After spending all night (literally...minus two hours) after Les Mis doing write-ups and a test, I was not very awake for our discussion of political parties in France Thursday morning. :/ To make things worse, we were at least 20 minutes late to class! Ugh... Luckily in Nice we won't have to take a metro to class every morning. That will be nice (no pun intended).
After class we went to Champs de Mars where Paris finished her journals and I took a nap and tried not to get burned. lol. I don't think I succeeded on my arms, but oh well. Hopefully I won't still be a little pink by the time I get home.
We had to go back to the Institute building to do interviews with Dr. Le Bras to make sure we did all of our walks and stuff.
After that, Paris and I hopped on a metro with Beth to go to the catacombs, which unfortunately were closed due to flooding. :P So we had to ride the cursed metro all the way back to the center of town. (It was a long ride, because the catacombs are at the very end of line four.) Then Paris and I went to Invalides to see Napoleon's tomb.
At Invalides, I showed the guy who sold tickets that I was a student in France and showed him my international student card (which usually gets us either free or reduced price tickets). He told me they didn't accept that card, and I had to actually be a student in the European Union to get reduced price. So he made me pay the whole price! I paid nine euros to see Napoleon! Ugh. I was so frustrated.
You see, it just depends on the person selling tickets whether you get in free, I've decided. (I knew I should have gone to the woman whose line opened up at the same time the guy's did.) I've exchanged stories with people from my group, and sometimes Paris and I will get in free to a museum and others have to pay reduced price or vice versa. (And sometimes other people get in free and we have to pay full price!!! >:P ) So I just cross my fingers every time I go to the ticket seller and make sure I emphasize, "etudiante en France".
Paris and I weren't going to go see the rest of the army museum, because I figured they wouldn't have much there that I haven't seen in the Tower of London. lol. And while it's cool, all weapons and armor from a certain time period looks the same to me. I guess if we were planning on going to the whole museum, the nine euros wouldn't have been so bad. But we were only going to the chapel where Napoleon's tomb was. :P
The chapel was pretty impressive, though. Not gonna lie. (Although, I don't think it was nine euros impressive...) That little guy sure had a big ego! lol. And a big effect on France. His tomb was massive! Imagine a regular wooden casket, simple but still elegant, blown up to ten times a regular casket size! That thing had to weigh a ton! And it was funny, because right when you walk in, you can't see it. There's a huge circle cut into the ground floor of the chapel right in the center, and there's a railing all around it. You can't see the tomb until you go up to the railing and see the huge thing. I was so confused at first, because I thought, "The guy had a major ego. Wouldn't he have made it so you could see his tomb without going into a little side chapel?" Then I saw the tomb. lol. He didn't even have his name on it! Anywhere! lol. I guess his nephew figured everybody would know him. The names of all the battles he won were tiled into the floor around the tomb, though. And if you went into the crypt so you were on the same level as the tomb, bas relief sculpture of Napoleon dressed as Ceasar covered every wall. It was pretty crazy.
After seeing Napoleon, we went home and crashed. lol. We were both so exhausted! Paris more than I was, probably, because she got one hour of sleep and no nap. But while we were resting at home, we got a text saying a bunch of people from the group were going up the Eiffel Tour! We couldn't turn that one down, and c'etait formidable!
First off, we decided to take the stairs! I thought there would be a lot more stairs. lol. I thought I would be tired beyond the point of being able to move, but I actually wasn't. lol. Mostly because thre weren't as many as expected. However, it is an accomplishment that everybody in the group climbed the stairs from the ground to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. Then we had to take the elevator to the very top (for an extra five euros).
The view from the top is absolutely amazing! And it was so gorgeous at night time, with all the city lit up and the lights reflecting on the Seine. And the Eiffel Tower sparkles every hour! Isn't that cool? You can't see it from the top, but if you're standing at the bottom or just looking at it from across the city, it's awesome. :)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
♫ Do you hear the people sing? ♪
I only have three days left in Paris. That's so weird... When I first got here, I felt like it was going to last an eternity. Now it's almost over. We still have one week of bus tours and one week in Nice... But like an old friend once told us, the time is slipping away like gold dust.
Today we did one of the last walks. It wasn't really that interesting of a walk to be honest. lol. We went to a museum and saw more furniture and paintings. Well...ok, I guess it was a little cool. The mansion that housed the museum was the home of some 19th century art collectors. (Or maybe 18th century...I forget which century it was.) They had a bunch of collections of art. My favorite part was probably the music room and the staircase. There was a great hall where guests would sit and listen to the owner play his organ, and a top balcony where the accompanying musiciens would sit. The staircase was very detailed with marble and iron and gold. I thought it was cool, because a lot of the paintings and frescoes on the ceilings, as well as the fireplaces, were actually shipping to them from Italy and other places around the world. They were part of the art collecting the family did.
Nearby the house is a park where there are tons of ruins. The funny thing about these ruins is that they were built to look like ruins. lol. Built in the 1800s. So, not really ruins at all. There are Egyptian looking ruins, Greek, Roman. A bunch. lol. The part was really pretty. It had flower trees and lots of green grass kids could play on.
After the walk, we came home to work on homework, then we went to Les Miserables! Whoa. That is all I can say. I think it was so much more powerful this time seeing it because I've been walking the streets where these little revolution attempts happened. I've been to Saint Michel where the students would have planned their revolutions. I've walked the bridges and the pathways, visited homes, seen the schools. This may not be a true story, but stories like this actually happened.
And it was this revolutionary spirit that made France what it is today. The French are passionate, if nothing else. Passionate about liberty and equality. They want their voice heard. They see it as their right as Frenchmen. And how can they not see it that way? Thousands upon thousands of their countrymen have died for freedom. Thousands. When most people think of passionate French, they think of the suave man in the baret with the handlebar mustache. But they forget the student and common worker with a gun, fighting for rights they know all men deserve.
Of course, the force of the play was helped by the fact that the cast was amazing and the set was almost hard to believe. It's so detailed, you almost feel like you're in the city. And each little town in the play looks different. It's believable.
Basically....go see Les Mis in Paris if you ever have the chance. It's a truly inspiring experience (even if you've seen the play many times before.)
Today we did one of the last walks. It wasn't really that interesting of a walk to be honest. lol. We went to a museum and saw more furniture and paintings. Well...ok, I guess it was a little cool. The mansion that housed the museum was the home of some 19th century art collectors. (Or maybe 18th century...I forget which century it was.) They had a bunch of collections of art. My favorite part was probably the music room and the staircase. There was a great hall where guests would sit and listen to the owner play his organ, and a top balcony where the accompanying musiciens would sit. The staircase was very detailed with marble and iron and gold. I thought it was cool, because a lot of the paintings and frescoes on the ceilings, as well as the fireplaces, were actually shipping to them from Italy and other places around the world. They were part of the art collecting the family did.
Nearby the house is a park where there are tons of ruins. The funny thing about these ruins is that they were built to look like ruins. lol. Built in the 1800s. So, not really ruins at all. There are Egyptian looking ruins, Greek, Roman. A bunch. lol. The part was really pretty. It had flower trees and lots of green grass kids could play on.
After the walk, we came home to work on homework, then we went to Les Miserables! Whoa. That is all I can say. I think it was so much more powerful this time seeing it because I've been walking the streets where these little revolution attempts happened. I've been to Saint Michel where the students would have planned their revolutions. I've walked the bridges and the pathways, visited homes, seen the schools. This may not be a true story, but stories like this actually happened.
And it was this revolutionary spirit that made France what it is today. The French are passionate, if nothing else. Passionate about liberty and equality. They want their voice heard. They see it as their right as Frenchmen. And how can they not see it that way? Thousands upon thousands of their countrymen have died for freedom. Thousands. When most people think of passionate French, they think of the suave man in the baret with the handlebar mustache. But they forget the student and common worker with a gun, fighting for rights they know all men deserve.
Of course, the force of the play was helped by the fact that the cast was amazing and the set was almost hard to believe. It's so detailed, you almost feel like you're in the city. And each little town in the play looks different. It's believable.
Basically....go see Les Mis in Paris if you ever have the chance. It's a truly inspiring experience (even if you've seen the play many times before.)
♪ Come on and show me the best! ♫
Ok, this is called catch-up-on-all-my-journals time. Because this blog is also part of an assignment for my class over here. So...here goes. I'll hopefully come back and fill in details later...
Saturday, May 15
We went to the Chateau de Fontainebleau. I really liked that castle. (Paris did too.) I can't really believe why anyone would need an additional castle after Versailles. lol. I guess Fontainebleau is a summer castle, technically. Or a hunting lodge. A lot of important things happened there, though. Like Napoleon stepping down from the throne and leaving for exile and some royal marriages.
I think I would have preferred Fontainebleau to Versailles. It seems like not as many people were there. And the ballroom was exquisite! I would love to have a ballroom! The columns of this one were really interesting, along with the little side rooms going off of the ballroom. And there was a place for an orchestra, which was pretty cool. Although, I thought it looked funny, because there was this gaping hole in the wall to access the orchestra balcony. The wall was painted, so it looked like someone just punched a whole through the wall. They might have put in a door, at least...
The gardens were amazing, too. They weren't like normal French gardens, but had a lot of trees and flowers growing all over, instead of in straight lines. The front part of the garden is one of the most romantic places (at least as far as gardens go) in Paris, I think. There were tons of bushes with flowers, and benches surrounded by leafy hedges. Unfortunately, it was just Paris and me without our boys. :/
Paris and I walked around the village surrounding Fontainebleau a little bit. There was some sort of fair going on. One whole block of the village was filled with pens of farm animals. Going down some of the side streets, there were rock walls for kids to climb and pony rides and a bunch of other fun things. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it was cool. :)
That night, I had the opportunity to experience football, Parisian style, with a couple of people from the group. Whoa... And we technically participated in a protest, even though we didn't really know that's what was going on. lol. The game was kinda sad...Montpellier creamed Paris Saint Germaine. But I'm not really sure how people can keep track of the game when there's cheering every moment. We bought the cheap tickets, meaning we were in the crazy fan section. Where every person there smoked, many going through four or five cigarettes they continued to roll themselves throughout the game. That place stank so bad! Seriously...if you're addicted to smoking, you don't even have to bring your own cigarettes to the game, you can get just as much nicotine from secondhand smoke. :P The cheering was kinda fun though, even if it was really intense. It's so funny, because their cheers weren't very clever, and most just said "Allez Paris Saint Germaine" over and over and over again. No other words. Just that. (Although they did vary the order of the words sometimes, just to make things interesting.) And everybody had a scarf! Every single person in the crazy fan section! lol. The funny thing was, every single scarf was different! They were all for Paris Saint Germain, but I only saw a couple scarves that were the same. lol. That just goes to show how intense Europeans are about their football teams (even if the team is the worst in the League, like Paris Saint Germaine). After the game, tons of people started lighting flares in the section across the stadium from ours. It looked like the place was on fire! And they threw a lot of them onto the field, and the security guards had to hurry and put them out. One flare was lit in our section, and it smelled so bad!!! And all the fans stayed in their seats doing cheers for almost an hour after the game ended. It was so weird. We couldn't figure out what they were waiting for, but stayed and cheered with them for a bit. We found out later they were protesting the leagues system or one of its policies or something.
Sunday, May 16
Ah! I don't remember what happened this day... I think it was a good Sunday. We didn't do much, just went to Church, came home, talked to family, had dinner.... Pretty low-key day.
Monday, May 17
So, this day we realized we had already done the walk we scheduled! So we did another walk. lol. This one took us to the Madeleine. On the metro I was wondering...do they really make the metro smell like cookies? Or is that from a bakery? Because I definitely smelled something good (which is strange for the metro) but...was it just the book playing tricks with my senses?
The church was kinda cool. Very ornate. A little over the top, I thought. And something really bugged me. They had a huge sculpture of Mary Magdalene behind the altar. The statue of Christ was off to the side. That was really weird to me. Most of the cathedrals are named after saints, I know that. But usually they have Christ at the center. (Often with Mary, but at least the focus is somewhat on Him still.) This church kinda made me sad because of that.
And I tried macarons for the first time ever! They were pretty yummy. lol. Not my all time favorite, but still very delicious. And it's crazy that that patisserie has been making those for over a hundred years! I kinda felt bad for the girl in front of me, because she spoke broken English and no French, and the cashier didn't really understand her at all. :( I should have helped out...
I thought this was the grossest line ever (it's a sentence from the introduction to the walk): "As for the French palette, Napoleon's legendary letter informing his beloved Josephine of his return from Italy says it all: 'Home in three days. Don't wash.'" GROOOOOOOOOSS!
Tuesday, May 18
Tuesday dawned bright and beautiful, and Paris and I geared up to take on the Louvre. We were so excited (or at least I was) when we got to the Pyramides, because hardly any people were there! We were going to go through with few crowds, and it would be amazing! Then we went up to the sign and realized....it was closed. Unlike every other museum in Paris, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. :P That was dumb. Instead, we started the Marais walks.
This walk was really interesting, I guess. I liked seeing Victor Hugo's house and the old wall. I also really liked the little passageways going through the city blocks. And the little cobblestone streets. I like cobblestone streets. :)
Le Musee Carnavelt etait formidable! I really did like this museum. I thought the little rooms all around it were so cool! And so cute. I would have loved to have one of the little blue and white sitting rooms as my own. I'd have so much fun in there. lol. And seeing all the Revolution stuff was really neat! I especially liked seeing the stone models of the Bastille made from building itself. And the beds in the bedrooms! I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with old fashioned beds. I totally want one when I get my dream home. That and a million other things. Sigh. Oh well. It's called a dream home for a reason, isn't it? :)
Wednesday, May 19
Louvre Day!!! It was amazing. There is so much art in that ginormous building! I think I could spend an entire day just looking at the outside of the building. But inside!
We first went to the Italian painting section. That is where we saw so many things I studied in AP Art History! I was having an art history moment every five minutes! lol. It's kind of surreal to see the real works of art that you've studied so much from slides and books. They always look a little bit different.
I saw a couple of paintings that I absolutely adored from artists I've never even heard of before. (I forget the names now, I'll have to go back and look them up. Yay Google.) I also saw a couple of Da Vinci paintings that I've never seen before that I really liked. One was of John the Baptist. I didn't really like it as a representation of John the Baptist, but I liked it as a painting.
There was also a cute painting from someone I didn't know that I loved too! I have it on my Facebook page, if anyone's curious. It's a little girl in a white dress. She's so precious. Oh, my goodness! I kinda coveted that painting. I've never seen it before.
That's the thing with the Louvre. There are so many paintings that are so famous (some for who knows what reason), but a lot of the ones that I like no one would recognize... The Mona Lisa is one of those paintings that has a ton of fame that I don't get. They have the painting roped off so you can't get within 10 feet of her. lol. It was kinda funny, because I almost missed seeing that painting completely. We walked into the big room where it was, looking at all the other paintings in the room. I was so confused as to why there were so many people in the room, but figured it must be a couple big tours running into each other or something. It wasn't until I was about to leave that section of the room that I saw the little painting on the wall and realized, "Oh! That's the most famous painting in the world!" lol.
The Egyptian stuff was really interesting too. They even had a real mummy! It was really cool and really disgusting at the same time.... I was fascinated and getting squeamish at the same time. lol. I wondered who the person was. But the plaque didn't give much information. :P We also passed some sarcophagi that were smiling. lol. They were so funny. I liked them. Not very often you see happy dead people in art. I'm amazed at how much stuff has been preserved from the Egyptian dynasties! They have cloth and baskets and chairs and a bunch of other things that don't seem like they'd be able to survive this long.
I also loved the sculpture galleries. I don't know why, I just love marble sculpture. I love Greek sculpture, even if they could use a couple layers... I think the way that they could make a piece of stone look like something alive is incredible. So yeah, saw the Venus de Milo there. That was kinda cool. Again, another piece of art that makes me wonder why it's famous. Although, Winged Victory, which I also saw, was pretty magnificent. Now that is an awesome sculpture!
Someday (maybe when I come back to Paris, if I ever do) I just want to take an entire day and sit in the Louvre and walk through and admire the work. Not rush. (Which probably means go by myself or with someone who doesn't mind waiting on me.) Just stroll through all the beauty and genius of the art.
Another funny thing about the Louvre, or at least my time at the Louvre, the paintings I took the most pictures of were Madonna and Child pictures. I'm not really sure why. lol. There were some really sweet pictures there. I guess I just love mother and child pictures. I don't really know. lol.
Thursday, May 20
We got so much done this day! We got two walks done, all before Paris left for Liverpool! (And I was so jealous, by the way, because I love Liverpool so much! But I could afford to save a little money right now... And I was going to make money instead! lol.)
We did the second Marais walk through the Jewish quarter. I thought that was really interesting. I haven't been to many Jewish towns. We didn't stop and get falafel...because that kinda sounded gross to me. lol. Deep-fried equals gross, especially when it comes to chic peas. At least it did that day. :) I really liked seeing the elementary school with the plaques honoring the children who were taken from the school to concentration camps during WWII. And I loved the one honoring a teacher for saving a number of students from being taken to the camps.
The Musee Cognac-Jay was kinda cool. The paintings inside were cute, and I loved the boxes and portraits in one of the rooms. (They were all in a long cabinet.) And again, I really liked the bed in the bedroom. Pretty!
After finishing that walk, we did the Bastille walk. This involved tons of walking, but luckily my brain was really preoccupied, so I didn't mind so much.
Basically, this walk took us down the streets the revolutionaries marched through during the revolution. There were a couple cool monuments to the Republique and freedom. I thought the one on the site where the Bastille used to stand was really interesting. It's hard to imagine a huge fortress standing there. Now it's all roads and new buildings. I wondered if the cars driving through the round about ever thought about all the lives that were lost on that spot. Actually, there are a lot of places like that in Paris. Like Hotel de Ville. That place has been the site of so many uprisings and strikes and protests and calls for liberty. But I don't think anyone really remembers it as they watch the children playing on the carousel in the courtyard or sit by the fountains to eat their lunch.
Anyway, that's about all there is to report on the Bastille walk. Basically, it was a lot of walking. lol. Oh! There was also a viaduct which was kinda cool. It was turned into a bunch of shops.
Friday, May 21
With Paris gone, I tagged along with a few girls from our group to hit up the Cluny Museum and the Pantheon. The Cluny was actually a pretty cool museum! It's filled with medieval stuff. You could basically see any medieval form of art there. We saw stained glass windows and sculpture in stone and wood and illuminated manuscripts. It seemed like a lot of the stuff (at least the sculpture) came from Notre Dame. There was also a bit of armor there. And tapestries! I almost forgot those. There are six huge tapestries of Mary with a unicorn. I think the whole Mary and unicorn thing is a little strange, but the tapestries are really pretty and had really cool meanings. (Five of the tapestries each showed a physical sense.)
We saw the university of France. But we couldn't go inside. Too many riots and stuff. Now only students and faculty are allowed in.
The Pantheon was really cool! This isn't the Roman Pantheon. This is where famous people like Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, Hugo, and many other great Frenchmen are buried. It's kinda cool to have them all buried in one place. The church was pretty cool. The paintings on the wall, especially the Joan of Arc paintings, were exquisite. So detailed and so colorful.
The next stop was St. Etienne, another Gothic cathedral. Actually...I think it's and abbey. Or something like that. But not a cathedral. I think we studied this one in AP Art History too. It was cool inside, and a little strange because of the people reciting things very loudly in front of the altar just randomly.... but it was interesting. Not gonna lie, all the churches are starting to run together in my mind. lol. You'd have to visit each of them a million times in order to be able to remember all the differences and not have them get really mixed up.
We ended the walk with a stroll through a gladiator arena. Cool, huh? And Grace and Judy did a gladiator fight for us so Beth could get pictures. lol.
