A Taste Of Parisian Life: Adieu Paris

Well, it's over. Classes are no more. So, yesterday was my last neighborhood farmer's market. I woke up early to wander around. It was so wonderful and everything was so beautiful. I'm going to miss the fruit so much, every strawberry is the Platonic ideal of a strawberry. It's so good! Then we met up for our farewell lunch as a class. The food was okay, and everyone was still in denial about leaving so it was a strange atmosphere. After lunch, Sam and I headed over to the Jardin des Plantes, the oldest garden in Paris! It was really pretty, traditional formal French gardens. But what made it worth it was the natural history museum. Normally I'm not a fan of natural history museums, with the dioramas and fake animals. But this was spectacular! It was basically this huge open space filled with skeletons, and the walls were cases holding preserved specimens. Many of them were from the 1800s. It made me feel very academic and was wonderful. After the gardens, I headed over to the national library. It's a really strange place. Four huge skyscrapers that look like open books surrounded by strange gardens and a huge, empty complex. It was really surreal and felt like the set for a Twilight Zone. Then I headed home to pack and clean the apartment so that I could have all of Friday to enjoy.

So today I woke up, headed to Accent to tie up any loose ends, then went to the Louvre as soon as they opened. I was determined to conquer that enormous monstrosity of a museum, and I did! I saw everything that I wanted to, it just took over four hours and getting lost at every turn. The Louvre is wonderful, but really exhausting, so afterwards I went home to soak my feet and take a nap. Then I headed out with Sam and Zac to the architecture museum. There was this really cool exhibit of a Brazilian landscape architect. And also there was a forest in the basement, for an exhibit about urban design integrating nature into cities. That was really really interesting and very inspired, if a little lofty. Then we explored the rest of the museum, which had a really cool modern architecture wing, as well as reconstructed Gothic cathedrals. After the museum I went over to La Defense to see the Grande Arche. And it was HUGE. Not very attractive but with a great view of the Arc de Triomphe. Then headed back home to finish cleaning. For my last meal in Paris, Lauren and I went to Les Cocottes de Constant. It was really delicious! I had Iberian ham with cheese to start, then pig's feet in potatoes, and for dessert muscat to drink with caramel waffles. Defiantly one of, if not the best meal I've had here. And surprisingly affordable too. Then I went over to the Tour Montparnasse to look out over the city for sunset. It was an incredible view of the city, you could see everything. And a great way to end my time here. My shuttle picks me up at 6h40 tomorrow morning, and by dinner time I'll be back in BoCo. So, this is the end and goodbye.