Parc De Bercy, Monet Museum, Musee d'Orsay, Architecture in the Marais, & the Louvre

Wow, so much has happened in the last week. Eeeep, I'll apologize in advance for the length. So last Friday was a beautiful day (Low 60°s), so after leaving school we headed over to check out the outside of Invalides which is right next to my school and then we decided to go to Parc De Bercy, which was absolutely beautiful and perfect to visit on a nice day. 

Invalides

Invalides

Invalides

Palais Omnisports

sk8 park

Also on Friday, after leaving a club, a friend and I were waiting for a cab, when a cab pulls up and guess who gets out?? SAMUEL L JACKSON. I didn't have my camera for basically once in my time abroad,  but luckily my friend did and I'm stealing them to show off here.

Saturday was somewhat uneventful, I decided to explore the 10th, which while it doesn't have as many obvious sights as basically every other arrondissement I've explored but it was a good day of wandering around and exploring somewhere new.

Gare De Nord

Gare D'Est

Egypt Rally @ Republique

Saturday I headed over to the Musee Marmottan Monet, which was so beautiful, I managed to sneak a few pictures when the guards weren't looking.  Afterwards, we went exploring in the 16th and found Paris's mini Statue of Liberty.

Monet's palette and glasses! 

Tuesday, my French class was cancelled so I took advantage of my free time and went to Musee D'Orsay. There were signs like every 3 feet not to take pictures but I took a couple outside. Musee D'Orsay had tons of famous paintings by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and Degas. The Museum itself was also super neat, its in what used to be a train station built for the World's Fair. Then, at night I went to L'As du Falafel to celebrate my friend Sam's birthday. Lenny Kravitz called L'as du Falafel the " best falafel in the world", and if Kravitz says it, you know it must be true. I was a bit skeptical, it being my fist falafel and all, but I will follow in Kravitz's steps and give it my stamp of approval (although I will say it though, TBH they coulda gone lighter on the cabbage).

Musee D'Orsay

Musee D'Orsay

Stolen picture from google of what the inside of D'Orsay looked like

Assemblee Nationale, Home of the French Parliament (accidentally happened upon it on my walk from school to Musee D'Orsay)

L'as de Falafel

Then yesterday I had another architecture field trip, this time around the Marais (which is the 4th arriondissment, it's called the Marias because it means marshlands and that's what this area originally was). Warning: as fitting to this post, this week'sf field trip was our longest. The first building we visited was St Gervais et St Protais, a church right behind Hotel de Ville. Afterwards, we saw one of the first apartment buildings built in France. Next was Hotel de Beauvais, which was built for Catherine Beauvais, who was the first lady in waiting for Anne of Austria, as well as married to what is today's equivalent of the district attorney. Afterwards, we visited St Paul St Louis, which was the first church in Paris to incorporate a dome. Then, we visited the Hotel Carnavalet. THEN, we visited Hotel Sully which is on Place des Vosges, which was formerly Place Royale.

St Gervais et St Protais

One of the first appartment buildings in Paris (as far as I know it doesn't have a name)

Hotel De Beauvais

Later in history, Hotel de Beauvais was owned by the Bavarian Ambassador, and Mozart stayed with him for a brief time as a child.

St. Paul St. Louis

Paris's first dome

Hotel Carnavalet

Courtyard of Hotel de Sully

Hotel De Sully

My French class was cancelled on Wednesday as well, (don't worry everyone AUP has a brilliant policy where teachers must make up missed classes so I will get to enjoy 4 hours of French on a Saturday in March. fun!) But I decided again that I shouldn't let my afternoon go to waste so I finally went to the Louvre. Which omg so much to see, I will definitely be returning there, many many times. I did try and see all of the most important famous pieces though. (Although I did somehow miss Venus de Milo)

Inside the Carrousel de Louvre

inside the pyramid

Pyramid

St. Mary Magdelene

(This picture is really for my Mom  &others who knew Reese as a puppy: does this not remind you of us fishing stuff out of his mouth when he used to chew on bad things)

Captive by Michelangelo 

Psyche and Cupid

Wedding Feast of Cana

Mona Lisa (it was uber crowded, hoping next time I go back I can get a little closer)

Le Paradis

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

French Crown Jewels

This combination of the letters H and C that can be seen all over the Louvre are supposed to stand for Henry II and Catherine de Medici. However, if you notice, it also looks a lot like an H and a D Henry did this, so it would also represent his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, which did not make Catherine de Midici happy at allllll.

Seated Scribe

Danae- Kiefer (This sculpture taught me a valuable lesson- always take a picture of the plaque afterwards otherwise you will spend ample time google-ing to find out the name and artist) 

Napolean's Apartments (Hands Down my Favourite Part)

Another good week down, sorry for the overload. Ahh I'm leaving tomorrow for my spring break, first stop Sevilla, Spain till Monday morning, then Marrakech, Morocco, then back to Spain for a brief stop in Barcelona! Another major update when I get back!

Pompidou, Chinese New Year & Architecture in the 1st

Last Friday afternoon, some friends and I traveled over to Centre Pompidou to check out the Musee National D'Art Moderne (basically MOMA). Unfortunately the line was very long and I had to leave early to meet my landlord, but I plan on going back to see the rest! We saw an interesting combination of crazy WTF is this pieces (ex. a video of a lady hulahooping with barbed wire) and cool woah what is this pieces (see below).