HEY! I'm all caught up now! That's amazing. :) Happiness. Now on to the next project...which hopefully doesn't keep me up the entire night. Joy. :P
Saturday, May 15
We went to the Chateau de Fontainebleau. I really liked that castle. (Paris did too.) I can't really believe why anyone would need an additional castle after Versailles. lol. I guess Fontainebleau is a summer castle, technically. Or a hunting lodge. A lot of important things happened there, though. Like Napoleon stepping down from the throne and leaving for exile and some royal marriages.
I think I would have preferred Fontainebleau to Versailles. It seems like not as many people were there. And the ballroom was exquisite! I would love to have a ballroom! The columns of this one were really interesting, along with the little side rooms going off of the ballroom. And there was a place for an orchestra, which was pretty cool. Although, I thought it looked funny, because there was this gaping hole in the wall to access the orchestra balcony. The wall was painted, so it looked like someone just punched a whole through the wall. They might have put in a door, at least...
The gardens were amazing, too. They weren't like normal French gardens, but had a lot of trees and flowers growing all over, instead of in straight lines. The front part of the garden is one of the most romantic places (at least as far as gardens go) in Paris, I think. There were tons of bushes with flowers, and benches surrounded by leafy hedges. Unfortunately, it was just Paris and me without our boys. :/
Paris and I walked around the village surrounding Fontainebleau a little bit. There was some sort of fair going on. One whole block of the village was filled with pens of farm animals. Going down some of the side streets, there were rock walls for kids to climb and pony rides and a bunch of other fun things. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it was cool. :)
That night, I had the opportunity to experience football, Parisian style, with a couple of people from the group. Whoa... And we technically participated in a protest, even though we didn't really know that's what was going on. lol. The game was kinda sad...Montpellier creamed Paris Saint Germaine. But I'm not really sure how people can keep track of the game when there's cheering every moment. We bought the cheap tickets, meaning we were in the crazy fan section. Where every person there smoked, many going through four or five cigarettes they continued to roll themselves throughout the game. That place stank so bad! Seriously...if you're addicted to smoking, you don't even have to bring your own cigarettes to the game, you can get just as much nicotine from secondhand smoke. :P The cheering was kinda fun though, even if it was really intense. It's so funny, because their cheers weren't very clever, and most just said "Allez Paris Saint Germaine" over and over and over again. No other words. Just that. (Although they did vary the order of the words sometimes, just to make things interesting.) And everybody had a scarf! Every single person in the crazy fan section! lol. The funny thing was, every single scarf was different! They were all for Paris Saint Germain, but I only saw a couple scarves that were the same. lol. That just goes to show how intense Europeans are about their football teams (even if the team is the worst in the League, like Paris Saint Germaine). After the game, tons of people started lighting flares in the section across the stadium from ours. It looked like the place was on fire! And they threw a lot of them onto the field, and the security guards had to hurry and put them out. One flare was lit in our section, and it smelled so bad!!! And all the fans stayed in their seats doing cheers for almost an hour after the game ended. It was so weird. We couldn't figure out what they were waiting for, but stayed and cheered with them for a bit. We found out later they were protesting the leagues system or one of its policies or something.
Sunday, May 16
Ah! I don't remember what happened this day... I think it was a good Sunday. We didn't do much, just went to Church, came home, talked to family, had dinner.... Pretty low-key day.
Monday, May 17
So, this day we realized we had already done the walk we scheduled! So we did another walk. lol. This one took us to the Madeleine. On the metro I was wondering...do they really make the metro smell like cookies? Or is that from a bakery? Because I definitely smelled something good (which is strange for the metro) but...was it just the book playing tricks with my senses?
The church was kinda cool. Very ornate. A little over the top, I thought. And something really bugged me. They had a huge sculpture of Mary Magdalene behind the altar. The statue of Christ was off to the side. That was really weird to me. Most of the cathedrals are named after saints, I know that. But usually they have Christ at the center. (Often with Mary, but at least the focus is somewhat on Him still.) This church kinda made me sad because of that.
And I tried macarons for the first time ever! They were pretty yummy. lol. Not my all time favorite, but still very delicious. And it's crazy that that patisserie has been making those for over a hundred years! I kinda felt bad for the girl in front of me, because she spoke broken English and no French, and the cashier didn't really understand her at all. :( I should have helped out...
I thought this was the grossest line ever (it's a sentence from the introduction to the walk): "As for the French palette, Napoleon's legendary letter informing his beloved Josephine of his return from Italy says it all: 'Home in three days. Don't wash.'" GROOOOOOOOOSS!
Tuesday, May 18
Tuesday dawned bright and beautiful, and Paris and I geared up to take on the Louvre. We were so excited (or at least I was) when we got to the Pyramides, because hardly any people were there! We were going to go through with few crowds, and it would be amazing! Then we went up to the sign and realized....it was closed. Unlike every other museum in Paris, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays instead of Mondays. :P That was dumb. Instead, we started the Marais walks.
This walk was really interesting, I guess. I liked seeing Victor Hugo's house and the old wall. I also really liked the little passageways going through the city blocks. And the little cobblestone streets. I like cobblestone streets. :)
Le Musee Carnavelt etait formidable! I really did like this museum. I thought the little rooms all around it were so cool! And so cute. I would have loved to have one of the little blue and white sitting rooms as my own. I'd have so much fun in there. lol. And seeing all the Revolution stuff was really neat! I especially liked seeing the stone models of the Bastille made from building itself. And the beds in the bedrooms! I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with old fashioned beds. I totally want one when I get my dream home. That and a million other things. Sigh. Oh well. It's called a dream home for a reason, isn't it? :)
Wednesday, May 19
Louvre Day!!! It was amazing. There is so much art in that ginormous building! I think I could spend an entire day just looking at the outside of the building. But inside!
We first went to the Italian painting section. That is where we saw so many things I studied in AP Art History! I was having an art history moment every five minutes! lol. It's kind of surreal to see the real works of art that you've studied so much from slides and books. They always look a little bit different.
I saw a couple of paintings that I absolutely adored from artists I've never even heard of before. (I forget the names now, I'll have to go back and look them up. Yay Google.) I also saw a couple of Da Vinci paintings that I've never seen before that I really liked. One was of John the Baptist. I didn't really like it as a representation of John the Baptist, but I liked it as a painting.
There was also a cute painting from someone I didn't know that I loved too! I have it on my Facebook page, if anyone's curious. It's a little girl in a white dress. She's so precious. Oh, my goodness! I kinda coveted that painting. I've never seen it before.
That's the thing with the Louvre. There are so many paintings that are so famous (some for who knows what reason), but a lot of the ones that I like no one would recognize... The Mona Lisa is one of those paintings that has a ton of fame that I don't get. They have the painting roped off so you can't get within 10 feet of her. lol. It was kinda funny, because I almost missed seeing that painting completely. We walked into the big room where it was, looking at all the other paintings in the room. I was so confused as to why there were so many people in the room, but figured it must be a couple big tours running into each other or something. It wasn't until I was about to leave that section of the room that I saw the little painting on the wall and realized, "Oh! That's the most famous painting in the world!" lol.
The Egyptian stuff was really interesting too. They even had a real mummy! It was really cool and really disgusting at the same time.... I was fascinated and getting squeamish at the same time. lol. I wondered who the person was. But the plaque didn't give much information. :P We also passed some sarcophagi that were smiling. lol. They were so funny. I liked them. Not very often you see happy dead people in art. I'm amazed at how much stuff has been preserved from the Egyptian dynasties! They have cloth and baskets and chairs and a bunch of other things that don't seem like they'd be able to survive this long.
I also loved the sculpture galleries. I don't know why, I just love marble sculpture. I love Greek sculpture, even if they could use a couple layers... I think the way that they could make a piece of stone look like something alive is incredible. So yeah, saw the Venus de Milo there. That was kinda cool. Again, another piece of art that makes me wonder why it's famous. Although, Winged Victory, which I also saw, was pretty magnificent. Now that is an awesome sculpture!
Someday (maybe when I come back to Paris, if I ever do) I just want to take an entire day and sit in the Louvre and walk through and admire the work. Not rush. (Which probably means go by myself or with someone who doesn't mind waiting on me.) Just stroll through all the beauty and genius of the art.
Another funny thing about the Louvre, or at least my time at the Louvre, the paintings I took the most pictures of were Madonna and Child pictures. I'm not really sure why. lol. There were some really sweet pictures there. I guess I just love mother and child pictures. I don't really know. lol.
Thursday, May 20
We got so much done this day! We got two walks done, all before Paris left for Liverpool! (And I was so jealous, by the way, because I love Liverpool so much! But I could afford to save a little money right now... And I was going to make money instead! lol.)
We did the second Marais walk through the Jewish quarter. I thought that was really interesting. I haven't been to many Jewish towns. We didn't stop and get falafel...because that kinda sounded gross to me. lol. Deep-fried equals gross, especially when it comes to chic peas. At least it did that day. :) I really liked seeing the elementary school with the plaques honoring the children who were taken from the school to concentration camps during WWII. And I loved the one honoring a teacher for saving a number of students from being taken to the camps.
The Musee Cognac-Jay was kinda cool. The paintings inside were cute, and I loved the boxes and portraits in one of the rooms. (They were all in a long cabinet.) And again, I really liked the bed in the bedroom. Pretty!
After finishing that walk, we did the Bastille walk. This involved tons of walking, but luckily my brain was really preoccupied, so I didn't mind so much.
Basically, this walk took us down the streets the revolutionaries marched through during the revolution. There were a couple cool monuments to the Republique and freedom. I thought the one on the site where the Bastille used to stand was really interesting. It's hard to imagine a huge fortress standing there. Now it's all roads and new buildings. I wondered if the cars driving through the round about ever thought about all the lives that were lost on that spot. Actually, there are a lot of places like that in Paris. Like Hotel de Ville. That place has been the site of so many uprisings and strikes and protests and calls for liberty. But I don't think anyone really remembers it as they watch the children playing on the carousel in the courtyard or sit by the fountains to eat their lunch.
Anyway, that's about all there is to report on the Bastille walk. Basically, it was a lot of walking. lol. Oh! There was also a viaduct which was kinda cool. It was turned into a bunch of shops.
Friday, May 21
With Paris gone, I tagged along with a few girls from our group to hit up the Cluny Museum and the Pantheon. The Cluny was actually a pretty cool museum! It's filled with medieval stuff. You could basically see any medieval form of art there. We saw stained glass windows and sculpture in stone and wood and illuminated manuscripts. It seemed like a lot of the stuff (at least the sculpture) came from Notre Dame. There was also a bit of armor there. And tapestries! I almost forgot those. There are six huge tapestries of Mary with a unicorn. I think the whole Mary and unicorn thing is a little strange, but the tapestries are really pretty and had really cool meanings. (Five of the tapestries each showed a physical sense.)
We saw the university of France. But we couldn't go inside. Too many riots and stuff. Now only students and faculty are allowed in.
The Pantheon was really cool! This isn't the Roman Pantheon. This is where famous people like Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, Hugo, and many other great Frenchmen are buried. It's kinda cool to have them all buried in one place. The church was pretty cool. The paintings on the wall, especially the Joan of Arc paintings, were exquisite. So detailed and so colorful.
The next stop was St. Etienne, another Gothic cathedral. Actually...I think it's and abbey. Or something like that. But not a cathedral. I think we studied this one in AP Art History too. It was cool inside, and a little strange because of the people reciting things very loudly in front of the altar just randomly.... but it was interesting. Not gonna lie, all the churches are starting to run together in my mind. lol. You'd have to visit each of them a million times in order to be able to remember all the differences and not have them get really mixed up.
We ended the walk with a stroll through a gladiator arena. Cool, huh? And Grace and Judy did a gladiator fight for us so Beth could get pictures. lol.
HEY! I'm all caught up now! That's amazing. :) Happiness. Now on to the next project...which hopefully doesn't keep me up the entire night. Joy. :P
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
♫ The French have it down to an art! ♪
So, Wednesday's walk was a pretty fun one. Too bad we didn't quite finish it! We're going back tomorrow, though, so that's exciting.
Our walk began with a nice walk over Alexander Bridge, a bridge symbolizing the friendship between France and Russia. That bridge is so cool! It has lots of gold work and tons of statues all around it. My favorite statues were the women on each corner symbolizing Russia and France. They were really cool looking. And the little kids with the lions beside each of the corners were pretty cool too.
Then we walked by Invalides. That place is huge! Paris brought up an interesting question. What did the royals and emperors do with all the space in all the huge buildings they had? I think it was just a competition to see how many rooms you could get in a palace and how many palaces you could get in a lifetime. Although, Invalides is actually a military hospital. (And a museum, now.) The chapel where Napoleon is buried has a huge dome covered with gold and statues. Definitely a fitting resting place for an emperor.
Then we went to the Musee Rodin! I have no clue why, but this was probably one of my favorite museums I've seen since coming to Paris. I didn't really even like Rodin until I came the the museum. Ok, that's a lie. I've always loved his sculpture The Kiss, but I loved it even more seeing it in marble in the museum. There haven't been tons of works of art that I've wanted to sit and enjoy for long periods of time, but there were two pieces of art here that I adored. First was The Kiss, and second was The Cathedral. The Cathedral is a pretty simple sculpture of two hands facing toward each other, barely touching. I feel like there's a metaphor Rodin's trying to illustrate with the name of the sculpture. I haven't come up with a well-developed argument yet, but I'll let you know when I develop it.
We didn't go into the army museum or the chapel at Invalides because it was going to close soon, so we hopped on a train and rode to an old part of Paris where we were going to meet our group for dinner....in an hour and 15 minutes. We walked around the streets for a while exploring the little town (and it rained while we were doing so, so we looked like drowned rats when we got to the restaurant), and then we sat in a park by a church and wrote in journals.
Dinner was really good, and it was fun seeing all the group. We don't get together as a whole group very often (at least not for a nice dinner) so sitting and talking with everybody was very relaxing. I was so tired though. lol.
Then Paris and I went to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to go up it that night, but the top floor was closed, so we're going to try again Friday night to see if we can get all the way to the top for an awesome night view of Paris in the lit-up Eiffel Tower.
Our walk began with a nice walk over Alexander Bridge, a bridge symbolizing the friendship between France and Russia. That bridge is so cool! It has lots of gold work and tons of statues all around it. My favorite statues were the women on each corner symbolizing Russia and France. They were really cool looking. And the little kids with the lions beside each of the corners were pretty cool too.
Then we walked by Invalides. That place is huge! Paris brought up an interesting question. What did the royals and emperors do with all the space in all the huge buildings they had? I think it was just a competition to see how many rooms you could get in a palace and how many palaces you could get in a lifetime. Although, Invalides is actually a military hospital. (And a museum, now.) The chapel where Napoleon is buried has a huge dome covered with gold and statues. Definitely a fitting resting place for an emperor.
Then we went to the Musee Rodin! I have no clue why, but this was probably one of my favorite museums I've seen since coming to Paris. I didn't really even like Rodin until I came the the museum. Ok, that's a lie. I've always loved his sculpture The Kiss, but I loved it even more seeing it in marble in the museum. There haven't been tons of works of art that I've wanted to sit and enjoy for long periods of time, but there were two pieces of art here that I adored. First was The Kiss, and second was The Cathedral. The Cathedral is a pretty simple sculpture of two hands facing toward each other, barely touching. I feel like there's a metaphor Rodin's trying to illustrate with the name of the sculpture. I haven't come up with a well-developed argument yet, but I'll let you know when I develop it.
We didn't go into the army museum or the chapel at Invalides because it was going to close soon, so we hopped on a train and rode to an old part of Paris where we were going to meet our group for dinner....in an hour and 15 minutes. We walked around the streets for a while exploring the little town (and it rained while we were doing so, so we looked like drowned rats when we got to the restaurant), and then we sat in a park by a church and wrote in journals.
Dinner was really good, and it was fun seeing all the group. We don't get together as a whole group very often (at least not for a nice dinner) so sitting and talking with everybody was very relaxing. I was so tired though. lol.
Then Paris and I went to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to go up it that night, but the top floor was closed, so we're going to try again Friday night to see if we can get all the way to the top for an awesome night view of Paris in the lit-up Eiffel Tower.
♪ All good Americans should come here to die! ♫
lol. Sorry, that line's kinda weird sounding if you haven't heard the song/seen the movie "Funny Face". But it kinda fit yesterday's walk through Paris's necropolis.
We walked through Pere Lachaise, one of the biggest cemeteries in Paris. It was kind of a cool walk, although there were definitely some really weird parts.... lol.
In all the Paris cemeteries (or at least the couple we've been to) there are these little house things...which I don't get. It's almost like they're little shrines or something to the dead person or family. But I've never seen anyone go into one of them. I don't know if they're actually used... Some of them are kinda creepy looking, too. And some look like mini Gothic churches.
I also wonder how they bury people in that place, because it's crammed! It almost makes you feel claustrophobic. And some of the tombs are huge! You'd need a crane to lift one of those to bury someone there. (They aren't all old ones, there are some pretty new tombs in that place.)
We went through and found tons of "famous" people there. A lot of them, I'd never even heard of before. lol. Like Alphand and Colette and Visconti.
I did see Seurat's family tomb. I guess that was cool. lol. And Chopin's and Moliere's and Heloise and Abelard's. (Although, I don't think they're 100% positive Moliere and Heloise and Abelard are actually in those graves.... They might be other random people.) Jim Morrison is there too... Apparently his is one of the most visited graves at the cemetery, but I've actually never heard of him. lol. I guess I'm just not cultured enough. lol.
The funniest tomb we saw was somewhat recent. I think he was some famous sculptor or something... On his grave was a sculpture of a broken violin and a sign that said "Enfin seul!" which means, "Finally alone!" lol. We had a good laugh.
Then we saw the crematorium. And that was creepy. And it smelled funny. And I tried not to think about it too much so I didn't get sick, especially because it looked like there was a funeral going on or just ending in the chapel. We went down into a place where they put people's ashes. It was really cold down there, which felt good after walking in the heat all afternoon, but it was creepy. lol. There were tons and tons of walls all in rows, and each wall was filled with little squares with names and dates on them. There were flowers and stuff all over the walls too. Talk about claustrophobic! Bleh. We didn't stay down there very long.
Then our path led us to a journalist's grave. I kind of feel sorry for the man. First for how he died (someone sent him to arrange a duel against Napoleon's great-nephew, and Napoleon's nephew got mad and shot the journalist, which is probably where we get the term "don't shoot the messenger" or at least a good representation of the saying), and second for the misfortune of having a statue of himself on his grave, lying in a position that looks like he'd just died. Statues on graves are not always a bad thing. Just in his case, because for some reason women have come to see this poor man's statue as a good luck charm if they touch it, sort of turning the journalist into a fertility god. Poor guy...
We also so the tomb of Oscar Wilde, who wanted to be depicted as a sphinx on his tomb. Women visiting the tomb put on bright lipstick and kiss the tomb. It's kinda gross and unsanitary, if you're asking me... But there are lips all over the enormous grave. Bleh.
The coolest part of the cemetery was the section with all the monuments to Holocaust victims. A lot of Jews were taken from Paris during the Nazi invasion. Each of the large concentration camps around Europe have a monument in this cemetery. My favorite was probably the monument for Dachau, and it wasn't just because I've been there. There was a cool little message on the front telling people to remember the people who died for liberty, honor, and their country in the camps. The monument next to the Dachau monument was pretty cool too. You'll have to see my pictures on Facebook....
