Il fait beau.

"In Paris you learn wit, in London you learn to crush your social rivals, and in Florence you learn poise." ~Virgil Thomson

I feel so very Minnesotan always talking about the weather, but it is such a vital point to a "good" day in Paris. I don't really think that I can have a bad day in Paris, but when the weather is just right everything just seems to fall into place. Today was one of those days. 

After class this mid-morning and afternoon, my seminar partner and I went to scope out the route that we want the rest of the class to look at since we are doing ours on Baron Haussmann, the architect/ city planner that made Paris look the way did does today. We decide to end our "walking tour" at Le Jardin du Luxembourg. Where we proceed to look for a baguette for me to eat in the garden, it took forever to find one but eventually we did. We then settled down for a bit of relaxation and "sun-bathing". Now you are thinking, "What! Janice in the sun she will burn like a lobster without a shell." And you would be thinking right, however I was a Girl Scout so I was prepared. I had my trusty sunscreen tube on me and I lathered my face up. So there I was sunbathing in the Luxembourg Gardens with a baguette in Paris, no big deal or anything. It was a sorta crazy surreal moment when I realized that I have enough time in Paris to spend a lazy day in the park and not have to worry about rushing off to this museum or that monument. 

I don't know if I have learn wit while I am here you will have to tell me if I am at all witty or if I was witty before if I am witter. But I now know where I have to go to become a well-rounded person. So who wants to go to London and Florence?? I would really love to learn some poise since I thing I have indeed become clumsier since coming to Paris. I think I hit my head at least three times a day and I run into the door almost every time I go to open one. Their doors are quite tricky here. I think they change them in the night which way they open. And they often try and hid the door seal so you can't tell which way to swing the door. Life can be a challenge here in France. 

I often talk about the little things here but when you are in a foreign country they become the big things. Like France has ginormous buttons to flush the toilette or that men and women share common space in the bathroom. The fact that there are no screens on windows or that your maid wakes you up at nine AM to give you new sheets. Let me tell you that is no way to wake up. Having a random woman in your doorway speaking very rapid French is very confusing. Nine AM is much too early to speak French. But it is nice when French people that I interact with ask if I am American and I respond to them in French and they continue to talk to me in French. I really want to communicate with them in French they just speak so fast that it can be very hard. The other day I was asking a waitress for more water and I had intended to ask in French instead it came out in broken English. So if you are with me when I just come back please understand that while I did not learn better French my English did get worse.

So this was a mishmash blog update, but nothing really structured happened in my free time so it was "a boring day". A nice relaxing day none the less. I hope to spend the rest of my days are like this. Alas the real world in pounding on my door and tapping on my window, but I think for now I will snuggle down in to the comfort of my youth. 

Jusqu'à demain

Bisous- Janice

All photos taken at Le Jardin du Luxembourg 

Au faire à nouveau

"The Museum is not meant either for the wanderer to see by accident or for the pilgrim to see with awe. It is meant for the mere slave of a routine of self-education to stuff himself with every sort of incongruous intellectual food in one indigestible meal." ~Gilbert Keith Chesterson 


Oh the Louvre! Today was spent roaming the Louvre Museum however it was a tough ride getting there. We left the campus about 10:30 but did get a train until 11:00. Apparently there was/is a strike going on for the train conductors. I now know why major cities cave to the conductor strikes, it really shuts down the city. We had to wait over twenty minutes and the train was so packed because they were running so infrequently they all had to jam in to already packed cars. It was not fun. 

When we finally got to the Louvre I found it quite over whelming. We bought audio guides that were helpful and restricting myself to really not only one wing of the museum but one floor was a good way to stay in control, but I could spend years in there and it wouldn't be enough. I found many painting that I really liked and two that I will talk about in just a bit. I found that I really liked the French sections of what I saw because they tended to be much more varied in their subjects. Although they did have a bit of an homage to Napoleon (that rascal. The other sections that I distinctly remember were the Spanish and the Italian halls. These sections of paintings tended to be mainly of Jesus. Now I think Jesus is awesome and all that jazz but after the hundredth painting depicting either baby Jesus or something from his life and often of his death, it gets a bit monotonous after a while. 

