the final events of my semester: a retrospective

Le derniers événements de mon semestre: une rétrospective.  P.S. I had to look up the Rush album to remember the word “retrospective”.

After Nice, I had another week at my internship, and it went well.  I spent Thursday and Friday (April 23rd and 24th) as a runner, riding a bike from location to location since it was needed in the shoot but there was no room for it in the car.

Thursday evening, two of our professors joined Mark Anthony and I for dinner.  It was an amazing and hilarious time.  I will miss them both immensely…

As our professors were walking out the door that Thursday night, I was too – to go fetch Maya from the bus terminal nearby.  She spent that weekend here in Paris.  Friday the 24th she amused herself while I was working, then at night we saw the opening night of the Jules Verne Festival.  Buzz Aldrin was there and spoke.

Most importantly, John Scott composed a brand new score to Georges Meliès’s A Trip to the Moon/Voyage dans la lune and an orchestra/choir played/sang along with the film projected on a big screen behind them.  It was superbly wonderful.

Saturday the 25th we vegged around Paris all day.  We had dinner at Hippocampus, where we were given a cherry liqueur drink on the house because the staff knows me.

Sunday, we vegged around the Bastille markets and ate lunch.  Then Maya had to leave… but it was a fun visit!  Thanks for coming!

I went back to work for the next week at my internship.  On Tuesday the 28th, my coworkers celebrated my boss’s birthday with a surprise party after work.  Thea and I got out early so we could secretly fetch his daughter and bring her to the party.  We felt silly that it was part of our job to help host a surprise party, but it was fun anyway.

That night I went to dinner with Mark Anthony’s first host family again – and this time got to meet Paul, who is apparently my French musical / computer fanatic counterpart.  They were all splendidly charming, and it was a very pleasant evening.

Thursday the 30th I went on a dinner cruise along the Seine with Jill, Sam and Mark Anthony.  It was a lot of fun, despite the so-so food, and we didn’t seem to be nearly as reminiscent and sad as I expected we would be.  Success.

The next morning bright and earl (May 1st, a national French holiday), Mark Anthony and I went to fetch my parents, grandparents and brothers from the airport.  As it were, it wasn’t quite bright and early enough because we were 15 minutes late.  Thankfully they didn’t leave their terminal – and greeted us shortly after we’d arrived with a terribly loud SALUT (from my mother).  I was so happy.  : )

That day we ate brunch at a brasserie (Le Touring), meandered down and around the Eiffel Tower, had a quick nap, and had dinner at another brasserie (Le Royal Pereire).  We were to become regulars at these two brasseries.

The next day (May 2nd) we had breakfast at Le Royal Pereire, went on a Bateaux-Mouches ride, had lunch at another café and walked around Parc Monceau a bit.  That night, I brought them all to Hippocampus.  We joined Mark Anthony, Jill, Sam and their three friends Monica, Shawn and Rebecca to make a group of 13.  Thankfully, I had called ahead.

The staff (might I remind you they know me) seemed very happy about the whole thing – and so was I.  My grandmother finally got to try foie gras (delicious) and my brothers both had escargot and liked it.  2pts to each.

One of the highlights of the trip was Mark Anthony and I sneaking my brothers into Duc des Lombards at 1am.  My brothers are 13 and 15, neither of them is of legal drinking age, and we just waltzed right into the club without hesitation.  Allen got funny looks – Aaron fit right in with his goatee.  2pts more to each.

Sunday the 3rd we got up early to make it to the 10am gregorian mass at Nôtre Dame.  My grandfather sang along with the entire service, Latin and all.  My grandmother cried after lighting some candles for her family.

[P.S. Happy Birthday Grandmom..!]

We ate afterward at Berthillon, the café, and the ice cream was as good as we heard it would be.

Stupidly, we tried to go to the Louvre that day.  Mind you, the first Sunday of every month is free, and we were all already tired from waking up early and walking around all weekend up to this point.  It was a rough few hours, and all we saw were mostly the Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa (although we also saw La jeune martyre by Delaroche that I LOVE).

