-The Ugly Tower and A taste of La Goutte d'Or-

Wednesday was our last field trip with our Paris Civilization and Culture professor, Will Bishop.  We did a walking tour of the Latin Quartier, past some notable education establishments including our own La Sorbonne and the Saint Germain des Prés church and neighborhood.  It's one of the oldest in Paris, even though it's been rebuilt several times.  We passed by the Théâtre de l'Odéon, now called the Théâtre de l'Europe but built clear back in the late 1700s.  We walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg, and past the Café Procope, hangout of the swankiest philosophers and thinkers of France, and possibly the oldest café/restaurant in Paris.  Unfortunately, it's now a big draw for tourists (like so many things in Paris), and trop cher for me (too expensive).  (That's a picture of it, but the sign is a little too tiny to read).

I was sad to reach our final tour of the semestre, because it means this semestre really is going to end soon.  Now all I have to look forward to in that class are study and exams.

Friday Prof. Habibi took us...well, she didn't tell us in advance.  She just told us where to meet her at the metro.  Coming from any other professor, I would have been concerned, but Prof. Habibi is a very interesting person, so I was simply curious.  The mystery destination: La Goutte d'Or (Taste of Gold, essentially) in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, a region I honestly had never even heard of.  It's not large, but has large Muslim and immigrant populations (often but not always coinciding) and the resulting cultural concentration is fascinating.

The first thing we saw were smaller side streets packed with men for the Friday lunch-hour prayer, a weekly tradition since the area doesn't yet really have a mosque.  Taking pictures would have been rude, but the rows of dedicated men, kneeling on their rugs in the street, was a powerful image.  After passing a butcher's shop with live chicken, street markets, beggars, a different atmosphere than I've found in the rest of Paris, and a brief stop at the St. Bruno cultural center, we saw an exhibit (on the opening day!) at the Institut de Culture de l'Islam.

Later in the evening I joined some amis for cheap Chinese food and the Tour Montparnasse...but without my camera.  No one told me we were going up Paris's most out-of-place building for a (nearly) 360 degree view of the city!  Heavily protested during construction, the shiny black fixture is one of the tallest buildings in one of the only major cities that still protects its skyline against the ravages of skyscrapers.

The sparkling night time view was amazing to see, but didn't take good photos anyhow.  But I do wish I'd taken a picture of the Grecian crêpe maker we went to after the tower, who told us that, "cinnamon brings people together."