I live in a fairy tale land.

Or at least that’s what I feel like 95% of the time.

For example, what other city in the world has a huge monument that a) basically signifies the city itself whenever people see it, b) has literally no practical function whatsoever, c) lights up at night time, and d) SPARKLES on the hour?! I witnessed this for the first time this weekend, and I don’t know how they do it but it really does sparkle for about 5 minutes on the hour. I have a video but I can’t get it to upload on here, but I’ll work on getting it on my facebook. For now, here’s a picture!

All of these glittery lights frantically flash around like a mini-glitter fest on the hour!

Don't know what's up with the ominous red clouds in the background, but The Eiffel Tower really is breath-takingly beautiful at night.

I was thinking the other day that I feel like the girl from the youtube video called “Jessica’s Daily Affirmation” (If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg) She stands in front of the mirror and lists out all the things she likes in her life, rather enthusiastically. There are some days when I’m walking down the street, baguette in hand, Eiffel Tower in view, where I just want to do something similar.”I love my arrondissement, I love that boulangerie where I get my baguettes, I love that there are so many cheeses to pick from, I love taking the metro, I love going to the grocery store, I love seeing the Eiffel Tower!!” Something like that. 🙂

Speaking of baguettes, there is a reason they’re a staple of French eating, no joke. For those of you who have taken French 204, I have a little Proust-y moment every time I eat one. (I now understand his lengthy Proustian descriptions about a crumb of madeleines and such..) And they’re really only good the first day you buy them. Impractical, however true. Usually I end up buying demi-baguettes, or half baguettes. You can put them in the toaster or the oven but it’s just not the same as when you get it from the boulangerie (bakery) freshly baked, still steaming in your hand when you walk out the door.

So. Delicious.

See what I mean when I say I live in a fairy tale? I mean, what do I have to complain about, the fact that there’s no macaroni and cheese and no peanut butter here? That’s about a serious as the faults get here. (Although I have been jonesing for some Kraft Mac n Cheese.. I tried making some with cheddar from the store.. Looked great, tasted awful. Something curdled and it just went all wrong.) But other than that, I usually feel like dancing down the street, which is a frequent occurrence because I listen to my iPod to and from school and there are times where I feel like it’s the soundtrack to the movie that is my life right now.

This past weekend, my friend Liz came to Paris and we spent a lovely few days doing random things around the city, like going to our respective favorite bridges. You’ve already seen mine, the bridge with all of the padlocks, but we also went to see Liz’s favorite – Pont Neuf. It’s a really gorgeous bridge, (the first stone bridge in Paris, right Liz?) You can see a lot of the city in both directions, and it’s really gorgeous, with a lot of intricate work on the supports, which are actually faces that are caricatures of all the officials who told the architect it couldn’t be done and refused to finance him. There’s also these little inlets where people can sit on little half-circle stone benches. Allegedly really uncomfortable, but still really cool.

The beautiful, luminescent Pont Neuf

One of our other weekend exploits included going to the huge, massive Monet exposition at the Grand Palais on its last weekend here. Needless to say, we ended up waiting in line for three and a half hours.

I'm pretty sure this is the longest line I have ever been in.

It was really crazy. After three and a half hours of freezing outside, some good conversation with the adorable British couple in front of us, and a terrifying emergency of the woman behind us falling down unconscious, we at last made it in! Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures. It was a really amazing exhibit, though, with over 50 of Monet’s greatest paintings.It was particularly neat to see all of the series he did, where he painted the same haystack or the same cathedral in different lighting situations, all right next to each other. Being not even a foot away from Claude Monet’s signature on all of these priceless arts of work was just indescribable.

Afterwards, we walked down the Champs Elysees for a little bit and took pictures at the Arc de Triomphe, which is HUGE and has cars zooming around it at all times, reminiscent of a game of Frogger. There doesn’t seem to be any actual lanes in the street around the Arc, it kind of just seems like a random mass of cars going in a circle. (Sort of like the roundabout at Sturdy Road, for those of who you share my frustration in driving around it in Valpo with what appears to be many, many people who don’t understand the concept.)

Unfortunately, the roundabout at Sturdy doesn't have a cool ancient monument like the Arc de Triomphe..

Oh, hey there's me!

Also, I may have snapped a photo from the middle of the Champs Elysees while crossing the street… It turned out a little blurry, but how else would you get to take a pictures of the entire Champs Elysees from the best perspective? (This coming from the photographer who may or may not have trespassed a construction site to get pictures for her Black and White Photo Final Project…..)

Yeah, I totally snapped this while crossing..

All of my classes are going really well, and I have a cinema excursion tonight for my Paris Theater, Film, and Music class, to go see Les Petits Mouchoirs (English Title: Little White Lies). It looks really good and has Marion Cotillard in it, who is fabulous in pretty much everything. No subtitles though, a people in French movies talk FAST, so it’ll definitely be interesting tonight.

Bisous to all of you from Paris, thanks for reading, and coming soon: a whole entire post about the Louvre!