notre dame, not south bend

getting around paris on foot is truly baffling. once you begin walking down a street, there’s no telling when it will begin to be called something entirely different. rue de medicis becomes rue st. michel just because it curves slightly. I hate feeling like the typical tourist and pulling out my handy-dandy tourist map, but it’s practically impossible to get around otherwise.



speaking of touristy, I accidentally stumbled upon tourist central today – notre dame. I know, how do you accidentally stumble upon notre dame? see, what's rather amazing about this city is that despite its incredible denseness, in various places the sky opens up and the buildings clear and you see giant structures like the notre dame simply looming above you. so that’s what happened. and I finally crossed the seine for the first time. I really just need to go exploring more.

april fool’s in france is called “le poisson d’avril”, or the fish of april. of course, the only person to play a trick on me this year was my mother, all the way from the states. well done, mom.

had my first patisserie panini and pain au chocolat today. delicious. so buttery. how are all the women so thin here, despite eating this stuff all the time?

I can’t wait to actually go on an organized tour. we’re heading to the Musée d’Orsay on Thursday (the old train station converted into an art museum). we’ve done very little actual guided city-viewing, so I guess we’ll have to set up our own, for the most part. this weekend our homework is to go to Versailles! and next weekend we are seeing ‘Le Misanthrope’, by Molière, performed by the Comédie Française.

almost every café has a million small tables and chairs set up immediately outside it, and what’s surprising is that all the chairs face outward. the obvious and express purpose of these chairs is to PEOPLE-WATCH. I cannot wait to have some coffee and a brioche and watch people as they’re passing by. French people who do this are rarely alone! they are usually sitting with someone, having some coffee, and watching people TOGETHER. what a beautiful life they live, seriously.

it has become a tiny bit colder here – it’s in the low 50s – but at least it’s not snowing. ha-ha Minnesota! that’s what you get for not coming to Paris with me!