Hunting through Paris! ... Day 4 (Hunter's tour and napping on the bridge)

The 4th day was originally going to be a problem. It was a Monday, and every Monday I have 4 hours of class starting at 8am, so that meant a lot of time for Hunter to sit around waiting for me to be finished with class, and being bored. And since this was his very first time being in Paris (actually, in Europe!), I couldn't let him waste so much time not seeing anything interesting in the city!

So I made him a personalized, self-guided walking tour!

Here's what I did: I made a sort of itinerary of places to go around the center of Paris with directions and maps and for every "stop" I put in some Wikipedia facts about what he was looking at along with some comments from me. And to make it extra interesting, I gave him some tasks to do at each "stop", such as taking funny pictures or filming himself giving commentary on the surroundings. I won't lie, I was kind of proud of myself for coming up with this... :)

So here's Hunter's tour:

(By the way, I included links to all the same Wikipedia definitons I used for Hunter on each stop, if you want to see what he learned!)

First, he walked from Sciences-PO towards the Seine river, and here's a beautiful picture he took of the morning view!







First stop: the Fontaine Saint-Michel!
I told him to imitate the victorious stance from the sculpture on the fountain. Hmm... all I see is chin. :)

Same fountain. Better pose I think.

Video commentary when Hunter crosses the bridge to go to the Conciergerie! (Don't mind what he says about McDonalds... he's crazy.)

Second stop: the Conciergerie!

Third stop: the Tour Saint-Jacques!

Another one of Hunter's tasks was inspired by the fact that the tower was used for atmospheric pressure experiments. I told Hunter to stand in front of the tower and make up his own experiment! For all of us non-science-nerds out there, he's talking about how airplanes fly. Remember how you can blow over the top of a piece of paper to make it rise up? Same thing.



Fourth stop: Pompidou Center! While he was there, Hunter saw a city worker cleaning the streets and accidently topple his machine over. Hunter took a picture, but didn't help the guy! Geez...




Here's his commentary on the design of the building! Remember, he's a civil engineering major, so he gets a little technical in the commentary.

He's so smart!!!

Fifth stop: the Hôtel de Ville! (I can't remember how I told him to take this picture... but it stills looks good!!)

Sixth stop: Notre Dame de Paris! (Here's the inside)

Hunter inside Notre Dame. With a pouty face? Or is that inquisitive?

Right outside Notre Dame is the point zéro, the place where everything in the city is officially centered around and where the measurements start. I told Hunter to find it and take a picture showing his sense of accomplishment in finding the center of Paris. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of tourists standing right over it so he couldn't get through. End result: thumbs up with the point zéro in the distance.

Seventh stop: the Pantheon!

Hunter from the steps of the Pantheon.

Eighth stop: the Sorbonne! I told Hunter to do his best intellectual pose since he was standing in front of a famous university. He would have gone inside if it weren't for the fact that you have to show a student ID to get in. The reason why, I heard, is because of how the Sorbonne has been protesting Sarkozy on some new laws concerning teachers and how they have to now ensure the saftey of the students there. Don't worry, it's not as crazy as it sounds. But more about that later...



Ninth stop: the Luxembourg Gardens! Hunter really liked this park, and ended up going back during one of my classes at the end of the week. Here's some video commentary:



He knows that this is one of my favorite sculptures at the Louvre, so he took a picture of its replica in the Gardens.






Another one of his tasks was to look at all the sculptures (there are a lot), choose a favorite, and take a picture. Here's the one he liked the most!


After the Luxembourg Gardens, Hunter still had a couple stops left on his self-guided tour, but he ran out of time since my classes ended for the day (I guess that means I did a good job on the tour because the goal was to keep him occupied for 4 hours). He met me at Sciences-PO, and after that, I took him to do something he had been waiting for all week: to eat crêpes!

At least 2 or 3 times a day, Hunter would ask me when we could go try some crêpes, and I kept putting it off until Monday after class because there is this amazing crêpe stand right by my school where the guy makes the best crêpes I've tried so far in Paris. They're always freshly made (Some of the stands by the big tourist sites make the crêpes hours before serving them so it's easier to make, but they're cold and kind of stale by the time you eat them. Not so yummy.), and they're always delectable. It makes my mouth water just typing this!




Here we are by the stand just after buying the crêpes. Hunter got a crêpe with sugar and lemon flavoring and mine was with nutella and banana. So so good!

Needless to say, I devoured mine.

Next, I took Hunter to see the last couple stops on his tour, which were the abbey near my school (Saint-Germain-des-Près), and the cathedral Saint-Sulpice.

Here we are inside Saint-Sulpice getting a shot of the vaulted ceilings. Did you know that Saint-Sulpice is about the same size as Notre Dame?
(That means it's pretty big.)

Aww! Another romantic moment! :)

We found this in one of the nooks of the cathedral towards the back. I liked how it looks like Mary is floating on a mountain of clouds. The sculpture seemed so modern to me in the way that the clouds billow out from the columns and depicted something so much more ethereal then just another statue of Mary and Jesus. It seemed interesting especially coming from such an old church. (There's a little art critique for you.)










