La Toussaint: Parents & Paris

I have two weeks off school for «La Toussaint» (in English: All Saints’ day, AKA All Hallows… the day before which is All Hallows Eve, AKA Halloween!). Friday evening Blaire and I went into Paris to join my friend Charlie from Tours (my semester abroad in the Loire Valley) and her cat James Bond Cat for her birthday party.
We met lots of fun Frenchies, crashed at her apartment, and headed back to Lille the next day to receive my parents.

Laura and Peter, fresh from Prague and Strasbourg, arrived in Lille Saturday evening to visit Blaire and me. We showed them the Sunday market, explored the town together, took them to lots of great restaurants, and visited a touring exhibit at the Musée des Beaux-Arts about a painter named Millet and his influence on American art.



Blaire & I playing host
We visited “Aux Merveilleux de Fred” with them, an incredible pastry shop across the street from our future apartment, and watched the pastries being made

After a lovely weekend, we headed to Paris together for a few days. The first, we walked all over, I took them to my favorite crepe spot Framboise, and Blaire got to see the Eiffel Tower up close for the first time.

The next morning we spent in the Musée d'Orsay, the amazing museum in an old train station. Gauguin on his cell phone

We then met Charlie for lunch, and after some shopping Blaire & I spent the afternoon hanging out with her.

I took my parents and Blaire to the archaeological crypt beneath Notre Dame, where a museum of Paris’s history surrounds excavated Roman ruins. We also checked out Saint Sulpice, a gorgeous church featured in The DaVinci Code and located a half block from our hotel. I was completely unaware of it, but it is absolutely awesome, inside and out.

The next day my dad had the great idea to go through the medieval museum at Cluny. I had been outside to check out the Roman baths with my Davidson program two years before, but never through the museum.

We then explored the Latin Quarter and checked out a market on Boulevard St. Germain.
Blaire and I split off to see the Pantheon, originally a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, but now a monument to great French people and human progress. The crypt underneath houses luminaries such as Voltaire and Rousseau, and Blaire got to pay her respects to personal hero Victor Hugo. We then walked back through the Luxembourg gardens, one of my favorite spots in the city.

Friday morning, I escorted my parents to Charles de Gaulle airport, and saw them off. It was truly a lovely visit, and I hope they come back soon!

When I got back into town, Blaire and I checked out some churches (the Eglise de Saint Germain des Près has a beautifully restored interior, reminding us that medieval churches were not just gray stone broken up by stained glass, but rather a flood of color and light and images), did some shopping, and hung out for a bit with Charlie before grabbing dinner at Gare du Nord and training home to Lille ]