Lazy Sunday and Musée Rodin

Hey guys!

Today is Sunday and tomorrow I go to Rennes for a few days with the other public health kids. I figured I ought to catch everyone up on the past week before I'm off!

Last Sunday:

Last Sunday afternoon I went out with a few people to the Bastille Sunday market. On Sundays in Paris there are a lot of markets all over the city, but a friend had read that this one was particularly good. It took a few metro changes but we finally arrived at the Bastille. We didn't know exactly how to find the market, but decided to simply follow the crowd. It turned out that the market was directly across the plaza from the metro stop- we found it easily.

There were some musicians playing outside the market when we arrived around noon- when we left the number of people playing with them had tripled!

We bought a couple baguettes, feta cheese, hummus, eggplant spread, a pack of figs, and a pack of strawberries. This was our lunch. It was delicious! While we ate an American guy (who was with a woman) in his mid-20s asked us where we were from. During our conversation he told us he was in France on his honeymoon and he'd studied in Paris on study abroad back in 2002. He told us their next stop was Spain and he wished us a good semester. He was so adorable and chatty- they seemed really happy. While he was asking us about our semester, a homeless woman walked up and pointed to some of our food. I wasn't paying attention because I was talking to the couple, but apparently my friend tried to give her a strawberry. She shook her head no and pointed to the figs. She handed the woman a fig and the woman took it and walked away.

We saw a lot of interesting things in the market; pig feet, pig head, chicken decapitation, and eels! The fact that there were two of them reminded me of the eels from The Little Mermaid! Karma's a b*tch, you nasty eels!

After the market we walked in the direction of home. On the way we passed a fence- behind the fence were ostrich! We had found the Jardin des Plantes. Inside this garden is a Ménagerie (zoo) and the National History Museum. We didn't enter the zoo part because you have to pay and because the line was really long.

We sat on a bench for awhile and I discovered that one of the girls went to Copeland Manor elementary with me for a year! She's a year younger than me and she moved after her 1st grade year- which means when I was in 2nd grade, she was right there at Copeland in 1st grade! How crazy is that? She was naming off people I know and apparently our moms have mutual friends. She also lived one street over from me!

It was really nice in that park. It was starting to look like fall, leaves were falling and trees were half bare. There were all these groups of little school kids running around. It felt like home. Eventually we got off the bench and paid to walk into this huge greenhouse place.

Inside there were many different species of plants and a small stream.

After walking through the greenhouse we walked up a hill towards this small gazebo. You could walk the path which wound in a circle, or you could climb straight up to it through these small holes in the hedges. Guess which route I chose!

Cool fountain that caused us to try to speak parsletongue to open the secret door:

Friday:

This weekend the weather has been really nice! We took advantage of that fact and have spent a lot of time outside during the last few days. Friday we walked over to Musée Rodin. I had no idea how close we were- we are only a 15 minute walk over! On the walk over we passed a Lycée (high school) and all the teenagers outside were still dressed better than me! I'm talking wedge heeled-boots, black skinnies, and boyfriend blazers! It is truly work to keep up with these people.

I've been to this museum before, but last time it was cloudy and kind of cold. This time it was sunny and nice and warm. Here are some cool pictures from Musée Rodin:

The Thinker:

This old couple looked so cute I had to take a stalker picture:

Beauty and the Beast flower!
I really like this painting:
This is a famous sculpture called The Kiss:

That's all for now! Look for a post about Saturday at Monet's Garden and my nighttime Seine river boat ride. I'll try to post again tonight but I have to pack for Rennes, eat dinner, and I have a Skype date- so it might have to wait until I return.

Until then!

Hillary