Very quick update

So!  My paper is going okay, and my mother is here.  She has taken it upon herself to fix everything she deems wrong in my apartment - it's useful for me.  Also I've learned how to work a toaster oven (yes, I did not know how to use a toaster oven.  I can use a toaster, and I can use an oven, but together they sort of baffle me).  My kitchen, such as it is, is much more useable, hooray!

Yesterday we tried to go to the catacombs, a favorite spot of ours.  However there was the longest line to get in that I've ever seen, even in all my days of passing that area for school when I was here last time.  There must have been hundreds of people!  I can only imagine it was a tour group, or several, because the catacombs aren't that big of a tourist draw.  We decided not to go as it would have taken hours to get through the line.  Instead she went to explore the Jardin des Plantes.

Today we discovered a new super cool church!  It's right by Les Halles, St. Eustache.  It's not as old or historically interesting as some of the Paris churches but it was pretty inside and had some remarkable remaining evidence of periods of damage: it was attacked during the Revolution and the Commune and also suffered a fire.  Yet it was still pretty majestic.  It was also the first day of nice weather we've had in weeks; I was very excited!

We walked past Notre Dame and there were hoards of people.  If anyone's been there you know how large the square is in front of the cathedral - the whole square was covered in tourists and spilling out into the nearby streets.  I suppose that's what happens in the summer but it brought to mind the angry Parisian mobs I've been studying so much in one of my classes.

The plan is for me to finish my paper tomorrow and Wedsnesday; we're going to Reims on Friday; and we'll be going to Versailles Saturday or Sunday.