A todo el mundo le gusta London, pero no Paris. A algunos les gusta Paris.

Everybody likes London, but not everybody likes Paris.

I got back from Paris last night! I went with four other friends and we stayed in a hostel in Montemarte and had a great time. We saw lots and lots of things, had some frustrations of all sorts, and got glared at by French people in restaurants. Such fun!

On Friday we went to the Lourve. I've been waiting and waiting for years to go to the Lourve. I don't know how to say this, but honestly, I didn't like it. I guess the main problem was that it's just too big. Needless to say, there are some spectacular things in there, things that made me stop midstep and stare and forget to breathe. But between those things are miles of things I don't want to see but have to hike past.

More problems:
1) Many of the good things, like Ingres' Grande Odalisque and David's Oath of the Horatii, are not listed on the map and I found them completely by accident.
2) Of the things that are listed, the key to finding them is so confusing I spent more than half an hour wandering between two rooms looking for the Venus de Milo when in fact it is in another wing.
3) An entire wing of the Lourve is listed "Paintings."
4) Do not even talk to me about the nightmare of procuring tickets. Worse than you could imagine. Worse still, they ended up being free for some absurd reason only French people would know about.

And compare all this to the heaven-on-earth that is the Musée d'Orsay. We got in free by flashing our student visas (so satisfying) and grab the completely legible map and immediately discover that not only is Manet's Olympia there, so is Renoir's Moulin de la Galette. I was nearly in tears. We walked through room after room of paintings I've studied and written term papers about, favorite paintings that flitted through the screensaver on my old computer, paintings that started revolutions. Everything I could have wanted to see was there. More than once I was standing with one of my friends, telling (boring? I hope not) her about a painting that related to this one because of x y z and I turn my head and gasp, because there is the very painting I was talking about! And the two are together! The most exciting comparison for me was that Olympia was there, and so was the (well-painted but slightly boring and expected) painting that won the Salon the same year Olympia was submitted, and caused such a scandal. To see the two of them together, to see Olympia's fierceness and power next to the languid, silly Venus, was incredible.

I was surprised that all buildings in Paris are roughly the same sandy color. It adds to the elegance. In Granada, in my neighborhood, every building is a different color, citrusy and gemlike. For some reason even though I considered this comparison while in Paris, I didn't think to take any pictures. In fact, I didn't take very many pictures at all. Sorry. You know, I'll just have to go back.

On our last morning, we ventured into a tourist shop to get some knickknacks that say Paris on them, and were surprised to find... whole sections of the store devoted to I ♥ London merchandise. Why? We're chuckling about a plastic I ♥ London beer mug when the store owner comes up and tells us it's a very good beer mug.
-"But...we're in Paris," we point out.
-"Yes," he says, "but everybody likes London."
-"Well, that's true, I suppose. But doesn't everybody love Paris too?"
-"Yes, Paris is good. But everybody likes London. Not everybody likes Paris."
I can think of another city everybody likes best and I'm not about to let it get overshadowed by these low-buildinged villages, and this situation is obviously beyond sense, so I ask where the New York goodies are.
-"Ah. New York is very far away," says the guy, "But you are right. Everybody likes New York. I will show you my New York things." ...And starts leading me to the other side of the store.
-"No...that's okay... I really like Paris."

Liz, Alex, Michelle and me in front of some monument or whatever. :) Yay Paris!

(This is Amanda's picture. Thanks, Amanda!)