After the cemetery, we bought water and boarded the metro for the Opera Garnier. Wow. lol. In Phantom of the Opera (the movie version) you can't realize how grand that place is. It's really pretty, but so elegant you just get floored walking into it. The auditorium is really cool. And the chandelier was huge. But you couldn't really get pictures in the auditorium, because it was so dark. :P I kinda wish I'd gone to a ballet here. Oh well. lol. There's always next time, right? ;)
After that we took a 12 euro nap, er, boat ride on the Seine. lol. Paris and I were so exhausted! It was so hard to keep my eyes open! But I had been teasing Paris about falling asleep as soon as we sat down, so I was determined to keep my eyes open the whole ride. That, and I'd been trying to get photos of Paris sleeping, but she always opened her eyes before I got a good one. :P lol. So, in fear of her trying to get me back, I made sure I didn't fall asleep.
On the boat ride, we saw most of the same things we've been seeing all month. lol. We did see the restaurant that inspired Ratatouille, though. lol. Or the restaurant the one in the movie was based on. That was kinda cool.
Then we trudged home like zombies, and crashed until dinner. Dinner was pretty good and pretty fun. Only Mme Devarenne was there, but it was a really fun conversation.
We walked through Pere Lachaise, one of the biggest cemeteries in Paris. It was kind of a cool walk, although there were definitely some really weird parts.... lol.
In all the Paris cemeteries (or at least the couple we've been to) there are these little house things...which I don't get. It's almost like they're little shrines or something to the dead person or family. But I've never seen anyone go into one of them. I don't know if they're actually used... Some of them are kinda creepy looking, too. And some look like mini Gothic churches.
I also wonder how they bury people in that place, because it's crammed! It almost makes you feel claustrophobic. And some of the tombs are huge! You'd need a crane to lift one of those to bury someone there. (They aren't all old ones, there are some pretty new tombs in that place.)
We went through and found tons of "famous" people there. A lot of them, I'd never even heard of before. lol. Like Alphand and Colette and Visconti.
I did see Seurat's family tomb. I guess that was cool. lol. And Chopin's and Moliere's and Heloise and Abelard's. (Although, I don't think they're 100% positive Moliere and Heloise and Abelard are actually in those graves.... They might be other random people.) Jim Morrison is there too... Apparently his is one of the most visited graves at the cemetery, but I've actually never heard of him. lol. I guess I'm just not cultured enough. lol.
The funniest tomb we saw was somewhat recent. I think he was some famous sculptor or something... On his grave was a sculpture of a broken violin and a sign that said "Enfin seul!" which means, "Finally alone!" lol. We had a good laugh.
Then we saw the crematorium. And that was creepy. And it smelled funny. And I tried not to think about it too much so I didn't get sick, especially because it looked like there was a funeral going on or just ending in the chapel. We went down into a place where they put people's ashes. It was really cold down there, which felt good after walking in the heat all afternoon, but it was creepy. lol. There were tons and tons of walls all in rows, and each wall was filled with little squares with names and dates on them. There were flowers and stuff all over the walls too. Talk about claustrophobic! Bleh. We didn't stay down there very long.
Then our path led us to a journalist's grave. I kind of feel sorry for the man. First for how he died (someone sent him to arrange a duel against Napoleon's great-nephew, and Napoleon's nephew got mad and shot the journalist, which is probably where we get the term "don't shoot the messenger" or at least a good representation of the saying), and second for the misfortune of having a statue of himself on his grave, lying in a position that looks like he'd just died. Statues on graves are not always a bad thing. Just in his case, because for some reason women have come to see this poor man's statue as a good luck charm if they touch it, sort of turning the journalist into a fertility god. Poor guy...
We also so the tomb of Oscar Wilde, who wanted to be depicted as a sphinx on his tomb. Women visiting the tomb put on bright lipstick and kiss the tomb. It's kinda gross and unsanitary, if you're asking me... But there are lips all over the enormous grave. Bleh.
The coolest part of the cemetery was the section with all the monuments to Holocaust victims. A lot of Jews were taken from Paris during the Nazi invasion. Each of the large concentration camps around Europe have a monument in this cemetery. My favorite was probably the monument for Dachau, and it wasn't just because I've been there. There was a cool little message on the front telling people to remember the people who died for liberty, honor, and their country in the camps. The monument next to the Dachau monument was pretty cool too. You'll have to see my pictures on Facebook....
After the cemetery, we bought water and boarded the metro for the Opera Garnier. Wow. lol. In Phantom of the Opera (the movie version) you can't realize how grand that place is. It's really pretty, but so elegant you just get floored walking into it. The auditorium is really cool. And the chandelier was huge. But you couldn't really get pictures in the auditorium, because it was so dark. :P I kinda wish I'd gone to a ballet here. Oh well. lol. There's always next time, right? ;)
After that we took a 12 euro nap, er, boat ride on the Seine. lol. Paris and I were so exhausted! It was so hard to keep my eyes open! But I had been teasing Paris about falling asleep as soon as we sat down, so I was determined to keep my eyes open the whole ride. That, and I'd been trying to get photos of Paris sleeping, but she always opened her eyes before I got a good one. :P lol. So, in fear of her trying to get me back, I made sure I didn't fall asleep.
On the boat ride, we saw most of the same things we've been seeing all month. lol. We did see the restaurant that inspired Ratatouille, though. lol. Or the restaurant the one in the movie was based on. That was kinda cool.
Then we trudged home like zombies, and crashed until dinner. Dinner was pretty good and pretty fun. Only Mme Devarenne was there, but it was a really fun conversation.
Monday, May 24, 2010
♫ I want to step out down the Champs Elysees ♪
Over night the weary metro travelers turned from pale humans to flaming lobsters. Welcome to Paris, Mr. Sun! We've missed you. :)
Today was another easy day. lol. Didn't get out of bed until about 10 this morning, went to the Champs de Mars with Paris and sat and talked for a while in the beautiful warmth....Sigh. Amazing. Paris and I were going to do journal writing this morning....lol. That didn't happen. At least not until after I left to meet some girls in our group for lunch. Well....I didn't really have lunch because I'd had a late breakfast, but we sat and talked at the cafe until they were done eating.
After that we went to the Champs Elysees to see the gardens! We thought it was supposed to be a flower garden, because in all of the pictures with the articles talking about the event, there were flowers. But apparently it was to promote agriculture in France. So....we were looking at green beans and mustard and stuff. lol. It was still pretty cool. And there were THOUSANDS of people there! The streets were swarming with people coming to look at the plants. There were some pretty cool ones, like pineapple plants and palm trees. But not as many flowers. Sad day. It was still fun, though.
Then we ran into Monoprix, because Beth wanted to see if there were any books. (She wants to teach French someday, so she wanted to get some French books.) And guess what I found! La Princesse et la Grenouille! lol. I bought it. :)
After that, I went to the Jardin Luxembourg. I got off at the same metro stop I got off at last time and couldn't find my way from! So...I just decided to walk in the opposite direction from the way I tried on Saturday, and I ran into Ben and Jerry's! Which was a landmark on a walk we did for our class! So I just back tracked from there and found the garden! :) I was so happy.
The weather today really was gorgeous. I sat in a chair in the shade overlooking the pool and all the statues of queens. It was a great place to write for three hours. lol. If I'd had my computer, I would have started filling in the days I missed. But I didn't. lol.
After sitting in the garden, I went to FHE, which started almost an hour late. lol. So I actually got there on time. I decided I really want a French hymnbook. Maybe I'll get one for Christmas or something. lol. I totally want to sing the French versions of the hymns to my future kids or something. They sound so cool!
After that I came home, had to stop to buy stuff for dinner at a tiny store because Franprix closes before 9 pm, and then talked to Paris for a while. Apparently a huge group of Japanese tourists were at the Champs de Mars this afternoon and they all asked for pictures with her. lol. I think they thought she was French or something, and they wanted pictures with a real French person. None of them spoke English or French, so she couldn't really explain that they were getting pictures with an American... She said she thinks she took pictures with 60 people altogether today! lol. That's one way to get your 15 minutes of fame, I guess.
Anyway, that's all I got for today... I should go read for my class. Yay.
Today was another easy day. lol. Didn't get out of bed until about 10 this morning, went to the Champs de Mars with Paris and sat and talked for a while in the beautiful warmth....Sigh. Amazing. Paris and I were going to do journal writing this morning....lol. That didn't happen. At least not until after I left to meet some girls in our group for lunch. Well....I didn't really have lunch because I'd had a late breakfast, but we sat and talked at the cafe until they were done eating.
After that we went to the Champs Elysees to see the gardens! We thought it was supposed to be a flower garden, because in all of the pictures with the articles talking about the event, there were flowers. But apparently it was to promote agriculture in France. So....we were looking at green beans and mustard and stuff. lol. It was still pretty cool. And there were THOUSANDS of people there! The streets were swarming with people coming to look at the plants. There were some pretty cool ones, like pineapple plants and palm trees. But not as many flowers. Sad day. It was still fun, though.
Then we ran into Monoprix, because Beth wanted to see if there were any books. (She wants to teach French someday, so she wanted to get some French books.) And guess what I found! La Princesse et la Grenouille! lol. I bought it. :)
After that, I went to the Jardin Luxembourg. I got off at the same metro stop I got off at last time and couldn't find my way from! So...I just decided to walk in the opposite direction from the way I tried on Saturday, and I ran into Ben and Jerry's! Which was a landmark on a walk we did for our class! So I just back tracked from there and found the garden! :) I was so happy.
The weather today really was gorgeous. I sat in a chair in the shade overlooking the pool and all the statues of queens. It was a great place to write for three hours. lol. If I'd had my computer, I would have started filling in the days I missed. But I didn't. lol.
After sitting in the garden, I went to FHE, which started almost an hour late. lol. So I actually got there on time. I decided I really want a French hymnbook. Maybe I'll get one for Christmas or something. lol. I totally want to sing the French versions of the hymns to my future kids or something. They sound so cool!
After that I came home, had to stop to buy stuff for dinner at a tiny store because Franprix closes before 9 pm, and then talked to Paris for a while. Apparently a huge group of Japanese tourists were at the Champs de Mars this afternoon and they all asked for pictures with her. lol. I think they thought she was French or something, and they wanted pictures with a real French person. None of them spoke English or French, so she couldn't really explain that they were getting pictures with an American... She said she thinks she took pictures with 60 people altogether today! lol. That's one way to get your 15 minutes of fame, I guess.
Anyway, that's all I got for today... I should go read for my class. Yay.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
♪ Here it comes, the great American tourist! ♫
So...I was sitting on my bed after talking to Jeff for a really long time on Skype...lol....listening to the booming voice of the announcer and roar of the crowds drifting through my window from the French Open, and I decided this would be a really good time to update my blog, seeing as I haven't for over a week....
Don't worry, I'll go back and recap everything that I did in the last week. I just decided to recount what's gone on the past couple days before it gets too foggy, and then go back from there. I'll be on a bus all next week (starting the 31st) so hopefully I'll have time on the bus to do a little typing and get some of those in.
Yesterday....was funny. At least in the morning. I started out with a great instant message chat with Jeff (lol) and then had breakfast really, really late. Oops. :) My host family was getting ready to go to the baptism of their little grandson (or nephew, in Aude's case), so they were rushing around the house in nice clothes.
After a shower in the weird bathtub (:P So excited for a real, stand-up shower on our bus trip, even if I hate the hotels we're going to be staying in) I set off toward the Champs Elysees looking for a flower festival they had advertised in the newspaper. Two hours later, after getting off on the wrong stop and walking almost the entire length of the Champs Elysees (ok, it was only from the Petit Palais to the Arc de Triomphe, but that's far!) I realized that they weren't setting up the gardens until later that night. Sigh. And...I totally couldn't find a metro when I got to the Arc de Triomphe! I thought they'd have several entrances since it is, after all, pretty much the center of the city! But no... They only have two entrances. I finally found one of the entrances, but there were tons of protesters all around it. So...I decided I didn't even want to try to get through so many people. :P Luckily it didn't take me that long after to find another metro.
After that, I decided I wanted to go back to the Jardin Luxembourg, so I got off at a stop that I thought was nearby it. It is nearby it...I just didn't have a good map, and couldn't find which direction to take again. By this time I was hot and tired and frustrated, so I just got back on the metro and went home and took a nap. lol. What a morning/afternoon!
But never fear, my Saturday was not wasted! Because at 5:30, I met up with a neighbor from my home ward to do a PHOTO SHOOT! lol. Isn't that amazing? Getting paid to act like tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine and Place de la Concorde? We even got a free dinner out of it at a really nice restaurant! I asked two girls from my group, Jessie and Joy, to come with me for the photo shoot. It was a lot of fun. lol. They both have tons of energy, so it was fun to giggle and pretend to take pictures on our little cameras, and pretend to be lost and stuff. And we didn't even have to talk about anything real, because none of the clips my neighbor sells have sounds in them. (Although, I'm definitely glad, or at least hope, that the camera guys didn't hear some of our conversations....lol. That would be awkward...) I can't wait until we see the pictures and video clips! (He's giving us a CD of stuff!) After filming for four hours, we went to the restaurant. I ate lamb. It was soooooo good! So tender and delicious....and the green beans were soaked in butter. :) I only wish I'd stayed for dessert, because Mark said the creme brulee was to die for. But I really needed to get home because it was getting late.
Last night at the house was actually kinda scary. Because...I was all alone. lol. Paris went to Liverpool with another girl for the weekend, and I didn't really want to spend money on a plane ticket (or I totally would have gone, because I love Liverpool), so after the family left I was the only one here.... And the overhead window was open! And I couldn't find a way to close it. (And Mme Devarenne said that I should close it...I'm not sure why.) AND there was this really weird noise all night long... I'm still not sure what it is. It sounds like something dropping (not water, a solid object), and it keeps happening over and over. And it's definitely coming from somewhere inside the house, because it kind of echos off the walls in the living room downstairs. It's still doing it today, actually. But it's not as scary. Ugh. That totally freaked me out. Especially because the part of town we live in has a reputation of being kinda shady after dark. In the day it's fine, but at night...*shivers* So yeah...if I hadn't been exhausted, I wouldn't have been able to sleep, I don't think.
Luckily, I woke up this morning! :) And nothing was stolen from the house! So no bad guys came. That made me very relieved.
AND I TOTALLY GOT KISSED ON THE METRO THIS MORNING! lol. Now I can say I've been kissed by a Frenchman. :)
Before you go off thinking I'm a terrible cheater, let me explain. The past couple Sundays, an old man has gotten on the metro and played some really pretty violin music while I'm on my way to church. I've loved it, because it put me in a really good mood for church. The man isn't any spectacular artist, but his simple tunes have been so beautiful and touching to me. But when he comes around asking for money, I always feel bad. Because...it's Sunday. And I feel like if I give him money, I'm encouraging him to "work" (I guess you could call it) on Sunday. So I usually enjoy the music and then turn my head to look out the window when he comes around.
Well, today I sat there listening and loving his music, and the thought popped into my head, "You really should give him something. You keep listening to and gaining something from his performances." But I was torn. So I started a little dialogue in my head. I don't know if you could call it a full, formal prayer, but I thought, "Heavenly Father, I've really appreciated this old man's talent, and it's helped me feel the Spirit on my way to church. Would it still be bad for me to give him a couple coins?" I guess I didn't really get a straight answer, but I felt really warm and happy when I decided to give him some change.
He looked so grateful when I handed the coins to him. He said, "Merci! Merci!" over and over. Then he put a hand on my shoulder, and I thought he was going to give me baisos (or however you spell it), which are those air kisses on one cheek and then the other that everybody gives in movies set in France. But this little old man missed the air and actually hit my cheek! lol. (Actually, I'm pretty sure he was aiming for it.) It kinda caught me completely off guard...lol. It was kinda funny. When Paris gave him a couple coins last Sunday, he didn't do that to her. Or any of the other people I've seen give him money.
Anyway, I decided I'm glad I gave him that change. Maybe he was having a hard day or something. Even if he wasn't, I think it made my day better. And it gave me a funny story to tell and now I can say I've been kissed in France.
Church was pretty cool today. In Relief Society, we talked about teaching children. (Which, I love. lol.) The sister who taught was pretty easy to understand, too.
In Sunday School we talked about Ruth and Naomi. That was another pretty cool lesson. I've never thought too much about that story, other than the fact that it's one of the not very many scripture stories about women. Ruth was an incredible example of faith, hope and Christlike love. She left her family to follow her mother-in-law because Naomi needed help and Ruth knew that she wouldn't be able to follow the Lord like she knew she should if she returned to her people. So she gave up everything, not knowing what the future would bring, but trusting that the Lord would help her. And He did! He gave her greater blessings than she ever dreamed of.
The lesson was also cool because I liked the teacher. He was cool. Although, his accent totally threw me off. Because, when he spoke French he sounded like an American, and when he spoke English he sounded French. He was fair skinned and had kind of reddish hair, so he looked like he could be either. Then a girl from our group asked him where he was from, and he said India! lol.
Sacrament Meeting was pretty cool too. I love singing the hymns in French, even if it's difficult to get the timing right sometimes. I think it makes me focus on the words a little more. And different translations bring up different meanings or different ideas about the meaning of each song.
I also realized I loved how diverse the Paris ward is. There are a lot of Americans, a few white French, many Africans, and a scattering of people from all over Asia, the Middle East and Europe. A lot of people don't speak the same language or the same dialect. But somehow they can all gather on Sunday and talk and laugh and learn about the Savior together. They care about each other, even if there is a language barrier for some. I think this is what the Church is all about- gathering God's people together, regardless of color or culture or race or language or any other difference, to worship Him and strive to reach exaltation. It's pretty amazing.
After church...ate food, talked to my parents, talked to Jeff... That's about it. I can't WAIT until I can make real food again! Not that I don't get real food here, but I want to cook it! Not microwave or pay someone else to cook it. I want to make bread and dessert and spaghetti and green beans and make lemonade or something. Do the whole darn meal. All by myself. (Or I guess with help... ;) but I want to be in charge! lol.) I just want to cook again. Sigh. Who would have thought I'd miss that?
So something weird...I decided that French people are not very good at preserving food. I mean, they don't have preservatives in any of their food, but they treat it like they do! They leave cheese and milk out all night and still drink it. I don't think the water pitcher has ever been refrigerated. (Which I don't like, not just because it tastes old, but because I like cold water.) They don't cover anything when they put it in the fridge... They keep their fruit (all of it, not just the bananas) on the counter. They leave their bread on the counter too, with no wrapping. It's so weird... I thought it was just our family, but talking to Joy last night I realized that it was all of them...
Tonight at dinner, the Devarennes were talking to me about their grandson's baptism. Then Aude asked me if the priests in our church drink wine, if the rest of us don't. I told them no, the priests didn't drink wine. We just used water for the Sacrament. Then I had to explain that the priests in our church were 16-18 years old, and the ones who passed the Sacrament were 12-13, and we used real bread broken into little pieces instead of wafers. And I had to try to explain what men do in the Church when they're older than 18, and the fact that not very many people are full-time Church workers, that they have other jobs too. And they can get different callings and be released and stuff. They thought that our Church did things in really weird ways. lol. But they also said that I was a good representative of my Church, that who I was made the Church look good...? (Or something like that. I forgot how you say that....) So I guess that was a nice compliment. :)
It was also funny, because Mme Devarenne got a picture book of the family from all her kids, and Aude was complaining about how she looked in some of the pictures. Mr Devarenne was disagreeing with her, and said that she was pretty. Then in English (with an extremely thick French accent) he said, "You are beautiful girl." Then looking at me. "You are both beautiful girls." lol. It was so cute and so funny hearing him say that. I don't think he speaks English very much. Like, not at all. Mme Devarenne is really the only one who partially speaks English.
Ok. Two days down. Let's hope I can get the rest of the days in soon! :)
Don't worry, I'll go back and recap everything that I did in the last week. I just decided to recount what's gone on the past couple days before it gets too foggy, and then go back from there. I'll be on a bus all next week (starting the 31st) so hopefully I'll have time on the bus to do a little typing and get some of those in.
