Spiron and the Eiffel Tower

Salut!

In the past two weeks (tomorrow makes two weeks that I will have been in Paris) I have visited (not in that order):

The Eiffel Tower
Sacre Coeur de Montmartre
Notre Dame (many times, but never inside)
The Cluny Museum
The Grand Palais where I saw a Picasso exhibit--very interesting
The grande arche de la défense
the Arc de Triomphe
The Pantheon
many cafés, restaurants, etc.

Taken a boat cruise on the Seine, which is wonderful! Seeing all the monuments lit up at night is great.
I also got together with Maggie, another american gap yearer who's here until January. it was fun meeting someone else my age, as the next week all my mom's friends arrived (4 of them), so I spent a lot of time exploring Paris with them.

The Cluny was my favorite museum because it's based on the middle ages. I love old things! they also had an exhibit on celts and scandinavians, which I found fascinating.

This past weekend samantha came to visit from versailles, which was lots of fun. We went to see the Arc de Triomphe and witnessed a couple getting engaged! it was sweet.

I've also spent a good amount of time at the bird market, held every sunday on ile de la cité where the flower market is during the week. there are thousands of birds for sale, as well as goldfish, guinea pigs, mice, squirrels, and even chipmunks. it's very cute and I want to buy them all, but clearly I can't.

across the street lives a bird in the window of a restaurant. last night I learned that his name is Spiron. he is a beautiful yellow canary and I say hi to him every morning. I also bought some birdseed and have been busy feeding the pigeons and the little brown birds you find in parks. In some places (mostly touristy), if you have the right type of food they will land on your hand! it's great.

the other day I saw a street juggler, who was quite good. I watched the show, then talked to him a bit about circus. I miss circus here!

The Grande Arche de la Défense is a modern arch from which you can get great views of paris. it's set outside of the center of paris, right down the street from the champs elysées, in skyscraper-ville. I also got a great view from the top of the galerie lafayette, a huge shopping mall with a beautiful dome. The printemps is another domed shopping mall (even prettier than the galerie lafayette) where we had a nice lunch with samantha.

Since I last wrote the weather has gotten a lot better, and it has been quite warm! It's very nice.

ps. sorry about the random formatting of this post :-D.