I often walked through rooms and found the ceiling to be just as interesting as the contents. I would have been happy with an empty room if the ceiling was as ornate as most of them were. The day was not as tiring as I expected it to but that maybe because it really was only four hours after an hour taken out for lunch. Which was a very overpriced sandwich and chocolate mousse thingy. 

I of course got to see La Joconde or as it is known in English, Mona Lisa. I also saw Winged Victory (Victorie de Samothrace) and Venus d'Milo. I also went down and saw the mid-evil fortress base that still stands, which was pretty cool that that still exists. I saw many many beautiful and wonderful paintings and other artifacts/ sculptures. After my short visit to the Louvre (I plan on going back this Sunday) I went through part of the Tuileries Garden (I plan on visiting them again as well) and went to a super expensive place for chocolat chaude et macaroons.  It was probably the best hot chocolate I will ever have. It was supper rich and creamy it was basically like drinking melted chocolate but better. It was also the first time I have ever had a macaroon, which was caramel flavored, and it was really sweet and delicious but I don't think I could do more than one in a sitting. However they may be less potent from somewhere cheaper and less grand.

So without further ado my analysis of a painting and then my pictures. 

La Jaune Marytre (The Young Martyr)~ Paul Delaroche 1855

She is alone in the water, is the first thing you should notice. This may indicate that her cause may not have been very noble or that it may be a symbolic act instead of something that is done in hope of change. The beauty of her body is in stark contrast with the ugliness of her act. Martyrdom is not beautiful, of the acts are done without the persons consent or often knowledge that they will after they die be remembered that way. Her halo is floating near her head to indicate either her act is in the process of becoming holy or that fact that her act is that far away from being holy. This women's greatest act was her death. The fact that she is tied up might show that she did not live the noblest life and in death she must be chain as she wasn't in life. Although she is painted dressed in white this maybe a symbol to show her purity/ redemption in death. In the upper right hand corner you can see the horizon behind a man on a horse. This shows a new day dawns on the one who will never see it. It shows the light that the horseman carries with him to the sight showing that he maybe enlightened and have a way to fix the young martyr's problem(s). I surmise that he, the horseman is good not only from the fact that light is traveling with him but that he has a quiver of arrows and they young girl has no wounds to indicate that is man was the cause of her death.  This man is clearly looking for her and is too late, he might have been a family member but knowing the romantics it is more than likely a lover. A lover she couldn't have, which is why she is thrown in the water a death fit for the unfit. She has seemed to find peace a last with her face clean but it is most definitely a sad, mournful face. Upon reading the plaque after writing this all down I found out that is this a painting of Ophelia after she "kills herself" in Hamlet. So that might change how you see this painting. I surmise that the man more than likely is Hamlet her forbidden love come to rescue her and is too late. 

I hope you have a good day and let me know if you have any places you would like me to see that I haven't already been to.

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

Outside the Louvre 

Mona Lisa, it was a struggle to get to the front

That's just a ceiling!

Just like the ancients 

Mid-Evil base

Outside in the garden

It was so yummy! 

       

Une journée pour se détendre

"Paris is a place in which we can forget ourselves, reinvent, expunge the dead weight of our past." ~Michael Simkins

Well that is what I tried to do today. I spent my mid-day in the Notre-Dame de Pairs, where I took some pictures and then attended a service. Well walking around the perimeter of the church I thought to be honest it isn't very well kept up. They have things roped off but that's about it. It wasn't very clean as in the paintings and the artifacts were just there gathering dust and grim. I was nice to finally go into the church and it was beautiful but I think that I just build these things up in my mind so big that when they come in to fruition it pales in comparison. The service was of course confusing but I think I will have to just get use to always being confused in Paris. The service was all in French but they had a English summary in the bulletin and they had singers guiding us for when we needed to sing. So I sang in the Notre-Dame! I thought that was pretty cool. 

