Paris: Week Three, and stuff

My Month in Paris is quickly passing.  August is half over and I still have yet to visit the Louvre, or climb the tower at Notre Dame, or climb the Arch de Triumph, or even eat at a Parisian restaurant.  I know, right?  What have I been doing?!  I’m not quite sure myself.  There are a few pictures, however, that tell the story of my past week in the city of love or lights (depending on who you ask).

Last weekend I toured the Opéra Garnier, the inspiration for the famous Phantom of the Opera.  It’s beautiful, as you can tell.  While much of what currently makes-up the opera house is a renovation of the original, it looks exactly as it did when it was first built.  Can you guess the price of the cheapest seat in the house? 

Seven euros. 

It’s true.  I couldn’t believe it either… until it was explained to me that the seats that go for that price allow the viewer to see approximately 1/3 of the stage, if they are lucky.   The most expensive are around the 150 euro mark!

Below is the inside of the opera house but outside of the theatre.  This is the room with the grand staircase (not pictured, as it is currently under renovation and not the prettiest of pictures to post) that you see in Phantom.

I did make the hike over to the big tower of steel, snapped a few pictures, and quickly fled the tourists.  Obviously this isn’t what it looks like, but in a brief moment of boredom, I told my computer to make it look like this.  Ironically, if the Tower was actually this rose colour, I might enjoy looking at it! 

The last time I was here was New Years Eve, 2003-2004, when I sat on a grassy knoll with my travel buddy Nate and watched it light up the night sky at midnight with a canvas of fireworks painted behind it.  It wasn’t quite the same at 2:30pm on a random summer day. 

This is an épicerie and they exist all over Paris.  They’re one of my favourite parts of the city (though you don’t usually see an electronic ‘open’ sign in the window).

The picture shows our family street sign, and is for all of the Bartholome’s who read this blog.  It’s my Luxembourg/French family name, though I wonder if it didn’t used to be spelled like this, before great-great-great grandpa made the journey overseas to good ole’ Bellechester. 

Below is a picture of my favourite French words.  Particularly the first two.  Boulangerie is the bread bakery, and patisserie is the word for the bakery where they make….

…these and other magical creations. 

Finally, lest you think that I’m here in Paris taking a French class and not actually studying any French, here’s a picture of our apartment Texas Hold-Em  game the other night.  Look closely and you’ll notice that our chips consisted of pounds, euros, and French vocabulary cards.  You win the hand, you learn the words. 

I didn’t learn many words that night… at least not French words.  I did learn ‘The Flop’, ‘The Turn’, and ‘The River’, and I was told that, in this round, they were all pretty remarkable.   

But I am learning French, and actually, with beaucoup mistakes, I could probably write a rendition of all of this blog post in French. 

Perhaps next time.  Perhaps.