Paris to Ouaga

I have been enjoying my stay in Paris in many ways so it is going to be difficult to leave, cold weather aside.  I have enjoyed dining out with friends, visiting the Musée Guimet, the musée national des arts asiatiques (where I saw the exhibition the Splendor of the Han, rise of the celestial empire), taking in the Musée Carnavalet photography exhibition on the liberation of Paris after WWII, Paris : Freed, Photographed, Exhibited, attending music concerts at the Salle Cortot and the Espace Bernanos, shopping the after-Christmas sales, exploring unknown parts of Paris with various Meetup groups, and trying to stay warm. . .

the restaurant Les Trois font la Paire

(By the way, most of the restaurants I visit I also review in TripAdvisor, so check   there if interested.)

Splendors of the Han at the Musée Guimet

Glitzy shopping mall near the Tour Eiffel

Our Meetup group descends on the Poilâne bakery

 Walk along the Promenade Plantée

    

The Espace Georges Bernanos with the musical program   displayed on the screen above

This past Sunday, instead of attending the American Church in Paris as I normally do, I visited a multicultural charismatic mega church, heavily populated with West-African immigrants, called the Charisma Eglise Chrétienne, meeting in huge industrial zone on the outskirts of Paris. I heard about it through another Meetup group I have yet to attend, the Catholic group Foi-et-Partage-Chrétien. I am on their email list, and received a notification that the Charisma Church was having a special guest speaker that they recommended. It was quite an experience--there were at least 3500 people there--probably more, and rented buses took us to and from the RER station to the facility!  Because of the sheer size of the place, and the number of people attending, at times I had the feeling of being at something akin to a blend of large conference and rock concert. Unfortunately photos were not allowed, I learned after I had hastily snapped the very blurry one below, taken before the place filled up completely.  This is definitely a Paris nobody knows about.

  It has been colder than usual here, though, and my friend Fina posted the upcoming temperatures in Ouagdougou to shake me out of my reverie and remind me of what to expect in just a few days. . .

I fear my time in Paris is quickly drawing to a close, and I will be leaving this Thursday for Ouagadougou!