Day 27 6-21

Today we tried to get up early (trying slowly but surely to get back into the swing of things for normal time schedules and such) and got ready to go out and grab a quick bite to eat a restaurant we had seen earlier that had a very good menu. It was on the other side of the river, past Notre Dame, but it was an easy walk and along the way we were able to pick out a few decent spots of where other bands would be playing later on in the day. Since it was the summer equinox, there were city wide festivities planned that had many orchestras, choirs, and bands of all genres (and I mean ALL genres) scattered throughout the city to play music in hour or more increments to the public for free. Most of them didn't start until five o'clock at night, but we were able to catch a glimpse of some spots just near us, and a few on the other side of the river as we went to lunch.

After lunch we head over to the Musee d'Orsay, which was the first museum of the trip, which we saw on our second day in Paris. There were a few items, now that it was towards the end, that we had wanted to look for at the gift shop while we still had the chance. We took the route that followed the Seine deeper into the city, casually browsing the multiple tourist gift shops and old book stands that are set up along the road on the weekends. After the gift shop, we head back through the Jardin du Tuileries and tried to enjoy a brief break at the large fountain in the gardens. I say try only because the wind was blowing hard enough to spray the fountain water with it, causing just about everyone in the nearby seats to get drizzled on.

Once we were back to the apartment we looked up as many locations and groups as we could to get an idea of where a lot of them would be, and what types of music were playing near us. We knew that Notre Dame had an organ recital open to the public and we were anxious to go there, for at least a few songs, before it got too late. Luckily, after walking through the nearby streets and seeing a bunch of different bands (late 90's rock/pop was very very popular), we went to Notre Dame for the organ recital and stayed for two pieces. The organ, and the acoustics, are awesome to hear in the cathedral. Words can't describe how powerful the organs all, and the sound produced definitely lives up to their large statue, as this one in particular covered up most of the west wall in the cathedral. The other organ we heard playing in this trip was the one at St. Eustache, which is also the closest cathedral to our location, and is known for having the best acoustics out of all of Paris (and thus probably France).

We spent the rest of the night exploring other parts of Paris, trying to stay local, but still adventurous, and ran into many mixed scenes of rock, pop, and techno. It was lots of fun to be able to see everyone having a good time without any real troubles in any way. (which is good because in the beginning of the festivities we did come across a group of about 10 police men, all in their full gear with what looked like modernized battle arm, and riot shields. Luckily they were just hanging out, and we never had to see them in action).

At the end of the night, with sore feet once again we retired to the apartment for some frozen pizza and prepared for the next day ahead.

- Kyle