Paris Part Deux

So, off to Paris for the second time. This return had a couple of reasons behind it. I know that my cousin, Michelle, loves this city and pretty much visits any chance she gets so I wanted to understand why for myself since the first time, I don't think I got an entirely good feel of it with walking around in the rain for the entire day and not really interacting with any human beings besides my Couchsurfing host, Clement, and his friends. Secondly, I had been in contact with the older gentleman that I met at the train station on my way to Brussels because I emailed him to tell him I had looked at his paintings and he had offered to do a painting of me - now how many people in their lives can really quote Rose from the Titantic? So after talking to Philippe in whatever broken French I had and with the help of Google translate, we had decided that I'd pay him a visit and he would show me around Paris. His regular job is that of an architect so he had some insider knowledge of the city that I wanted to learn about.
Once I got off the train, Philippe picked me up and we took the train to the suburbs outside of Paris, to Combs de Ville, where he lived. The whole ride there, he spoke some very quick French that took my brain a little longer than I think he expected to process so every so often, he would try his hand at English, which still took me a little longer than expected to understand. A few times, I just let him speak and I would catch some words that I knew and would attempt to answer accordingly. There were other times where he would ask me a question but I didn't know it was a question so he would patiently wait a few beats as I let my brain catch up and then realize that he had asked a question and ask him to repeat it. This is pretty much the pattern of what happened the following two days.
He told me about these fruits that he picks that can't be eaten unless they're cooked and some plants that can't be touched or they cause itching but he cooks them and eats them and is fine because he has read about these things. I was a little skeptical but I figured I was on an adventure anyway so would see how things go. When we got to his, he quickly prepared some spaghetti with cheese and meat and all throughout his kitchen, there were different fruits that he said he picked from the forest. Very interesting to see what people have inside of their house. During dinner, as he continued to tell me about the different parts of Paris he could show me, he shared that he was once married and has been divorced for about three years and that was about as much of what he said that I could pick out.

Fruit jelly

Fruits from the forest

Walnuts

Never saw mayo in a tube before

Patty and liver

Yum. Bread

Homemade fruit spread that I thought was meat

The next day consisted of a lot of French from Philippe, a few feeble attempts on my part before transitioning to simple English, and a lot of hand gestures. We started by passing by the Arc de Triomphe to get to the Louvre. He added random building tidbits along the way such as the glass pyramids at the Louvre were built as such so that the light would hit the sides of the pyramid and not shoot directly downwards. On our way, Philippe showed me on a map how the narrow streets were what Paris used to consist of and the wider roads are the more recent pathways that were built. He also showed me parts of the old Paris wall and explained how the boundaries of Paris kept expanding so the wall kept getting replaced.

Disclaimer: I won't know the names of many of these buildings

Leading to the Louvre

Many statues of generals

Arc de Triomphe

Pyramids at the Louvre

We stopped by a small stand in the gardens of the Louvre and had a bite to eat before heading over to the Musee de l'Orangerie which Philippe said is a less crowded museum that contains some of his favorite artists like Claude Monet, Andre Derain, Henri Rousseau, Chaïm Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo. It was nice to take a break from all of the French that I didn't understand as he tried to explain to me about the architecture of some buildings and to just sit and admire some paintings. Every so often, Philippe would come up to me and tell me about the way the artist painted and the mood of the painting and the setting of it and I felt like my ear for French was getting a little bit better. While walking somewhere, Philippe pointed at a statue and I heard him say "Aricarte" so I made a note to look up who that was later and it wasn't until the next day when he repeated the name that I finally heard "Henri IV (quatre)" and the lightbulb went off in my head.

Philippe told me that this is made in the Gothic type of architecture

The same person that constructed the Metro station did this as well

Not quite sure what this was

Philippe

Typically, the water makes these turn

Old Paris wall

Passing the Arc de Triomphe again

View for lunch

Croque monsieur

Construction by the obelisk

French flag flying high

Animals to describe the god

Tour d'Eiffel

Monet

Derain

Side note: I know that this post is going to be a bit jumbled and will consist of more photos than text because I was shown a lot of things that I didn't quite get a good grasp on but I hope to caption the photos with some better information than I can provide through just text.
Somewhere along the way, we walked by a patisserie and I got a raspberry millefeuille (directly translates to "million sheets") because I remember learning about it in French class and it was heavenly. We walked through some back streets with cute cafés here and there and I think when the pressure to speak or comprehend French wasn't there, the city was very pleasant. I know that might sound a bit silly since I was in France and should embrace the language but I couldn't help but think "I need to learn French before coming back."

Walking away from the Musee de l'Orangerie

"Aricarte" - Henri IV

Paris wall

Amazing looking pastries

Millefeuille

Little cute narrow streets

Some time throughout the day, we passed by some Roman baths and a statue of, I believe, Hafiz, who has a golden foot that many students touch for good luck on their exams. We also went to the abbayes cisterciennes (not sure what it was but I wrote it down...) and an old amphitheatre where a couple groups of people seemed to be playing football but most likely just kicking a ball against the wall of the amphitheatre.

Roman baths

Musee National du Moyen Age Thermes de Cluny 

Cool sundial

Hafiz(?)

