Day 5

I'm going a day behind here so I'm gonna try to catch up tonight.

Yesterday was castle day! We saw Fontainbleau, in which the French royalty resided for many years, and Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is a private residence with a fun story.

Ok. Fontainbleau. Huge- royal- but all day there were these field trips of french and british 4th or 5th graders.

The rooms are all decorated differently, depending in which reign they were done. Some are classical, some renaissance. Tapestries are common, and incredible, considering they were all hand stiched! The walls are all painted and unbelievable, sculptures in wood and in stone, and carpets that are unbelievable.

Blah blah blah. The important thing to remember if you ever see this place is to bring a loaf of bread, because there are swans in the ponds in the garden. And they are not shy!!

Then Vaux-le-Vicomte.

This house was built by a man named Fouquet. He was the financial advisor to Louis XIV, and if you're at all familiar with this period in history, there was a lot of money flying around France at this point. So he had access to the royal treasury, and built himself a house. Sneaky huh? But then, to celebrate, he invites the king and queen to stay with him for a weekend. Now I don't see how he could possibly thought he could get away with this. This is not swiping a buck off someones dresser to buy a soda. Anyway the queen is furious, but the king tells her to chill out and have a good time for a few days, and the next week when they return home, Fouquet is immediately arrested, tried, and eventually exhiled.
This place also has some association with the legend of the Man in the Iron Mask, and much of the LeoD movie was filmed here.

Day 4

I was so wiped out yesterday. I've been napping here and there, and I was hellbent on not going out last night, but pre-game ended up in my room so my arm was more easily twisted. We had a wonderful time! A girl in our group had no problem talking with the guys in for an after work, so we mingled with the natives in a little hole in the wall of a place. I am feeling better as well, so no major consequences.

So yesterday was big. We started in Montmartre at Sacre Coeur, a giant church on the hill. The ground is unstable because they used to use a lot of rock from the hill, so one must walk to the top and dodge these horribly annoying dudes who try to tie a e15 friendship bracelet on your wrist as their buddies pick your pockets. Acutally we had a pretty pushy one give us a hard time when we told him to piss off, and that was the first bit of anti-american sentiment I've ever heard here. And he wasn't even French. haha. what a jerk.

So the church was beautiful. Then we went to la Place de Tertre, which is a little artist square where they sit and paint pictures or portraits or whatever. Its very quaint, and very touristy. Lots of americans. but lots of many nationalities, I heard quite a kaleidoscope of languages.

One more church here, this one had a couple roman pillars. Pretty cool.
If you have seen the movie Amelie, this is the neighborhood where she lived.

Then for my favorite. Pere Lachaise is a HUGE cemetary. It is just awesome. Europeans have a different view of death than we do, its just one more cultural difference, but what happened was your family rented a sepulcre for a certain number of years. You could renew it and things, but once you no longer had the rights to the space, they chucked you and your family into an ossuary and the space was changed over to a new family. This isn't done so much anymore, but graves are not the same as in the US. There's too much crowding. I have a good story about a different cemetary, but I'll tell that when I go to the catecombs.

We had missed the Opera house, so we went back there, and we were all bout done for the day by this point, but it was golden and fancy and so ornate.

Then came crabby wandering because Dr Janc left us and we didn't know what to do. We ended up in the neighborhood of the Moulin Rouge, which is not nearly as glamourous as we are led to believe. And from what I understand, its a ripoff meal with a Vegas show for Americans. But there was this museum down the street which was amazing! It was the Erotic museum, and only Taweh would go with me (I've never seen so many adults scared away by a penis), and it was crazy! You wouldn't believe the amount of art within all cultures and all periods of time that have to do with sex. Some of it was funny, some was very beautiful, some shocking, -- all in all, a super cool museum.

Day 3

Today seemed bigger and longer than it was! I'm getting tired. It is important for me to remember that it is just as important to keep rested as it is to see everything I possibly can. I feel guilty being at the hotel right now, but its storming, and I'm getting sick so I don't mind.

It was a beautiful day today! Hotter than its been, and we walked around quite a lot.

Churches are a major part of our itinarary, and learning the history and architecture and art associated with them is a part of the credits we recieve. So we will see a lot of them, and I'm not sick of them yet! We started at a place called La Madaleine which is a church named for Mary Magdalene. As far as I can recall, this is the most beautiful church we see. It is built in the form of a Roman temple and the grandeur of this place has a feeling of power. The murals along the ceilings, and chapels with pure white statues, and precise detail of every tile in the floor create a space that practically breathes.

and onward! We saw another church called La Trinite, and either choir practice or a mass was happening and the acoustics were unreal. These spaces just fill with energy.

Then we ran around and tried to see the Opera house but it was closed. But not the box office!!! Wooo hoooo we're going to see a ballet on monday! I'm so excited! Then we had lunch, more sandwiches, and we sat in a little park area and fed pigeons. Some of them got brave and would take the bread out of our hands and I played tug of war with a big one. Then we continued to la Place Vendome which is a square with a pillar of melted down canons from the battle of Austerlitz. Also the Ritz- where Lady Di dined for the last time.

Just a skip away from the sqare is the strip with The Louvre at one end, the Tuilerie Garden between, la Place de la concorde, the Seine, the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe to cap it all off. The gardens were lame! Trees and mud. A few flowers and a fountain with a seagull floating around thinking he was a swan. I was on the brink of allergic reaction at this point and was poppin benedryl so that might have contributed to my lack of impressed. I hope that doesn't happen again. Anyway, the place de la concorde has a real egyptian obelisk in the place where the guillotine (rasoir national - national razor!! haha!) sat during the Terror.

Oh I forgot! We strolled through the Lafayette Gallery- There are a couple around Paris and they are a global fashion and shopping hub. We went fast though, which made most of us pretty nuts.

Now I'm fighting with being sick and I'm going to bed!

Day 2

What to say. We went to the heart of the city- l'Ile de la Cite to be exact - it is the island in the Seine from which Paris grew outward. Notre Dame is huge- we whisked through. There were a lot of people tooling around. Sainte-Chapelle has the most incredible stained glass windows, and was constructed to house the Crown of Thorns and other relics. That is a thing among the churches, however they moved la Couronne d'Epines to Notre Dame. la Conciergerie is a huge building that has been used for a variety of administrative purposes throughout several centuries. It was a significant prison during the Revolution- big names too- Marie Antoinette and Robespierre hung around some creepy cells avant de la guillotine. Apparently she is rumored to have attempted to make a break for it called the Carnation Affair. I think that's funny. At that point, people were getting executed for wearing the wrong length pants, and she thinks she can a) break out of a cell b) not be recognized and c) survive revolutionary paris even long enough to get out of it? Anyway, maybe she didn't even try that, but they moved her to an even creepier cell because someone maybe had suspicions.

Ok so I had a glorious sandwich for lunch. The sandwiches in France are the best EVER- I am a sandwich hunter if you didn't know, and I caught a beautiful bit o' ham n gruyere. But our waitress was teasing us and told Taweh that he looked like her daughter and was very fun and... oh jolly. She was fantastic. But as she was talking with us, a pigeon zoomed into the restaurant, and I do mean zoom- buzzed and ruffled several people, and decided to spend the lunch hour with us. I didn't get a picture, but I've never seen so brave a bird.

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Ok so we went grocery shopping and then a few of us went exploring and we ended up all along the Seine, la Tour Eiffel, et the Champs-Elysees. I ate a crepe filled with chantilly (whipped cream) and then we horsed around taking pictures. I'm solidly into Beaujolais.

Flight and Day 1 in Paris

This will chronicle my stay in France these next 6 weeks- I will post pictures and tales of life, tourism, and my classes in this magical land of cheap wine and roundabouts. I bet all the wine's not so cheap. This bottle I just bought was though- about the same price as the $3 bottle of water. Sick huh? Any talk of sanitation issues regarding the reuse of my water bottle will go straight down the WC.

So I flew out of Minneapolis with my group, which was different than last time, because before I traveled alone.

The flight was unremarkable. Except that Iceland air served us reindeer meatballs for dinner.

Now that we are in Paris, I spent 10 euros at a mcdonalds-esque "restaurant", because I got salmon on my salad. We dubbed the screaming birthday party of 25 eight-year-olds the "barefoot banshees." It was entertaining to watch these kids take laps around the place while their parents sat around their philly melts and smoked cigarettes. BTW this was the ONLY place open since it is Sunday. Except the little epicerie where we bought e2 bottles of wine. That's right. cheaper than the water. I wasn't kidding about this. My bottle of Beaujolais was e5 and was a rip off. I'm sold on the stuff that says "rouge" and amounts to cheap. also, next time I'll scrap the culturalism and order the e2 "hot dog."

Anyway, basically I'm having fun and resolving to be cheaper!