Montmartre

Today was a great, busy day. Again, the day was started with class. We talked about religion in France, which always turns out to create an interesting conversation. Anyway, to avoid that subject is very American, so that's what I'm going to do.

Anyway after class I went to lunch and did another formule for 13 euro. I had a pizza "con carne" without onions which actually ended up being a pizza with ground beef on it, but it was still very yummy. After lunch I had an apple tart, which was probably the best apple tart I've ever eaten.

After lunch I went to a bookstore and loaded up on classic french novels written by prominent french authors like Proust, Sartre, and DeBeauvoir. I need something to do in the airport while I wait for the plane to get there, and reading a french novel seems like a pretty good time-passer.

After the bookstore I went to Montmartre with the group. Talk about a pretty area of France. I actually learned today that Montmartre is outside of the city limits of Paris, and that the people who live in Montmartre get offended when you call them Parisians. I thought that was pretty funny, because a lot of the goal of this trip is for the students to blend in and become Parisians and here is this group of people who get really mad when you call them what we're aspiring to be. Anyway, Montmartre is astounding. We walked up the hill to the Sacre Coeur but on the way we found (thanks to our guide) all of these interesting historical places, like, for instance, a place where Renoir painted one of his most famous paintings. That was pretty fantastic, we also found Picasso's first studio in Paris, or at least what's left of it.

My roommate and I were supposed to go see Les Miserables tonight, but after our walk to the Moulin Rouge (we did that after Montmartre because it's very close to there) we were both too beat to even imagine staying up until 11 and then navigating the metro to get home that late.

So now I'm just sitting here trying to finish my presentation for Friday, and trying to study for my test tomorrow simultaneously. It's terribly hard, hence the blogging.

I have two days left in Paris! I will be back in K-town on Saturday. For everyone who is going to wonder where I am when I get back, I'll probably be sleeping. I've heard the jetlag is even worse when you get back to Knoxville because it's so lame compared to Paris.

I'm sure it can't be that bad because at least I'll get to spend time recovering with Colin :)