Sans Issue

The Champs-Élysées by night

Thea left this afternoon, which was heartbreaking. But we'll see each other in Sweden in less than a month for Christmas! I wish I had more pictures from the last few days but my battery died. Thea has a million, so I'll post more when she puts those up somewhere. Anyway, we had an amazing time exploring Paris together this week. Tuesday I had a full day of classes, so Thea was on her own. She walked around the 6th and made it to Musée Rodin before meeting me for lunch. I always have two hour lunches, but I never take advantage of them. It was so nice meeting her and getting to eat a leisurely café meal. I had an omelette and she had the onion soup. Then I was back on the métro to rush to class, where I anxiously sat for three hours, waiting to run back over to where she was. We met in front of the Musée d'Orsay, where she had spent the entirety of those three hours. I'm sad I didn't get to show her the museum, but I'm glad she saw a lot of it. Not enough time for it all though, she said.

We met around 6pm, and were thinking of hitting more museums before I remembered that almost every other museum is closed on Tuesdays. So we walked across the river to the Christmas market on the Champs-Élysées. It was cold and beautiful, and we sipped vin chaud while admiring the general splendor. And then we were in for a big treat! We walked all the way down to l'Arc de Triomphe and took the tunnels to the center (we did not try to cross the street...as had been tired the past). We got under it to find out that it's free to climb to the top if you're under 25! So we got out our forms of EU identification and started the ascent. Lots of winding stairs and then we were at the top, looking out over all of Paris! It was beautiful.

The rest of our night was kind of hilarious. What I had wanted to be a really nice dinner, turned into improvised poor gourmet when almost every store was already closed. Still tasty though. We ate in my little room and looked out at Paris from my window and talked for hours.

Artist copying Leonardo daVinci's Madonna of the Rocks

Wednesday morning I skipped class (shh) so I could spend the whole day with Thea. And we had quite the day. We started at the Louvre and spent about 4 hours there. It's kind of impossible not to. I played tour guide, showing off all the art history knowledge I could manage. We hit all the major works (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Nike of Somathrace, etc) and then I took her through my favorite rooms (the French sculpture courtyard, Poussin, the Romanticists, and over to the Caravaggios). We even stumbled across multiple artists set up with huge canvases, replicating masterpieces (and quite amazingly too!).

In the French sculpture courtyard

After so many hours in the Louvre, and still wanting to take advantage of our day, we jumped on the métro up to Montmartre. I've talked about it in the past, and I think it's so worth seeing. We wandered the winding streets and made it over to Sacré Coeur. Definite highlight of the day was climbing up to the top of the dome. The highest point, of the highest point in Paris. We found the hugest, sweeping view of Paris at the top. It was completely worth a few euros to see that. Probably 200 pictures were taken while the sun set over the city and lit up the clouds. Thea and I sat for a while, eating chocolates and taking it all in.

Once the sun set behind the clouds, we trekked back down the stairs and found a cozy little local brasserie for dinner. More onion soup and croque monsieurs.

View from Montmartre- I hope I helped one more person fall in love with Paris. 

We somehow found time to do even more after that! I was doubtful that it would be open, but after striking out at Notre Dame, Thea was insistent that we walk over to Centre Pompidou and try to see the Dali exhibit. It was amazing! I'm so glad she wouldn't take no for an answer, because it was such a huge and well done exhibit- and the museum is even open until about 10. Special exhibits are normally tiny or ridiculously expensive. And this was relatively cheap and a surprisingly large collection of Dali's artwork. We not only saw his earlier work, but some of his more major and famous pieces. I had no idea that The Persistence of  Memory was so small. Just so many great works of art and such a treat! Not something I was expecting to see, or really even knew about, and I just had a great time.

And then this morning, we woke up and somehow made it to Notre Dame and back (since we had yet to see the inside together). Had to get Thea to the train by about noon for her flight, but we still achieved a little sightseeing. After some espressos and pain au chocolats on the way home, we grabbed her luggage and set off again on the métro...but not before one last stop at Trocadero to say goodbye to the Eiffel Tower. A little teary eyed and tired, we got to the train in time and had to say our goodbyes in the hallway of the métro station.

I just got a message from her that she got back to Sweden safely. I would call our few days together a complete success.

Dad, this is for you. GoT- Winter is Coming- Christmas style