Last Saturday with my friend..

Man, I can’t believe this was the last weekend with my first semester friends! Next weekend I’m off to Scotland (so excited!!) and the weekend after they will be gone. The time truly has flown by (like I’d been warned of) and I have made some great friends. Yesterday I spent the entire day with one of them, Andrea. We had such a good time as we took in Paris from all angles. We seriously did so much this post would be way too long if I talked about it all, so I am just going to touch on a few of the bigger events. To start, it was the first time for both of us to go to the Centre George Pompidou! For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is a very modern museum of modern art. The structure itself is pretty amazing (worth a google, I promise) and the view from the top level was worth the admission fee. We went to a current expo called “Jacques Villeglé, La Comédie Urbaine (The Urban Comedy.)” All of this guy’s works were made from torn posters, it was pretty impressive. And now, know that I appreciate modern art and I find a lot of it fascinating, but some of it is just ridiculous. Example: the minimalists. Really? Really?? We came upon these three huge canvases side by side.. Completely white. Just white. Now I am sure there is a lot of deep symbolic life-altering meaning behind these absolute works of art, but come on! I’m curious how much that guy sold them for and what the guys where thinking when they hung them up?! Props to the artist, he had to have made bank if they’re hanging here in one of the biggest modern art galleries in Paris right now.
After enjoying several levels of the Pompidou we decided we were in the mood for another kind of modern art: the window displays at Gallery Lafayette. This “grand magasin” is known for it’s window displays and especially at Christmas. They’re always gorgeous! This year is a funky Alice in Wonderland feel to it, from what I could see! There were so many people on the sidewalk catching a glimpse that we couldn’t even get close to the windows! Pure craziness, so we decided to go inside where it was only slightly less crazy. Naturally, we picked the floor with all the specialty foods to explore. Beautiful! We were even given a sample of a gourmand chocolat that was prepared right in front of us! Though it was hard we behaved and refrained from buying anything.
Next we met our french friend (actually polish, but he is kind of french/polish) Remi at the Christmas market in La Defense. This year there are these adorable little Christmas markets all over Paris that sell outrageous gifts (anywhere from beautiful pieces of art to things that should have the label “as seen on TV!”) For the most part it is just a lot of knick-knacks I’m not interested in buying, but the atmosphere can’t be beat. There are food venders all around selling Christmas specialties; foie gras sandwiches, raclettes, and of course your Christmas in glass-vin chaud (hot wine.) There are Christmas lights, music, and it reminds me of the busy malls at home near Christmas time. I’ve gone to several of these little markets now and they are just too fun.
We ended the night off by having an authentic french dinner in Saint-Germain-des-Prés (told you all angles of Paris!) Quality time with quality people in Paris, something I am so very blessed to call “the norm.”