It's my last day in La Defense before I go stay with the girls in the Bastille, and I'm actually going to miss the darn place. The crazy giant statue of the thumb, forest of wire trees, and colorful music tunnel to the metro were all pretty intimidating at first. Now it's just become my home.
Yesterday Diana and I went to see L'Orangerie at the Jardin de Tuileries. There are two big oval rooms on the main floor completely surrounded with large Monet paintings of the water lilies and trees at Giverny. We had gone to see the garden just a few days before, so it was amazing to see how Monet really captured the feeling of the garden in his work. I can't believe I almost left Paris without seeing this place.
Last night, Cindy and I went out in Etienne Marcel. This area of Paris, near Pompidou, that is like its own little community. During the day there are hippie clothing stores and small gourmet food boutiques. By the time we got to the area, a lot of bars were winding down. We stopped in a random pub, sat at the bar, and ordered two beers. We got to talking to the bartenders and found that one girl was from Los Angelos while the guy was from Scotland. The girl poured us shots and when we asked about why she was here, she told us that she fell in Love while studying abroad in Bordeaux in college and is now living with her French boyfriend. She also told us that she thought Virginia was one of the most underrated states, and that it is one of the most beautiful places in the country- we were immediately won over. Then she made us a very very strong drink to share, and Cindy and I were set for the rest of the night. There was a regular next to us at the bar who apparently is a writer working for Newsweek in Paris. He had been writing stories about this blogger who paints portraits of people she meets on the metro, and I couldn’t stop asking questions in the hopes that I could figure out how to get Leslie a job with him. We talk to this guy for a good hour, but it’s not until he lights up a cigarette on the way home that we realize he only has two fingers.
Our original plan was to go home after this, but that is never how things work with Cindy and me. There is a sister bar of the original pub on the way home, so naturally we need to stop for one more beer. We get to talking to the bartenders and find out that they are Irish and Scottish. This begins a series of discussions on the word “lashing” and “gap yar.” We start talking to two French guys who both work for insurance companies –one of them actually works for the same company I’m interning for this summer. We speak French with them for about an hour and a half, learning how to say the word “database” in French and discussing how Americans don’t travel as much because they are so isolated…typical French-American conversation. We then realize it’s 3:30 and we really needed to leave to meet Gulfem at her place. We stop to take pictures with Sciences Po- something I was way too embarrassed to do during the daytime when all the French students were outside smoking and judging me for wearing a Jansport backpack. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better last Saturday night in Paris.
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