After service I went back to the dorms for a quick change and then out to eat with my friend we eventually a chose to eat at a crepe cafe. We both got crepes with ice cream, my was mint ice cream and chocolate sauce and hers was like baked cinnamon apples and vanilla ice cream. I wish I would have taken a picture of it but I was just to hungry and lazy to take out my camera. After "lunch" we wondered forever and eventually found a pâtisserie and I bought my first baguette. It cost me 1,15 euros and was worth every euro cent. The French subsidizes bread and wine so it is so much cheaper, and I thank the French government for that. I could not stop eating it. It was delightfully crunchy on the outside and super soft and airy in the inside with all around buttery flavor. I can't believe that I waited so long to buy one. 

I bought the baguette to eat while chilling out in the forest in the 16th arrondissement called Bois de Boulogne. This "park" two and a half times larger than Central Park, however we did not venture very far in. We did not want to get lost or go very far away from a metro stop since we are lazy like that. My friend and I eventually settled on a bench in a little park area that has super cute French children, actually all boys, they were riding their bikes around a little track. They were just too darn cute. We sat and wrote and hung out for a little bit. 

I did my best to forget myself and enjoy Paris an my live here, and it was much easier after I left the hords of tourists, they were not exclusively old people, I know that some older people can be very good tourist. It's just the ones that I have encountered (often European older ladies) have been very hard to handle. So now it is off to bed for I have a long day ahead of me of exploring the Louvre!

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

Notre-Dame de Paris

Moi et première baguette dans le Bois de Boulogne 

Pretty little stream in the forest, 

the bush has purple flowers 

Le jour parfait

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love." ~Claude Monet 

I think today has been my favorite day so far of this trip. And that is saying a lot given all the things I have done and all the life-long dreams I have accomplished. But going to Giverny, the home of Claude Monet, a place I would have never thought to go to, is one of my favorites if not the favorite thing I have done on this study abroad program. 

The day started our early at ten to nine were the whole group set out on an hour bus ride to Giverny. We arrived and entered in fairly quickly, however we were besieged by hoards of old people, who travel in packs and I think my even devour the young when given the chance. We entered the grounds from the garden and were able to walk the path around the water lily ponds and cross the bridges that Monet painted and see the hanging flowers that he makes you feel in his paintings. When I looked out on to the pond in certain places I would have sworn that that is the exact spot where he painted certain paintings. I was so wonderful even though everybody and their grandma were there.

I must say though the weather for this excursion was PERFECT. I didn't have to bring my coat and my umbrella was an un-needed safety net. I took so many pictures of the beautiful flowers. The tour of the house was crowded but it was so cool to see real thing opposed to the pictures. After that I had a meeting with my professor about my project. The lunch with five other people was probably an hour and a half, at the least. But before lunch we found a poppy field that might have been what Monet painted and we took some photos there. After lunch is was a leisurely walk to another field full of little daises with the best chocolate ice cream cone I have had in France. The day was really just wonderful and relaxing. There was a different energy outside of the garden and house that was so relaxing an beautiful. I have no way to convey the beauty and wonderfulness of this day and just hope that you have experienced a perfect day and can remember that and the feeling you had and know that I just had mine.

My quote from the day: "I speak Frankenstein French."  

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

     

Très confondant

"I never rebel so much against France as not to regard Paris with a friendly eye; she has had my heart since my childhood.... I love her tenderly, even to her warts and her spots. I am French only by this great city: the glory of France, and one of the noblest ornaments of the world."-Michel de Montaigne

**You will want to read to the end, so you can skip the academic stuff if you would like in the middle**

This day has been packed full. This morning I went out with friend to the Palais Garnier which is an opera house. This is the place that was where the "Phantom of the Opera" was set. The outside was very beautiful and they had unguided tours but it was six euros and I did not want to spend the money on that. 

