Rainy Montmartre, Sunny Marais

On Saturday I experienced my first bit of rain in the French capital. Unfortunately, it fell on the date of our tour through Montmartre, a hilly area in the northern part of Paris, which is apparently a fantastic area to walk around in with nice weather. Bad luck I guess. Nevertheless, I put on my shoes, pretending they were rain boots, and trekked up the slopes in the 18th arrondissement, with our final goal being the famous Sacre Coeur Cathedral.

Maybe it was just the weather, but this tour seemed more like a chore than a fun outing. We had to stop for laggers continuously, and our "guide" was nothing more than some guy from the AUP who didn't even claim to know much about the area. Making things even worse, and about five minutes before entering the cathedral, we got hit with a huge storm, soaking us from head to toe. I managed to get a couple pictures before we (thankfully) took a tram back down to the metro station.


Sacre Coeur, though a beautiful and classic building, isn't even 100 years old. To my surprise, it was built in the late nineteenth century and wasn't completed until just before World War I. It is nothing like Notre Dame, or any cathedral I've ever been in. The only thing that it had in common with the others was huge paintings of Jesus all over the place. How original.

We made up for the lackluster tour with a great homemade dinner. Pasta with zucchini and homemade tomato sauce, salad with fresh cherry tomatoes and avocado, really fresh baguette, some stinky cheese, and my personal favorite — chocolate ice cream.

The Jewish Quarter — Le Marais
The weather made a complete 180 on Sunday, giving us a perfect, sunny, 45 degree day to wander through the Marais. While my friends were more inclined to go shopping in the dozens of local clothing stores, I was excited to finally see some of my kind in the city with the biggest Jewish population in Europe.

All you have to do is open up a newspaper in order to read about the growing anti-Semitism in Paris. Jewish life abroad was a big part of my decision, and before I left, I couldn't help but think about the innocent 23-year-old Jew who was tortured and killed by a gang in 2006. Making things even worse were the constant warnings from seemingly everybody who told me about the increasingly anti-Jewish culture in Paris.

I took this all to heart, but my time in the Marais — though brief — made me feel as if I were back in the shtetl of Pico-Robertson. Falafel and shawarma shops, shuls, kosher butchers and bakeries, Judaica stores and Hebrew fliers lined the street of Rue de Rosiers — the heart of Paris' Jewish Quarter.

We stopped at a very famous falafel stand called L'as du Fallafel. It was so good I went back I went back four hours later to get a shawarma — I'm still full. I was hoping to test my Hebrew a little bit (and get a short break from French), but I didn't really have to. The place had a huge line and there wasn't really a lot of time for chatting.

We began walking around the Marais, which happens to be the only — yes, the ONLY area in Paris where every shop is open on Sunday. It was awesome. Unlike our visit to Rue de Rosiers on Friday afternoon, it was absolutely bustling yesterday. We walked all around and wound up in the square next to Centre Pompidou, Paris' modern art museum. It's an awesome building, unlike any other in Paris. In fact, when I first saw it, I thought it was under construction. I guess that's modern art though.
We walked around the square a bit before heading back toward the Marais to meet a couple more friends. But right before we left, we caught a glimpse of a man doing some chalk art on the ground. I thought it was pretty impressive, and it was nice to see a not-so-famous person's art for once. I know, it's a hard-knock life.

Anyway, after getting a delicious shawarma, we went back to the metro and I got home around 8:00 p.m. After such a lousy day on Saturday, this was a perfect way to end our weekend, especially because I start class tomorrow! I'm going to 19th and 20th art history, which I'm really excited for. I don't start my intensive French for almost three weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up the blog at the same pace for a little while longer. Au revoir!