Speaking of art, here's another personal attempt at the art of photography! It's one of the chandeliers with the vaulted ceilings in the background.




Ok, Hunter is extremely flexible and can do a sort of roundhouse kick that could triumph over Chuck Norris any day. You actually saw a picture of this kick in action on my post where we went to Versailles- it's the one where his foot is basically touching his ear. In this video, we're standing right outside Saint-Sulpice in the courtyard by the fountain and I'm begging Hunter to do the kick...

Poor thing was tired, I think, from having to wake up so early that day and walking around....

...so the poor thing had to sit down while I took a picture of us by the fountain...

...and then poor baby got upset that I wouldn't let him go back to my apartment to take a nap because it was too nice of a day to waste on sleeping...

...he was just so tired...
(And cute! Look at that face!)

...but he was a good boyfriend and let me take one more picture by the fountain...

...so I was a good girlfriend and let him pass out on my lap once we got to Pont des Arts! Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge where a lot of people go to spend time with friends and have small picnics over the Seine river.

He was definitely happy when he got the chance to sleep!

How cute! He fell asleep holding my hand!

While I sat there letting Hunter sleep, I read some things for my classes and took pictures, so at least I wasn't bored. This was my view.

Hunter from above!

Once he woke up from his 20 minute power nap, he felt a lot better and wasn't as cranky. Here he is posing for me again in front of the river and Ile de la Cité in the distance.

Couple shot! As you can see, Hunter's mood was a lot better!

Next, I took him to see the Tuileries Gardens over by the Louvre. Here's the Obelisk in the distance with the Arc de Triomphe behind it.

And here's a view of the other side of the gardens where the Louvre is.

After that, Hunter needed a little more sleep, so we went back to my apartment to spend a relaxing evening chez moi.


Bisous XOXO


P.S. chez moi (shay mwah) = my place

Hunting through Paris! ... Day 1 (Hunter's arrival and the Louvre)

My boyfriend came to see me!

In case I haven't mentioned it before, my boyfriend, Hunter, and I have been together since my sophomore year in college, and we are genuinely in love. He makes me so happy, and so it's been absolute bliss having him here in Paris for a week to spend his Spring Break with me!

I think one of the best things about this week has been experiencing the more romantic side of Paris too, which is amazing by the way. For example, when I met Hunter at the airport after his flight landed, I ran up to hug him the moment I saw him coming out of the terminal, and as we were holding each other we heard some airport employees yelling "Bravo!" to us. :)

Needless to say, we were both really happy to see each other again after almost 3 months...

Here we are taking the train from the airport back to Paris.

I think he was excited to be in Paris...and to see me too! :)

We dropped off his bags at my apartment, and went out into the city to explore a bit...

Here we are by the Seine!

Me by the Seine! Hunter ended up taking a lot of pictures of me this past week. Before he came here, he said he wanted more pictures of me so I guess that's a good thing!

Walking through Paris!

By the way, this whole week was beautiful- it was around 60 degrees (F) and sunny all week. I think Paris is seeing the first signs of Spring, so it was absolutely perfect timing for Hunter to come visit!




Later that day, we went to the Louvre!

Hunter was on purse duty while I took pictures! (I think my purse complimented his outfit really well.)

I was so so happy he came!!

Us by the pyramid!

And here we are inside the museum. I showed him the Denon wing since it has the most famous art in the collection. Plus, a lot of my personal favorites are in that wing.

Me in front of the sculpture hall!

Hunter invoking Zeus, god of the heavens!

Me invoking some lady holding fruit and patting a boy on the head!

I love how the museum itself is a work of art! Just look at the ceilings!

How romantic!

Me by my favorite sculpture! (The Winged Victory)

Hunter caught me showing how happy I was that he was there!

I think this painting is famous because its location is labeled on the maps of the museum that you get when you first enter. I also think the boy's face is a little weird...

Monica came to meet us at the Louvre a little later too!

Towards the end of our visit, Monica and I showed Hunter the sculpture courtyards in the Richelieu wing. I think he was pretty impressed. He told me before that he liked the pictures on my blog when I went to visit them the first time, so I figured he might like to see the sculptures in person.

I'm always impressed by the sculptures!! :)

Oh, and when my mom came to visit last month, Monica told her that she's been craving oatmeal for a long time but couldn't find any here in Paris. So my mom sent a huge tub of Quaker Oats with Hunter to bring to Monica, and we gave it to her after the Louvre visit. She was definitely excited to see so much oatmeal, and as I write this, the oatmeal is a little more than halfway gone. And it's only been about a week. :)

Here's Monica guarding her oatmeal with her life!

Here's a video I took right before we left the Louvre. I tried to get Hunter's overall reaction, but he gets a bit shy in front of the camera.... :)



After the Louvre, Hunter and I went back to my apartment to cook dinner and go to bed, because the next day I had something really fun planned, and we were going to need the rest!

Bisous XOXO