Friday, July 20, 2012

The Museum of Jewish Art and History and back in Paris

This is my second last day in La France. I cannot believe it.

I am in my hotel room now, enjoying to the sounds (and smells) of Paris.

Today was spent traveling for the most part, the train from Caen to Paris took two hours, although I was lucky to be able to nab a ticket exchange to get on a direct train. This was a substantial relief because my many impulsive book purchases have meant that my bag is now heavier than I am (this may be an exaggeration) and every time I lift it I have to use all the strength in my body.

When I got to Paris I headed back to Le Marais in the 3rd Arrondisment because I wanted felafel. Last time we were here, I wanted felafel, but Dad was being a spoil sport and mentioned something about not coming to France to eat felafel. Three hours of wandering around, one raspberry icecream, one "pistachio delight," a mojito and one nutella crepe later, I STILL had not found the elusive Jewish quarter and it's tasty tasty felafel. By this stage, it was already late afternoon, and I figured my felafel peeps had probably shut up shop for Shabbat. RAGE. The moral of this story is when you find something tasty in Paris, eat it. If not, you may never find it again. The other potential moral of this story is that the Jewish quarter of Paris is like Diagon Alley...or even the room of requirement. Sometimes it's there...sometimes it's not!

I was able to find the Paris Jewish Museum, so it wasn't a total loss.

The Museum, which contains historical artifacts from Jewish communities in Europe and in India/Arabia was pretty impressive. Unfortunately photos are not allowed, so I will have to just tell you about the Siddurs from the 13th century, the actual writings of Theodore Herzl and the awesome garment displays of crazy costumes from 17th century India.


This however is a picture of the building the Museum is housed in. 

And this, dear friends, is a picture of one of the many, many, many, many wig stores which surround my hotel. I just had to put it in here. Nothing will remind me of France more than a wig store!


And tomorrow, last day in France! Oh my golly-gosh. I'll be spending the day exploring Paris, followed by a quick train across the English Chanel and then, voila! London. I have been warned in advance that the hostel doesn't have internet, so you might have to await my next post for a little longer than normal. 
 



No comments: