day seven: centre pompidou, le palais royal, tour monparnasse

Following the recommendation from the nice Chinese Parisian couple I’d met the previous night, I headed over to the Centre Pompidou and stood in line as soon as they opened.  It took about 30 minutes to get through a modestly sized line because the museum wanted to reduce crowding in the exhibits.

I really enjoyed this museum.  I spent 3 or so hours there wandering around the various exhibits.  Some of the pieces were very strange, but overall, I greatly preferred this museum to the Cartier Foundation.  Plus, the view was amazing!

I then walked over to Le Palais Royal and took some sick self timer selfies.

On my way back to the hostel I stopped at a cafe and got a nice slice of cake and a cappuccino for less than 10€.  Took a little nap when I got back to the hostel, and then headed back out to see the Eiffel Tower’s night show from Montparnasse Tower.  I used my student ID to get a couple euros off the ticket up to the top.

I was pleasantly surprised that there weren’t many people at the top.  I arrived just as the 9pm show was finishing, so I facetimed my mom on their wifi while waiting for the 10pm show.

day eight: flea market, cimetière du père lachaise, la felicità

I walked up to the flea market and walked around for a while.  There were a lot of stalls selling cheap fakes, I saw a lot of Canada Goose jackets going for less than 20€ (usually over a thousand USD) and Balenciaga sock shoes.  I got into a more antique section which was pretty neat, but I didn’t find anything I felt like I couldn’t live without.  I didn’t take any pictures because I’d been warned by other travelers that the area was notorious for pickpocketing and I didn’t want to make myself a target by bringing out my big camera.

I started feeling more sick and walked back to the hostel where I visited the pharmacy just around the corner.  The pharmacist recommended Strefen lozenges with Flubiprofène.  They helped my throat feel a lot better but didn’t help much with the phlegm.

Then I took the metro to the Cimetière du Père Lachaise and wandered around for a while.  I was blown away by how intricate a lot of the mausoleums were, many with stained glass and super ornate detailing.

I got to see the tombs of several famous people, like Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Chopin.

Then I took the metro to La Felicita, a big food court styled eatery recommended by the sommelier from my wine and cheese tasting class the other day.  I spent a little while wandering around trying to see what people were eating , but by the time I realized the pizza looked best and that I wanted that, the pizza shop had stand had closed.  I ended up getting a burger, which was pretty good.

I decided to walk all the way back to the hostel.  It was a really nice evening, the weather was great and a lot of people were out sitting on the banks of the seine enjoying the mild evening.