À Paris, on doit flâner

I've spent a good part of this week and last weekend just wandering around Paris without any particular destination. Last Sunday, Mary and I started out at the Pompidou (after looking at a modern art exhibit that consisted solely of black canvases with different textures) and wandered around. We came across l'Eglise de Saint Eustache, which was smaller than Notre Dame, but less touristy and quite beautiful. After that we stumbled across a street with lots of little pet shops, and we spent some time playing with the most adorable little puppies I have ever seen! We ended up at this open-air market on l’Île de la cité with flowers, plants, and a TON of birds. Mary and I pet a chicken, a goose, and some bunnies.

Last night, Mary and I walked around town (in the freezing cold), trying to find a little bar where she met some French artists last weekend. We finally gave up and took the metro there instead, because she knew how to get there from the metro stop, and we sat in the bar for a long time and chatted. We didn't meet any French artists, but that's okay.

Also this week, I booked my flights and hostel for Spring Break! I'm flying to Dublin for 4 days, then to Norwich to visit Merlin, and then we're both flying to Edinburgh to see Jules! I honestly can't wait to see both of them, and to have them meet each other. It seems really strange to me that they've never met in person because I'm so used to having Jules already know my friends.

I started my classes last week, and I'm really enjoying them, especially History of France. I used to be fascinated by Joan of Arc (think about it: she was a teenage, uneducated, schizophrenic peasant girl, and she basically led an army, saved an entire country, and restored the proper line of the monarchy), and I finally actually learned the cause of the 100 Year War. I always knew the basics: the king of England has some claim to the French throne and tries to take over, but I never really understood that claim to the throne. The thing is, he probably should have gotten the French throne because he actually was the closest descendant of the Capetian line. What happened is that the Assembly (made up of the clergy, the nobles, and the bourgeoisie) realized that it would be bad news to give Edward III the French crown as well as the English one, so they dug up an outdated law (the Salic Law) that forbid inheritance through a woman (the French were sexist pigs), and Edward was the grandson of Philip le Bel through his daughter, Isabelle. Hence, the claim to the throne was null because Isabelle couldn't inherit anything to pass anything down to her children. The crown actually passed down to Philip le Bel's nephew, and the Capetian line passed to the Capetian-Valois line, ending one of the longest direct dynasties ever. Edward, of course, didn't take kindly to this, and so he attacked France, which led to a little over a hundred years of fighting and civil war in France, as well as the end of the chevaliers. I find this history to be fascinating, and I also think I'm going to visit the castle where Isabelle lived when I go visit Merlin in Norwich!