Okay, sorry for the delay. Good news: Finals are over and I have officially finished with my last college class ever. Unless I go to grad school or something, but that doesn’t seem likely. It’s a weird feeling, and it will only get weirder I’m sure.
But enough of that for now. Back to Paris. Saturday morning, we were allowed to sleep in a bit (until 10:30) before taking the long metro ride out to La Defense. La Defense is Paris’ ultra modern business district. As we learned from a lengthy lecture by Christine Wacta (the architecture professor), modern architects were allowed to construct buildings here with virtually no limitations, so there are structures like the Grande Arche, which is actually a massive rectangle with a hole in the middle. The area also featured two monumental sculptures, one by Picasso and one by Miro. I spent quite a lot of time with the Miro sculpture…after a hearty breakfast of McDonald’s chicken nuggets that is. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed La Defense. I especially liked the feeling of standing in this incredibly modern space and looking down the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe. In all, this La Defense is probably the most successful and enjoyable example of modern architecture I have ever experienced in real life.
After about 2 hours at La Defense, we got on the RER (a regional railway connected with the metro system) and took a 35 minute ride out to the suburb of Poissy. This was a charming suburb that I would have liked to have had a bit more time to explore. To my untrained eye, there was quite a bit of Swiss-inspired architecture, along with a cute little main street, and an impressive Gothic cathedral. Our destination in Poissy, however, was Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. This is probably Corbu’s most famous work, and I was actually somewhat excited to see it. It did not disappoint- the building was extremely surreal, both inside and out. The way people move through it is supposed to remniscent of the automobile, and the entire house has what the architects call a “machine aesthetic”. I don’t know much about all that, but personally, the entire experience was a lot like being in a Rene Magritte painting, with a bizarre juxtaposition of the machine and nature. Strangely, Villa Savoye gives the inhabitant the feeling of observing nature without really experiencing it. It has large windows all the way around it, and it is raised on stilts (pilotis) so that it’s a lot like being on a viewing platform at a zoo.
After visiting Villa Savoye, we were free to leave. Jamie, Miles, Jamie White, James, Jared, and I took the RER back into Paris. Miles and James got off at the Arc de Triomphe stop, while the rest of us continued back on to the hotel. I split off from the group to grab a couple of souvenirs and do some browsing in Shakespeare and Company, the famous bookstore on the Seine. The store was crowded, but I managed to pick up a few things, eager to support one of the biggest international proponents of free press. I went back to the hotel, where I was supposed to meet up with Miles to go to dinner. Dalton and company wanted to try to do the boat dinner again, but in the interest of saving money, I decided I wanted to find an Ethiopian restaurant recommended by Miles’ guidebook. Miles, Jamie, and I hung out in the Gay Quad’s room for awhile, watching German MTV. John Wolfe, McArthur, Brooke, and Ben decided they would come along with us to try to find the Ethiopian restaurant. Jamie, meanwhile, went along with the others on the dinner cruise.
It took us awhile to find the Ethiopian restaurant, even though it was only 2 blocks from the hotel. When we finaly did find it, we discovered they were crowded, and sadly, there was no space for us. Somewhat disappointed, we explored the area, and found there were dozens of restaurants to choose from. We ended up in a moderately priced Italian restaurant where the waiter would only speak to us in French. We all did very well with our ordering in spite of the language barrier, and in all, it was a very enjoyable dinner. After dinner, Brooke, John, and I went to meet up with some of John’s friends at the Universite. We arrived at the college, where we met John’s friends Lexi and Alex, along with a few of their friends at the lounge in the American dorm. There, we drank, conversed, and played a game of Mafia. Mafia is a bit like a poor man’s Murder Mystery, and it’s a lot of fun, especially when mixed with alcohol.
After 2 rounds of Mafia, most everyone who wasn’t from the Universite needed to leave in order to catch the metro before the stations closed. Lexi and Alex agreed to come with us to the Rue Mouffetard to hit a few bars since it was close to our hotel. Rue Mouffetard was a lot fun- there were plenty of reasonably-priced bars and also plenty of public drinking. We ended up spending most of the night in one bar that offered 3 Euro shots. We had really disjointed and confusing conversations with some of the French patrons and watched music videos on the strangely-placed TV. Finally, Lexi and Alex decided to head home, which was our cue to leave as well, despite John’s protests. Unfortunately, in our inebriated state, we had some difficulty finding the hotel, and, to Brooke’s dismay, probably wandered the streets of Paris for a good hour before finding our way back. In spite of that little adventure, though, it was definitely a fun way to spend our last night in Paris.
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