNCF always has another idea in mind and after a few hours on the train we were informed that it could be several hours more before we made it to Rennes as an "animal sauvage" which turned out to be a cow, had run onto the tracks and there was a pretty bad accident with another train on our route. So we were stuck in Laval on our train with no bar car to get food or drinks, a broken bathroom and every light in the train on so that it was impossible to sleep. Thank you TGV. Ugh. Eventually I got home and at 2am rolled into bed not quite ready for another week but happy to have spent my weekend enjoying Paris. Mum and Dad arrive on Thursday so look for our adventures through Bretagne soon!
All my Love from France.