Oui Oui Paris
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2009
1
8
16
Trip End
Jan 02, 2010
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Thursday, October 8, 2009
During our transit period into the city of love i learned to hate everyone in my program when we were all shoved into the already hot and crowded Paris metro system. It was hard to breathe let alone "watch for pickpockets" (we received countless lectures on pickpockets, stupid American students, and the importance of money belts). Of course all friendships were restored when we finally stepped out into an autumn Paris. Our great and adorable little Paris hotel was only a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower and we could see the tower when we got onto the main street outside of our hotel. That afternoon I joined some students I do not often hang out with (a nice change of pace) and walked around the by the Eiffel Tower and along the Seine River. We stopped for dinner at a quintessential Parisian street cafe where we enjoyed a great bottle of wine, great bread, great quiche, and great conversation
eiffel tower
. The next day October started, which felt very weird to me. We started off our day with a lecture at the OECD, an organization that I still don't quite understand or agree with their methods. It is basically a club of like-minded countries who determine development policies but invite the countries they are going to develop to the discussion, but do not invite the developing countries to formulate decisions. After the lecture I walked. and walked. and walked. For approximately 12 km or about 7 miles. If you are familiar with Paris, we took a very roundabout way but still went from the Eiffel Tower to Arc du Triomphe to the Louvre to Notre Dame and up the the Sacre Cour (sp?). Paris is HUGE, but we walked by most of the main tourist attractions. We walked through Notre Dame, which was impressive. I was slightly more impressed by the exterior of te Sacre Ceour just because it is up on the hill and is the highest point in Paris. At the Sacre Cour we walked through a mass which was interesting to see. For dinner we found a three course meal for 10 euro, which was great, but we were all dead tired at this point. After dinner we walked down into the Red Light District to check out the Moulin Rouge. I didn't take any pictures because I was too eager to leave. Not really my kind of neighborhood.
The next day we had a great lecture at UNESCO, which is one of the cooler UN organizations, and definitely one I would love to work at. (They do all of the "UNESCO World Heritage Sites" and work to preserve culture but also promote education, communication, and science). My big research paper is about education, so it was particularly great for me because our lecturer was an education policy planner. Our lecturers view was that without education, you cannot have development, and I agree. Giving someone an education gives them a chance, but still leaves it up to them to pursue the opportunities
eiffel tower
. You cant force development on someone, they have to want it. That afternoon we went to Musee D'Orsay. Wow, what a fabulous museum. It is in a beautiful old train station and houses a lot of French Impressionist artwork (think Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Seurat). When I was in first grade we learned about Monet in art class and had to do Monet-like artwork and mine hung in the library for the duration of my time in Elementary School, so of course Monet was my favorite artist. Monet is still my favorite artist (though for different reasons) and I like to think that I had good taste even as a six year old. There really is something incredible about seeing paintings in textbooks or in posters in bathrooms and then finally getting to see them in real life. and then you suddenly understand why someone would have a poster of a painting in their bathroom. If I were to hang a poster-painting in my bathroom it would have to be Monet's Le Gare Saint-Lazare. But no poster could ever do it justice. We learned about it in my art history class last year, but I fell in love with the painting at Musee D'Orsay. I lost my museum companions within two minutes of entering Musee D'Orsay, and so I proceeded to go to the Louvre by myself- which was ideal. I walked through the Touillieres Gardens and entered the Louvre through the pyramid. Throughout my Paris trip I was REALLY wishing I had a copy of the "DaVinci Code" with me, and going through the period was one of those moments. As for the Louvre, it is GIGANTIC. I sat in the lobby of the museum for 20 minutes before finally convincing myself that I could conquer the Louvre and go all the way inside. When I finally convinced my legs and my lower back that I am not 85 years old and that they can deal with the Louvre the first painting I saw was the 2nd painting (Cimabue's Madonna) I studied in my art history class last fall. That's when I really realized I had hit the art history big time. I am so so glad I took art history in college, and I think I saw close to half of the paintings I studied in class during my time in Paris
eiffel tower
. If I make down to Florence while I'm here I'll probably see another 1/3. I walked through the Italian hall, which is pretty much different artists painting the same scene (the Madonna and the Christ child). And of course I saw the Mona Lisa. Not that exciting, but she does have an odd enticing quality. The Louvre visit was made well-worthwhile by watching tourists push each other to take photos in front of the Mona Lisa and listening to people talk about her in 20 different languages. I also get a kick out of the people who video tape museums. What poor family member left back it home is going to be forced to watch 3 hours of footage of the inside of the Louvre? I continued to walk around the Louvre and saw as much as I could before heading back to the hotel to join my program for our group dinner. Before the group dinner they informed us that Switzerland officially did not give us student visas so we will be spending the last two weeks of the program in Croatia... and then they fed us. Wise on their parts. For dinner I had French Onion soup, ravioli, and creme brulee. it was great. On the way home I had probably my 10th conversation of my study abroad experience on prostitution. Saturday was perfect day in Paris. We left the hotel around 11 am and didnt return until 8 pm. We walked about 4 miles this day. We took the metro to Arc du Triumph and then walked down the Champs de Elysee. There were 7 of us, but we lost three when they went to Starbucks. We continued walking and stopped for crepes and walked through the Concrod and Tuilleres garden. We went to Musee D'Orsay (my companions had not been yet) and I had been so entranced before that I had no problem returning. It was nice to be able to linger at my favorite paintings and to find rooms I had missed during my first visit. Then we walked along the river and into the bustling and wonderful Latin Quarter area on our way to Jardin Luxembourg. We had planned to have a picnic lunch of bread, fresh cheese, confiture, quiche, fruit and wine in the Luxembourg Gardens, but they closed the park not long after we got there to prepare for Nuit Blanche. The gardens were awesome, so I am really glad I at least got to see them. For Nuit Blanche they had brought in a disco ball the size of an Escalade and it was suspended by a crane. Instead we walked back towards the hotel and had our perfect Parisian picnic under the Eiffel Tower.
Paris was magnifique.