Yesterday....was funny. At least in the morning. I started out with a great instant message chat with Jeff (lol) and then had breakfast really, really late. Oops. :) My host family was getting ready to go to the baptism of their little grandson (or nephew, in Aude's case), so they were rushing around the house in nice clothes.
After a shower in the weird bathtub (:P So excited for a real, stand-up shower on our bus trip, even if I hate the hotels we're going to be staying in) I set off toward the Champs Elysees looking for a flower festival they had advertised in the newspaper. Two hours later, after getting off on the wrong stop and walking almost the entire length of the Champs Elysees (ok, it was only from the Petit Palais to the Arc de Triomphe, but that's far!) I realized that they weren't setting up the gardens until later that night. Sigh. And...I totally couldn't find a metro when I got to the Arc de Triomphe! I thought they'd have several entrances since it is, after all, pretty much the center of the city! But no... They only have two entrances. I finally found one of the entrances, but there were tons of protesters all around it. So...I decided I didn't even want to try to get through so many people. :P Luckily it didn't take me that long after to find another metro.
After that, I decided I wanted to go back to the Jardin Luxembourg, so I got off at a stop that I thought was nearby it. It is nearby it...I just didn't have a good map, and couldn't find which direction to take again. By this time I was hot and tired and frustrated, so I just got back on the metro and went home and took a nap. lol. What a morning/afternoon!
But never fear, my Saturday was not wasted! Because at 5:30, I met up with a neighbor from my home ward to do a PHOTO SHOOT! lol. Isn't that amazing? Getting paid to act like tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine and Place de la Concorde? We even got a free dinner out of it at a really nice restaurant! I asked two girls from my group, Jessie and Joy, to come with me for the photo shoot. It was a lot of fun. lol. They both have tons of energy, so it was fun to giggle and pretend to take pictures on our little cameras, and pretend to be lost and stuff. And we didn't even have to talk about anything real, because none of the clips my neighbor sells have sounds in them. (Although, I'm definitely glad, or at least hope, that the camera guys didn't hear some of our conversations....lol. That would be awkward...) I can't wait until we see the pictures and video clips! (He's giving us a CD of stuff!) After filming for four hours, we went to the restaurant. I ate lamb. It was soooooo good! So tender and delicious....and the green beans were soaked in butter. :) I only wish I'd stayed for dessert, because Mark said the creme brulee was to die for. But I really needed to get home because it was getting late.
Last night at the house was actually kinda scary. Because...I was all alone. lol. Paris went to Liverpool with another girl for the weekend, and I didn't really want to spend money on a plane ticket (or I totally would have gone, because I love Liverpool), so after the family left I was the only one here.... And the overhead window was open! And I couldn't find a way to close it. (And Mme Devarenne said that I should close it...I'm not sure why.) AND there was this really weird noise all night long... I'm still not sure what it is. It sounds like something dropping (not water, a solid object), and it keeps happening over and over. And it's definitely coming from somewhere inside the house, because it kind of echos off the walls in the living room downstairs. It's still doing it today, actually. But it's not as scary. Ugh. That totally freaked me out. Especially because the part of town we live in has a reputation of being kinda shady after dark. In the day it's fine, but at night...*shivers* So yeah...if I hadn't been exhausted, I wouldn't have been able to sleep, I don't think.
Luckily, I woke up this morning! :) And nothing was stolen from the house! So no bad guys came. That made me very relieved.
AND I TOTALLY GOT KISSED ON THE METRO THIS MORNING! lol. Now I can say I've been kissed by a Frenchman. :)
Before you go off thinking I'm a terrible cheater, let me explain. The past couple Sundays, an old man has gotten on the metro and played some really pretty violin music while I'm on my way to church. I've loved it, because it put me in a really good mood for church. The man isn't any spectacular artist, but his simple tunes have been so beautiful and touching to me. But when he comes around asking for money, I always feel bad. Because...it's Sunday. And I feel like if I give him money, I'm encouraging him to "work" (I guess you could call it) on Sunday. So I usually enjoy the music and then turn my head to look out the window when he comes around.
Well, today I sat there listening and loving his music, and the thought popped into my head, "You really should give him something. You keep listening to and gaining something from his performances." But I was torn. So I started a little dialogue in my head. I don't know if you could call it a full, formal prayer, but I thought, "Heavenly Father, I've really appreciated this old man's talent, and it's helped me feel the Spirit on my way to church. Would it still be bad for me to give him a couple coins?" I guess I didn't really get a straight answer, but I felt really warm and happy when I decided to give him some change.
He looked so grateful when I handed the coins to him. He said, "Merci! Merci!" over and over. Then he put a hand on my shoulder, and I thought he was going to give me baisos (or however you spell it), which are those air kisses on one cheek and then the other that everybody gives in movies set in France. But this little old man missed the air and actually hit my cheek! lol. (Actually, I'm pretty sure he was aiming for it.) It kinda caught me completely off guard...lol. It was kinda funny. When Paris gave him a couple coins last Sunday, he didn't do that to her. Or any of the other people I've seen give him money.
Anyway, I decided I'm glad I gave him that change. Maybe he was having a hard day or something. Even if he wasn't, I think it made my day better. And it gave me a funny story to tell and now I can say I've been kissed in France.
Church was pretty cool today. In Relief Society, we talked about teaching children. (Which, I love. lol.) The sister who taught was pretty easy to understand, too.
In Sunday School we talked about Ruth and Naomi. That was another pretty cool lesson. I've never thought too much about that story, other than the fact that it's one of the not very many scripture stories about women. Ruth was an incredible example of faith, hope and Christlike love. She left her family to follow her mother-in-law because Naomi needed help and Ruth knew that she wouldn't be able to follow the Lord like she knew she should if she returned to her people. So she gave up everything, not knowing what the future would bring, but trusting that the Lord would help her. And He did! He gave her greater blessings than she ever dreamed of.
The lesson was also cool because I liked the teacher. He was cool. Although, his accent totally threw me off. Because, when he spoke French he sounded like an American, and when he spoke English he sounded French. He was fair skinned and had kind of reddish hair, so he looked like he could be either. Then a girl from our group asked him where he was from, and he said India! lol.
Sacrament Meeting was pretty cool too. I love singing the hymns in French, even if it's difficult to get the timing right sometimes. I think it makes me focus on the words a little more. And different translations bring up different meanings or different ideas about the meaning of each song.
I also realized I loved how diverse the Paris ward is. There are a lot of Americans, a few white French, many Africans, and a scattering of people from all over Asia, the Middle East and Europe. A lot of people don't speak the same language or the same dialect. But somehow they can all gather on Sunday and talk and laugh and learn about the Savior together. They care about each other, even if there is a language barrier for some. I think this is what the Church is all about- gathering God's people together, regardless of color or culture or race or language or any other difference, to worship Him and strive to reach exaltation. It's pretty amazing.
After church...ate food, talked to my parents, talked to Jeff... That's about it. I can't WAIT until I can make real food again! Not that I don't get real food here, but I want to cook it! Not microwave or pay someone else to cook it. I want to make bread and dessert and spaghetti and green beans and make lemonade or something. Do the whole darn meal. All by myself. (Or I guess with help... ;) but I want to be in charge! lol.) I just want to cook again. Sigh. Who would have thought I'd miss that?
So something weird...I decided that French people are not very good at preserving food. I mean, they don't have preservatives in any of their food, but they treat it like they do! They leave cheese and milk out all night and still drink it. I don't think the water pitcher has ever been refrigerated. (Which I don't like, not just because it tastes old, but because I like cold water.) They don't cover anything when they put it in the fridge... They keep their fruit (all of it, not just the bananas) on the counter. They leave their bread on the counter too, with no wrapping. It's so weird... I thought it was just our family, but talking to Joy last night I realized that it was all of them...
Tonight at dinner, the Devarennes were talking to me about their grandson's baptism. Then Aude asked me if the priests in our church drink wine, if the rest of us don't. I told them no, the priests didn't drink wine. We just used water for the Sacrament. Then I had to explain that the priests in our church were 16-18 years old, and the ones who passed the Sacrament were 12-13, and we used real bread broken into little pieces instead of wafers. And I had to try to explain what men do in the Church when they're older than 18, and the fact that not very many people are full-time Church workers, that they have other jobs too. And they can get different callings and be released and stuff. They thought that our Church did things in really weird ways. lol. But they also said that I was a good representative of my Church, that who I was made the Church look good...? (Or something like that. I forgot how you say that....) So I guess that was a nice compliment. :)
It was also funny, because Mme Devarenne got a picture book of the family from all her kids, and Aude was complaining about how she looked in some of the pictures. Mr Devarenne was disagreeing with her, and said that she was pretty. Then in English (with an extremely thick French accent) he said, "You are beautiful girl." Then looking at me. "You are both beautiful girls." lol. It was so cute and so funny hearing him say that. I don't think he speaks English very much. Like, not at all. Mme Devarenne is really the only one who partially speaks English.
Ok. Two days down. Let's hope I can get the rest of the days in soon! :)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
♪ Living is easy, the livin' is high ♪
Well...I've definitely learned that I should not get behind in my blog, because then there's tons to remember, and I don't know if I can think that far back! lol. I haven't written for a week! Yeesh....
Sigh...this is taking a while already. lol. And I haven't even written anything! I get way too distracted way too easily. At least since about Wednesday or Thursday. :P
Okay, Wednesday... We went on a little walk around the Seizieme Arrondissment. This is supposed to be one of the hardest-to-get-into areas of Paris. It was pretty cool, but not terribly eventful. We went on a cool little walk down an island in the middle of the Seine, which ended at the Statue of Liberty sculpture that they go to in National Treasure 2! Only, we could only see the back side of it. lol. There were some pretty interesting buildings all around too. One skyscraper was red with those retro rounded circles around the window. We saw a cool building in the Art Nouveau style...which is kinda strange and cool at the same time.... And we passed the house Balzac used to live in... We also stopped at a boulangerie for lunch, and I bought the MOST delicious strawberry tartlette I have ever tasted in my life!!!! I need to learn how to make those when I get home. (Not that Jeff will eat them, because he's really picky about his strawberries, but oh well. More for me. :) ) And...that was basically it. lol. Good day. Tired. The end.
Thursday....Oh, yeah! Haha. Let me tell you about Thursday. So....imagine you're driving through the intensely steep hills of San Francisco. (That in and of itself can be pretty scary, depending on who's driving.) Now imagine that those streets are completely paved in uneven cobblestone and are barely wide enough for one normal car to drive through and wind at extremely sharp angles. And there are thousands of pedestrians swarming the streets (because most of them are tourists, and tourists often swarm in big groups). Oh, yeah, and you're on a BUS which doesn't have very many seats, mostly just open floor space. AND the bus drive is going way too fast, taking the turns even faster, and probably wouldn't have graduated from drivers' ed if he'd tried to get his license in the U.S.
That was the introduction to Thursdays Paris exploration. :) Montmartre is a really cool place to visit. Just...if you don't like roller coasters, I suggest taking the Metro. :)
Montmartre is a cute little part of Paris that is probably one of the oldest areas in the city. It was the home of several painters (like Utrillo, Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh.) Although...I don't really recommend going to see where they lived, because most of the places they lived were just apartment buildings that aren't really that interesting. All there is to see is a plaque that said the artist lived there.
But we did visit Sacre Coeur. That was pretty cool. It's a basilica that sits on the hill and overlooks the whole city. There were tons of people there, because it was a Catholic holiday. One of the best parts, though, was getting to ride a train-thing up to the top of the hill. lol. It's almost like a mini metro train.
I've decided that after seeing so many churches, they all start looking the same to you and you kind of forget which church was which. lol. They all blur together.
We also went to visit a little abbey that was built in the 1100s. I really liked it, even though it was pretty dark inside. I don't know what I liked about it, because it wasn't extremely beautiful by Catholic church standards. Maybe I liked it because it was simple, and while Gothic architecture is amazing, sometimes you just need a nice, refreshing break from extravagance.
Also, I bought a little painting, because Aunt Michelle said I definitely need to. lol. It wasn't one of the really cool ones (which cost about an arm and a leg for the smallest one) but I like it. It's an oil of Notre Dame de Paris. I had to fish through dozens and dozens of pictures of the Eiffel Tower to find it. (I love the Eiffel Tower, but I already have a picture of it.)
We also so the Moulin Rouge night club. lol. Definitely didn't even want to go in there, but we got pictures, so now we can say we've seen it. That's all Paris and I really desired as far as the Moulin Rouge was concerned....
We were going to go to institute that night at the church in Paris, but we got there and the building was closed. lol. So much for trying to be righteous. ;) So we went home and I just......did stuff on my computer and stayed up way too late. lol.
Friday was our day off, which means we get to do whatever we want (and usually not one of the walks required by our class).
tbc....
Sigh...this is taking a while already. lol. And I haven't even written anything! I get way too distracted way too easily. At least since about Wednesday or Thursday. :P
Okay, Wednesday... We went on a little walk around the Seizieme Arrondissment. This is supposed to be one of the hardest-to-get-into areas of Paris. It was pretty cool, but not terribly eventful. We went on a cool little walk down an island in the middle of the Seine, which ended at the Statue of Liberty sculpture that they go to in National Treasure 2! Only, we could only see the back side of it. lol. There were some pretty interesting buildings all around too. One skyscraper was red with those retro rounded circles around the window. We saw a cool building in the Art Nouveau style...which is kinda strange and cool at the same time.... And we passed the house Balzac used to live in... We also stopped at a boulangerie for lunch, and I bought the MOST delicious strawberry tartlette I have ever tasted in my life!!!! I need to learn how to make those when I get home. (Not that Jeff will eat them, because he's really picky about his strawberries, but oh well. More for me. :) ) And...that was basically it. lol. Good day. Tired. The end.
Thursday....Oh, yeah! Haha. Let me tell you about Thursday. So....imagine you're driving through the intensely steep hills of San Francisco. (That in and of itself can be pretty scary, depending on who's driving.) Now imagine that those streets are completely paved in uneven cobblestone and are barely wide enough for one normal car to drive through and wind at extremely sharp angles. And there are thousands of pedestrians swarming the streets (because most of them are tourists, and tourists often swarm in big groups). Oh, yeah, and you're on a BUS which doesn't have very many seats, mostly just open floor space. AND the bus drive is going way too fast, taking the turns even faster, and probably wouldn't have graduated from drivers' ed if he'd tried to get his license in the U.S.
That was the introduction to Thursdays Paris exploration. :) Montmartre is a really cool place to visit. Just...if you don't like roller coasters, I suggest taking the Metro. :)
Montmartre is a cute little part of Paris that is probably one of the oldest areas in the city. It was the home of several painters (like Utrillo, Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh.) Although...I don't really recommend going to see where they lived, because most of the places they lived were just apartment buildings that aren't really that interesting. All there is to see is a plaque that said the artist lived there.
But we did visit Sacre Coeur. That was pretty cool. It's a basilica that sits on the hill and overlooks the whole city. There were tons of people there, because it was a Catholic holiday. One of the best parts, though, was getting to ride a train-thing up to the top of the hill. lol. It's almost like a mini metro train.
I've decided that after seeing so many churches, they all start looking the same to you and you kind of forget which church was which. lol. They all blur together.
We also went to visit a little abbey that was built in the 1100s. I really liked it, even though it was pretty dark inside. I don't know what I liked about it, because it wasn't extremely beautiful by Catholic church standards. Maybe I liked it because it was simple, and while Gothic architecture is amazing, sometimes you just need a nice, refreshing break from extravagance.
Also, I bought a little painting, because Aunt Michelle said I definitely need to. lol. It wasn't one of the really cool ones (which cost about an arm and a leg for the smallest one) but I like it. It's an oil of Notre Dame de Paris. I had to fish through dozens and dozens of pictures of the Eiffel Tower to find it. (I love the Eiffel Tower, but I already have a picture of it.)
We also so the Moulin Rouge night club. lol. Definitely didn't even want to go in there, but we got pictures, so now we can say we've seen it. That's all Paris and I really desired as far as the Moulin Rouge was concerned....
We were going to go to institute that night at the church in Paris, but we got there and the building was closed. lol. So much for trying to be righteous. ;) So we went home and I just......did stuff on my computer and stayed up way too late. lol.
Friday was our day off, which means we get to do whatever we want (and usually not one of the walks required by our class).
tbc....
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
♫ To show the richest and the poorest ♫
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's chilly in France this week! And living in a house with no carpeting, only tiled floors, makes it even colder, because you're never warm! The cold seeps through, even when you're indoors!
Unfortunately, this was the day we planned our trip to Versailles, which means we didn't get to see the gardens because only a crazy person would walk around in the freezing rain.
But, the amazing part of today was we got to sleep in! Because we didn't have class! Yahoo!
I decided that I really like the RER. It doesn't stop as often as the Metro, so it's not as convenient, but it's so much more comfortable. And there are usually more seats. It's more like a train than the Metro.
We started almost 45 minutes late, though, because one girl in the group. Sigh. But that's ok. We still made it to the chateau in time. This girl is a very nice girl. She kind of reminds me of Lady Katherine from Pride and Prejudice, though. Oh, man....lol.
Anyway, when we got of the train, it was pouring! Bleh. :/ So Paris and I looked around the gift shop and got something to eat before meeting the group at the line to get into the chateau. I made a bad choice of what kind of panini to get from the sandwich shop. I'm not sure what was on it (some kind of cheese and white fluffy stuff) but it was gross. And way overpriced. lol. Oh well. It was almost as bad as the raw-bacon sandwich I had last night for dinner. Seriously, it looked and tasted like raw bacon. It was chewy and had tons of fat on it... And all it was was that bacon stuff and butter! I think I should try to make better sandwich selections next time.... I can't believe people eat that stuff.
After eating and walking up to the chateau, we had to stand in the freezing rain for over half an hour until they let our group in! Paris was sure it was snow or ice, not really rain. It was way too cold to be rain!
We finally made it inside. Can I just tell you, the chateau of Versailles is massive? Holy cow... I wonder how much of the castle they don't let visitors into (and what they do with all of those rooms!) because what we saw was huge, and it was only the royal family's quarters. They didn't show us any ballrooms or courtiers rooms or anything like that, and there had to be tons of those if the whole court was there!
I decided that if you lived at Versailles, the rooms had the potential of giving you a headache. There was gold and shiny things all over! Every wall and ceiling was dripping with gold! And the paintings were so beautiful. They had such deep, rich colors. I can't imagine ever living in something so enormous and grand! I'd be afraid to touch anything, because I'd probably break it.
Needless to say, Louis XIV knew how to make a castle. And he definitely knew how to control a court. Man... People had to go to his waking up and going to bed ceremonies everyday. That doesn't seem like it would be amusing for the courtiers or the king or anyone else involved. What kind of terrible alarm would that be? People all gathering around waiting for you to wake up. Staring at you. Ugh. I mean, who actually acts dignified when they wake up? And there would be no snooze button. (I guess you could throw a slipper and yell at the courtiers or something, but....I couldn't fall back asleep with 50 people waiting on me.) And the queen had to do it too, I think. Poor lady probably didn't know what she was getting into when she married him. :/
Although, I might marry the guy just to have the queen's bedroom! It was gorgeous! Everything was white with pink roses and green leaves touched with gold. Simply stunning. I would love to have a room like that. At least for one night. Maybe I'll have a room like that in my future home. :) (HAHA!) Of course....it might look funny in my little French cottage, but at least it would match the French theme!
I also really loved the Dauphine's quarters. They weren't quite as over-the-top as the king's and queen's. There was one room that was a sort of study for the Dauphine, and instead of gold all over, the accent was a pretty sage green on white walls. The desks in that room were pretty cool, too! And there was an awesome view of the gardens.
