Lost..........in the Louvre

It finally happened.  I got lost.  But I got lost in the Louvre, which isn't such a bad place to get lost in.  There's lots of cool stuff to look at! I started my day with an interview pour un stage (an internship) at La Cuisine Paris!

Here's their website: http://lacuisineparis.com/

I did half of the interview in French, and about half in English.  La Cuisine is owned by a Frenchman and his American wife, they are both very kind and did not seem to be offended by my French!  I'll probably start sometime next week. 

After the interview I had a sausage sandwich and orangeina for lunch (something I think my Dad would order!) I headed over to le Musee du Louvre!

The Glass Pyramid, built in the eighties.

(Da Vinci Code anyone?)

I actually entered from the underground subway entrance.  There were a lot of stores leading up to the museum, including the Apple Store.  You can buy an iPad and view great art all in one convenient location!  I joined the throng of tourists (read as massive tour groups of Asians following the leader who is typically carrying a plastic lightsaber so that everyone can see where to go) and entered the Le Musee du Louvre.  You might think dear readers, that I am spending all my cash on these museum trips and historical locations.  I'm not!  Sweet Briar gave us all "History of Art" student IDs so we can get into almost any museum or cultural thing-a-ma-bob FOR FREE!  I haven't paid for a museum yet.  La vie est belle. Which leaves more money for food and clothes :)  Alors, la vie est tres belle!  But back to the art.......

 Model of the original Palais du Louvre.  Le Louvre was originally the royal palace in Paris until the court moved out to the swamps (aka Versailles).  The stone wall in the background is the original walls of the palace.

Venus de Milo

(I always think of the Simpsons episode where Homer buys a gummy Venus de Milo from a candy convention....)

Greek Statues

The Goddess Artimis (or Diana if you're Roman)

Something tells me this guy likes to party...

 Another fantastic painting...oh wait, THAT'S JUST THE CEILING.

The Louvre itself is a work of art.

Gallery of Greek Sculpture

Got your nose!

Winged Victory

Napoleon crowning his wife Josephine as Empress.  This painting is ENORMOUS! I left the guy in the left corner as a point of reference for the size.

Close up of Bonaparte (or "Boney" as Horatio Hornblower's crew liked to call him)

 Artist working on a reproduction.  It was so cool watching him work!

Et voila....La Jaconde, aka the Mona Lisa! 

Sorry about the glare, but she's got a wall all to herself and a few inches of bulletproof glass in between her and the adoring fans.  The painting is on the smaller side, but is still absolutely stunning.

Les Poissons. The French word for still life is "La nature morte", which is literally translated into "dead nature".  Which is exactly what this painting is.  I found it quite ironic!

Sculptures by Michelangelo (Michel-Ange en Francais)

 Athena with an owl.  Clearly repping Kappa Kappa Gamma!  I think this would look perfect in our common room.

The Egyptian goddess Isis

Statues and columns from Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian god Horus

The Egyptian collection is MASSIVE.  That's where I got lost.  I kept saying to myself, "Oh, I haven't seen this gallery yet!" about 20 times.  There are so many statues, pieces of jewelry, sarcophagi, some mummies, canopic jars, you name it they have it.  So many cool things to look at and admire.  So after about 5 and a half hours in the Louvre, I found my way out and walked through the Tulieries gardens to my metro stop. 

I took a lot of other pictures during my visit, but I didn't want to crowd the post, so I just added the highlights.  Let me know which work of art in the Louvre is your favorite in a comment!

Bisous,

Allison

Class- AT NOTRE DAME

Salut mes amis!
Another rainy day in Paris, but as we all know (thanks to Woody Allen) Paris is beautiful in the rain!  Although I confess, I would prefer some snow.  Yesterday and today I had class with Sweet Briar; Atlier d'ecriture and Histore de Paris a Traverse ses Monuments. We had the history class in the morning, and the visit to Notre Dame in the afternoon!  This class was focusing on the early history of Paris, so we visited the Crypte de Notre Dame....

Although it was not a crypt in the typical sense, it was just underneath Notre Dame.  You can see in the pictures, the remains of the city walls and buildings dating back to the Roman empire.  Paris started as a small city called Lutece in Gaul on the Ile de la Cite, and expanded out from the island and onto the banks of the Seine.  We then ventured back up to ground level to look inside the Cathedral.      

