arriving in paris

a view of teh notre dame cathedral from behind at night.



we took the subway from the train station to the hotel becuase paola knew where the hotel was, right near notre dame cathedral. so we got there without much problem. however, when we got to the hotel, the man said that because we had forgotten to call earlier to confirm our reservation, we might not get the full reservation of five days. he did assure us that we could stay there for two nights at least, though. this made paola very nervous and upset, and it was difficult for her to control her emotions. i tried to calm her, saying that we could go around town and sightsee, and if we saw a hotel, we could inquire if they had room, telling her that it wasnt such a big deal. we tried to do that, walking around notre dame cathedral, but her nerves wouldnt calm, though she tried to hide it from me. because she was mad, i was mad, and we decided to immediately book a room. we booked another hotel for the last three days right down the street from where we were, so problem solved, easily.

we then walked around notre dame cathedral, and bought tickets for a chopin concert on tuesday night that will be performed in the oldest church in paris, which is right around the corner from our hotel. then we walked to ile st. louis, which is a little island in the seine rier behind the notre dame cathedral. it was cute, but nothing special. from there we walked to hotel de ville, which is a great big building that had some sort of function during the revolution. neat. up the street from that was the pompidou center, which is a modern art museum. it was designed by richard rodgers (who also designed the lloyds building in london) and renzo piano (who also designed a large part of potsdammer platz in berlin) in the early 70s. it is interesting because it is one of the first buildings to have the insides turned out (like the lloyds building). it is also the building that brought renzo piano to great fame. it was dark, and night, so we couldnt go in, but still neat to see. from there we walked down to the louve. the building (or rather, ‘complex’ is what is should be called) is so large, that we only saw the back side of it (becuase it was so late, and we wanted to go home). it is one of the most important art museums in the world, and has paintings like the mona lisa, etc. from there, started to walk back to the hotel, and crossed the bridge, where we saw the museo de orsay, which is the more modern counterpart to the louve. we walked back to the hotel and fell asleep.