1. L’eglise St-Etienne du mont

    L’eglise St-Etienne du mont

  2. 28 Mai 2011

    Today was a pretty relaxed day. We went to breakfast, and after that, we went to l’eglise St-etienne du mont, which is where the remains of St.genvieve and pascal and others are kept. This was a really nice church, and some people think it is one of the most beautiful churches in all of France because it has a different architecture. There are stairs that go above the alter, and they are so amazing. We got to see where the remains of St.genvieve are kept, and actually got to see part of her thumb bone. It was pretty amazing. Then we got to see where pascal was kept, and where some others are kept as well. We sat in the church for awhile and just thought about stuff, and this church was also nice because it wasn’t very crowded.

    After we went to the church, we went to the Panthéon, which was right across the street. It was originally built as a church, but now holds the cryptes with some of the most important French thinkers. We walked in, and it is this huge building with all these floor to ceiling paintings on the walls, and then in the middle is Foucault’s pendulum, which was so amazing to see. He hung the original in the exact same spot. It was so cool to see after taking a physics class. After we saw the top, we went down to the cryptes, where the main pieces in the beginning were Rousseau and Voltaire, which is funny because they were rivals, and now their bodies are facing each other. My favorite part was where the Curies were held. They had notes written to them, and some people put flowers there. There were so many notes in all different languages and on all different types of paper. It was cool to see.

    When we left the Panthéon, we walked down the street to a tiny café and picked up lunch, and went and ate on a street corner. I had a small cheese pizza, pain au chocolat, and an orangina. It was a really nice lunch outside, the sun was shining, and everything was great.

    After lunch, we went to les jardins de Luxembourg, where we saw where the senate sits in France. The gardens were super busy, but they were super beautiful. All the little kids were running around a fountain with their boats. It was so cute to watch this little girl push her boat around. We learned a little bit about the Medici family and their influence on France. After that, we were on our own for awhile. Most of us went back to the hotel and then went to Monop for a cheap dinner.

    After dinner, we went on a boat tour of the Seine. It was a little windy and chilly on the boat, but it was cool to see Paris from that perspective. On our way to the boat tour, we stood on the bridge where lady diana was killed. There were all sorts of messages written on the wall, and it was kinda depressing there. The boat tour made up for it. One group of guys on the shore mooned the boat, which was kinda funny. We saw the Eiffel Tower and it was gorgeous. I definitely like looking at it more than looking from it.

    When we got off the boat, we stood on a bridge and watched the light show for the Eiffel tower, which was cool to see it all sparkly. Laura and I danced on the sidewalk on the bridge, which was pretty fun. After that though, we just went back to the hotel and went to bed!

    Bon soir!!!

  3. le grand magasin

    le grand magasin

  4. 27 Mai 2011

    Today was a shorter day. We woke up in the morning and had our usual breakfast. The breakfast room was hoppin’. Literally, overnight our hotel exploded with business. After breakfast, we went to St.Denis Basilica. It was a super long ride on the métro, so naturally, I fell asleep, and was the only one from our group sleeping. It was a out a 20 minute ride. We get to St.Denis and walk around this market for about 3 minutes, and then some of us laid out in the sun on this weird concrete squiggly bench thing and just sat for about 15 minutes. It felt so good. So then, Dr.V told us that the museum part of St.Denis was closed because the workers were on strike, so we could only see the church part of it, which was fine because it was free.

    We went inside the church, and it was beautiful. It was very similar to Notre Dame because it was built right before it. When we first walked inside, it was so quiet and peaceful. This church is on the rims of Paris, so not a whole lot of tourists get to it. We were the only group there, so it was nice to walk around in silence and not have to push through crowds. This was by far one of my favorite churches so far. When we were in it, Laura and I just sat and prayed and reflected for a long time, which was so nice. We sat in peace and quiet in this amazing church. We had to leave after a little bit, and since that was our only sight for the day, we had the rest of the day off. Maria Theresa wanted to take all of the girls shopping to some really famous fashionista stores in France. The opera district.