Passing by a university

More of the Paris wall

Amphitheatre

Where the animals were stored

By the end of the day, I decided that I needed to revisit Paris after brushing up hardcore on some French because I just felt too overwhelmed and frustrated over not being able to communicate effectively. I knew that I needed to get away because I was so happy to just sit in a bar and watch the rugby match when Philippe had to get something from his office. I had also planned on staying an extra day but for some reason, this frustration of the language barrier was so great that I told Philippe I'd be leaving the next day to London. Yes, I know I was already there but since I had told Chloé, Céline's sister, that I'd meet her on Friday evening in Montpellier, to go to their mum's together, I figured I could hop the EuroStar over to London for a quick little party time with Joe, a member of Pasadena's men's rugby team, who was there for the Rugby World Cup. I had all the times figured out in my head so I let Philippe know and that evening, we returned to Combs de Ville for a variation of the previous night's dinner and Philippe did a few sketches of me.

I want to say that this statue's name is... Catherine(?)

Some history of Paris

Plan of Paris

Old building interior

Map to show expansion of Paris

Underground architecture

Older building structure

The buildings were built so that the top leans in

Philippe picked some cherry tomatoes from this community garden

Double decker train

I planned on leaving Paris in the afternoon so we had some time to visit the Carnevalet where I learned about some history of Paris. It was interesting to learn that women had a huge part in the decision making of the government in the early years but later, they were removed from scene and now, obviously, they're back. After wandering around that museum for a bit and after reading a comment from a random Facebook post I made about being in Paris, I decided I wanted to go to Versailles. Since Philippe had some work to do in the office, I hopped onto the metro and headed there myself. When I got there, I followed the signs to the palace but when I got there, I saw a sign that the palace was closed due to a strike. So I figured I might as well make the most out of this little detour so I followed some arrows to the Église Saint-Louis and the Potager du Roi. I knew that roi means king but I had no idea what a potager was so I wanted to find out without the use of Google Translate.

Where the bishops used to stay

What Paris life used to look like

The features on this hand are amazing

Houses used to line the bridges

Voltaire and Rousseau

Such intricate features for such small people

Painting of the upper class

Comedian

Royal bathtub

Philippe pointing out some part of the wall

Design of old Paris

The glare is horrible...

Narrow streets

A replica of the Statue of Liberty in the distance

Approaching the Palace of Versailles

Strike :(

A conference for French speakers

Following these signs

As I continued to walk, I passed through a park or garden of sorts and a few other things before landing upon the church. Then I successfully ordered something from a small shop and had enough sense to hear the lady ask if I wanted my sandwich hot or cold! With some noms in hand, I finally learned that a potager is a garden of food - simple enough. There were photos lining the wall of the potager showing what it looked like so I walked along there reading the different captions.

Pretty little garden

Some little shops

Yum

Building for the Potager du Roi

The church

Sneaking a peek inside

Cool old-looking house

After a bit, I decided that I shouldn't explore too much more if I wanted to make sure I was good on timing so I made my way back into Paris and had the pleasure of listening to some live accordion music on the train back. When I got back, I used some landmarks to figure my way back to Philippe's office and got so far as the street but I couldn't, for the life of me, find the door that I thought I had distinctly remembered was on the street. Since international calls cost money for me, I kept texting Philippe knowing that he could receive my texts but couldn't respond to them. After standing outside what I convinced myself to be the correct building for a bit before wandering up and down and back up the street, I finally gave Philippe a call and he told me that he would be back in five minutes but I still didn't know where to meet him. After a bit, I decided to venture onto the side streets of what I thought was the correct street and finally I found the correct door. So I grabbed my stuff and Philippe escorted me to as far as the metro station.

Train back to Paris

Live accordion music

Upon getting to the Paris Nord station, I went about what I usually do and went to see about getting a reservation for the next train to London. The map that I was given with the Eurail pass indicated that travel from London to Paris was included so I figured it was like any other train I had taken. However, when I got to the attendant's desk, I was told that I would have needed to make the reservation at least a week or two ahead of time to get a discount and a last minute ticket would cost about €200! So I quickly scrapped that idea and sorted out my plans B, C, and D.
Plan B was to text Clement, my first Couchsurfing host in Paris, to see if I could crash at his last minute but he was hosting someone else that night so no go on that. Plan C was to message Chloé and hope and pray that she would read it in the next few minutes and to my relief, she did so I decided that I'd be going to Valence that evening. Plan D would have consisted of me calling Philippe to ask if I could stay one more night and I am so glad that Plan C worked.
When I got to the reservation desk, the attendant made a reservation for a train to Valence that didn't show up on my Eurail app so I figured I'd just wing it without a reservation and follow the train path that showed on my app. Now the train that I wanted to get on was at a different station (Paris d'Est) and with fifteen minutes until the train was set to leave from that station, I booked it for the metro to get there. Making it to the Paris d'Est station with almost two minutes to spare, I quickly hopped onto the proper train and actually found a seat next to the luggage. Once the train started moving, I knew that I was safe without a reservation because there were no intermediate stops in between Paris and Valence. Au revoir again Paris!