After the quick look around it was back on the metro to Pont Neuf which basically mean the new bridge, but it was built in the 1600's and is the oldest bridge spanning the Seine in Paris. I was nice but there were a whole bunch of gypsies there and the friend I was with had to yell at them to leave him alone, where as I wasn't bothered at all. After walking on to Île de la Cité, which is the larger island in the Seine we tried to find the prison where Marie-Antoinette was held. So we went into the first governmental building we saw on the island and ended up waiting in a security line for a half hour to get it to what was basically the town courthouse. We got so lost and couldn't find the exit and just wandered around the place for a bit. I was cool but we definitely should not have wondered like we did, oops.

After we finally found an exit we rain in to a line full of old people. When you either run into a line of old people or Asians you know that there is an attraction to be seen. And this line happened to be for the place we were looking for La Conciergerie. When we went down to get our free tickets (because of our student passes) we were basically assaulted by old ladies who NEEDED to stay together. It was very confusing. Once inside we had to work quickly in order to see everything and still get back to the campus for class in time. The building was large but the museum was small. So it was easy to see everything we wanted. There were some students speaking perfect English with American accents so we asked the adult that we assumed was with them where they were from and she answered that they were from Hong Kong. That was very confusing because many of them were white. So we gathered that she was not with them because it was very hard to understand what she was saying when she said Hong Kong. 

After the very hard to find museum we walked along the Seine and found a crepe place that had amazing crepes. And then it was off to class. We had a presentation and did a shadow activity. After class it was off to another museum this one was much much smaller and was called Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits. It is a museum full of letters and manuscripts of famous people. Such people as Marie and Pierre Curie, Beethoven, Einstein, Kings and Queens of France, Kerouac, Dickens and so many more. I really loved it there. I love primary documents so this was a little slice of heaven for me. I wish that the explanation plaques would have also been in English and maybe a listening device do I knew the story behind the writer or the document itself. I took many pictures and hope to one day use them in my class room.

The class was asked to write about a specific document that they felt connected to, the document I chose was a letter by Marie de Médicis from June 1614.

Just a quick note when I took these notes I knew nothing about this women whose letter struck me as odd. 

I first examined the paper its self and in proportion to the other letters round this one the size of the paper was larger than most. This indicated so me that this women had power and/or wealth since she could afford such large paper. However the relatively unused space could mean that she either had little to say or what she was saying couldn't effectively be but in a letter. What attracted me the most to this letter was the fact it looks like in the body of the letter (which has no paragraphs) was written by a student for her composition book. Her signature as well looks like it was signed by a six year old. In this letter it is just her first name and that is an indication to me that this letter was on the more personal side and the receiver of the letter would have been quite close to Marie de Médicis. The only indication that I got from the writing that this was written by an grown women is from the beginning letter.

This letter, after doing some research was written by the Queen of France from 1600 to 1610 with King Henri IV. She was then Regent of France since her son was too young to take over power until 1614. She then becomes head of the King's Council until 1617 when her son took over. So basically she ran France for seven years and in those seven years she wrote this letter. She was later exiled by her son because she well in short became very greedy and power hungry. When she eventually escaped (as they all do) she started a "war" which was ended by her son in her lose. It would be very interesting to know if my character analysis of her is anything like the real her since greed can be thought of as a child like quality in some ways (I want all the things!). 

So after that heavy analysis I decided to head off on my own for a little shopping along the Seine by the Notre Dame. They have lovely stands full of posters and used books and all sorts of good stuff. I eventually found a little bit of French heaven in a six story book store called Gilbert Jeune, it was six levels of books along with outside tables full of cheap books. I thought I had found heaven in there. It was wonderful, however I did find a single English book so that was a bit rough but that is also good because they aren't trying to cater to English speakers. This store is meant for the French. So I of course bought some books and set off on my way (after an hour plus) to find some ice cream (my dinner, oops). I wondered around for a good hour and could not find one place that sold ice cream. Eventually I just gave up because I was so tired. 