    Once we arrived at the opera district, we immediately went to le grand magasin, aka Galeries lafayette. This was the biggest department store I have ever been in, and by far the most expensive. We went in, and one of the first stores we saw was Chanel, of course that would be the first store. They had a roped off line for Chanel. They had a limit of how many people could be in the store at once. It was a tad bit ridiculous. They had a whole floor of shoes, which = heaven. Then, they had a cosmetics floor, and they had multiple floors of big name designers with their own sections like dg, prada, and etc. There was not a piece of clothing in that apartment store under 50€. It was really expensive, but it was really cool to seem. It definitely puts Nordstroms and Saks to shame. Also, all the trends in Paris are completely different, so if I were to wear clothes that we in style here to the US, I would get some really weird looks walking down the street. Anyways, that was a great store, and I loved it. After that we went to mango and then Printemps, which is another fancy shmancy department store. I fell head over heels for this one purse, but of course it was over 300€. I did buy a pair of light brown leather oxfords though, which I am absolutely in love with. That was one of the items I wanted to buy here. That and a blazer and a fedora. Then I will have a complete Paris look. This store was just as expensive as Lafayette, so we left and went to Zara, which was insanely crowded, so we left so after and got ready for dinner.

    For our dinner, we were going to Montmartre to meet some of Dr.V’s friends, and we ended up losing Allyson on the métro, but don’t worry, we found her. While Allyson was on her way back to meet up with us, we went to the friends’ apartment and had champagne and hors d’oeuvres with them. After that, we went to this whole in the wall neighborhood bistro, where there was karaoke. Our group was so big, that we basically filled the bistro, that’s how small it was. Laura and I sang aka shouted the first song of our group, “bad romance” by lady gaga. We just kept singing a bunch of different songs with everyone, and it was great. We had these beef kabobs with French fries at the restaurant with red wine, and strawberries to finish. It was fantastic. We had such a great time, and didn’t get home until about 1:30 or 1:45 in the morning. We had a blast though!

    Bon soir!

  5. Napoleon’s tomb at les invalides

    Napoleon’s tomb at les invalides

  6. 26 Mai 2011

    Today, we went to les invalides, which was where wounded veterans could go to live, and it served as a hospital type thing for invalids. There is this amazing bridge that you have to cross to get there, and there is all of this gold flake everywhere, and it is a beautiful bridge. Once we crossed the bridge and took our pictures, we went and had lecture in front of les invalides. We learned about napoleon and the end of the monarchy.

    After lecture, we went into les invalides and ate at the cafeteria. It is ridiculous how expensive drinks are here. There was a bottle of coke there for 4€. It is way over priced, so I just had water with my spaghetti and baguette. It was yummy anyways. We sat in the cafeteria and talked for awhile, and then went into the memorial and tomb of Napoleon. His tomb is very modern and HUGE. It was a big tomb for a little man. Overcompensating for something???? Anyways, the church where it is located is gorgeous, and there are many other people buried there too. Around Napoleon’s tomb, there are all these freezes on the wall of his reign and the things he did. It was cool to be that close to a man who conquered so many, and who was one of the best military leaders known.

    After we saw his tomb, we we to the army museum, which is what les invalides is now. There are all these exhibits on different wars and different time periods. We got to see the armour and the canons used, and all the different weapons over the times. It was funny in the Napoleon exhibit, they had his actual horse stuffed and on display. They also had his dog on display, but we must have missed it. They had one of his necklaces on display too and some extremely famous paintings of him. Then, we went to the WWI and WWII exhibits, and I thought that the WWI exhibit was pretty boring, but the WWII was really interesting. For the first time in my life, I got to see an actual Nazi flag up close and personal. It was eerie seeing it. Also, I got to see the BBC microphone that Hitler used for his announcements and such. It was really interesting to see the affects of the war from another country’s perspective. I never realized how many Nazis took over Paris. There was a picture of Notre Dame with all the Nazis and soliders in front of it. Paris was literally in the hands of the germans. Also, it made me feel pround to be an American because we totally kicked butt. If it wasnt for us, then half of Europe would be Germans. We totally owned everyone in the world wars.

    After the museum, we headed back to the hotel, and had this amazing amazing amazing tea with Dr.V’s Algerian urban planning friend Oussama. The tea was so good. It was like hot sweet tea with mint in it. He taught us about the history of Algeria and showed us some pictures of some of the cities. There is one city where when a woman and man are walking towards each other, the woman literally has to turn and face the wall until the man passes. Or if a woman is engaged, she can only show one of her eyes. There are so many social rules there that are completely different from the united states and Europe too.

