Okay! Now I'm back in the game and ready to take names! As lovely as my vacation was, it's great to be back to animating at my computer again.
Anyway, for the highlights of the trip…
- I saw the Eiffel Tower (didn't see it too closely this time), Notre Dame, the love lock bridge, the Arc de Triomphe, and the view at night from atop Montmartre (a hill in Paris famous for multiple artists hanging out there in the past).
- I had a salmon, cream, and egg crêpe for my first dinner there. As for my second dinner on Tuesday, we had a reservation at a soufflé restaurant with a good reputation. My entrée was plate of homemade smoked salmon, while the main course was a pike fish soufflé. I didn't really taste any pike fish in it, but it came with a delicious crawfish sauce (it even had crawfish pieces in it) that I was able to cover it with.
- I visited a green candy store of sorts that had many treats in it, including what I heard has the best macarons in Paris. I only managed to try one at a completely different shop today and I was surprised by what I was missing out on. Can't wait to have more!
- While I went into a few shops and viewed some of their products from outside, the one that sticks out in my mind the most this this store more or less next door to the crêpe shop I had my first dinner at. I wanted to check inside it to do a little browsing, but the door was pretty much locked despite the manager being inside at the desk and the lights are on. I thought the store was closed, so I only tried to see if the door was locked by opening it discreetly. It did not work because the manager still walked over to the door anyway and opened the shop up. She explained that since it was more or less a slow day for her, she forgot to unlock the door and she was otherwise glad that I checked her door. I spent a good deal of time window shopping in that shop with my mom, but I only found two items that really caught my eye. One was a bell that would have been a little too cumbersome for me to take along, while the other item was a metal vase. While it was small and I liked its overall design, it was priced at a steep 220 Euros, so I did to buy it anyway. Even though she was fine with me not buying anything and she was glad that I made her open the door, I otherwise felt bad for having her go through all the trouble to get her shop ready for me when I did not buy anything from her.
- Near the Arc de Triomphe, there is this spacious Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop with at least two stories. I discovered it on my first night in Paris, but I never got to eat there until my second night. My mom and her friend really went out of their way to take me there, but it was well worth it once I had a cookies and cream milkshake.
- I visited the area where the remains of Napoleon were put to rest. For cremated remains (especially for someone who is supposedly short if you believe certain works of fiction), the casket is excessively oversized. Still, it was a neat experience and my mom even got me a small book regrading information about him with adorable illustrations.
- I visited two museums during my time in Paris. One was Musée d'Orsay, which actually is my favorite of the two. It houses a great amount of artwork (including some by Vincent van Gogh), but what sticks out out for this visit is the part of the museum that covers the opera house. The small-scale models of the scenery found in little display windows actually provides me with great inspiration on ow I would tackle the sets for my Paper Mario project. As for the other museum I visited, it was the Louvre. Besides taking a look at its collection (including seeing the Mona Lisa again in person ever since the autumn 2006), the one thing that really caught my eye is that there is 3DS software for browsing the Louvre. I saw a hint of that when I was browsing Gilva Sunner's channel on YouTube, but this was my first time seeing this in real life. As a result of this, I've seen multiple people who brought their 3DS handhelds to navigate the museum (Well, I later noticed that they might not actually be their own systems since the Louvre staff was renting some out to others, but still…). What's even more wild about this is that I actually saw the word "Nintendo" engraved on one of the walls of the Louvre that names several of its sponsors.
I did a bit more than what I described, but these are what suck out of my mind the best.
By the way, Lexou, I didn't quite see you post that reply until I got back.
If I were to know, I would at least try to arrange it so that I'll walk by your neighborhood. Not sure if I'd get to meet you since my mom is very antsy about meeting "strangers" from online.