This wee hask been a blur. K. left on Tuesday and I went back to work at a frantic pace. I realized that I was left with a messy room, no food, and no clean laundry, so I've spent the last week regrouping from my mini-holiday. Honestly, I've been a little sad to be without K. as well; even though my room was teeny-tiny, it was nice to have him here and be our usual quirky selves together.
But I said I was going to talk about Paris, didn't I? Our first day in Paris was last Friday. It was spent with my paleography professor guiding K. and I around Le Marais and the surrounding area. He's a retired history professor, so a guided tour from him was better than any travel book or guide I've ever had. One of the first things he showed us was what remained of Phillip Augustus' wall that surrounded the medieval version Paris in 121o.
Paris has expanded since then, but since building material was hard to come by, the wall has become any number of things, including the side wall for a building. On your left is a picture of a typical 17th century Parisian building; however, the corner to this building is actually built onto the remains of one of the round towers that were at all the entry gates to the city. My history professor was very worried that the portion of the wall at ground level was going to get destroyed by the kids playing football/soccer against it on the weekends. His wife thought it had withstood so much that there wouldn't be a problem.I love cities that have been around for a long time, whether they are from Europe or the East coast. K. and I stayed at a cheesy but cheap little hotel called Hotel de 7eme Art, which had an old Hollywood theme. (Our room had a Asphalt Jungle post over our bed.) Our room also had exposed beams of really old wood, complete with old plaster and sloping ceiling. Even though there was a modern bathroom, it was obvious that our hotel was also built during the same time that the building above was!
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