. jacquelyn marie .: Day 4: Paris- Modern Art and French Cheese

First thing in the morning, I went to the Gare du Nord station to make my next-day reservation for a train to Bruges. So it took me two trains just to get to the station, and then when I got there, the ticket agent told me that she'd need to see my passport since this was my first train in Europe. Crap, I didn't bring that with me. Oh well, she said there were plenty of seats on the train and that I could book with no problems on the day of travel. I picked up a croissant and a diet coke and headed to the Centre Pompidou, Paris's museum of modern art. I started with the post-modern stuff, which almost made me laugh out loud at some points:

Big Christmas lights strung on a wall

Art that looks like Ikea furniture

I literally have Ikea hanging shelves just like these in my closet, they hold my jeans and sweatshirts:

Art made out of a fire hose

Stripes-painted-on-the-wall art

Art that reminds me of Darth Vader

Art that reminds me of the chairs we had in elementary school

Some of the stuff was really cool though:

Andy Warhol's Elizabeth Taylor

Then I got into the good stuff...

Picasso

Matisse

Kandinsky

Then, some more wonderful Paris views from the Pompidou's galleries:

I went back to my hotel and watched CNN for a little while, catching up on what's been going on with the US markets. The Dow was up... Yay! I celebrated by doing laundry. Sounds boring, but on this trip everything is interesting somehow. Instead of putting money in the individual machines, you pay at a little kiosk and type in the number of your machine for it to start up. An overly friendly French dude helped me figure this out. Also, packing my own laundry detergent was one of the best decisions ever because it costs an arm and a leg to buy it there... I brought these nifty little Purex detergent sheets in the States. They're basically like dryer sheets, with detergent soap on them, and you just throw them right in with your clothes. So easy, lightweight, and they're not liquid so I didn't have to use up any of the room in my quart-sized liquids bag! Anyway, while my laundry was washing I walked down a little street, Rue Cadet, where I saw a really inviting cheese shop. "Bonjour," I said to the man working there, and he immediately started jabbering away at me, in French. "Oh, sorry," I said, "um... English?" He looked really surprised and said "oh! I am sorry... I thought that you were French. Your 'bonjour' was perfect. How can I help you? You are American yes?" yessss a French person thought I was French! Sweet. He was the perfect stereotype of a French guy who runs a cheese shop, too. He helped me make a nice little plate, "with one cow, one goat, and one sheep, yes?" Yes. Amazing. Perfect. "Okay," he said, "now if you want to be a real French girl you will go and buy a baguette and a little bit of red wine!" so that's exactly what I did.