There were so many portraits in that place! It was crazy! And they all looked exactly the same. Well, at least the girls all had the same face, and the boys all had the same face. I decided that in real life, they must have shared very distinct family characteristics, or else the artist was kind of a one trick pony. Or I guess it could have been the style to have your portrait painted with that kind of face. I dunno. One of my favorite paintings was of one of the princes, because he was dressed like a girl! Luckily they dressed him in a dark blue and blue dress, but still...it was very much a dress. Hoop skirt and everything. I think that would be so hilarious! How could you tell boys and girls apart when they were that young? Maybe they made sure to dress boys and girls in different colors. I don't know. Or maybe it was because the whole time period wasn't very manly in general. They had to teach their sons early. I dunno. lol. :)
I guess I should also mention the hall of mirrors, because that's everybody's favorite. It was pretty cool. Huge, like, everything else. Lots of sculpture and paintings glorifying Louis XIV. I bet on a sunny day, it would have looked even more magnificent (and it looked pretty awesome on a cloudy day.) Also, there was this really cool hall that was just as big, but it had huge paintings of all the French war victories through the 1800s on its walls. Those paintings were really pretty, even if some were a little gory. There were also a couple halls that had huge classical statues of a lot of the kings of France and some of the other powerful or talented people in French history. I liked those halls too.
After the tour (which was via audio guide) we waited for the rest of our group outside. (Ugh!) We were huddled under a covered passageway trying not to freeze with all of the smokers. :P It was so gross. That is one thing I love about Provo, especially BYU. NO SMOKE! (Well, very little... at least where I usually hang out.) I swear, my life is going to be cut 10 years short from this trip, and all because of unintentional second hand smoke!
Dinner was pretty awesome, even if it did go a little long. (And by a little, I mean we were sitting at the table for two hours...) We finished eating before Mr. Devarenne and Aude got home, so we sat through them eating dinner too. lol. But it was fun, so I didn't mind. We ate radishes (at least I think they were radishes...some kind of red root) for the first course. I didn't think I'd like them at all, especially because they were raw, but I actually really liked them! And Paris liked them too, which was even crazier. lol. We buttered a little piece of bread, dipped the end of the radish in fleur de sel (which is like table salt, but bigger grains and a lot fancier), and ate them together. Yum! There were also tomatoes with some herbs on them and carrot sticks. The second course was some sort of lasagna. It wasn't exactly like American lasagna, but it was still really good! And then we had cheese (which always makes me happy) and dessert, which was a fruit salad of delicious cantaloupe, kiwi, and a couple other things I really didn't recognize.
One of the best parts about dinner, though, was talking to Mme Devarenne. She is honestly one of the most funny ladies I have ever met. lol. She cracks me up. And it's so cool, because she laughs at herself all the time. (And everyone else.) She's just a happy-go-lucky person and has such a positive view of life. We talked about my internship with BYU Athletic Communications and how she spent her early years in Algeria and how her daughters are all engineers except Aude and how she used to think Aude was so smart when she quizzed her on multiplication, only to find out Aude had drawn the multiplication table on the tablecloth. She told us how she used to have to drive her older sister places all the time because her sister didn't have her drivers license, and they both hated it. But it was because of driving her sister around that Mme Devarenne met Mr Devarenne. And she said she got married when she was twenty! Which is so early in France. She also talked a lot about some of the past students she's had stay at her house. That was pretty fun.
C "Paris, vous devez aller avec Rachel pour faire la conaissance des membres des equipe des sports! On peut trouver un garcon pour toi."
P "Oui. Peut-etre ils sont beaux!"
C "Si il est sympa, ca c'est le plus important. Si il est beau, c'est un bonus."
P "Oui, mais j'espere qu'il est mignon."
C "Rachel, ton petit ami, est-il mignon?"
R "Ouais!"
(on rit)
(Note: En realite, Paris a un petit ami. Aussi, ca c'est un peu paraphrase.)
Then Aude and Mr Devarenne got home and we talked about how cold it was going to be this week. (Bleh.) And Aude told us stories about when they went to Morocco and she went to dye her hair at a shop, and they turned it bright orange! So when she got back to France, she tried to dye it herself, and she turned it blue! And she had to go take a major test with blue hair. lol. After she dyed it blue, she asked her dad when he got home if he noticed anything different. He thought for a second, and then said, "You got a new sweater?" And he was dead serious. (heeheehee.)Then she went to a real hair dresser and had to sign a waiver saying she wouldn't sue them if her hair fell out when they were trying to turn it back to a normal color. She also talked to us about how she loved how cheap fake nails are in the U.S. (In France, they cost 90 euros!) She got her nails done when they were in the U.S. a little while ago, and before she went home, she ripped all of them off herself and went to get new nails put on so she could have them longer when she got back to France. lol.
A demain!
Unfortunately, this was the day we planned our trip to Versailles, which means we didn't get to see the gardens because only a crazy person would walk around in the freezing rain.
But, the amazing part of today was we got to sleep in! Because we didn't have class! Yahoo!
I decided that I really like the RER. It doesn't stop as often as the Metro, so it's not as convenient, but it's so much more comfortable. And there are usually more seats. It's more like a train than the Metro.
We started almost 45 minutes late, though, because one girl in the group. Sigh. But that's ok. We still made it to the chateau in time. This girl is a very nice girl. She kind of reminds me of Lady Katherine from Pride and Prejudice, though. Oh, man....lol.
Anyway, when we got of the train, it was pouring! Bleh. :/ So Paris and I looked around the gift shop and got something to eat before meeting the group at the line to get into the chateau. I made a bad choice of what kind of panini to get from the sandwich shop. I'm not sure what was on it (some kind of cheese and white fluffy stuff) but it was gross. And way overpriced. lol. Oh well. It was almost as bad as the raw-bacon sandwich I had last night for dinner. Seriously, it looked and tasted like raw bacon. It was chewy and had tons of fat on it... And all it was was that bacon stuff and butter! I think I should try to make better sandwich selections next time.... I can't believe people eat that stuff.
After eating and walking up to the chateau, we had to stand in the freezing rain for over half an hour until they let our group in! Paris was sure it was snow or ice, not really rain. It was way too cold to be rain!
We finally made it inside. Can I just tell you, the chateau of Versailles is massive? Holy cow... I wonder how much of the castle they don't let visitors into (and what they do with all of those rooms!) because what we saw was huge, and it was only the royal family's quarters. They didn't show us any ballrooms or courtiers rooms or anything like that, and there had to be tons of those if the whole court was there!
I decided that if you lived at Versailles, the rooms had the potential of giving you a headache. There was gold and shiny things all over! Every wall and ceiling was dripping with gold! And the paintings were so beautiful. They had such deep, rich colors. I can't imagine ever living in something so enormous and grand! I'd be afraid to touch anything, because I'd probably break it.
Needless to say, Louis XIV knew how to make a castle. And he definitely knew how to control a court. Man... People had to go to his waking up and going to bed ceremonies everyday. That doesn't seem like it would be amusing for the courtiers or the king or anyone else involved. What kind of terrible alarm would that be? People all gathering around waiting for you to wake up. Staring at you. Ugh. I mean, who actually acts dignified when they wake up? And there would be no snooze button. (I guess you could throw a slipper and yell at the courtiers or something, but....I couldn't fall back asleep with 50 people waiting on me.) And the queen had to do it too, I think. Poor lady probably didn't know what she was getting into when she married him. :/
Although, I might marry the guy just to have the queen's bedroom! It was gorgeous! Everything was white with pink roses and green leaves touched with gold. Simply stunning. I would love to have a room like that. At least for one night. Maybe I'll have a room like that in my future home. :) (HAHA!) Of course....it might look funny in my little French cottage, but at least it would match the French theme!
I also really loved the Dauphine's quarters. They weren't quite as over-the-top as the king's and queen's. There was one room that was a sort of study for the Dauphine, and instead of gold all over, the accent was a pretty sage green on white walls. The desks in that room were pretty cool, too! And there was an awesome view of the gardens.
There were so many portraits in that place! It was crazy! And they all looked exactly the same. Well, at least the girls all had the same face, and the boys all had the same face. I decided that in real life, they must have shared very distinct family characteristics, or else the artist was kind of a one trick pony. Or I guess it could have been the style to have your portrait painted with that kind of face. I dunno. One of my favorite paintings was of one of the princes, because he was dressed like a girl! Luckily they dressed him in a dark blue and blue dress, but still...it was very much a dress. Hoop skirt and everything. I think that would be so hilarious! How could you tell boys and girls apart when they were that young? Maybe they made sure to dress boys and girls in different colors. I don't know. Or maybe it was because the whole time period wasn't very manly in general. They had to teach their sons early. I dunno. lol. :)
I guess I should also mention the hall of mirrors, because that's everybody's favorite. It was pretty cool. Huge, like, everything else. Lots of sculpture and paintings glorifying Louis XIV. I bet on a sunny day, it would have looked even more magnificent (and it looked pretty awesome on a cloudy day.) Also, there was this really cool hall that was just as big, but it had huge paintings of all the French war victories through the 1800s on its walls. Those paintings were really pretty, even if some were a little gory. There were also a couple halls that had huge classical statues of a lot of the kings of France and some of the other powerful or talented people in French history. I liked those halls too.
After the tour (which was via audio guide) we waited for the rest of our group outside. (Ugh!) We were huddled under a covered passageway trying not to freeze with all of the smokers. :P It was so gross. That is one thing I love about Provo, especially BYU. NO SMOKE! (Well, very little... at least where I usually hang out.) I swear, my life is going to be cut 10 years short from this trip, and all because of unintentional second hand smoke!
Dinner was pretty awesome, even if it did go a little long. (And by a little, I mean we were sitting at the table for two hours...) We finished eating before Mr. Devarenne and Aude got home, so we sat through them eating dinner too. lol. But it was fun, so I didn't mind. We ate radishes (at least I think they were radishes...some kind of red root) for the first course. I didn't think I'd like them at all, especially because they were raw, but I actually really liked them! And Paris liked them too, which was even crazier. lol. We buttered a little piece of bread, dipped the end of the radish in fleur de sel (which is like table salt, but bigger grains and a lot fancier), and ate them together. Yum! There were also tomatoes with some herbs on them and carrot sticks. The second course was some sort of lasagna. It wasn't exactly like American lasagna, but it was still really good! And then we had cheese (which always makes me happy) and dessert, which was a fruit salad of delicious cantaloupe, kiwi, and a couple other things I really didn't recognize.
One of the best parts about dinner, though, was talking to Mme Devarenne. She is honestly one of the most funny ladies I have ever met. lol. She cracks me up. And it's so cool, because she laughs at herself all the time. (And everyone else.) She's just a happy-go-lucky person and has such a positive view of life. We talked about my internship with BYU Athletic Communications and how she spent her early years in Algeria and how her daughters are all engineers except Aude and how she used to think Aude was so smart when she quizzed her on multiplication, only to find out Aude had drawn the multiplication table on the tablecloth. She told us how she used to have to drive her older sister places all the time because her sister didn't have her drivers license, and they both hated it. But it was because of driving her sister around that Mme Devarenne met Mr Devarenne. And she said she got married when she was twenty! Which is so early in France. She also talked a lot about some of the past students she's had stay at her house. That was pretty fun.
C "Paris, vous devez aller avec Rachel pour faire la conaissance des membres des equipe des sports! On peut trouver un garcon pour toi."
P "Oui. Peut-etre ils sont beaux!"
C "Si il est sympa, ca c'est le plus important. Si il est beau, c'est un bonus."
P "Oui, mais j'espere qu'il est mignon."
C "Rachel, ton petit ami, est-il mignon?"
R "Ouais!"
(on rit)
(Note: En realite, Paris a un petit ami. Aussi, ca c'est un peu paraphrase.)
Then Aude and Mr Devarenne got home and we talked about how cold it was going to be this week. (Bleh.) And Aude told us stories about when they went to Morocco and she went to dye her hair at a shop, and they turned it bright orange! So when she got back to France, she tried to dye it herself, and she turned it blue! And she had to go take a major test with blue hair. lol. After she dyed it blue, she asked her dad when he got home if he noticed anything different. He thought for a second, and then said, "You got a new sweater?" And he was dead serious. (heeheehee.)Then she went to a real hair dresser and had to sign a waiver saying she wouldn't sue them if her hair fell out when they were trying to turn it back to a normal color. She also talked to us about how she loved how cheap fake nails are in the U.S. (In France, they cost 90 euros!) She got her nails done when they were in the U.S. a little while ago, and before she went home, she ripped all of them off herself and went to get new nails put on so she could have them longer when she got back to France. lol.
A demain!
Monday, May 10, 2010
♪ I want to see the den of thinking men like Jean-Paul Sartre ♫
I'm not really sure why I get up to go running every morning if I always have negative consequences afterward. lol. Oh, well. Hopefully the good consequences will outweigh the bad eventually. (Although, with all the desserts and fatty food in France, they very well may not...)
Today we did a short walk around Saint Sulpice. It was pretty fun, and luckily we didn't get rained on. (Unfortunately there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow's escapade to Versailles...) We went to the Poilane bakery, which is pretty much one of the most famous bakeries in Paris, and therefore the world. They don't use any preservatives and still cook with wood-fire ovens! And they ship their bread all over the world for an arm and a leg. lol. We stopped in and bought a couple of little loaves our guide book recommended. I think I would have made a different selection had I know that pain aux noix meant bread with nuts in it, but it was still pretty good. The big loaves in there were so pretty! They had cool letters on them, and trees, and words and stuff. On bread! It was awesome.
Then we passed by an insane sculpture of a centaur that was the ugliest piece of art I have ever seen... I don't even know why they had it commissioned. It was worse than the sculpture we saw Friday!
We also passed by a theatre where Jean-Paul Sartre's play premiered. I don't really know that much about Sartre, just that they mention him in one of my favorite movies Funny Face. lol.
Then we went to the Saint-Sulpice church. For any of you Da Vinci Code fans, this is the church they talk about. Or one of them, I can't remember. Personally, I haven't read the book and I absolutely hated the movie, so it wasn't that big a deal for me. I think the outside of the church looks really cool, but the inside was really dark and really gloomy. I also didn't really like the architecture. It was some weird combination of Gothic and Neoclassic. Bleh. lol. I mean...it was kind of cool, but....not a favorite. And it was kinda sad, because so many of the paintings on the walls were so faded, you could hardly tell they were paintings. They just looked like black walls. Although the organ was really cool looking. There were statues on it. lol.
Then we left and traveled down rue Princesse. lol. It was a tiny street. And there was a bar called The Frog and Princess. That made us laugh.
Our path then led us to Ben and Jerry's ice cream....a "glacier americain". And...we had to stop. lol. It was kind of a chilly day for ice cream, but it was a taste of home! And apparently the French don't like cookie dough ice cream...because the tub of cookie dough was smooth with no scoops out of it. So I chose cookie dough. lol. It's such an American flavor. And Paris chose brownie something or other...I forgot what that other popular American flavor is.
After that we saw another church- the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres. This one was actually really cool. I loved it. The walls were painted with beautiful red, green, and gold. And the paintings were in much better repair. This one was also cool, because it was a little like St. Denis. It had an old Romanesque tower on a Gothic abbey.
After the abbey, we came home and I texted Jeff through email while I did all the reading for tomorrow. Then I took a nap.
Then we grabbed sandwiches on our way to FHE with the young single adults at the church in Paris. The missionaries taught a lesson and then we played that hand slapping game where you cross arms with the people next to you and slap the floor and go around in a circle, and whoever messes up is out. We also talked to some people (in French and English). That was fun.
Then I finished up with an awesome conversation with Jeff. The end. :)
Today we did a short walk around Saint Sulpice. It was pretty fun, and luckily we didn't get rained on. (Unfortunately there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow's escapade to Versailles...) We went to the Poilane bakery, which is pretty much one of the most famous bakeries in Paris, and therefore the world. They don't use any preservatives and still cook with wood-fire ovens! And they ship their bread all over the world for an arm and a leg. lol. We stopped in and bought a couple of little loaves our guide book recommended. I think I would have made a different selection had I know that pain aux noix meant bread with nuts in it, but it was still pretty good. The big loaves in there were so pretty! They had cool letters on them, and trees, and words and stuff. On bread! It was awesome.
Then we passed by an insane sculpture of a centaur that was the ugliest piece of art I have ever seen... I don't even know why they had it commissioned. It was worse than the sculpture we saw Friday!
We also passed by a theatre where Jean-Paul Sartre's play premiered. I don't really know that much about Sartre, just that they mention him in one of my favorite movies Funny Face. lol.
Then we went to the Saint-Sulpice church. For any of you Da Vinci Code fans, this is the church they talk about. Or one of them, I can't remember. Personally, I haven't read the book and I absolutely hated the movie, so it wasn't that big a deal for me. I think the outside of the church looks really cool, but the inside was really dark and really gloomy. I also didn't really like the architecture. It was some weird combination of Gothic and Neoclassic. Bleh. lol. I mean...it was kind of cool, but....not a favorite. And it was kinda sad, because so many of the paintings on the walls were so faded, you could hardly tell they were paintings. They just looked like black walls. Although the organ was really cool looking. There were statues on it. lol.
Then we left and traveled down rue Princesse. lol. It was a tiny street. And there was a bar called The Frog and Princess. That made us laugh.
Our path then led us to Ben and Jerry's ice cream....a "glacier americain". And...we had to stop. lol. It was kind of a chilly day for ice cream, but it was a taste of home! And apparently the French don't like cookie dough ice cream...because the tub of cookie dough was smooth with no scoops out of it. So I chose cookie dough. lol. It's such an American flavor. And Paris chose brownie something or other...I forgot what that other popular American flavor is.
After that we saw another church- the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres. This one was actually really cool. I loved it. The walls were painted with beautiful red, green, and gold. And the paintings were in much better repair. This one was also cool, because it was a little like St. Denis. It had an old Romanesque tower on a Gothic abbey.
After the abbey, we came home and I texted Jeff through email while I did all the reading for tomorrow. Then I took a nap.
Then we grabbed sandwiches on our way to FHE with the young single adults at the church in Paris. The missionaries taught a lesson and then we played that hand slapping game where you cross arms with the people next to you and slap the floor and go around in a circle, and whoever messes up is out. We also talked to some people (in French and English). That was fun.
Then I finished up with an awesome conversation with Jeff. The end. :)
Sunday, May 9, 2010
♫ Do some window shopping in the Rue de la Paix ♪
*sigh* I know. I've been bad. I missed two days in a row! Ugh. I was just so exhausted Friday that I didn't feel like writing.
After class Friday morning, we went to Mont Parnasse, where all the artists and intellectuals used to hang out. (Just like in Funny Face. lol.)
Our walk took us to a really strange looking statue of a soldier with a big body and tiny head that was supposed to be a monument to Alfred Dreyfuss, a Jewish soldier in the French army who was accused of treason, stripped of his command, and exiled all on false accusations. France was so embarrassed by the event, that this soldier's statue was hidden in a tiny, obscure part of Paris on a little patch of grass too small to be called a park instead of at the military school where it was meant to be. You can really only find it if you get directions from somebody who's been there before, because it's not really on maps.
After that stop (which actually wasn't all that exciting, because I thought the statue was ugly) we got gelato. It was so yummy! :) I loved it. Except the part when I was ordering and couldn't figure out what they were asking me, and so they had to switch to English. That was kinda embarrassing. lol. I got passion fruit and raspberry gelato. So delicious! And that place had like 30 flavors of hot chocolate too! I totally want to go back and try some. :) I love hot chocolate.
Then we went to the Luxembourg gardens. I liked this garden even better than Tuileries, I think. This one felt a lot more peaceful. This garden is where an old school of agriculture has kept bees for centuries. They still have several beehives there. Walking further, there are many statues, including a model for the Statue of Liberty! That was cool to see. There was also a huge playground and a carousel. In some parts of the garden, the trees were in random places, which is a little weird for a French garden, but they were pretty trees and so huge! And they bent in really cool ways.
