When the Grève goes Merde

The grève. At first I was sort of excited for it, because my class got cancelled on Thursday. Then I was sort of amused by it, because I watched the news with Madame and saw screaming citizens waving flags in the air because they think their retirement is threatened. Then today, I was seriously pissed about it.

I was supposed to go to Disneyland Paris; ticket was bought and ready to go. It was a special "Francilien" price, meaning it was 30 euros because I "live" in Ile de France.

After setting out 45 minutes before I was supposed to meet Caitlin, I (optimistically) decided to take the bus to Chatelet. One actually came after about 15 minutes, and it wasn’t super crowded and the bus driver was rather nice. Most of the people riding with me were pretty tense—they all seemed to be determined to try and be nice, and to not sweat the small stuff. Because getting mad at the entire staff of the SNCF and RATP is not very useful.

There were a lot of terse conversations on phones—"Oui. Je suis dans le bus. Oui. Je sais. Oui." When we got to Chatelet, I ran down to the RER and joined about 100 other people there. The only (cheap) way to get to Disney is to take the commuter train. Private shuttles or taxis run in the 100 euro range, and I couldn’t think of anything else at such short notice. Eventually, there was an announcement that NO train—the man was sure to pronounce AUCUN very carefully—would be coming to my RER line today. So.

Caitlin and I gave up and I decided not to head home and sleep. Instead, I walked to the Pompidou (closed), and then across the Ile de la Cité to the Musée de Cluny.

I’ve already been once, but I remember loving the museum of Medieval art. It houses the extremely famous "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries. And best of all, it’s free to me (thanks to my art history student ID).



I walked around for a while, taking pleasure in the almost completely empty place. The building itself is beautiful, and the museum has a ton of really interesting things in addition to the usual sculptures and fabrics. I enjoyed the pilgrim tokens, the shoes, and the stained glass from various churches in England in France. Of course, the best part is seeing the "Lady" tapestries, and I’m glad I went back. I got a copy of "Tristain et Iseut" in French on the way out, because I was in the mood for something Medieval-y.

After walking around in circles for literally another hour, I finally ended up back at the CGP and bought myself lunch inside. The chicken tandoori sandwich? To die for. I decided to skip the actual museum (too crowded), and tried to walk home.

I tripped into a cooking supply shop by Les Halles, where I bought mini tarte molds and a dough cutter thing. When I finally got home (I tried to take the metro, which didn’t come. Then I realized I was right around the corner from the Porte Saint Denis, from which I did the long, straight walk back to the Gare de l’Est), I made tomato tartes. And? They are deelish. So I guess everything worked out.