Paris au printemps: L'Assemblee Nationale et les Bateaux Mouches!

Last Friday was a busy day!! All the students who participated in the internship program this semester went for a lecture and lunch at the French National Assembly. We even got special name tags! Apparently we were the "delegation of American students". Sounds pretty official to me!

In the lecture room.

The Grand Hallway.

The building that houses the National Assembly is in an old mansion occupied by an illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV.

Paintings by Delacroix

Looking out into the court yard.

Bust of Marianne, the symbol of the Republic

Relief depicting the gathering of the Estates General in 1789. This group of nobles, merchants, priests, and peasants became the National Assembly after the Revolution.

Inside the Assembly Room. They are currently on recess, and there will be a new National Assembly soon now that Hollande won the French Presidential Election. They are also renovating the room, that is why there is white plastic on the seats.

Front of the house

Ministers' Seats

The Library

THIS IS SUCH AN AMAZING LIBRARY. I FELT LIKE I WAS AT HOGWARTS OR BELLE FROM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. They've got ladders and everything! It was a beautiful space, lots of old books.

I would love to curl up here and read for hours...

There were a lot of amusing busts of old delegates in cases outside the bibliotheque.

House of the President of the National Assembly.

It reminds me of Versailles...

Bling bling baby.

Beautiful Painting

I wonder if the President of the national assembly ever wears sweatpants around his house...

Gardens. What a nice backyard!

That is a fancy looking desk!

After our tour, we headed over to lunch. We got to eat in the same dining hall as the delegates! There were not many around today due to the recess, but there were a few! I now understand why the French pay such high taxes. It's to give their representatives amazing lunches. We had a four course meal, complete with wine and coffee at the end. Pas mal! And apparently lunch is a 2-3 hour break. I honestly have no idea when anyone works in this country. Tomorrow is our second civil holiday(it's Victory in Europe Day tomorrow) in two weeks!

There were mirrors on the ceilings, and on most of the walls. It made the space seem enormous!

Shout out to Arielle for snapping the pic. Voila her blog: http://ariellebold.wordpress.com/

Dining with a delegate...

Just your average lunch, complete with smoked salmon and white wine...

Dessert was three delicious cakes...One was chocolate, another was fruit, and the third was caramel...

After our delicious lunch, we headed up to the terrace to enjoy a bit of sun on our rainy Friday.

Julie, myself, Arielle, and Athena

Sacre-Coeur, as seen from the terrace

Les Invalides and le Tour Eiffel!

Full of good food and wine, we walked over to the Pont d'Alma for our afternoon on the Bateaux Mouches! They postponed our trip back in March because it was supposed to be bad weather. That day turned out to be perfect, but it started to downpour as we walked across the Seine. C'est la vie! Luckily the rain held off for our boat ride.

Heading towards Pont Neuf, lots of tourists on board! There were descriptions for the monuments in French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, and Chinese.