Oysters and Dancing

Today, Thursday, June 28th, was the last day of real classes. After this weekend, we head to the Low Countries for site visits to the European institutions we've been studying all this time. As a going away event, the program sponsored a lecture on the French elections and then took everyone out for a fancy dinner. We went to a place called Le Petit Zinc, which was an art nouveau wonder. The food was not as good as the price dictated, and the service was terrible, but the atmosphere was perfect. I had my first oyster experience; I've decided it's not my favorite thing based on the texture and method of imbibing. It was a nice event though, with everyone in their fancy clothes. I wore my opera dress.

After a return to the foyer to change clothes, Shama, Amity, Allison, Edgar, Chris, and David and I headed back to St-Michel, where the bars and clubs are highly concentrated and filled with students. We drank in a bar where it was slightly cheaper, then headed to the bar where I had danced with Danielle. Man, do I love to dance to crappy pop music. It was a great time. Given that we left the bar after the metro was closed for the night, we decided it would be a great idea to stay out until they reopened. Which was 6 am. We hit a total of 4 bars that night.

I am too old for this.

A day off, then to see Napoleon

On the 23rd, Saturday, I took the day to stay in and work, which was well worth it. In the evening, I went out to see my cousin. She was in Paris with a group from her high school, and it seems like she loved every second of Paris. I met the group at Pont Neuf, where their boat cruise of the Seine dropped them off, and we walked to Saint-Michel, which is where the students (and the tourists) tend to go to hang out and enjoy nightlife. We went to a bar. The kind of bar which is almost a club, with a bit of a dancefloor and a DJ and a bouncer and the whole bit. After their tour guide did some finangling to get a group of 10 high schoolers past the bouncer, we were in. Maybe I'm getting old, but I was worried about the girls in the group, considering that not all of them had great French and there was a group of pompiers (firefighters) on the dance floor. With an eye on all of them, though, Dani and I had a great time dancing. It was tons of fun to see her, and I certainly love to dance as much as possible.

On Sunday, after sleeping in, Chris, David, Kate and I headed to Invalides, which was once a military hospital (and, we think, it still is). It now houses three military museums and includes the church where Napoleon is buried. His body is inside 6 concentric coffins, each made of a different (expensive) material. The outermost is wood. Additionally, the sarcophagus (I suppose that's what it is) is set in the cellar, but the first floor is cut out, so that an observer still must bow to Napoleon to see the grave. Apparently, Hitler thought this was a great idea when he saw it.

We also visited the World War museums, which were huge and extremely comprehensive, and the museum with miniature representations of the fortified cities of France. We skipped the museum of armor. Being in the WW museum made me wish I knew more military history, as I always do when I take classes as well. Scott would have enjoyed it more than me, because he would have appreciated it more. Note to self...more military history.

After a hot tea post-Invalides, we headed home. We took naps, then met up again (with Edgar this time) to head for dinner. We did a terrible job of locating a restaurant, since so many things are closed in Paris on Sunday, and ended up at a terrible little Italian place near our foyer. The food was provided by Sodexho. Always the optimist, Chris referred to it as the best restaurant in Paris, and it really didn't taste as horrible as I expected. However, both David and Chris got sick the next day. Go figure.