Most of the Louvre staff were terribly rude that day (naturally) but one man was very polite and let me go in an exit to find my grandfather.  Of course he didn’t believe that I had to “go find my grandfather” or that his name was “Uhhh, Allen”… but he let me go anyway and was humored when I returned and introduced them.  My grandfather was thankful.

That night my parents (and brothers) met and had dinner with my host parents.  It was a pleasant evening, and they communicated very well despite a slight language barrier.  We got a great wine, a sancerre, thanks to their french and their conversation-ing with the waiter.

Monday the 4th the family and I went to the Champs-Élysées where my brothers shopped at Celio for some euroclothes.  My mother bought a magnet at the tourist shop next door.  It cost 7€.  Thank you Champs-Élysées.

From there, everyone went to the Eiffel Tower (because they hadn’t gone up it earlier) except me – I went home for a few hours to work on my rapport de stage for BU.  We met later to do dinner at Le Royale Pereire.  We had our regular waiter.

After dinner we all went down to the Pont de l’Alma to see the Eiffel Tower at night and get photos with it.  We waited around until it sparkled, then we went home to bed.

Tuesday the 5th we went to the Musée d’Orsay first thing in the morning.  It’s my favorite museum in Paris… and I think my family very much preferred it to the Louvre.  We ate lunch at the café in the museum and it was overpriced.

After lunch we went to Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur.  My grandmother lit more candles, everyone was impressed with both the basilica and the view.  Everyone was also very tired.

They finished their visit with a final dinner at Le Royale Pereire.  Appropriate.

Wednesday the 6th at 10:40am was my oral presentation about my internship.  I worked on it until I passed out the night before, then woke up at 6am to continue.  I literally just finished printing my notes and binding my project when it was time for me to go in and give my presentation.  Perfect timing.  The presentation went quickly.  It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realized that was the end of my junior year in college.

Crap.

I went back to work that day for my internship, and the next day.  Thursday night was the goodbye party for the whole program.  Pat sang a lot of karaoke.  Afterward I hung out with Mark Anthony, Pat, Jill, Sam, Camille and her brother Jordan who’s here to visit.  It was a fun time and a nice little “goodbye everyone, and goodbye Paris” sort of thing.  We sat at Trocadero until they turned the Eiffel Tower off, and then some.

(One of the best things that happened that night was a drunk guy running off a ledge without knowing he was stepping out onto a bush and not solid ground.  He completely disappeared from view within a second’s time, then came back up 20 seconds later laughing, beer still in hand and unspilled.)

Friday the 8th, everyone’s last day except me, I had raclette for lunch with Mark Anthony, Jill and Sam.  It was way too hot.  Then we went to Montmartre for them to shop a little.  They bought stuff, I followed them around, Jill left.  That’s about how the day passed.

Something of note: throughout our time here Mark Anthony and I saved each and every one of our alcohol bottles – wines, ciders, what have you.  The final count was 88 bottles.

Friday night was our last dinner with our host family.  It was very good as always, and Antoine brought up a Spanish wine this time from la cave.  It was pretty strong, but good.  The rest of the night, poor Mark Anthony spent packing and cleaning his room.

Saturday May 9th, everyone left.  I woke up early to see Mark Anthony off.  He was frazzled, but now is home safe.  Now I am alone in Paris.

I spent the day buying jeans, visiting the Musée du Quai Branly, seeing Je l’aimais, walking back to Trocadero / taking pictures of the sun setting, and finally my penultimate visit to Hippocampus.  It was a successful day.

Today on the other hand, I did very little.  I took a photo of roses at the Eiffel Tower (note: see it in the background of the lower left) for my mom for Mother’s Day.

But I did write this post, which will assumedly also be one of my last.  Paris, it’s been good so far.  Let’s see what you’ve got left for the next week.

~ by trevorkt on May 10, 2009.