    After we learned aout algeria, he took us to a mosque in France. We couldn’t go into the prayer room, but we were able to see the gardens. Then, we went to a restaurant right next to the mosque, where we had middle eastern food. I had vegetable couscous, and it was so delicious. It was my first encounter with middle eastern food, and it was definitely a positive one. Except, I almost got stuck in the bathroom, and Laura had to pull the door open for me. The restaurant was great though. It was so pretty inside, and I liked it a lot.

    After dinner, we walked around, and we walked to this gelato place. They all the coolest flavors, and if you got a cone, they made the ice cream look like a rose. It was ice cream art. So great. The flavors I had were rose d’orient and bacio (a chocolate ice cream with a really strong hazelnut flavor). The rose was one of the best flavors I have ever had. The chocolate was delicious too. We just walked around Paris and ate our ice cream and ended up coming back to the hotel.

    Of course, when we got back to the hotel, we stayed up way too late and “journaled” aka talked the whole time, but it was still a great day in Paris!

    Bon soir!

  8. 25 Mai 2011

    Today was easily the best day of the trip so far and the best day of my life. We got up and ate a great breakfast at 8:45 am, and we were out the door at 10 am heading for Versailles. We took the métro to a larger train station, where we hopped on a train out to Versailles. The trip was about 30 or 45 minutes, so it’s not too far away from Paris.

    We arrived at Versailles, and had to walk down the street to get to the chateau. Immediately when you see it, your heart skips a beat. The place is HUGE!!! At it’s peak of use, there were approximately 20,000 people living there. Originally, it was used as a hunting lodge. Before you enter the gates, you see a giant statue of Louis XIV “the sun king”, and that leads you up to the chateau. There are huge golden gates, and then you are in this open area surrounded by some of the buildings, and then there are another set of golden gates that actually lead you into Versailles. I have to say that walking through the chateau was my least favorite part because it was so crowded, and maybe only 20-30% of the chateau felt open. I enjoyed seeing the ceilings and the living quarters of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. It was amazing seeing how big her jewelry “box” (more like a jewelry armoire) was. The rooms were equipped with multiple chairs, so people would watch her and him sleep and do other things as well. Also, I really enjoyed looking at all the wall paper as well. There were all sorts of colors and materials that looked like the change colors in different types of light. The rooms are so small, and there are so many people that are pushing and sweating, and it makes it a slightly less enjoyable experience, but still cool because it was a French chateau used by a multitude of kings. The views from each window are so regal and huge, and you can tell why all of France revolted against the crown. We went through a huge hall of all the pictures of battles that France participated in. We also saw the rooms of the dauphin and the dauphine, which were pretty cool and huge because they were for the first son.

    After walking through the chateau, we had lunch in the first part of the gardens. I had a Margarita pizza with French fries, and it was so delicious. We had such a great lunch just sitting in the shade in the middle of the versaille gardens. There was a very regal feeling about it. Some people fed a cat orange sausage, which was interesting. Laura wanted to touch the cat even though she is allergic and already had one allergic reaction this week.

    After lunch, we walked around the gardens for the rest of the day. There are tons of fountains, but they are too expensive to turn on everyday, so they only turn them on for special occasions. Of course they turn them on the day I leave. Oh well. The gardens never end though. They are so vast and lush and symmetrical, so it is amazing to see them. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The lake goes on in all directions, and you can rent row boats and see rowers practicing. There are swans and ducks and fish, and it is just a great place to be. It was funny feeding the fish and ducks because they would fight each other and follow each other to get the food. After we walked around the beginning of the restaurant and saw the mini ampitheatre, we rented bikes, and rode around the gardens for an hour. We went and saw Marie Antoinette’s cottage, where she pretended to be a shepherdess, and it was interesting seeing how large it was because normal people still didn’t have cottages that big. We rode our bikes around the lake that was there, and it was so beautiful because we just kept riding through lanes and lanes of trees. It was the prettiest bike ride I have ever taken. At the end of the river, our group took a picture that had all of Versailles and the gardens in it, and whe. I got off of my bike, my kickstand fell off, and Emily had to try to put it back on. Something like this would happen to me. Moral of the story: if you are ever in Versailles, rent the bikes and ride through the gardens. It is breath taking.

