Pirates and Paris

Cheese cutters are amazing. These HUGE wheels of cheese, cut with wires...entertainment for hours, I tell you. Alan and I went and perused the market, cheese and all, before heading to Paris. Had a motley crew of folk from both Blois and Tours...we spent Saturday finding a hostel in Paris (good-looking one for 13E was at http://www.aijparis.com/...they had no room so they recommended us to a one-star hotel near Place de Clichy, which was shady as hell but still, 20E). Met up with Alyssa from B-W! Went wandering around Paris, up to Sacre Coeur (beeeautiful), stopped for crepes/paninis, and then headed off to catch a concert on a pirate boat! The band was pretty much hilarious...French funk with a little American thrown in.

The next day was the first Sunday of the month, which means FREE museum day in Paris. So after hitting up the Eiffel Tower (went up to 2nd level, 3rd was closed because it was so windy), we went to musée d'Orsay to see the Impressionists...amazing: Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas...blows your mind, really. Recovered at a café, then headed on back to Blois. Now it's on to recovering from the weekend in time for classes tomorrow, which means going to bed asap. New pics to be posted shortly.