Dad, while I’m writing this I’m watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, so my grammAR might not be that great because I’m a little distracted. Just a warning – read at your own peril.
So last Friday, we met at six to get on the bus that would take us to Paris. Four hours, a lot of sleeping, and one rest stop at the nicest gas station I had ever been to, we finally arrived!! It was perfect – sunny, blue skies, and French people walking around everywhere. I literally would have had my nose pressed to the window if Susan hadn’t been the one sitting in the window seat. As it was, I was fixated. I had been to Paris in high school, and it was great, but it was March and pretty overcast and rainy most of the time. This was the first time that I’d seen it in all of its leafy glory, with sun gleaming off of the nineteenth century Parisian buildings.
This movie is making me so mad – I forgot that they added in the Burrow getting attacked! Harry Potter is good enough as it is!! It does not need gratuitous adventure scenes!
Anways, on to Paris. The first place we went was the Louvre, which was incredibly crowded. We mainly wandered around the Grand Gallery and the areas near the Venus de Milo. While the Mona Lisa was nice to see – the shadows on the painting really don’t show up on the wikipedia picture very well – I was most impressed with the painting of Bonaparte’s coronation, and just the Louvre itself. First off, Bonaparte’s coronation is HUGE, and the color was magnificent. The walls of the Louvre could function as a museum in their own right, gilded and sculpted and incredibly ornate. We spent a couple of hours there, just moseying around, taking in the art, imitating it from time to time. At first I felt a little sheepish at times, acting so silly in one of the most premier art museums in the world, but then our director, Heidi, said something that really struck a chord (and helped justify our actions haha).
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| Bonaparte's Coronation |
She said that art can be very static when just looked at. But by imitating the paintings or the statues, we are actively participating with it and experiencing what the artist intended us to feel. Well, maybe not in all cases (likeMichaelangelo’s Slave – I don’t think we could conjure emotions like that so lightly), but we did some pretty good renditions.
After the Louvre, we took a ride on a Bateaux Mouche, which is one of those touristy boats that go up and down the Seine, explaining the important sites that crowd the banks. It so sunny and nice out – I was so happy. It was a very welcome break from the Dijon weather haha. I got some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and it was a beneficial re-introduction to the major Paris landmarks. The only downside were the large groups of Chinese tourists who kept standing up, yelling every time we went under a bridge, and opening umbrellas. It kind of made me a little bit frustrated because American tourists can have such a bad reputation but I feel like we should not take all of the blame. It’s not just us!!
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| On the Bateaux Mouches! |
We went to our hotel after that, just to clean up and rest a little. I roomed with Julia, who is not from Ohio State but lives in our dorm. She’s from Canada, and it was really cool rooming with her because we spent a lot of time talking about differences between the US and Canada (there are actually quite a few). In the early evening, we went to the Latin Quarter to walk around and basically just take in the charm, since all of the touristy places had closed. The Luxembourg Gardens were gorgeous – I had never seen them before. I was a little disappointed that the Pantheon was closed, but its fine because I can just go back there with Geoff when he comes at the end of August.
By the time that we realized that the Pantheon was closed, it was imperative that we found dinner because all of us were famished. I had my “Rick Steves France” book, and throughout the day I had been reading factual tidbits out of it that everyone seemed to like. Since there were restaurants in it, we decided to see what Rick had to see about the area. Unfortunately, the places that Rick deems one $ worthy (his cheapest designation) are still out of budget for the college traveler, but it all worked out in the end because we found a café that was really close and had delicious croque monsieurs. Afterward, Susan, Mary, Matt, Alley, Julia and I walked around and eventually found a gorgeous, quintessentially French looking dessert place where I had the best chocolate cake that I think I’ve ever had in my life.
Saturday started off with a trip to the Musée D’Orsay, which was something that I had never been to before. While waiting for Stephane (our guide, and some people’s teacher back in Dijon) to get our entry tickets, we amused ourselves with more imitations.
The Musée D’Orsay was my favorite museum, by far. I like it way better than the Louvre. Many Renoirs are there, and he is my favorite painter I would say. The time period that the Musée D’Orsay focuses on also highly appeals to me because many paintings deal with greek myth allegories, something that I am better versed in than biblical stories. And it wasn’t just paintings – there were many statues, a replica of the Opera Garnier (location of Phantom of the Opera), and several ornate ballrooms that we found tucked away in a corner. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the Musée D’Orsay, but I guess that just means that you’ll have to go some day and see it for yourself :)
Next, we went to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Stephane gave us two hours to eat lunch and see it, so Mary, Susan and I split off from the rest of the group because it seemed like most people wanted to sit down and have a longer meal. We found a creperie right across from where the tour bus let us off, and we got a drink and a baguette-which for three euros! It was such a good price! Then we moseyed down the street toward Notre Dame, stopping to buy scarves at one of the shops. Once we got to the Cathedral, the line to get in was really long but it looked like it would only be a twenty minute wait because it was moving so quickly. We ended up deciding against going in, however, because it was really cloudy out and we figured that we wouldn’t get the whole effect from the stained glass windows. So we went to another shop, bought some postcards, and just walked around. We took pictures of one of the lock bridges, where couples put locks on the fence to symbolize their love. It was adorable.
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| Notre Dame |
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| The locks with Notre Dame in the background |
On our way back to the bus, we stopped by the creperie again, this time to get crepes. Mine had chocolate in it, and it was delicious :)
The next couple of hours were spent walking up and down the Champs-Elysees, wandering in and out of expensive shops (we steered clear of places that we would actually buy things at) and taking corny pictures of ourselves. We ended up at the Arc de Triomphe (more pictures) but decided against going up because it’s a little pricey.
That night we were supposed to go up the Eiffel Tower, but it was raining buckets when we got there so I just went to dinner with Leon, Mary, Susan, Jill, Matt, Jeff, Heidi and Steve instead. Our dinner took around two hours – during which it rained the entire time – so we didn’t end up going up the Eiffel Tower either. I didn’t really mind, because the weather was pretty bad, and many of the things that I didn’t get to do this weekend I was planning on doing anyways with Geoff when we go in August. It was nice to know I was walking around that I would be coming back.
We tried following Heidi back to the bus from the restaurant, but us girls and Leon got separated from Heidi and everyone else. It was pretty nice because we ended up getting lost right under the Eiffel Tower and Mary took this amazing picture:
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| Photo credit: Mary Gianfagna |
Thankfully, the bus wasn’t too hard to find from there.
On Sunday, we started our day at the Musée Rodin, which is a museum devoted to the sculptures of Rodin. More imitations ensued, especially some imitating the most famous piece of art there – the Thinker. Interestingly, the Thinker is outside, exposed to the elements. I was a little taken aback by that because I figured that they would place something as famous as the Thinker somewhere a little more preservation-friendly.
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| The Thinker |
The whole afternoon was then spent wandering around Montmartre. Alley, Susan, Jill, Mary and I looked around Sacre-Coeur (which was amazing), and then climbed the three hundred steps to the top of its tower. We were so glad that we did it – the view was amazing and by the time we got to the top it had stopped drizzling and the sun had come out. After Sacre-Coeur we just walked around looking in shops, had lunch, and poked around the area near the Moulin Rouge (which is full of sex shops). We also took a picture in front of the café from Amelie. I still haven’t seen Amelie, but I intend to before I go home!
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| Basilica of Sacre-Coeur |
After that, it was one four hour bus ride back to Dijon! I’m going to Nice this weekend, so I’ll probably write a blog about that next week.
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