Now there is a reason I am telling you about my boring shopping trip. When I got on the RER/Metro I made sure I got on the right line and I thought it was going the right way, turns out after three stops I was going the wrong way. I became aware of this after the overhead intercom came on in English and said that the metro terminated on the completely wrong side of Paris. At the same moment about twenty-five very loud French students piled in to my car and the RER proceeded to go out quite far to the Paris suburbs. So there I was freaking out that I wasn't going to be able to get back to Paris, alone, surrounded by French students. And let me tell you the Paris burbs are sketchy. It is every industrial and all concrete and abandoned buildings and trains everywhere. I was very confused and praying that my metro pass still worked in zone two (they said it would, but I had no intention of testing it out). 

So I rushed off the train to a very large platform that was so confusing and I proceed to ask about three platform workers where the train to Cite U would be. Turns out I had to go all the way down to the ground and go back up on the other side to get to where my train needed to be. So I just kept praying that there would be a train there to pick me up, since it was almost nine I wasn't sure how long the trains ran outside the city. Thankfully I caught a train and then rode it all the way to the other side of Paris before getting off. This whole time I just wanted to find a corner and break down but I didn't, yay me! Once off I bought myself a Kit-Kat (which I just had and it was sorta different, I think it was higher quality chocolate)and then went and bought myself an ice cream cone (finally) at the stand across from the main building. 

So all in all it was a very packet and scary day. This day came after yesterday being the day I locked myself out of my room while spending twice as much as I needed to on laundry, well my roommate was gone. So now enjoy some pictures of my day. 

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

Lesson of the day: Janice does not do the metro by herself.

Palais Garnier

Pont Neuf

La Conciergerie- Main Hall

This was the proclamation from King Louis 

The Translation from General de Gaulle from 

WWII. Think of him as their Eisenhower.

 

Où est la mort?

"One gets a good look at one’s country from this perspective and one learns to see one’s nation with double eyes, to feel what we have got and what we have not got. I've learned more about America in one month in Paris than I could in one year in New York. Looking at this country makes all the unimportant phases of the AMERICAN problem fade somewhat and renders the true problem more vivid." ~Richard Wright, in a letter to a friend, 1946 (a week after arriving in Paris.)

Today started off fairly early with a trip to the catacombs at ten. We got in line at about 9:30 although there were others already holding our spots. The catacombs were strange. We when down a spiral stair case, quite far in to tunnels that took forever to get to the "good stuff". The trail was about a mile long and it at times felt much longer.

When we finally got to the part with the bones it was very quiet. Although there were no signs telling us to, it felt very wrong and disrespectful to speak loudly around the bones. It was as though the bones had been through enough that the gawking of the foreign tourist was pushing. And I did gawk. It was so strange and oh so very sad. I can't imagine being the poor man who had to desecrate the graves and remove the bodies to make room for the newly dead. As well as the ones who had to handle the bones of their ancestors. They were probably the very poor and homeless. The only bones that I could see were femurs and the skull bones without the jaw bone. We kept wonder where the rest of the body bones went. The bones they did have were artfully designed, well as artful as you can be with bones. But on top of the low walls of bones were just thrown on top cluttered mess of bones, the sadness for those people's bones was massive. It a very cool place to go even with the morbid subject.

After the Catacombs de Paris, I had class prep-ing us for our trip to Musée d'Orsay. This is the museum that was once a train station and a hotel. There were no photos; however I snuck some photos of non-painting without flash, so I think it was okay. However they didn't seem very strict on that room since I can't tell you the number of old men I saw talking pictures of painting, with flash mind you. I spent about four hours wondering alone around the museum with a head set. That is the only way I want to do museums from now on, alone. There is no need to point something out to somebody something they have already noticed and no need to try and think of a comment. It is just you and your thoughts and feelings about each piece. 

At this museum we were given an assignment to talk about a piece you connected to. So from here on out I will be talking about Edgar Degas' painting "Répétition d'un ballet sur la scène" 1874. (online photo)

In English this is called "Ballet Rehearsal on Stage". So let's dive right in on my thoughts. 

