I have been so cultured recently, and have ticked quite a few things off my Paris Checklist and then some! I managed to get to the Catacombs, Cimitere de Montmartre, Promenade Plantée, Musée d'Orsay and go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. All are worth going to, with a personal favourite being the Arc de Triomphe. There is something about being in the middle of a busy city, high above the hustle and bustle, that I love.
As for the things that weren't on my list: if anyone in Paris at the moment is interested in cinema and/or French historical monuments, then I urge you to go to the 'Monuments, stars du 7e Art' exhibition at La Conciergerie. The exhibition is on until 13th Feb and is really interesting. I would also recommend the 'Reporters Sans Frontiers' exhibition at Le Petit Palais to anyone. It's evocative and shocking (in a tactful way): on until 27th Feb. I also found myself at Le Mosquée last week, a Moroccan/Arabic style tea room with very sweet tea and cakes, saving my crumbs for the little birds flying around inside.
Being cultured for a whole week deserves a little relaxing (read: drinking) time so my friends and I made the most of the weekend (starting Thursday night) and went to some really fun places: Café Charbon who do 1 litre cocktails for 19€ which was pretty good between four of us, L'International which was hosting a gig in its basement room, La Machine du Moulin Rouge which is a fantastic club venue where we got to see a short film about All Tomorrow's Parties; great film, terrible music (in my opinion) and finally, au contraire to the unenjoyable music at La Machine, a playlist that would make Snobs proud in Pop In's sweaty basement room.
All in all, a fab week which has come to an abrupt end with the start of university classes. Ici, la fin de la vie de loisir et le début du grand stress!