Centre Pompidou

Then on Sunday my friends and I ventured to Chinatown in the 13th to celebrate the Chinese New Year and enjoy some Chinese food and see the parade. Unfortunately, a lot of other Parisians decided to do this as well (who woulda guessed?) so after waiting in a couple of lines and seating ourselves at a dirty table, we finally got some food, and finished in perfect time to check out the parade!

The remains of some very loud Chinese fireworks

Then yesterday in my architecture class we studied a bunch of buildings in the 1st. First we observed the courtyard in the Louvre, (while stopping to check out Saint Germain L'Auxerrois and Bourse de Commerce on the way) and then we headed over to Saint Eustache. Sainte Eustache is a beautiful church, and if it wasn't for my architecture class I would have left it at that. However, it mashes up two very prominent and somewhat dueling styles of Paris; Gothic and Renaissance. I, personally, did not mind this and thought it looked amazing, but apparently at its time the architecture world looked down on it greatly. However, that didn't stop non-architects from enjoying it, like Moliere and Madame De Pompadour who were baptized there, or Louis XIV who received his first communion there, or Mozart who chose St. Eustache as the location of his mother's funeral. Afterwards, we headed over to the Fontaine Des Innocents. 

Saint Germain L'Auxerrois, church next to the Louvre (Catherine de Medici moved out of the Tuleries, her widow's palace next to the Louvre, because her astrologist told her she would die next to Saint Germain. Ironically, though, when Catherine died in the Loire Valley, the priest that gave her the last sacraments name was Julien de Saint Germain!)

Bourse de Commerce (More crazy superstitious Catherine de Medici: While her Tuleries palace was under construction, her  astrologist convinced her to abandon the first location and instead move it here, all that remains from the original palace is this: her astrologer's observatory) 

St Eustache

St Eustache + Henri Miller's "The Listener"

Fontaine Des Innocents (No water 'till spring)

So, all in all, another good week! Working on my French, getting free pizza, the usual!

Rodin, Shakespeare, Cluny & LAUNDRY

So I'm very proud to say despite classes and having a little cold I have actually gotten to see a lot in the past week. On Friday, I went to the Rodin Museum which was really interesting and pretty, I can't wait to go back in the spring, though, when the gardens are in bloom! 

Le Penseur & Les Invalides!

Le Porte De L'Enfer (Rodin was inspired by the Inferno and many of his works, including this one reference characters or stories from the Inferno)

Up Close Shot of Le Porte De L'Enfer

Le Baiser

L'Age De Mur (by Rodin's muse, Camille Claudel)

After exploring the Rodin museum, I went on a random adventure with my friends and ended up at Galleries Lafayette!

Galleries Lafayette

Opera

Later that weekend, a friend and I decided to walk over to Shakespeare & Co, a famous bookstore next to Notre Dame. On our walk over, though, we happened across the Pantheon and lots of other cool sights!

The Pantheon (I have yet to explore the inside, but the outside was impressive enough!)

Universite De Paris

Shakespeare & Co

My friend Rachel and I in front of Shakespeare & Co

The store also included lots of eclectic decorations like this stuffed bird, a piano, typewriters and plenty of comfy chairs.

Yesterday was my second art history field trip to the Musee de Cluny, which houses the original Roman baths from when Paris was Lutetia.  Later the baths where built around to make a classic "hotel" in Paris, which was kind of like a town house for the wealthy. This particular "hotel" was built by/for abbot Jacques D'Amboise, so it also included a small chapel. Unfortunately the museum had the remains of the baths closed off, but there was still plenty to see! 

The Main Staircase in the Hotel

An original piece of stained glass from the Sainte Chapelle but was moved to the Musee de Cluny when damaged.

The original heads of the Kings at Notre Dame (The Kings where changed when it was decided that the Kings on Notre Dame should represent French Kings instead of religious Kings)

La Dame et La Licorn (Probably Musee De Cluny's most prominent work)

The Ceiling in the Chapel

Staircase that leads to the Chapel

After the field trip, I decided to confront one of the biggest issues I have had since coming to Paris: Laundry. After searching by foot for the nearest laundromat (because they do not come up on google for some reason), then searching for an open supermarket on a Sunday to buy detergent (which took about 3 hours- literally everything closes on Sundays here), then having to go to 3 separate supermarkets over the next 3 days because I kept accidentally buying things that weren't actually detergent (hint: detergent in french is détergent, don't ask me how I made this mistake... twice) anyways I finally made it to the laundromat with detergent in hand on Wednesday (keep in mind this quest started on Sunday) and figured out the machines with comparative ease. But of course in my moment of pride, someone mistook me for a native French-speaker and when they started going on and on I did not have the heart to tell him I did not speak French and just smiled and nodded till he gave me a suspicious look and said "Parlez-vous Francais??" to which I shyly admitted "on peu" and then patiently waited through his rant (in French) about how this is not England and I need to learn French (don't ask me why I could understand this and nothing else) I also did not bother and correct him and tell him I am actually American, didn't want to make things worse. Anyways, lesson learned, from now on I am going to either: A. handwash or B. go to a cafe/hide while my clothes are in the machine. (ALSO: just because the dryer time defaults to 9 minutes, do not think that the French have super amazing dryers that dry in 9 minutes, otherwise you will have clothes hanging off of literally everything that even resembles a hook in your 10 sq meter room)

Had to document my first great misunderstanding of French language/culture

Besides laundry, though, everything is good! I am still learning a lot of French and classes have not been too hard so far. Plus, it's supposed to be in the 50s this weekend, so I'm looking forward to exploring in relatively nice weather!