In the middle of the garden is a big pond and a lot of grass. Surrounding these are twenty statues of queens of France. I loved the statues! (I wished we'd spent more time there, but we kind of rushed through it because the girl Paris and I were with was one of those get-'er-done types of people, which isn't a bad thing, but we just went really fast.) The statues were all done in a classical style, and each one was so unique. At one end of the pond was the palace where some of the royals lived, including Marie de Medicis. The French Senate meets there now (which is funny, because there really wasn't that much security around the building when we went). One of the coolest parts of this part of the garden were the flowers. There were so many tulips and pansies all over! (And other types of flowers, I just don't know what they were called...) On one side of the palace was a cool fountain Marie de Medicis had put in for fun with some classical statues. There was also a monument to all the students who died in the French Revolution.
Next to the palace was an orangerie, where they grew orange trees. They use it as an art gallery in the summer, but I'm not sure what they were using it for when we went.
After that walk, we decided to do ANOTHER walk. Two walks in one day! lol. Like I said, we were moving fast. :)
In this next walk, we went past two of the biggest (and most expensive!) stores in Paris- Printemps and La Gallerie Lafayette. Those stores...are insane. We were looking at the bags they had in the store windows, and some of them were 4,000 euros! Who would spend that much on a purse? Honestly... Even if it is hot pink.
Then we went to the Paris Opera House. It was pretty cool looking. We were going to go inside and do a tour, but the auditorium was closed for a rehearsal, so we decided we'd come back and do the tour another time, because the auditorium is the main attraction in the opera house anyway.
After deciding not to go on a tour, we trekked down Rue de la Paix, one of the most expensive shopping streets ever! Not gonna lie, the shops had some pretty weird styles in their windows. But it was fun to walk down and see things some people thought were pretty.
We stepped into a cool church that wasn't talked about on our walk. I think it was a really old Gothic church, but Louis XIV changed it a bit when he was king. It was cool, because it had some red stone in the architecture. Also, behind the altar was a stone nativity that was really beautiful. The coolest thing about this, though, was that in a little chapel behind the nativity was an image of Christ on the cross. (I can't remember if it was stone or a painting.) If you were right in front of the nativity, you could see the picture of Christ on the cross right above the Nativity. I think at Christmas time (and all the time) that would be a good reminder of Christ's purpose on Earth and why we really celebrate Christmas.
We ended that walk at Place Vendome, where a huge column commemorates Napoleon's victory over Austria. Austrian cannons were melted down to make the column. On top was a statue of Napoleon dressed like a Roman emperor. It was pretty cool, I guess. lol. A little further down was a golden statue of Jeanne d'Arc (which Paris and I actually saw a couple days ago when we were at the Tuileries).
We parted ways with the other girl in our group after the walk. We were going to do some shopping and she was going to get Thai food with a bunch of people from the group. (Paris isn't a big fan of Thai food, so we opted out.) I found a cute pink shirt and a cute purse, and Paris found the most awesome shirt ever that said "I am Paris" on the front. lol. She HAD to get it. It was perfect. lol.
But we didn't want to just go home when we were done shopping. We walked back through the Tuileries and decided to have dinner at a little cafe in the gardens. It's not everyday that you can eat dinner in front of a huge collection of neo-classical statues and the Louvre!
After that, we just started walking. We walked up the Champs Elysee, almost until we got to the Arc d'Triomphe, then we turned and headed for the Tour Eiffel. It didn't look like it was that far away. lol. And I guess it wasn't. Only like, an hour and a half walk. :) lol. The Eiffel Tower is huge. Much bigger than it looks in pictures and the movies. And you always forget how big it is when you see it from somewhere else in the city. You look up and think, "Oh, look! The Eiffel Tower is really close by!" but my friends, it probably isn't close by. lol. We walked up the Seine for a while, found a model of the flame of the Statue of Liberty that is supposed to be a symbol of the friendship between the U.S. and France. We passed this huge building whose wall was one huge planter box! That was way cool. lol. It had plants growing sideways out of it, covering every inch of the wall.
We finally made it to the Champs Elysee, where there was a brass band playing right by the Tour Eiffel! It was cool. lol. It looked and sounded like a high school band from the States. And they even played "When the Saints Go Marching in" and songs like that. And there was an adorable little kid standing in the front of the crowd dancing to it. lol. He was SOOOO cute! :)
Then we went home, ate dinner and fell asleep. lol. We were so dead from all that walking!
Saturday was a little more laid-back. We went to class (almost late again, as neither of us got up to go running.... Oops!) Then we walked to the square in front of Hotel de Ville, where we found a huge event going on. I didn't really understand what it was, but something about European unity or something. There was another big band playing there. They played YMCA. lol. That was cool.
From there, we hopped on the Metro to head out to Saint Denis to see the basilica, which is pretty much the first Gothic church ever. We grabbed some sandwiches on our way out of the Metro. (We eat sandwiches for lunch ALL the time here, because a lot of cafes will give you a nice deal of a sandwich, drink, and dessert for six euros.) I got a beignet for my dessert, which was pretty yummy. Although, I have to say the beignets on Princess and the Frog look so much more tasty. The powdered sugar on top pretty much glows in the movie.... Mine only had a little powdered sugar on it. But like I said, it was yummy. It tasted like my favorite kind of donut, because it had chocolate pudding inside. The custard-filled donuts are my favorite!!!
While we ate, we sat next to the basilica. There was a little merry-go-round right next to where we were in the square in front of the basilica. It was funny... for a couple reasons. One, because it played Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" for a children's ride, and second it played Lady Gaga in front of a Gothic church.... It played a couple French children's songs (the kind that say the same thing over and over and get stuck in your head so fast!) some nice Byonce (which I say in a sarcastic tone) and "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" in French. lol. The last one was cool.
While we waited for a tour of the basilica, we went to check out the shops on one of the main streets of St. Denis. Now, Paris and I had already told ourselves NO MORE SHOPPING THIS WEEK (unless she found a cool bag, because she needed one) because we'd already shopped a ton. This was definitely not a good place to go after making that deal... because it was pretty much bargain-shopper's heaven! There was one store whose jeans were all 10 euros! (That's only $13!) And another store where every purse was 10 euros, and there were a lot of really cool purses. Some of the purses were huge too! You'd have to pay $20-30 for one of those in the states, usually. Unfortunately I'd just bought a purse, or I would have gotten one. I practiced at least some self control. lol. At least until we got to the place with 10 euro jeans. And then I caved. And I almost bought a couple shirts there too, because they were under 10 euros and there were some really cute ones that I loved. But I refrained! And just bought some jeans. :) Another pair of skinny jeans, which Jeff will probably hate because he thinks those kinda of jeans are ugly, but I thought they were cute and I didn't want to stick out so much here in France, because everybody wears skinny jeans and skinny pants. Flare and bootcut are just so out of style in most cases here in Paris.
Then we went on the tour of the church. It's a really cool church! Besides being the oldest example of Gothic architecture, it's the burial place of several kings of France. Including Pippin the Short, who is actually one of my ancestors! Cool, huh? I got to see where some of my ancestors were buried! :) Henry the II is one of my ancestors, too, and he was buried there. This is also the final resting place of Louis XIV and all of his family, as well as Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. (I always thought that they were tossed into a mass grave, and that was the end of it, but I guess somebody found the bodies and kept them until after the Revolution and then buried them. They were moved to St. Denis in the 1800s.)
Some of the monuments to the kings and queens were pretty cool. Each one has a statue of the dead person on top of the tomb, laying down with their feet resting on lions. (Why their feet were on lions, I'm not exactly sure.) Some kings were really old! They went back to before Charlemagne (which probably means they're more of my ancestors...lol. But I'm not really sure.) Then there were some that were kind of weird. They had three or four huge tombs that kind of looked like four-post beds (although, they had Greek columns instead of posts...) On the sides of the beds were battle scenes, and usually four large statues of random women were at the corners. The weird part about these tombs were...they showed the king and queen dead in kind of weird, contorted positions...and they didn't have clothes on. I thought that very strange in a church and decided that I would definitely never want to have a tomb like that built... Awkward. I decided it might be a reference to their being among the good people who will be returned to a state of innocence like Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, because that's what the people believed would happen to the good people who died. I dunno, though. It was weird... On top of the roof (I guess you could call it) of the tombs were the queen and king dressed in really fine clothing kneeling in confession. A couple of the kings had two tombs- one of them lying next to the queen in very fine clothes like all the rest of the people buried there, and then another of the weird clothes-less ones. I'm not sure why someone would want to have two tombs, but whatever. Just take up all the space so someone else has to have a smaller tomb, I guess.
In the crypt (which is where Louid XIV and everybody else was) there was a place where a couple children of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's children were buried. For some reason, the heart was removed from one of the sons and put on display in a crystal case. That was pretty gross, not gonna lie. Outside of the place where all Louis XIV's family was buried (minus Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI), there was a room filled with wooden coffins. They weren't even put into the wall or covered with a stone sarcophagus! Just the wooden coffins sitting there (some of the little ones stacked on top of the bigger ones). It was kind of creepy... Anyway, this was were other princes were put. (I guess I can't really say buried, because technically they're not buried.) There was a shelf behind them with a bunch of boxes and jars holding all of the princes' hearts. I don't really know why they removed their hearts and put them in separate boxes when they died. That just seems really weird to me. I mean, I've heard of that happening with some people (like Robert the Bruce) but that happened several centuries before. These princes whose hearts were removed and put in jars were from the 1700s...
It was also cool to see Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's graves. The graves were completed in the 1970s, so they're very new looking. Each is just a plain slab of black marble with their names etched in gold on the top.
So...the tour was in French. And the lady spoke insanely fast! Paris and I tried to follow, and we did for a while, but after about an hour we gave up. lol. I was really only catching names and a few random words. I think she was using a lot of vocabulary I'm not familiar with, which is why it was so hard. (That, and she was seriously speaking 10,000 words per minute.) We just walked around the cathedral and took pictures after breaking off from the group.
On our way back to the Metro, this guy came up to us and started hitting on Paris. (Heeheehee!)
Guy: "Vous etes charmante!" (You're charming!)
Paris: "Quoi?" (What?)
Guy: "Vous etes charmante! Est-ce que vous voulez aller pour cafe?" (You're charming! Do you want to go out for coffee?)
Paris: "Non, nous avons un rendez-vous avec des amis a Paris ce soir..." (No, we have a date with some friends in Paris tonight.)
We weren't really meeting up with friends in Paris...but that's ok. lol. He was good looking, though. lol. Too bad we don't drink coffee and too bad that St. Denis has a bad reputation after dark... The guy was probably a creeper.
Then we came home, I took a test and finished reading for Monday, and went to bed.
Sunday! Yay, I'm almost caught up! Church was so difficult this morning! lol. I was really tired and really hungry (because we were late, so I grabbed the cake and crepe to go). It was pretty hard to concentrate. I understood what was going on for the first part of our combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting, though. But the meeting went for an hour and a half! We had to skip Sunday School, it went so long. lol. (Or maybe they were planning on doing that, I'm not sure.)
Then in Sacrament meeting, an African woman and her two young daughters sat next to us. They were SO cute, and not very quiet. lol. Needless to say, I had a bit of trouble staying focused in Sacrament meeting.... Part of the reason I liked listening to them was because I could actually understand them! lol. They used nice, easy phrases that I could understand. I told Paris that next week, we should go to Primary. lol. That seemed like the funner place to be than Sunday School and Relief Society. (I know that's bad, but...honestly, French children are so cute!) One of the girls wiped her hands on my skirt, though (accidentally). lol. So I had cookie crumbs all over my skirt. The older girl (I think she was four or five) kept telling her mom over and over that her mom's scarf was pretty. It was so precious. :) And then she kept pushing her little sister off of the chair saying, "Non! C'est ma chaise!" even though she wasn't actually sitting in it. When her mom told her to sit down she said, "Pourquoi?" Sigh. Oh, man. So adorable! :D It was ward conference for them, so they were sustaining everybody, and every time after the sustaining, the older girl would say, "Maman, j'ai leve la main!" (Mom, I raised my hand!)
After church, I came home and talked to my family and then took a nap. lol. We had dinner at 8 p.m. Tonight we used the reclette. (Is that the word?) It's a little grill you put in the middle of the table and cook stuff on. You can also warm stuff up underneath the grill too in little cups. We had something that was kind of like bacon and a couple different kinds of ham, as well as cheese (the kind that I'm sure is the cause of that horrid smell we run into on the way to the Metro every day when we walk past the cheese shop) and potatoes. After that we had this weird purple cabbage stuff that tasted really strongly of vinegar. And when I say purple, I mean purple. That stuff was the brightest purple I've ever seen in a food. It couldn't have been real. I haven't seen crayons that bright. lol. It wasn't too bad... But it reminded me of Evan and Mikayla, because she'd always call him "Mon chou" and chou means cabbage in French. For dessert we had strawberries and cooked apples with cinnamon. They were soooo delicious!
Well, it looks like Saint Sulpice is on the docket for tomorrow. Not really sure what that walk will be about, but we'll see! And then we're going to Family Home Evening with the young single adults in the ward.
After class Friday morning, we went to Mont Parnasse, where all the artists and intellectuals used to hang out. (Just like in Funny Face. lol.)
Our walk took us to a really strange looking statue of a soldier with a big body and tiny head that was supposed to be a monument to Alfred Dreyfuss, a Jewish soldier in the French army who was accused of treason, stripped of his command, and exiled all on false accusations. France was so embarrassed by the event, that this soldier's statue was hidden in a tiny, obscure part of Paris on a little patch of grass too small to be called a park instead of at the military school where it was meant to be. You can really only find it if you get directions from somebody who's been there before, because it's not really on maps.
After that stop (which actually wasn't all that exciting, because I thought the statue was ugly) we got gelato. It was so yummy! :) I loved it. Except the part when I was ordering and couldn't figure out what they were asking me, and so they had to switch to English. That was kinda embarrassing. lol. I got passion fruit and raspberry gelato. So delicious! And that place had like 30 flavors of hot chocolate too! I totally want to go back and try some. :) I love hot chocolate.
Then we went to the Luxembourg gardens. I liked this garden even better than Tuileries, I think. This one felt a lot more peaceful. This garden is where an old school of agriculture has kept bees for centuries. They still have several beehives there. Walking further, there are many statues, including a model for the Statue of Liberty! That was cool to see. There was also a huge playground and a carousel. In some parts of the garden, the trees were in random places, which is a little weird for a French garden, but they were pretty trees and so huge! And they bent in really cool ways.
In the middle of the garden is a big pond and a lot of grass. Surrounding these are twenty statues of queens of France. I loved the statues! (I wished we'd spent more time there, but we kind of rushed through it because the girl Paris and I were with was one of those get-'er-done types of people, which isn't a bad thing, but we just went really fast.) The statues were all done in a classical style, and each one was so unique. At one end of the pond was the palace where some of the royals lived, including Marie de Medicis. The French Senate meets there now (which is funny, because there really wasn't that much security around the building when we went). One of the coolest parts of this part of the garden were the flowers. There were so many tulips and pansies all over! (And other types of flowers, I just don't know what they were called...) On one side of the palace was a cool fountain Marie de Medicis had put in for fun with some classical statues. There was also a monument to all the students who died in the French Revolution.
Next to the palace was an orangerie, where they grew orange trees. They use it as an art gallery in the summer, but I'm not sure what they were using it for when we went.
After that walk, we decided to do ANOTHER walk. Two walks in one day! lol. Like I said, we were moving fast. :)
In this next walk, we went past two of the biggest (and most expensive!) stores in Paris- Printemps and La Gallerie Lafayette. Those stores...are insane. We were looking at the bags they had in the store windows, and some of them were 4,000 euros! Who would spend that much on a purse? Honestly... Even if it is hot pink.
Then we went to the Paris Opera House. It was pretty cool looking. We were going to go inside and do a tour, but the auditorium was closed for a rehearsal, so we decided we'd come back and do the tour another time, because the auditorium is the main attraction in the opera house anyway.
After deciding not to go on a tour, we trekked down Rue de la Paix, one of the most expensive shopping streets ever! Not gonna lie, the shops had some pretty weird styles in their windows. But it was fun to walk down and see things some people thought were pretty.
We stepped into a cool church that wasn't talked about on our walk. I think it was a really old Gothic church, but Louis XIV changed it a bit when he was king. It was cool, because it had some red stone in the architecture. Also, behind the altar was a stone nativity that was really beautiful. The coolest thing about this, though, was that in a little chapel behind the nativity was an image of Christ on the cross. (I can't remember if it was stone or a painting.) If you were right in front of the nativity, you could see the picture of Christ on the cross right above the Nativity. I think at Christmas time (and all the time) that would be a good reminder of Christ's purpose on Earth and why we really celebrate Christmas.
We ended that walk at Place Vendome, where a huge column commemorates Napoleon's victory over Austria. Austrian cannons were melted down to make the column. On top was a statue of Napoleon dressed like a Roman emperor. It was pretty cool, I guess. lol. A little further down was a golden statue of Jeanne d'Arc (which Paris and I actually saw a couple days ago when we were at the Tuileries).
We parted ways with the other girl in our group after the walk. We were going to do some shopping and she was going to get Thai food with a bunch of people from the group. (Paris isn't a big fan of Thai food, so we opted out.) I found a cute pink shirt and a cute purse, and Paris found the most awesome shirt ever that said "I am Paris" on the front. lol. She HAD to get it. It was perfect. lol.
But we didn't want to just go home when we were done shopping. We walked back through the Tuileries and decided to have dinner at a little cafe in the gardens. It's not everyday that you can eat dinner in front of a huge collection of neo-classical statues and the Louvre!
After that, we just started walking. We walked up the Champs Elysee, almost until we got to the Arc d'Triomphe, then we turned and headed for the Tour Eiffel. It didn't look like it was that far away. lol. And I guess it wasn't. Only like, an hour and a half walk. :) lol. The Eiffel Tower is huge. Much bigger than it looks in pictures and the movies. And you always forget how big it is when you see it from somewhere else in the city. You look up and think, "Oh, look! The Eiffel Tower is really close by!" but my friends, it probably isn't close by. lol. We walked up the Seine for a while, found a model of the flame of the Statue of Liberty that is supposed to be a symbol of the friendship between the U.S. and France. We passed this huge building whose wall was one huge planter box! That was way cool. lol. It had plants growing sideways out of it, covering every inch of the wall.
We finally made it to the Champs Elysee, where there was a brass band playing right by the Tour Eiffel! It was cool. lol. It looked and sounded like a high school band from the States. And they even played "When the Saints Go Marching in" and songs like that. And there was an adorable little kid standing in the front of the crowd dancing to it. lol. He was SOOOO cute! :)
Then we went home, ate dinner and fell asleep. lol. We were so dead from all that walking!
Saturday was a little more laid-back. We went to class (almost late again, as neither of us got up to go running.... Oops!) Then we walked to the square in front of Hotel de Ville, where we found a huge event going on. I didn't really understand what it was, but something about European unity or something. There was another big band playing there. They played YMCA. lol. That was cool.
From there, we hopped on the Metro to head out to Saint Denis to see the basilica, which is pretty much the first Gothic church ever. We grabbed some sandwiches on our way out of the Metro. (We eat sandwiches for lunch ALL the time here, because a lot of cafes will give you a nice deal of a sandwich, drink, and dessert for six euros.) I got a beignet for my dessert, which was pretty yummy. Although, I have to say the beignets on Princess and the Frog look so much more tasty. The powdered sugar on top pretty much glows in the movie.... Mine only had a little powdered sugar on it. But like I said, it was yummy. It tasted like my favorite kind of donut, because it had chocolate pudding inside. The custard-filled donuts are my favorite!!!
