Day 32: Paris

Saturday, September 14

The alarm was going off in the bunk next to me. Yesterday, his alarm sounded at 6:30. So i assumed it was 6:30, rolled over, and planned to go back to sleep. I checked my watch quick though, to be sure.
    It was 9:30.
    Oh my.
    I am...so exhausted.
    I guess i walked over 13 miles yesterday. And it was an emotionally draining day.
    I didn't know what i was gonna do today. I didn't really feel up to much of anything, to be honest.
    I went back to sleep anyway.
    I don't know what time i actually woke up, couldn't have been all that much later, but after doing the bathroom routine and getting dressed, i went downstairs to the bar/common room to order some food and drink a bunch of water, and it was 11. I was told that the kitchen didn't open until noon.
    I started working on my log for the previous day, since i'd fallen asleep without writing a word the previous night.
    My first movie for the day was at 2. It didn't take me long to make the executive decision that the film fest was pretty much all i was going to do for the day.
    At exactly noon, i walked over to the bar, and ordered myself an entire pizza. It was a house creation and is named after the establishment, so i figured it must be their signature dish.
    It was incredible. Prosciutto, tomatoes, other things. The cheese was thick and so delicious. One of the best pizzas i've ever had, i'm sure.
    It was also the same diameter as the spite pizza i'd eaten in Oslo, and twice as thick.
    Could i eat this entire pizza in one sitting? SHOULD i eat this entire pizza in one sitting?
    Yes. I was ravenous. I'd woken up with my stomach groaning, needing to replace the thousands of calories i'd burned walking across Paris the previous day. Only on the last slice did i start to feel like, hey, maybe this doesn't fit in there so well.
    But it did.
    I finished my pizza right about 1:00. I wanted to be heading for the metro by 1:15, so i stopped working on the log and packed up. I'd only gotten as far as making the dinner reservations.
    Originally i just had two screenings today. The first was called Gazer, and the second was a block of short films.

    After the shorts, i thought about what to do with the rest of my day. I was still feeling incredibly exhausted, so probably not much in the way of exploring. There were a few Atlas Obscura locations near the mall i could check out.
    Eh. I could probably watch another movie.
    There was a special screening of Eraserhead at 7:45. I'd considered it before, but had been dragging my feet on whether i was actually gonna go. I think this was originally announced for 10pm? Because that had been a factor in my decision. They must've moved it. Or else perhaps my brain had incorrectly translated 19:45 to 9:45pm, and when i told Drew i just rounded that off to 10? Also possible.
    Anyway, it was already after 6. It wouldn't be too bad of a wait.
    I went to the desk to see if i could still buy a ticket to Eraserhead. The answer was yes.
    Huh.
    Man, i had been SO. WORRIED. about these film fest tickets the day they went on sale. I'd been upset at myself for having forgotten to do it for several hours, and then i'd been able to get my entire wishlist with no issue. Now, here i am, over two weeks later, buying a ticket to one of the movies literally an hour before the screening.
    I guess i thought these film fests would be more like GenCon. I mean, i suppose the film fests i've been to in the United States, i've always bought tickets at the door. But i had thought of those festivals as much smaller, much less prestigious, than the ones i'm attending now. Turns out that's not really true. I don't think L'Étranger is bigger than the Wisconsin Film Fest. Berlin Fantasy Filmfest was significantly smaller.
    With some time before the screening, i thought about wandering out to those Atlas sites anyway, but in the end, just stayed in the mall. I drifted aimlessly through its subterranean caverns for a bit, thinking it was the only way i'd hit my step goal for the day, window shopping. They had an entire store dedicated to the One Piece TCG, which. Huh. Hmm. Also i caught the last song of an unknown concert happening at the top of the open-air bit of the mall, technically outside.
    I didn't think i'd eat again, after plowing through that entire pizza for brunch, but i was hungry enough at this point to seek something small and cheap.
    Pomme de Pain. They have a Pomme de Pain. It's just down the hallway from Forum des Images.
    All these years, i didn't realize Pomme de Pain was a chain. This was the restaurant that Amanda and i had eaten at on the Champs Élysées after we descended the Eiffel Tower, because we were dirty and sweaty and didn't think we'd pass the dress code at any of the fancy places down that famous street.
    I shouldn't be surprised it's a chain. I wrote in my 2013 log that we picked it because "there were fast food-style menu boards at a central counter where people walked up and ordered their food before sitting in booths to eat."
    "We close at 7:30," the man at the counter told me as i ordered at 7:10.
    "That's perfect, i'm going to a movie at 7:45."
    I got a sandwich called Les Généreaux (The Generals), which came with a generous slice of flan as a dessert. Everything was real food, with fresh ingredients. The flan was a little rubbery, but still a higher quality than i'd have gotten if, like, Taco Bell offered flan, hypothetically.
    Seeing Eraserhead in a full theater is just as surreal as you'd expect. And man, the baby still looks incredibly real, all these decades later. Absolute special effects legend. Probably cost the ten dollars to put together.
    I went back to the hostel and finished my log from the previous day, and got it posted around 1am. I was too tired to write about the festival stuff. I went to bed.