This is what you look like when you’re all by your lonesome, in a vaulted, low lit room, surrounded by France’s finest deceased.

Okay, so this is what I look like … I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be caught nearly as unawares as me.

Welcome to Le Panthéon. Just in case you thought I had gotten over France … oh no … not even close.

See, look, I even got to pay homage to Voltaire. I think I said something like, “I probably would have dated you, Voltaire … you might have looked kind of rough, but I would have seen past your looks and into those smooth, fancy words of yours.”

I also might … just might have cursed him, but it was totally pointless because he’s dead. I don’t think you can really curse on the dead … or can you?

It was for all those University {taking one from the Brits — sounds way better than “college”, doesnt it?”} French papers I had to write about him. A total of two.

Please note! Those two papers … 15+ pages a piece. Do you know how hard it is to write en francais a minimum of 15 pages on dissecting Voltaire?

However … Jean Jacques Rousseau, on the other hand … now that is my dude. I’m pretty sure I definitely, not probably, would have dated Rosseau and most likely had a slight obsession with him … plus there’s just something about “Jean” along with “Jacques” that just sounds … hot.

So when I survived all the dead people vaults and ventured upstairs {I worked my way from bottom to top because it was very crowded the afternoon I checked the place out}, I was just absolutely beside myself when I saw this:

 

Yeah, it was an OMFG moment. I started taking like a zillion pictures just of this sign and had to tell myself to take deep breaths. I suddenly felt very boring … very much TC-like.

It was something he would have done and gotten all into … I do recall at a young age TC telling me he was reading The Social Contract.

Like father, like daughter … right? Because I, too, enjoyed reading his books and when it came to dissect his theories at University, I was all over it. Hello, On Education.

SO actually being able to see his works up close and all personal, was thrilling. Plus he was an incredible artist, and his art work isn’t exactly something that’s displayed frequently.

I think I was in the Rousseau exhibit a good two hours … long enough that Maman called me {this was a pre-stolen iphone visit} and that security got pissed that my phone rang.

It was terribly difficult to leave him … I still think about those paintings and journals … and all his fancy, but easy to understand words and ideas. Because really, Jean Jacques, he was a simple guy. And see, I’m a simple girl, at the heart of it … what a match we would have made … a la 1750.

“The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.”

Right on, Rousseau.