I'm smack dab in the middle of my final season, which doesn't remotely resemble any final season from quarters past. I'm a little under half done working on papers (plural, yes, this is new to the techie) and I don't understand how you fuzzie types out there ever get up the willpower to go from one paper to the next. I find myself longing for good ol' problem sets and programs. (Then again, give me a few months till I'm trying to juggle nothing but statistics classes and I may be singing a different tune.)
In between all this paper writing (which is really cramping my style) I have had the chance to be a bit of a tourist. Last Thursday morning it was sunny and I had the chance to go to Sainte Chapelle. Absolutely incredible. Sainte Chapelle is a small chapel built in the middle of the Ministry of Justice by a King Louis (there were many) to house the alleged Crown of Thorns he paid a fortune to buy in order to symbolize his own dedication to the poor. This all seems a bit suspect to me, but apparently he actually was a very generous king. Anyway, Sainte Chapelle.
This chapel is unique for a couple of other reasons. First, it was built on the second floor so that it could connect directly with the King's private chambers. The royal entrance is very grand, but now leads into the Ministry of Justice, so tourists don't generally get to see it. Instead, you have to climb up this incredibly narrow staircase that was originally for the servants. The first floor of the building serves only to create a platform for the chapel on the second. Well, and now it is also ye old chapel gift shop.
Second, the King and his architects decided to scrap the whole idea of walls and instead only put in stained glass windows. Pretty much the entire Old Testament is in these windows in picture format, along with much of the history of France leading up to the chapel's construction. It's really spectacular. There are so many images and stories that there's no way I would ever be able to have distinguished any of them on my own, and some people of dedicated their entire careers to studying them.
Then, on Friday, I got to spend the day with Esther!It was a less-sunny, more-rainy day, but we still did a lot of touristy things. We tried very hard to go inside the Opera house, but discovered that it was exceptionally closed. I think this was in fact because the Opera went on strike again. Heh.
We also went to the fancy tea shop, Angelina, by the Tuileries. This time I had their signature hot chocolate. I understand why it's famous. It was like no hot chocolate I have ever had before. It was incredibly rich, and thick, like they'd melted chocolate and put it in a cup to drink. So if you're ever there, indulge in it.
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