The city of light and perfume

On Friday, I went to the Musee Guimet, which is the museum for Asian art here in Paris. I was surprised by how large it was! It was a wonderful collection, particularly of sculpture and objects, from all over Asia, including even Central Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.). I really enjoyed it, though I moved fairly quickly through it. It became kind of overwhelming, but it was all very beautiful. One of my favorites was the golden statue of Shiva in the photo, with hundreds of hands.

That evening, a group of students and I attempted to visit the Musee de L'Orangerie, thinking it would be free for the young'uns after 6, but we found it to be closed. So we just wandered for a while, finally landing in the Saint-Michel area, which is a very busy and vibrant area of the city, filled with students and tourists. We ate at a forgettable but fulfilling restaurant with a 12 euro menu of very French, but not great, food. We then wandered until we found a bar that could accommodate us to watch the Holland/France match....everywhere was full of shouting French people. We did find a place, though, and enjoyed the thrill of European football with the locals. We ultimately returned to my favorite jazz place again, this time not for the music but the very delicious and best-bang-for-your-euro drinks there.

Unfortunately, the late night combined with alcohol made it more difficult for me to find travel partners for Saturday, when A, K and I took a day trip to Chartres. The Notre Dame cathedral there is a UNESCO world heritage site, and for good reason. However, we arrived at an awkward time. I think if I'd been alone I'd have gone into more museums, but instead we just took a lovely, tourist-free, self-guided walking tour of the medieval city, which sits along a river. The whole city closes between 12 and 2, except restaurants, which don't open until 12. It makes touristing a little awkward unless you plan better than we did. We did wander a lot, and the city is really peaceful and quaint, even on a Saturday when you might expect tourists to overwhelm you. We ate really delicious crepes for a great price at Creperie les Trois Lys (I seriously have the best guidebook ever), and then wandered some more, to increasing frustration and doubt that the trip was worth it.

However, we finally went to the cathedral, which made it clear it was worth it to come there. It's just stunning, from the Gothic architecture to the largest collection of medieval stained glass in the world to the stone retelling of the Bible that surrounds the alter. Incredible. We took the much acclaimed English tour from Malcolm Miller, a British Gothic architecture scholar who told what seemed like a million stories and facts about the place...and we only saw three windows and a door! Apparently every tour is different...next time I'll take both tours he offers in a day to learn even more. It made the place really vibrant and alive with history and spiritual meaning. It was fascinating and wonderful.

And exhausting. I stayed in last night and crashed before my movie was half finished. Phew.