Last day in Paris

So today was our last day in Paris. And almost Maggie’s last day in Europe. It’s so sad. I will miss her. In the morning we took our money from our 2 American friends on the train and went to the Museum d’Orrsay. The museum wouldn’t let you take any pictures which was sad because there was some amazing art there from Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Rodin, Degas, tons of famous works. It was totally worth going to.

(I snuck a picture of the inside because it was a converted train station which I thought was really cool, I do go to SCAD after all, we love preserving old buildings)

We were there for 2 hours admiring all the work and then we moved on. We went to look for the center of Paris that was supposedly near Notre Dame but couldn’t find it, instead we walked along the river Seine and looked at all the little stands set up.

Some of them selling vintage Vogue magazines, which I wanted to buy so bad but I didn’t have any cash on me. Next time. After walking around a bit we headed to the Opera because we heard there was an opera costume exhibition from the 2 french ladies at our restaurant last night. We got to the Opera and decided we needed to eat lunch, so we had our last meal in Paris. We sat and people watched for a bit, enjoying the city and by this time realized we may not have time for both the Opera and Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. So the opera was out, and we made our way back to our hotel where we walked past Moulin Rouge to Montmartre, a very artsy trendy part of town. Also a giant hill that leads to Sacre Coeur. With the cute small streets, it seemed like a quaint area of town, until we got to the top of the hill where there was an explosion of people.

I looked to the right and I saw why. It was a gorgeous view of all of Paris right in front on you.

People had been talking about it all week, but you until you see it you don’t know how great it really is. And atop this hill is Sacre Coeur, a cathedral that over looks it all.

We went inside and then up to the dome, which offers an even better view.

Interior

View from the top

We sat up there and drank the rest of Maggie’s wine (from water bottles, I might add). The view really was breathtaking and a great end to our trip. After going down from the dome, we walked around some more. I bought a scarf, the one thing I bought for myself in Paris, its amazing I didn’t buy more.

Maggie bought some souvenirs. And I got one last macaroon before we headed back to our hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport. This was by far the craziest part of the whole trip. First of all I should start by saying that when we booked this, the guy at our hotel who spoke very little English and thought I was Russian, told us that we could pay the driver with a credit card and that it would take 30 minutes to get to the airport. In which case we booked the shuttle for 5:30, with our flight leaving at 8. Seems like enough time, or so we thought. We were the first ones picked up, and then we preceded to pick up 7 more people, and there were only 8 seats. A Chinese woman who had her 2 kids with her was asked to put one of the kids on her lap and was furious because she had paid for 3 seats. Which I completely understand, I wont go in to detail but there was lots of yelling between her and the driver, which caused us to pull over for a few minutes, at this time it was almost 7pm and we hadn’t left the center of Paris yet, so me and Maggie were worried. I then said, I hate to be rude but we need to get to the airport now, so we got back on the road. Unfortunately once we got to the airport this woman’s stop was before ours and she wanted him to give her her money back. They were arguing a ton, and we didn’t have cash to pay the driver, so I ran inside the terminal to get some, came out and they were still yelling. I was mad, and told her that she was being incredibly insensitive to the fact that we had to catch a flight but she wouldn’t leave the van. So I got out and decided to run to our terminal and get us checked in and told Maggie to just meet me there. Bad news was that I didn’t know how to get there, so after running around for 5 minutes I went back to the van and Maggie wasn’t there. So I asked the guy to drive me to the terminal and he said she had taken the underground passage. Once I got the terminal I checked in but couldn’t find Maggie anywhere. I was getting really worried, I ran up and down the terminal 5 or 6 times, and didn’t see her. I went to the information office and asked them to page her and they said they couldn’t. Ran around more. No sign of her. Went back to information, they paged her, told me to go to the gate, went to gate, through security and I see Maggie sitting at our gate. Guess we had just missed each other. Minutes later our flight started boarding. I sat next to a nice Swedish Cinematographer and we talked a bit. Made it back to Stockholm safe and Maggie checked her bag at the baggage drop, then we got on the Arlanda Express to the city. Once we got off I showed Maggie the ice bar, but we didn’t go in. Instead we took the train back to my place, made some more of the Meringue Swish sine I told Maggie all about it, while we downloaded pictures and then went to bed. In the morning I took Maggie for a quick tour of Stockholm. We went from my place to the view over the city that is near my place then walked down to Gamla Stan, saw the castle and the old town, then down the main shopping street and to Central Station where she boarded the Arlanda Express once again back to the airport.

Now I’m all alone in Europe, with no St. Louis buddies near by. It was so great to travel with my best friend in Europe. I loved it. Hopefully we can do it again. I went home and downloaded my pictures, unpacked, wrote my blog and caught up on some work. I also got to 3 way skype with Alexis, and Adam (Adam is in London for a graphic design internship). It was a 3-country skype!

I love you guys!

Very fun. In which this quote came up, “lets just not be famous designers, and be friends instead” and I loved it. A lazy Sunday, it was much needed though.