The muted tones contrast with the feeling one should get while preforming or rehearsing. The soft almost dull pinks and browns gives the impression that the painter doesn't want the scene to be seen, there are no colors there meant to catch your eye. The way the dancers are posed they almost look like dolls there for others enjoyment. That in conjunction with the empty eyes and mouths make them look like puppets for the audience. They looked like used objects as opposed to beautiful spectacles that one might associated with ballerinas. The anguish in the faces of the dances who seem to be done with their "across the floor" drills shows the hard work that they give even when there is no audience. Or the faces could show the emptiness the ballerinas seem to be feeling.  

The man off stage represents the "puppet master". of the arts and the fact that there is always someone pulling the strings, someone that you must please or gain approval from. There also seems to be a shadow off to the right side of him. That looks like a man and kind of a machine (to my modern eyes). This is the one who maybe the sitting man reports to or a looming manifestation of his presence in the ballet. 

The lack of set dressing and visible audience (although it is a rehearsal there still would have been teachers and costume and set designers there at the rehearsal) this gives the feeling/impression that no matter how many times you practice it will never be perfect. As well as the fact that no one is ever truly watching so why put on a full show? (i.e. a metaphor for life)

I wrote all of that before talking with my professor who informed me that in the day of Degas being a ballerina was not a prestigious profession, they were part of the working class and often times they were in essence property of wealthy men who used them and told them what to do because they were just trying to survive and maybe support their mother and siblings. I had never thought that ballerinas were working class (I always thought of burlesque or cabaret performers as working/ lower class). And I was speaking later with another student who said that there was speculation that Degas might himself have been one of those men who lord their money over these girls. 

And I that happy note...   

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

The Catacombs of Pairs

The top of the neatly stacked bones 

The dinning room at Orsay

The splendor that they got 

to live in foors me

What a view! The Seine and the Louvre 

in one picture from the Orsay. 

Can't believe this is real life!

Sculptures et jardins

"Nothing is a waste of time if you experience it wisely." ~ Auguste Rodin 

Wow what can I say, I have been in Paris over a week now, I can't believe it! It is a mixed bag of feeling of the shock that I am over here at all, the feeling of where did the week go and the feeling that I have been here forever. I really do love it here, I know that I would like it here but I somehow feel apart of the city when I just walk quietly down a boulevard or rush to catch the next train. I can already feel myself becoming use to the French way and know that I will probably have more culture shock coming home than I did coming here, but we will see.  

Today started with an early metro meeting around 9:15 to catch I think three trains to go to the Musée Rodin. There are always so many train transfers to go anywhere in the city. This museum was almost strictly devoted to works of Auguste Rodin a French sculptor. He is the man who did "The Thinker" and "The Kiss". 

Before this trip I had not been much for sculptures and unfortunately I am still not. However I have grown a new appreciation for the detail, hard work and the art form in general. I think my own inability to ever sculpt anything that would turn out (I was the kid in elementary school who would have to take home one of the forgotten clay designs because mine always broke in the kiln). At the museum I kept trying to find a way to connect with the art work but found it very hard. Part of that may have also been because of the way Rodin did his work he caste it and often time it wasn't him who did the final work.

Even though I could not find a way to connect to the work I still found it beautiful. My favorite piece of his that I saw was the famous "Gates of Hell" which became his life's obsession and was never completed. The large caste that I have a picture of below was one that he never saw. He never saw it life size form. The fact that it was never completed and that he never saw it as large as we get to see it today is a bit haunting. A romantic notion that I have towards the gate is that maybe it will never be finished because the gates of Hell is still collecting and displaying the most fallen of God's creations. Rodin took a lot of inspiration for the gates from Dante's "Inferno" so if you have read any of that try and recall figures that might be displayed at the gates of Hell. 

Jusqu'à demain
Bisous- Janice

"The Gates of Hell" inspired 

by Dante's "Inferno"

Apparently this man was locked a way with his children as punishment in the thought that he wouldn't eat them, he did. 

"The Thinker" with the top 

of Napoleon's tomb