While we ate, we sat next to the basilica. There was a little merry-go-round right next to where we were in the square in front of the basilica. It was funny... for a couple reasons. One, because it played Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" for a children's ride, and second it played Lady Gaga in front of a Gothic church.... It played a couple French children's songs (the kind that say the same thing over and over and get stuck in your head so fast!) some nice Byonce (which I say in a sarcastic tone) and "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" in French. lol. The last one was cool.
While we waited for a tour of the basilica, we went to check out the shops on one of the main streets of St. Denis. Now, Paris and I had already told ourselves NO MORE SHOPPING THIS WEEK (unless she found a cool bag, because she needed one) because we'd already shopped a ton. This was definitely not a good place to go after making that deal... because it was pretty much bargain-shopper's heaven! There was one store whose jeans were all 10 euros! (That's only $13!) And another store where every purse was 10 euros, and there were a lot of really cool purses. Some of the purses were huge too! You'd have to pay $20-30 for one of those in the states, usually. Unfortunately I'd just bought a purse, or I would have gotten one. I practiced at least some self control. lol. At least until we got to the place with 10 euro jeans. And then I caved. And I almost bought a couple shirts there too, because they were under 10 euros and there were some really cute ones that I loved. But I refrained! And just bought some jeans. :) Another pair of skinny jeans, which Jeff will probably hate because he thinks those kinda of jeans are ugly, but I thought they were cute and I didn't want to stick out so much here in France, because everybody wears skinny jeans and skinny pants. Flare and bootcut are just so out of style in most cases here in Paris.
Then we went on the tour of the church. It's a really cool church! Besides being the oldest example of Gothic architecture, it's the burial place of several kings of France. Including Pippin the Short, who is actually one of my ancestors! Cool, huh? I got to see where some of my ancestors were buried! :) Henry the II is one of my ancestors, too, and he was buried there. This is also the final resting place of Louis XIV and all of his family, as well as Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. (I always thought that they were tossed into a mass grave, and that was the end of it, but I guess somebody found the bodies and kept them until after the Revolution and then buried them. They were moved to St. Denis in the 1800s.)
Some of the monuments to the kings and queens were pretty cool. Each one has a statue of the dead person on top of the tomb, laying down with their feet resting on lions. (Why their feet were on lions, I'm not exactly sure.) Some kings were really old! They went back to before Charlemagne (which probably means they're more of my ancestors...lol. But I'm not really sure.) Then there were some that were kind of weird. They had three or four huge tombs that kind of looked like four-post beds (although, they had Greek columns instead of posts...) On the sides of the beds were battle scenes, and usually four large statues of random women were at the corners. The weird part about these tombs were...they showed the king and queen dead in kind of weird, contorted positions...and they didn't have clothes on. I thought that very strange in a church and decided that I would definitely never want to have a tomb like that built... Awkward. I decided it might be a reference to their being among the good people who will be returned to a state of innocence like Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, because that's what the people believed would happen to the good people who died. I dunno, though. It was weird... On top of the roof (I guess you could call it) of the tombs were the queen and king dressed in really fine clothing kneeling in confession. A couple of the kings had two tombs- one of them lying next to the queen in very fine clothes like all the rest of the people buried there, and then another of the weird clothes-less ones. I'm not sure why someone would want to have two tombs, but whatever. Just take up all the space so someone else has to have a smaller tomb, I guess.
In the crypt (which is where Louid XIV and everybody else was) there was a place where a couple children of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's children were buried. For some reason, the heart was removed from one of the sons and put on display in a crystal case. That was pretty gross, not gonna lie. Outside of the place where all Louis XIV's family was buried (minus Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI), there was a room filled with wooden coffins. They weren't even put into the wall or covered with a stone sarcophagus! Just the wooden coffins sitting there (some of the little ones stacked on top of the bigger ones). It was kind of creepy... Anyway, this was were other princes were put. (I guess I can't really say buried, because technically they're not buried.) There was a shelf behind them with a bunch of boxes and jars holding all of the princes' hearts. I don't really know why they removed their hearts and put them in separate boxes when they died. That just seems really weird to me. I mean, I've heard of that happening with some people (like Robert the Bruce) but that happened several centuries before. These princes whose hearts were removed and put in jars were from the 1700s...
It was also cool to see Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's graves. The graves were completed in the 1970s, so they're very new looking. Each is just a plain slab of black marble with their names etched in gold on the top.
So...the tour was in French. And the lady spoke insanely fast! Paris and I tried to follow, and we did for a while, but after about an hour we gave up. lol. I was really only catching names and a few random words. I think she was using a lot of vocabulary I'm not familiar with, which is why it was so hard. (That, and she was seriously speaking 10,000 words per minute.) We just walked around the cathedral and took pictures after breaking off from the group.
On our way back to the Metro, this guy came up to us and started hitting on Paris. (Heeheehee!)
Guy: "Vous etes charmante!" (You're charming!)
Paris: "Quoi?" (What?)
Guy: "Vous etes charmante! Est-ce que vous voulez aller pour cafe?" (You're charming! Do you want to go out for coffee?)
Paris: "Non, nous avons un rendez-vous avec des amis a Paris ce soir..." (No, we have a date with some friends in Paris tonight.)
We weren't really meeting up with friends in Paris...but that's ok. lol. He was good looking, though. lol. Too bad we don't drink coffee and too bad that St. Denis has a bad reputation after dark... The guy was probably a creeper.
Then we came home, I took a test and finished reading for Monday, and went to bed.
Sunday! Yay, I'm almost caught up! Church was so difficult this morning! lol. I was really tired and really hungry (because we were late, so I grabbed the cake and crepe to go). It was pretty hard to concentrate. I understood what was going on for the first part of our combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting, though. But the meeting went for an hour and a half! We had to skip Sunday School, it went so long. lol. (Or maybe they were planning on doing that, I'm not sure.)
Then in Sacrament meeting, an African woman and her two young daughters sat next to us. They were SO cute, and not very quiet. lol. Needless to say, I had a bit of trouble staying focused in Sacrament meeting.... Part of the reason I liked listening to them was because I could actually understand them! lol. They used nice, easy phrases that I could understand. I told Paris that next week, we should go to Primary. lol. That seemed like the funner place to be than Sunday School and Relief Society. (I know that's bad, but...honestly, French children are so cute!) One of the girls wiped her hands on my skirt, though (accidentally). lol. So I had cookie crumbs all over my skirt. The older girl (I think she was four or five) kept telling her mom over and over that her mom's scarf was pretty. It was so precious. :) And then she kept pushing her little sister off of the chair saying, "Non! C'est ma chaise!" even though she wasn't actually sitting in it. When her mom told her to sit down she said, "Pourquoi?" Sigh. Oh, man. So adorable! :D It was ward conference for them, so they were sustaining everybody, and every time after the sustaining, the older girl would say, "Maman, j'ai leve la main!" (Mom, I raised my hand!)
After church, I came home and talked to my family and then took a nap. lol. We had dinner at 8 p.m. Tonight we used the reclette. (Is that the word?) It's a little grill you put in the middle of the table and cook stuff on. You can also warm stuff up underneath the grill too in little cups. We had something that was kind of like bacon and a couple different kinds of ham, as well as cheese (the kind that I'm sure is the cause of that horrid smell we run into on the way to the Metro every day when we walk past the cheese shop) and potatoes. After that we had this weird purple cabbage stuff that tasted really strongly of vinegar. And when I say purple, I mean purple. That stuff was the brightest purple I've ever seen in a food. It couldn't have been real. I haven't seen crayons that bright. lol. It wasn't too bad... But it reminded me of Evan and Mikayla, because she'd always call him "Mon chou" and chou means cabbage in French. For dessert we had strawberries and cooked apples with cinnamon. They were soooo delicious!
Well, it looks like Saint Sulpice is on the docket for tomorrow. Not really sure what that walk will be about, but we'll see! And then we're going to Family Home Evening with the young single adults in the ward.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
♪ I want to wander through the Saint-Honore ♫
This morning didn't start off so great. Haha. It started off getting sick after running. Fun! :)
After that, I went back to bed for at least an hour...and got up LATE! So we were rushing to eat and get out the door, only to realize we were not late. In fact, we were some of the first people there from our class....
Then we went on one of our walks. It was a really cool one! Because, first off, we passed the stamp market where Audrey Hepburn discovers where the money is in Charade! The million-dollar stamps! I saw the place!
Then we went and saw the British embassy and the American embassy the place where the French president lives, where Napoleon used to live. It was pretty cool, but you could only see the outside. They don't let people inside...
After that, we went and saw a bunch of stores and stuff at the Saint Honore. That was pretty cool, although everything in these stores is WAY too expensive.... Oh, man!
Saint Honore led us to Place de la Concorde, where the infamous guillotine was erected during La Terreur. That was where the last of the French monarchs, Louis XVI, was decapitated. They didn't even have a plaque saying that that was the place the last king was killed! Strange, non? All they had there was Napoleon's obelisk from Egypt and two fountains with THE weirdest mermaids I have ever seen. Not that the obelisk isn't cool, it is, but...decapitating Louis XVI was a pretty big event in French history. You don't overthrow a king every day... Well, unless you're a 19th-century Frenchman, but that was later....
We then took a stroll through Les Jardins Tuileries, the royal gardens next to the Louvre. Gorgeous! There are statues EVERYWHERE! Holy cow.... In Tuileries, they're mostly Greek gods and heroes, and they're scattered all over the huge gardens. French gardens are cool, because the trees are all in rows. It seemed a little weird at first, but I've decided that I love it!
After wandering through the gardens looking for a museum inside it with bad directions from whoever wrote our walks book, we ended up at the Louvre and decided to check it out. THERE ARE SO MANY STATUES ON THAT BUILDING! They were all so beautiful... I loved it. I wonder how many statues there were. I need to look that up somewhere... The other thing about the Louvre is that you never realize how big it is until you actually visit it. Yeah, it looks big in pictures, but that thing is massive when you're standing in the courtyard on one end and it takes you ten minutes to walk to the other side of the building. I can't even describe how huge that place is. You'll just have to go there and experience it. We forgot the little museum we were looking for and just drank in the grandeur of the Louvre for a while. We didn't go inside, because that's planned for another day. I think you could almost spend as much time looking around outside the Louvre as you could inside, though.
After that, we finally found the Musee de l'Orangerie, a museum that houses original Monet paintings of waterlilies. They were pretty. :) I liked them. Although the other parts of the museum (except for some weird painter from the early 1900s) were closed because of a strike, so we didn't stay there very long.
From the museum, we went back to Saint Michel (Latin Quarter) where we went to a souvenir shop that we saw a couple days ago. I'd seen a scarf there that I absolutely fell in love with...but I didn't buy it. So we went back and Paris bought a really cute rain coat and I bought my scarf. :D And I am officially happy. It's so pretty.... :) Heehee.
From there, we took the Metro to the Auber station, where they were having a huge, free concert in the station! That was cool. lol. A lot of bands tried out for this event, so the music was pretty good. And funny enough, they all sang in English! Well, there were a couple French songs. And it was funny, because all the participants were French, but when they sang, they sang in perfect US accents. lol. All the groups were really different too, which was neat.
After that, we went to have dinner. We found a little brasserie and order steak, chicken, and French fries. :) And it was one of the most delicious dinners ever! (Partially because we had been walking all day long.) I loved my steak! They cooked it exactly the way I like it- medium rare. Yum. :) The French definitely know how to make a good steak. We were a little confused about how to pay, though. lol. I think you're supposed to go to the bar counter with your receipt and pay there....but I'm still not sure. Anyway, they're nice to tourists, especially those who try to speak French. The only thing I didn't really like about the place was....a huge mouse ran across the corner of the room a little ways behind us. That...was kinda strange. And one lady who worked there told me not to be afraid of it. We were almost done with our meals by that time, so I didn't really worry about it. Except, it looked like a nice-ish restaurant (at least as far as brasseries go). Almost all of them have open doors on one side, though, so it wouldn't be that hard for a mouse to get in.
After that, I went back to bed for at least an hour...and got up LATE! So we were rushing to eat and get out the door, only to realize we were not late. In fact, we were some of the first people there from our class....
Then we went on one of our walks. It was a really cool one! Because, first off, we passed the stamp market where Audrey Hepburn discovers where the money is in Charade! The million-dollar stamps! I saw the place!
Then we went and saw the British embassy and the American embassy the place where the French president lives, where Napoleon used to live. It was pretty cool, but you could only see the outside. They don't let people inside...
After that, we went and saw a bunch of stores and stuff at the Saint Honore. That was pretty cool, although everything in these stores is WAY too expensive.... Oh, man!
Saint Honore led us to Place de la Concorde, where the infamous guillotine was erected during La Terreur. That was where the last of the French monarchs, Louis XVI, was decapitated. They didn't even have a plaque saying that that was the place the last king was killed! Strange, non? All they had there was Napoleon's obelisk from Egypt and two fountains with THE weirdest mermaids I have ever seen. Not that the obelisk isn't cool, it is, but...decapitating Louis XVI was a pretty big event in French history. You don't overthrow a king every day... Well, unless you're a 19th-century Frenchman, but that was later....
We then took a stroll through Les Jardins Tuileries, the royal gardens next to the Louvre. Gorgeous! There are statues EVERYWHERE! Holy cow.... In Tuileries, they're mostly Greek gods and heroes, and they're scattered all over the huge gardens. French gardens are cool, because the trees are all in rows. It seemed a little weird at first, but I've decided that I love it!
After wandering through the gardens looking for a museum inside it with bad directions from whoever wrote our walks book, we ended up at the Louvre and decided to check it out. THERE ARE SO MANY STATUES ON THAT BUILDING! They were all so beautiful... I loved it. I wonder how many statues there were. I need to look that up somewhere... The other thing about the Louvre is that you never realize how big it is until you actually visit it. Yeah, it looks big in pictures, but that thing is massive when you're standing in the courtyard on one end and it takes you ten minutes to walk to the other side of the building. I can't even describe how huge that place is. You'll just have to go there and experience it. We forgot the little museum we were looking for and just drank in the grandeur of the Louvre for a while. We didn't go inside, because that's planned for another day. I think you could almost spend as much time looking around outside the Louvre as you could inside, though.
After that, we finally found the Musee de l'Orangerie, a museum that houses original Monet paintings of waterlilies. They were pretty. :) I liked them. Although the other parts of the museum (except for some weird painter from the early 1900s) were closed because of a strike, so we didn't stay there very long.
From the museum, we went back to Saint Michel (Latin Quarter) where we went to a souvenir shop that we saw a couple days ago. I'd seen a scarf there that I absolutely fell in love with...but I didn't buy it. So we went back and Paris bought a really cute rain coat and I bought my scarf. :D And I am officially happy. It's so pretty.... :) Heehee.
From there, we took the Metro to the Auber station, where they were having a huge, free concert in the station! That was cool. lol. A lot of bands tried out for this event, so the music was pretty good. And funny enough, they all sang in English! Well, there were a couple French songs. And it was funny, because all the participants were French, but when they sang, they sang in perfect US accents. lol. All the groups were really different too, which was neat.
After that, we went to have dinner. We found a little brasserie and order steak, chicken, and French fries. :) And it was one of the most delicious dinners ever! (Partially because we had been walking all day long.) I loved my steak! They cooked it exactly the way I like it- medium rare. Yum. :) The French definitely know how to make a good steak. We were a little confused about how to pay, though. lol. I think you're supposed to go to the bar counter with your receipt and pay there....but I'm still not sure. Anyway, they're nice to tourists, especially those who try to speak French. The only thing I didn't really like about the place was....a huge mouse ran across the corner of the room a little ways behind us. That...was kinda strange. And one lady who worked there told me not to be afraid of it. We were almost done with our meals by that time, so I didn't really worry about it. Except, it looked like a nice-ish restaurant (at least as far as brasseries go). Almost all of them have open doors on one side, though, so it wouldn't be that hard for a mouse to get in.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
"Shopping in Paris! Can you believe it?!"
Okay, not gonna lie. Today, not much happened. Paris and I got up, took our cakes and crepes to go, went to class, followed Mr. Erickson to see where the Petit Palais was, then did one of the required walks for our 445 class. We saw where the French stock market is, one of the national libraries, the home of La Comedie Francaise, the palace gardens, and stuff like that.
La Comedie Francaise is the group that was formed after playwright and actor Moliere died. It was a combination of his group of actors and another group of actors in Paris. (The king combined them.) The theatre we saw was where they were finally stationed in the 1700s. The only thing about the theatre is...Moliere never actually performed there (he had his own theatre nearby that has since been torn down, although many of his descendants are actors in this theatre) and you can't actually go inside unless you buy a ticket and go to play there... From the outside, it's pretty boring. It's in a covered walkway and the door and sign are pretty plain....
The palace gardens were weird. The park on one side was pretty, but not much different from the other parks we've seen, and I like the Champs de Mars better anyway. (I'm just a little prejudiced...) On the other side had a bunch of "controversial" "statues", which I didn't think were very controversial at all, nor did I really think they looked like statues. They were just cylinders of varying sizes with black and white stripes. Controversial.......
Then we walked on and saw some stores that had glass ceilings over the walkways between them. Probably some of the first shopping malls ever, as they've been around since the 1800s.
After that we went back to La Defense to one of the biggest malls I've ever seen! Les Quatre Temps. The metro station exit is in the mall, and it took us forever to find the exit from the mall! Then we decided we wanted to go back in. Oh, la la! There were dozens and dozens and dozens of stores! It's one of those malls that is an avid shopper's heaven. Paris and I found some pretty cute things to buy- Paris got some earrings and a vest, and I got a shirt and earrings. Something funny about French malls (and French stores in general) is that they always play American music. I don't think I've heard more than one or two songs that were French while shopping.
After a couple hours in there, our feet were dying and so were our backs. lol. So after we searched for a while to find the Metro, we finally came to it and rode home. And, Paris decided (and I heartily agreed) that shopping with a backpack is a stupid idea and so not fun. Needless to say, we're not doing that again.
Dinner tonight was much better than last night. lol. We talked about movies and TV shows. Although, Aude was appalled that we didn't know a bunch of American movies and a bunch of American actors that she loved. lol. It's not a surprise that I didn't know them, but I felt a little better that Paris didn't know most of the ones I'd never heard of before either. lol.
I decided that in one way, Jeff would fit in here. I saw a lot of French people today wearing black and brown together! It was so weird! And it wasn't just khaki or tan and black, either. It was chocolate brown and black! With nothing- no black and brown shirt, or belt, or skarf, or anything- to tie them together! And it was stylish people doing it, too! So strange. Cuz I think it looks really funny if it isn't done right and done carefully. *sigh* And therefore, Jeff would fit in perfectly.
One more thing I decided (before I go). I decided that I actually like French bottled water. I hate the taste of bottled water! Always have! I think most of them taste like plastic. And yet...it tastes good here! You can't taste the bottle! I'm not sure why this is... But I like it, especially because there aren't any drinking fountains.
La Comedie Francaise is the group that was formed after playwright and actor Moliere died. It was a combination of his group of actors and another group of actors in Paris. (The king combined them.) The theatre we saw was where they were finally stationed in the 1700s. The only thing about the theatre is...Moliere never actually performed there (he had his own theatre nearby that has since been torn down, although many of his descendants are actors in this theatre) and you can't actually go inside unless you buy a ticket and go to play there... From the outside, it's pretty boring. It's in a covered walkway and the door and sign are pretty plain....
The palace gardens were weird. The park on one side was pretty, but not much different from the other parks we've seen, and I like the Champs de Mars better anyway. (I'm just a little prejudiced...) On the other side had a bunch of "controversial" "statues", which I didn't think were very controversial at all, nor did I really think they looked like statues. They were just cylinders of varying sizes with black and white stripes. Controversial.......
Then we walked on and saw some stores that had glass ceilings over the walkways between them. Probably some of the first shopping malls ever, as they've been around since the 1800s.
