Kansan to Parisian: Cluny Museum and Bastille Day

Today marks the ten day countdown to when I will leave Paris. I don't like that I can now count the number of days left in this beautiful city on one hand. I have had incredible opportunities since being here to see and go places I did not expect. Although I will soon be saying goodbye to Paris, I will be saying hello to Toulouse! Since I was a Rotary exchange student in high school, I am going to go back to where I lived and visit my friends. Can't wait!

This week was a challenge. It has been over three weeks with a cold and medical care is much harder to come by than expected here in Paris. Try as I might, it is hard to get an appointment with a doctor. I even called their "doctor on wheels" and they never showed up! This morning, I woke up early and went to a doctor that my school recommended and they were not there. Luckily, I called another doctor that is within walking distance and hopefully he will actually be there during the appointment time. With my luck, he'll probably forget!

Anyways, if you like Medieval history, the Cluny Museum is for you. They offer beautiful tapestries rich in biblical history, golden statues, religious relics, pieces that were once on Notre Dame, and the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries that are shrouded in mystery as no one really knows where they came from or what their origins are. All five of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are housed at the Cluny Museum. To me, it is hard to believe that fabric and fibers from the 1200s still exists and are in good condition. And, these tapestries are incredibly lovely while being rich in the tales of the times they depict.

One of my favorite parts of the Cluny Museum are the heads of the kings. These heads are the beheaded heads from the king statues that were once on Notre Dame cathedral. During the French Revolution, revolutionaries at the time beheaded the statues on the cathedral just as they did the real people they represented. It wasn't until recently during the 1970s that people discovered these statue heads buried in a random spot in Paris. The Cluny Museum is home to these heads as well as other parts of Notre Dame that have been taken down and redone as the years go by.

The museum is in a neighborhood that is close to the Sorbonne. Since it is the university neighborhood, there are a lot of fun stores, restaurants, and places to see in close proximity. My roommate and I had delicious hot chocolate at a little cafe close to the museum and we lunched at a "Creperie" that served large salads, crepes, and galettes. Galettes are the savory version of they typical crepe. They are made of buckwheat and are therefore gluten free. My galette came with "lardons," or French bacon, an egg, cheese, walnuts, and green salad on top. For dessert, I had a galette, since it is gluten free and a crepe is not, with hot chocolate sauce on top.

July 14 marks the day that the French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille Prision which released the prisoners that were held captive by the king and his court. The king, at the time, could throw anyone he wanted into this prision without any questions asked. It was notorious for being a horrible place to be. As the embodiment of what the French Revolution was fighting for, the revolutionaries attacked the Bastille and showed they could rebel against the king's wishes and "no questions asked" policy.

On this day in Paris, there is a huge French military parade down the main street called the "Champs-Elysées." This is the main street that runs through the Arc de Triomph. If you want to get a spot to see the parade, you need to get there at six or so in the morning. The night before my roomates and I went to an Irish pub to watch the World Cup final and did not make it to the parade the next day. We did, however, see a large parade of military tanks, trucks, and armored cars pass our street! Since we live so close to the Eiffel Tower, we see a lot of traffic and yesterday it happened to be a whole bunch of tanks. It felt as though France was under attack since I have never seen tanks roaming the streets before.

Last night I went and saw the famous Bastille day fireworks that are launched off of the Eiffel Tower and behind the tower from barges in the Seine. I don't have words for how incredible these fireworks were. The fireworks had a timeline theme and went through years describing them artfully in fireworks. Fireworks spelled out "Vive La Paix" or "Long Live Peace" at the beginning of the show. The Paris Symphony played the music in the background and performed a free concert before the fireworks started. They played many opera pieces as well as classics such as Star Wars. There were probably eight hundred thousand people squished together on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. Since my roommate and I arrived two hours ahead of the concert and three ahead of the fireworks, we managed to get a spot. It was always my dream to see the Bastille fireworks and I am so glad I can cross that off my bucket list. They were better than I ever could have imagined.

My roommates and I were dying to to try the "Velib'" bikes that they have here in Paris. They are easy to use and you can bike around the city for a small fee. Many people use them in Paris as an alternative to public transportation since they are inexpensive and very "green." My roommates and I biked along the Seine and sat in the sunshine on the banks for a bit. It was surreal to bike past the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. French traffic is a bit hard to navigate on a bike so only try it if you feel you have a good sense of the traffic. Luckily my roommates do so I followed their lead!

This week I am going to go to the Pompidou contemporary art museum, so keep your eyes out for a post about that!

If you would like to see the whole fireworks show, here is a great youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7eYp0j01MQ

Here are some photos from this week: