Tout s'achève

Well, I'm back from Harry Potter and now you're all going to have to hear my thoughts on it.

I liked it quite a bit, and I think it was one of the best HP movies - very accurate to the books and pretty epic.  All the scenes with Snape and McGonagall were just amazing.

But mostly, it's weird that everything is over now.  Nothing new will ever come from Harry Potter. 

I started HP shortly after the third book was published, fall of 1999 or winter of 2000.  I was about 12 and a half, Harry and his friends were 13.  The fourth was published the next year, very close to my 14th birthday; I got it when it came out and it started on Harry's 14th birthday. 

For the most part, I grew up right along with Harry Potter - I always related to the characters on a very personal level.  And for the last twelve years (half of my whole life) there has always been a new book or movie to anticipate, and that was great because I always craved more.  The HP world is a huge one, with tons of characters, places, things to discover, and JK Rowling left many of these characters and things partially, frustratingly, hidden. 

Now there is nothing left to discover.  No more sequels to look forward to, no more new perspectives.  It's done.  It's the end of an era, and I feel like this thing which has been a constant presence in my life, a reliable friend, is gone. Tout s'achève.

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Now that I have gone on at length about Harry Potter, some plans for tomorrow, the Fête Nationale, hooray!

Many know, probably, that July 14 is France's national day.  "Bastille Day" is sort of a misnomer, as the day is not necessarily in commemoration of the destruction of the Bastille prison in 1789 but a celebration of the forming of the French Republic of later years.  Here it's called the Fête Nationale (or national celebration) or simply 14 July. 

So the plan we have so far looks like this: get up early and go to the Place de la Concorde (center of the city) at 9am to watch the parade; go to a friend's apartment for a little party in the afternoon; have dinner and probably go to the Bal des Pompiers (fireman's ball), parties that are free and open to the public in some of the firehouses around Paris; go to Trocadero (across the river from the Eiffel Tower) to watch the fireworks.  This plan is rather ambitious as it's going to be a huge pain to get around tomorrow - many Metro stations are closed - and we'll have to get up early.  More updates later in the weekend, and, I hope, pictures!