After that we went back to La Defense to one of the biggest malls I've ever seen! Les Quatre Temps. The metro station exit is in the mall, and it took us forever to find the exit from the mall! Then we decided we wanted to go back in. Oh, la la! There were dozens and dozens and dozens of stores! It's one of those malls that is an avid shopper's heaven. Paris and I found some pretty cute things to buy- Paris got some earrings and a vest, and I got a shirt and earrings. Something funny about French malls (and French stores in general) is that they always play American music. I don't think I've heard more than one or two songs that were French while shopping.
After a couple hours in there, our feet were dying and so were our backs. lol. So after we searched for a while to find the Metro, we finally came to it and rode home. And, Paris decided (and I heartily agreed) that shopping with a backpack is a stupid idea and so not fun. Needless to say, we're not doing that again.
Dinner tonight was much better than last night. lol. We talked about movies and TV shows. Although, Aude was appalled that we didn't know a bunch of American movies and a bunch of American actors that she loved. lol. It's not a surprise that I didn't know them, but I felt a little better that Paris didn't know most of the ones I'd never heard of before either. lol.
I decided that in one way, Jeff would fit in here. I saw a lot of French people today wearing black and brown together! It was so weird! And it wasn't just khaki or tan and black, either. It was chocolate brown and black! With nothing- no black and brown shirt, or belt, or skarf, or anything- to tie them together! And it was stylish people doing it, too! So strange. Cuz I think it looks really funny if it isn't done right and done carefully. *sigh* And therefore, Jeff would fit in perfectly.
One more thing I decided (before I go). I decided that I actually like French bottled water. I hate the taste of bottled water! Always have! I think most of them taste like plastic. And yet...it tastes good here! You can't taste the bottle! I'm not sure why this is... But I like it, especially because there aren't any drinking fountains.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
♪ Forget where you're from... ♫
Today I woke up to Madame Devarenne singing and sunlight peeking out from behind the curtain across my window, and I thought, "Today is going to be a good day."
And it was! How can a day spent at one of the most famous cathedrals in the world NOT be a good day?
This morning after a quick breakfast and grabbing our packaged cakes and crepes to go, Paris and I headed to Mr. Erickson's apartment to meet the group for an outing to Chartres.
So, I almost became a victim of pickpocketing on the way to the train. Luckily I didn't have anything of too much value in my pocket. (Just the cell phone BYU gave us in case of emergencies, which isn't mine anyway.) We were on the escalator heading for the train, and this older guy was standing in front of me. He had his hand hanging loose by his side, and he kept looking down at it. Then he took a step down on the escalator so he was uncomfortably close to me and he leaned back a little bit. I was watching his hand the whole time, and saw him looking at my pocket. I stepped down one step too to get away from him and glared at him with my, "Get away from me, stupid!" look. He instantly stepped back up to the step he was on and when we neared the top, he walked away very quickly.
The train was so cool! It was a double-decker! And very nice. Much nicer than the Metro. :P Except that we were with the entire class, and there are some people in the group who don't really know the meaning of the word "quiet". Actually, it's more like half the group. lol. I felt bad for the people on the train with us. The French are so much quieter in public than Americans.
So far, I think Chartres is my favorite place I've visited in France. It is gorgeous! It's hard to imagine a bunch of peasants building something so massive! We had an old British tour guide show us around the building, and it was awesome to hear all the stories he knew about the cathedral. It was also cool to hear him talk about the imagery in the stained glass windows. One of my favorite parts was the stone work around the altar. It was so intricate, with many sculptures telling the life of Christ.
Another cool thing about the cathedral was that they were in the process of cleaning every inch of it. And once it has been cleaned, the stone is actually off-white, not gray! It's like that for all of the Gothic cathedrals. The tour guide said that it was funny, because everyone today tries to copy Gothic cathedrals and make them a gray color, but they were originally much lighter and the walls were all painted. (If you go to my album Paris with Paris on Facebook and look at my Chartres pictures, you can see what I'm talking about.) They've only finished a couple of the side chapels and above the altar, and a bit of the outside. They're also cleaning the windows, and the difference between the cleaned and uncleaned is amazing! A cathedral full of cleaned windows wouldn't be that dark and gloomy at all, because the cleaned windows let in so much light!
After the tour of the cathedral, we went exploring in the town of Chartres. It was a cute, little French town. :) Tons of tiny shops and little streets. Last time I went to Europe, I got annoyed every time my dad stopped to take a picture of a cool street or door. But at Chartres, I found myself taking pictures of every cool street we passed! Oh, la la! :) While we were exploring, I bought a little music box that plays "Champs Elysees". :) I love music boxes.
The train ride home was really cool. I loved passing through the French countryside, staring out the window at the fields of bobbing yellow flowers and the wind rippling through seas of green grass. The colors of the French countryside are so vibrant, it takes your breath away.
I decided I want to have a French house when I grow up. It doesn't have to be huge, but with nice pale-yellow walls and a tiled roof. Vines crawling up the sides, lilacs and those other yummy smelling flowers that are all over the place but that I don't know what they are...those would be around the gate and around an arch over the gate that leads to the little path that goes to the house. *sigh* anyway...
Dinner was kind of awkward... I'm not sure why. It was tough. Maybe we just talked about weird stuff that I don't know what to talk about, but... I was struggling and getting very frustrated with the language and trying to not eat offensively and everything else. It's hard eating with them sometimes and having to listen to all of them at once. Maybe they were talking over each other a lot, and that stressed me out or something. I dunno....
It's been so windy here! And I do not like it. The French translation of "Jingle Bells" is "Vivre le vent, vivre le vent, vivre le vent d'hiver" which is basically saying "long live the wind of winter". And I say NON! Le vent doit mourir! :P lol.
fields, houses, cathedral- old guy, stories, cleaning, stone work, passageways, music box, dinner, stories, wind
And it was! How can a day spent at one of the most famous cathedrals in the world NOT be a good day?
This morning after a quick breakfast and grabbing our packaged cakes and crepes to go, Paris and I headed to Mr. Erickson's apartment to meet the group for an outing to Chartres.
So, I almost became a victim of pickpocketing on the way to the train. Luckily I didn't have anything of too much value in my pocket. (Just the cell phone BYU gave us in case of emergencies, which isn't mine anyway.) We were on the escalator heading for the train, and this older guy was standing in front of me. He had his hand hanging loose by his side, and he kept looking down at it. Then he took a step down on the escalator so he was uncomfortably close to me and he leaned back a little bit. I was watching his hand the whole time, and saw him looking at my pocket. I stepped down one step too to get away from him and glared at him with my, "Get away from me, stupid!" look. He instantly stepped back up to the step he was on and when we neared the top, he walked away very quickly.
The train was so cool! It was a double-decker! And very nice. Much nicer than the Metro. :P Except that we were with the entire class, and there are some people in the group who don't really know the meaning of the word "quiet". Actually, it's more like half the group. lol. I felt bad for the people on the train with us. The French are so much quieter in public than Americans.
So far, I think Chartres is my favorite place I've visited in France. It is gorgeous! It's hard to imagine a bunch of peasants building something so massive! We had an old British tour guide show us around the building, and it was awesome to hear all the stories he knew about the cathedral. It was also cool to hear him talk about the imagery in the stained glass windows. One of my favorite parts was the stone work around the altar. It was so intricate, with many sculptures telling the life of Christ.
Another cool thing about the cathedral was that they were in the process of cleaning every inch of it. And once it has been cleaned, the stone is actually off-white, not gray! It's like that for all of the Gothic cathedrals. The tour guide said that it was funny, because everyone today tries to copy Gothic cathedrals and make them a gray color, but they were originally much lighter and the walls were all painted. (If you go to my album Paris with Paris on Facebook and look at my Chartres pictures, you can see what I'm talking about.) They've only finished a couple of the side chapels and above the altar, and a bit of the outside. They're also cleaning the windows, and the difference between the cleaned and uncleaned is amazing! A cathedral full of cleaned windows wouldn't be that dark and gloomy at all, because the cleaned windows let in so much light!
After the tour of the cathedral, we went exploring in the town of Chartres. It was a cute, little French town. :) Tons of tiny shops and little streets. Last time I went to Europe, I got annoyed every time my dad stopped to take a picture of a cool street or door. But at Chartres, I found myself taking pictures of every cool street we passed! Oh, la la! :) While we were exploring, I bought a little music box that plays "Champs Elysees". :) I love music boxes.
The train ride home was really cool. I loved passing through the French countryside, staring out the window at the fields of bobbing yellow flowers and the wind rippling through seas of green grass. The colors of the French countryside are so vibrant, it takes your breath away.
I decided I want to have a French house when I grow up. It doesn't have to be huge, but with nice pale-yellow walls and a tiled roof. Vines crawling up the sides, lilacs and those other yummy smelling flowers that are all over the place but that I don't know what they are...those would be around the gate and around an arch over the gate that leads to the little path that goes to the house. *sigh* anyway...
Dinner was kind of awkward... I'm not sure why. It was tough. Maybe we just talked about weird stuff that I don't know what to talk about, but... I was struggling and getting very frustrated with the language and trying to not eat offensively and everything else. It's hard eating with them sometimes and having to listen to all of them at once. Maybe they were talking over each other a lot, and that stressed me out or something. I dunno....
It's been so windy here! And I do not like it. The French translation of "Jingle Bells" is "Vivre le vent, vivre le vent, vivre le vent d'hiver" which is basically saying "long live the wind of winter". And I say NON! Le vent doit mourir! :P lol.
fields, houses, cathedral- old guy, stories, cleaning, stone work, passageways, music box, dinner, stories, wind
Monday, May 3, 2010
♪ Jazz up the Latin Quarter ♫
drip...drip,drip...drip.....drip........drip,drip,drip......drip,drip..................drip............drip..................................PPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRR BUCKETS AND BUCKETS...dripdripdripdripdripdripdripdripdrip...........drip,drip.............drip....... (repeat all morning)
We went to the Latin Quarter today! When I think Latin (and when most everybody else thinks Latin) they think Salsa dancing and red, frilly dresses and guitars and all that. As I learned today, that is not what the Latin Quarter in Paris is. This kind of Latin is togas (or lack thereof) and classical serenity and fascination with elegance and the ancients. Go figure.
Not that that stuff isn't cool, or that I prefer Salsa. I'm just not a huge fan sogginess (which is why I like really crunchy chips, because they don't get soggy so fast).
Anyway...getting off the bad joke, what I'm really trying to say is that it was rainy and cold all day. lol. But Paris and I trudged through, and we saw some really cool things in what used to be (and still kind of is) the center of the arts and revolutionary thinkers in Paris.
The first really cool thing we saw was an old church. I loved it, because there wasn't as many people there as there was at Notre Dame de Paris. Old churches and cathedrals in Europe are so beautiful! I decided that when I grow up and have my dream house, I want ribbed vaulting. It's so cool-looking! And every church has it, as well as some of the palaces. The cool and unique thing about the church we visited today was that it had modern-style stained glass windows with different patterns and designs. Also, pretty much all of the paintings were from the 15th century. They don't look like they've had much preservation work done on them, so they're very faded.
Here's an interesting Liahona article about stained glass windows that we were assigned to read before our train ride to Chartres tomorrow. It's about Chartres, but it's a cool connection to cathedral windows: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=372f3c7842470110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
After that, we walked around the Latin Quarter a lot. We went down some cool streets that have been around since the 1600s! And we passed a lot of window art galleries. We didn't go inside, because you pretty much have to be interested in buying something to go inside. But there was a lot to look at from the windows. Although....I don't think I'd want to go inside, because most of the art I wouldn't care to buy and some of it I would never, ever, ever allow in my home. :/ Scandalous...
It was also in the Latin Quarter that the people sang the songs of angry men a lot, if you catch my drift. The revolution practically started in the cafes and salons of the Latin Quarter! Which reminds me, Paris and I are going to see Les Mis at the Chetelet Theatre our last week in Paris! I think it will be amazing! I'm pretty sure that's marking off something on my bucket list- see Les Mis in Paris.
Then we walked along the Seine... along that famous pathway and under that famous bridge that they always show in all the movies. It would have been so romantic, had it been me and Jeff and Paris and Joe, instead of just me and Paris.
Then we went to the Conciergerie, where there was an ENTIRE hall of ribbed vaulting! It's SO cool! I took a video of it, so when I am finally able to get stuff off my camera, I will totally post it on here. Oh, so the Conciergerie is where the royalty lived before the Louvre became the royal home, which was before Versailles became the royal family home. It doesn't look quite so royal anymore...mostly due to the revolutionaries. (Darn those revolutionists!) This was where Marie Antoinette and Robespierre spent their final days (or hours, in his case). (Robespierre was the one who ordered almost 3,000 people killed by guillotine...and then the people decided he had way to much power, so he lost his head at the guillotine too...ironically.) Louis XVIII built a little chapel in Marie Antoinette's honor where her cell used to be. Therefore, the cell isn't actually there anymore, because half of it is now a chapel. The other half used to be a bathroom. Then they took out the bathroom and made it into a replica of Marie Antoinette's cell.
After the Conciergerie, we went to the Sainte Chappelle! *sigh* C'est jolie! Unfortunately, they were doing a lot of work on the huge windows in the apse of the chapel, so we couldn't see some of the windows. :( But there were still gorgeous windows on all the sides of the chapel! And beautiful painted walls. I took a video of that, too. It's amazing.
After that, we looked at the Palais de Justice (or something like that) which was part of the Conciergerie at one point and is still used as France's Supreme Court building today. (Actually, I'm not sure that there are tons of cases heard in this particular building, but it's still in use.)
When we were going into the Sainte Chappelle (which is inside the Palais de Justice, so we had to go through tons of security) we met a couple from Georgia who we talked to while standing in the freezing cold. lol. They were pretty nice. Definitely your stereotypical American tourist. ;) They just didn't have the fanny packs and American flag shirts. They talked about all the traveling they'd done since their kids left home, and they were amazed that we didn't drink alcohol or tea or coffee or caffeine (because they figured out pretty quickly we were LDS when we said we were from BYU). It was a lot of fun talking to them, although it felt a little weird to be talking to someone other than Paris in English for more than a couple minutes.
After all that, we went home on the Metro, stopped for bread at a boulangerie on the way home (5:00-6:00 is probably the busiest hour at a boulangerie, just FYI) and then ate dinner when we got home. Aude, the Devarennes' daughter, was amazed that we were eating dinner at 6:00 pm! We told her we usually at about that time in the U.S. and she was even more amazed. lol.
After that we talked about *sigh* boys in Paris's room for a long time, then watched part of Pride and Prejudice while the Devarennes ate dinner. (We eat with them on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and we have to do our own meals all the other nights.)
And.......... I decided that I really miss my shower. :( But that's about it for right now. lol.
Pray for sun in France tomorrow! lol. We miss that too! :)
A demain!
We went to the Latin Quarter today! When I think Latin (and when most everybody else thinks Latin) they think Salsa dancing and red, frilly dresses and guitars and all that. As I learned today, that is not what the Latin Quarter in Paris is. This kind of Latin is togas (or lack thereof) and classical serenity and fascination with elegance and the ancients. Go figure.
Not that that stuff isn't cool, or that I prefer Salsa. I'm just not a huge fan sogginess (which is why I like really crunchy chips, because they don't get soggy so fast).
Anyway...getting off the bad joke, what I'm really trying to say is that it was rainy and cold all day. lol. But Paris and I trudged through, and we saw some really cool things in what used to be (and still kind of is) the center of the arts and revolutionary thinkers in Paris.
The first really cool thing we saw was an old church. I loved it, because there wasn't as many people there as there was at Notre Dame de Paris. Old churches and cathedrals in Europe are so beautiful! I decided that when I grow up and have my dream house, I want ribbed vaulting. It's so cool-looking! And every church has it, as well as some of the palaces. The cool and unique thing about the church we visited today was that it had modern-style stained glass windows with different patterns and designs. Also, pretty much all of the paintings were from the 15th century. They don't look like they've had much preservation work done on them, so they're very faded.
Here's an interesting Liahona article about stained glass windows that we were assigned to read before our train ride to Chartres tomorrow. It's about Chartres, but it's a cool connection to cathedral windows: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=372f3c7842470110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
After that, we walked around the Latin Quarter a lot. We went down some cool streets that have been around since the 1600s! And we passed a lot of window art galleries. We didn't go inside, because you pretty much have to be interested in buying something to go inside. But there was a lot to look at from the windows. Although....I don't think I'd want to go inside, because most of the art I wouldn't care to buy and some of it I would never, ever, ever allow in my home. :/ Scandalous...
It was also in the Latin Quarter that the people sang the songs of angry men a lot, if you catch my drift. The revolution practically started in the cafes and salons of the Latin Quarter! Which reminds me, Paris and I are going to see Les Mis at the Chetelet Theatre our last week in Paris! I think it will be amazing! I'm pretty sure that's marking off something on my bucket list- see Les Mis in Paris.
Then we walked along the Seine... along that famous pathway and under that famous bridge that they always show in all the movies. It would have been so romantic, had it been me and Jeff and Paris and Joe, instead of just me and Paris.
Then we went to the Conciergerie, where there was an ENTIRE hall of ribbed vaulting! It's SO cool! I took a video of it, so when I am finally able to get stuff off my camera, I will totally post it on here. Oh, so the Conciergerie is where the royalty lived before the Louvre became the royal home, which was before Versailles became the royal family home. It doesn't look quite so royal anymore...mostly due to the revolutionaries. (Darn those revolutionists!) This was where Marie Antoinette and Robespierre spent their final days (or hours, in his case). (Robespierre was the one who ordered almost 3,000 people killed by guillotine...and then the people decided he had way to much power, so he lost his head at the guillotine too...ironically.) Louis XVIII built a little chapel in Marie Antoinette's honor where her cell used to be. Therefore, the cell isn't actually there anymore, because half of it is now a chapel. The other half used to be a bathroom. Then they took out the bathroom and made it into a replica of Marie Antoinette's cell.
After the Conciergerie, we went to the Sainte Chappelle! *sigh* C'est jolie! Unfortunately, they were doing a lot of work on the huge windows in the apse of the chapel, so we couldn't see some of the windows. :( But there were still gorgeous windows on all the sides of the chapel! And beautiful painted walls. I took a video of that, too. It's amazing.
After that, we looked at the Palais de Justice (or something like that) which was part of the Conciergerie at one point and is still used as France's Supreme Court building today. (Actually, I'm not sure that there are tons of cases heard in this particular building, but it's still in use.)
When we were going into the Sainte Chappelle (which is inside the Palais de Justice, so we had to go through tons of security) we met a couple from Georgia who we talked to while standing in the freezing cold. lol. They were pretty nice. Definitely your stereotypical American tourist. ;) They just didn't have the fanny packs and American flag shirts. They talked about all the traveling they'd done since their kids left home, and they were amazed that we didn't drink alcohol or tea or coffee or caffeine (because they figured out pretty quickly we were LDS when we said we were from BYU). It was a lot of fun talking to them, although it felt a little weird to be talking to someone other than Paris in English for more than a couple minutes.
After all that, we went home on the Metro, stopped for bread at a boulangerie on the way home (5:00-6:00 is probably the busiest hour at a boulangerie, just FYI) and then ate dinner when we got home. Aude, the Devarennes' daughter, was amazed that we were eating dinner at 6:00 pm! We told her we usually at about that time in the U.S. and she was even more amazed. lol.
After that we talked about *sigh* boys in Paris's room for a long time, then watched part of Pride and Prejudice while the Devarennes ate dinner. (We eat with them on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and we have to do our own meals all the other nights.)
And.......... I decided that I really miss my shower. :( But that's about it for right now. lol.
Pray for sun in France tomorrow! lol. We miss that too! :)
A demain!
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