Friday, September 21, 2012

gold leafing.


Life is in need of a few more fairy tales.

Today is the first day it has rained since we got here. It feels so good! It has been another full day of walking and metro stops. We headed out after our morning meeting to the Paris Opera house. Yes, please read that again.
The Paris Opera house.
Put together Beauty & the Beast, Anastasia, Phantom of the Opera, and a museum for theatre, and there you have it. There were costumes in the downstairs area from older performances, more extravagant than you can imagine. They had them on display, along with crowns and headdresses that were used as well. There was a hallway of pictures from people that had to do with the Opera and theatre and an area where the entire walls were shelves of books. And I don’t say that lightly—these walls were probably 2-3 stories tall. I think nearly all the older places we’ve been to have those monstrously tall ceilings.
            My favorite room in the place seriously felt like it was taken out of Beauty and the Beast. The ballroom—you know exactly the scene I’m talking about, where they dance and Mrs. Potts sings? You think it’s ridiculous that I’m referencing this right now but you are totally picturing it. And that’s what it reminded me of. This room was just smaller but I imagine they are very similar in how they look. The walls stretched up for forever up to the ceiling, the chandeliers were about four times the size as me and sparkled any time you moved your head, and nearly everything had gold leafing, making the entire room glow. Mirrors lined the walls, giving the illusion that the room was bigger than it actually was and a lot lighter.These pictures do not do it justice but they can pretend.

 Main entrance hall.
 Sorry about the extra skin showing...my bad.
 COOLEST ROOM EVER!
My lovely roommate and me, showin' some sass with the statues.

We walked around there for a while just to take in the pure awesomeness. From there we went to the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, a famous cemetery that has the graves of Chopin, Wilde, Delacrioix, and many others. We walked around there, which took a while anyway because of its sheer size. It was just a beautiful place to be, especially since it is fall and the leaves are changing and falling. Heloise and Abelard are actually buried there as well, but since the whole place was so big we couldn’t find their graves.

Perfect weather.
I almost look like a student with that journal in my hand. Don't let it fool you, I'm not that studious.

[Funny story from today--one of the girls was eating one of those red wax cheeses, the round ones? I told her if she ate the wax too, I'd give her two euros. She is now two euros richer because of that. She'll be the go-to girl if I can think of any dares while we're out and about in London. Buckingham guards? I think yes.]
 
Two other girls and I then split off and went to the aquarium! It was actually really cool because it was a tropical aquarium and had fish from all over the world. It ended up being more fun than I thought it would be. I guess going to the aquarium every summer in Seattle helped me appreciate the one here.

It's like he was posing for me.

I feel like more happened today but I think that’s just because a lot of our time was spent walking, walking, more walking, and taking the metro. And a little bit more walking, but I think you get the idea. That was basically my day today.
 The actual concert hall.
If only, if only.

A group of people are planning on going to EuroDisney on Monday but seeing as that costs money and I’m not a theme park fanatic, I think I will be passing that up. Apologies to all who might find offense in that, but it is what it is. Besides, I’m holding out to save my money for Thanksgiving week where we have the whole week off, not just part of it. I plan on taking that week to travel to Ireland, whether or not anyone else wants to come with me. It is happening. I’ve already decided that. Now you can look forward to reading about that too! Get excited. I certainly am.

There ya go.

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