Never enough time in the day...

Le 1 Juin 2009
After class there was an optional concert at the Musee Kluny. The professor advertised it as medieval music including Gregorian chant. In high school we sang a lot of songs that came from Gregorian chant and these songs always fascinated me because of the way that their voices resound and hold out these perfect pitches for extended periods of time. Many of the students opted not to go, but of course I had to see what they were all about and plus the professor was paying for our entree so I decided to go. What could possibly persuade me to do otherwise? Lets just say, I did not regret attending this concert. My friend Fred and I opted to sit on the front row and thought that they were amazing. Multiple times I had to remind myself to close my mouth or stop smiling because I’m sure I looked like a big goon/dooger (take your pick). It honestly was probably the best concert that I’ve ever been to and probably my 1.5 hours best spent in Paris. I caved and bought a CD which doesn’t quite measure up to what I heard in the concert. We had three encores because I just couldn’t stop clapping and the last 5 songs or so were all made up on the spot. Ah! All of the guys (there were 5) were perfect for their parts and the leader had this agility to his voice that I’ve never heard before, but even more than that there was an homme who sang the baritone part who kept me in a stupor throughout the performance. His voice was incredibly resonant and sometimes I felt, despite his knee bending and swaying, that he was singing right into my ears with this fuzzy fervor to his voice. Fred was kind of teasing me afterwards because I was still so impressed. He kept telling me to go talk to him, to tell him “Vous avez la voix d’un ange” but I was scared that he’d start making serious talk to me afterwards and I would look clueless and scared so we didn’t talk about it at all.
When I’d bought the CD I headed up to the second floor to look at all the things that we were learning about in our class. I especially focused on an arrangement of tapestries surrounded around the theme of a unicorn. Does anyone remember these?
Rachel wanted to buy one of the bracelets that all the tourists fall for in front of Sacre Coeur.
Sacre Coeur. No pictures inside?!
After running around Paris for awhile we headed to Sacre Coeur and mounted the steps (here we met the two Rachel’s, Hannah, and Emily). Sadly Sacre Coeur was somewhat rushed and I probably was only there for about 45 minutes, but I loved it for every minute of it!
Home for dinner with the host-fam then Right back out to the Eiffel Tower where our whole study abroad group met for FHE and a ride on the bateau mouche!

Eiffel Tower before Bateau Mouche
Notre Dame from the boat
Eiffel Tower after Bateau Mouche

Le 2 Juin 2009
After class Jamie, Fred, and I went to a Greek restaurant and got some Kebab sandwiches with fries to go. We watched the Roland Garros (French Open) on a tv screen that was probably 10 feet tall and 16 feet wide while eating our food.
We met up with our other friends at 1 by the Conciergerie and outside the fence of Saint Chapelle. Turns out that the church was closed until 2:30, so everyone decided to go to Notre Dame and see the inside until Saint Chapelle opened. I had recently been inside and outside so I decided to sit on a bench across from the Conciergerie, study, do some homework and just think. The time went by faster than I thought it would as it always does in Paris, but still I was able to avoid almost all Parisian smoke, watch the tourists and natives for more than an hour, study my scriptures and do some French homework. Beautiful Paris!
We got in line for Saint Chapelle went through the security check, paid to get in at the guichet at which I left my student ID card. An American couple ran after me to return while screaming: “mademoiselle, mademoiselle!” In very broken French, but it was cute. You’ve gotta love those Americans.


Downstairs Saint Chapelle

Upstairs Saint Chapelle

So there aren't many attractive guys in Paris so, trying to prove to someone that they exist- I had Rachel stand in front of this guy reading the paper. Yay!