Elsien's Traveblogue

Paris, Thursday 18th February 2010
Had a lovely time with J. who went back to Brussels last night. I showed him round Montmartre, chilly but pretty as always, not too many tourists yet at this time of year. On Sunday we discovered the amazing Musee Carnavalet, near the Place des Vosges, which houses a lot of paintings to do with the history of Paris, as well as the reconstructed bedroom of Marcel Proust. J. is working on an artistic project to do with him, so we couldn't miss that! I will have to go back there some time, because it's interesting and highly relevant if I want to do anything in my studies on French Realism and Pre-Impressionism. It was free moreover! On the way we saw bits of the Chinese New Year's procession, not very impressive: Lots of very serious looking Chinese people in some kind of Chinese looking costumes, Chinese boys playing in bands, and manky blow-up yellow tigers.
We went to an organ concert in beautiful St Eustache church, then for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner in Montmartre.
On Monday I wanted to go to the Musee Andre-Jacquemart on Boulevard Hausmann, which has an impressive private art collection in a beautiful house. Bit disappointed not to find the Uccello I thought they had there, but found a painting by Pietro Lorenzetti and a lovely portrait by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun. We stumbled upon readings from Proust in a little theatre nearby, by Michael Lonsdale, a well-known French actor in spite of his name, and two others. J. was very happy and I rather enjoyed it too.
On Tuesday I had to work again, so off to Versailles where the sun was shining for a change. The students are slowly getting used to me and the fact that they have to actually speak English!
Met J. at the Place St Michel for a coffee and we walked home as the weather was lovely.
Yesterday J went home again and I found I had been stung for 500€ which I'd paid as a deposit for a flat in Montparnasse. The man has disappeared with my money and there probably isn't a flat. Will go to the police today, but with little hope of getting the money back. The day had started dramatically anyway, with Paris police banging on our door at eight in the morning, looking for M. Dumourier. I'll have to start flat hunting all over again now, but have decided that for this term I can probably make do with staying in hotels and hostels as I have quite a lot of business in London and Brussels anyway. I'll decide what I'll do for May and June when I know what work I'll have at Versailles.
Today is my last day in Paris, haven't decided what to do yet ...