    After the bike ride, we went and got glaces italiennes, and I had a twirl of strawberry and vanilla. Most refreshing ice cream I have ever had!!!! We had our lecture next to the lake on a bench in the shade, and we learned all about the French Revolution. It was such an ideal way to ,earn about the revolution.

    We then left Versailles because the park was closing, at 8:30 pm to be specific. We ended up spending about 10 hours at Versailles, which clearly means it was the best day of my life. I want to live in the gardens in Versailles for the rest of my life. It was crazy to think that we walked on the same land that some of the kings and queens of France walked on. Wow! I love it so much, and want to go back so bad. It is a slice of heaven.

    We then took the train back, and came back to the hotel and journal. It was such a great day to be in Versailles. The weather was perfect, and so was the entire day.

    Bon soir!!!

  9. umbrellas of Deauville

    umbrellas of Deauville

  10. 24 Mai 2011

    Today was an extremely long, but SO amazing. We woke up at about 5:50 am and went down to an early early early bird breakfast, and left the hotel by 6:45am. We went to the métro, and took it to the St.Lazarre train station, where we hopped on a Deauville-Trouville bound train that left at 7:11 am. Deauville and Trouville are two towns in Normandie that are right next to each other. Deauville is the higher end town that looks straight out of Holland, and Trouville is a cheaper town with more character, and it reminds me a lot of Seattle because they have this rather large fish market there. They are both amazing towns that are right on the Atlantic Ocean/ the end of the English Channel.

    We basically got the whole day to do whatever we wanted there. It was really cold at first, but as the day went on, it got a lot warmer. We first walked to Trouville and went to this little café, and I got a mint tea. It was amazing. Laura got this tasty little treat in the shape of a pig. Anyways, we sat there for awhile, then we wanted to walk up to this gorgeous church on the top of a hill there, and asked a person for directions, of which, we thought we understood, but obviously didn’t because we got lost walking up this road, but the views of the ocean were amazing. We then asked this random guy walking down the street for directions and he didn’t help us, so we just awkwardly followed him on this narrow road for awhile. We were being a little creepy. So, after walking all around this hill, we finally found the church, and of course this would happen, it was locked. Since when are churches locked during the day? In the process of trying to get in, I think we might have broken a door handle, and then the bells started going off, so clearly someone was there and just didn’t want to let us in. So after that, we walked back down to the main road, and went to the fish market. It was cool to see that some of the fish were still alive.

    After that, we headed over to Deauville and walked around there and stumbled upon this flea market thing, where there were all these boat shoes and clothes and food. Emily and I both ended up buying these dresses, and it was cool to see the market. We continued walking around, after we lost Neil in the market, and found this beautiful fountain and these street signs in the middle of the road that were attached to bells that would ring on the hour. It was so cool. Best street sign I have ever seen. We then went to this café called Mourny’s where we had lunch. I had salad with eggs. It was the best salad dressing I have ever had. We also had this cidre that Normandie is famous for. It was so good. It tastes like a mixture of a light beer, champagne, and apple juice. It was tasty. We sat there and studied for our test a little bit, and then we went to the Longchamp store, where they got mad at us for touching this one wall of bags.

    Later, after we left the store, we walked to the beach. It was awesome because it was a huge beach because of the tides. We walked around in the sand, but in some parts there were a lot of broken shells, which hurt our feet, so we went back to the boardwalk. They had all these stalls that you can rent out and put your stuff in, and each one is named after a famous person, like jack nicholson and Elizabeth Taylor. It was cool. There were a lot of American actors on them. We also got to see the umbrellas of Deauville, which are super famous because there are a ton of them and they are really colorful. We then went to this outside bar thing on the beach and got cokes and studied. There were tons of police everywhere though because the G8 summit is there this year. It starts in the next couple days, so there was security and posters and walls everywhere.

    After the beach, we went to this antique store with Laura and then went and had crèpes in Trouville. I had mine with Nutella, of course, and it was amazing. We then got back on the train at like 7 pm and took our test and went back to Paris. It was a pretty ride, except for the fact that I slept the whole time.

    After we got back, we went and had a couple beers at the Velocipede and it was a ton of fun. One of our better trips there. Then, we came back to the hotel and Laura tried to put her whole fist in her mouth. It was great! Then we journaled the rest of the time!

    Bon soir!!!

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C'est un blog de la joie de voyager en Paris pour un mois.

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