Inside we found stunning stained glass (vitreaux), sculpture, symbolism, and learned about the church.  I took notes as best I could because the Professor was lecturing in French, so I had to pay extra attention!  The result is that my notes are in Frenglish.  Construction started on Notre Dame in 1160 and was finished in 1250.  The interior details were finished later.  During the French Revolution, angry Parisians destroyed some of the statues decorating the facade, believing them to be French Kings.  In 1844, a large restoration project was undertaken to restore Notre Dame which had fallen into disrepair.  Victor Hugo wrote Notre Dame de Paris in 1831, and the story of Quasimodo and Esmeralda popularized the Gothic church and sparked its rennovation.  At this time, statues were repaired or replaced to their original states.  However, much of the artwork in the church survived the Revolution, like this wood carving below:   

As in Saint Chapelle, pictures are used to tell the bible stories so that the mostly illiterate lower classes could understand.  Above are two scene depicting Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and some other women.  According to my Professor, the statues outside of Notre Dame used to be painted like this too.  I can only imagine how stunning that must of been!



 I couldn't get a good picture of the altar, so I swiped this one off the Internet.  Here we can see the Virgin Mary, holding the body of Jesus.  On her left in the shadows, we can also see King Louis XIV asking la Vierge (the French term for Mary) to protect France and on her right we can see his successor, Louis XV doing the same by holding out an orb.  Oviously I really enjoyed my class today!  Everything here is old, interesting, and has a great story behind it.  It's great to be a history dork once again.  :)

Bisous,
Allison

Le Week-End

What a weekend!  I tried to make the most of my time before classes 'start'.  Tomorrow I have my French writing workshop at 1pm and that's it.  Tuesday is my history class Paris through the Monuments (complete with visits to the monuments in the afternoon) and another Writing workshop.  Then it's the weekend again! No classes on Wednesday (just the interview with La Cuisine Paris), Thursday, or Friday.  What can I say, la vie est belle. 

On Saturday, I met up with my Babson friends Jess and Susan at the Musee D'Orsay.  They are here studying on a program with IES.  The Musee D'Orsay itself is a work of art and was once a train station.  It is home to the masterpieces of Monet, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, and countless others. 

Sadly, taking pictures of Monet's Water Lilies or Degas' Dancers est interdit (not allowed, forbidden).  Instead I took lots of mental pictures.  So if you want to see what the Musee D'Orsay has to offer, you can either google it, or visit yourself(I recommend the latter)!

After the museum, Jess, Susan and I wandered around Paris.  When I discovered that Jess had never had a macaron, I made it my misson to fix that right away.  Et puis, we found a patisserie. 

MACARON

CHOCOLAT

As much as I wanted to just dive through the glass and eat everything in sight, I stayed classy and walked into the patisserie.  I ordered everyone's macaron (Jess and Susan are still learning to speak French, and I think you get better service/no stink eyes when you speak in French to Parisians) and we continued to meander the left bank.  Jess said she thought the macaron were the best thing she had ever eaten.  Operation Macaron: SUCCESS

On Saturday nights, Sweet Briar students are responsible for their own dinner.  I went out to eat with some of the people in the program, and then we explored the Parisian nightlife around La Bastille.  After observing many Parisiennes wear cute ankle boots in the metro, I decided to wear mine to dinner and the bars.  MAUVAIS IDEE(BAD IDEA).  My feet were tired to begin with from walking all day, and cobblestone roads and ankle boots don't get along so well.  I still had a great night, but my feet did not.  At least I looked cute!  Les Parisiennes dit, la beauté est la douleur.  Beauty is pain.

This morning I decided to show my feet who is boss, so I met up with some Sweet Briar Friends to go to Le Marche aux Puces de Saint- Ouen (an enormous flea market just outside Paris).  At first I was not impressed; the street leading up to the market was filled with people trying to sell us counterfeit goods (Voulez-vous un Gucci bag?) and then the only stalls were shoes, scarves, and knick-knacks.  It reminded me a bit of New York City, but not in a good way.  I do love New York, but it was strange to be in that environment in Paris.  Mais ensuite, we discovered the real market.  And it was fantastic.  Antiques everywhere, furniture, vintage Paris Vogue magazines, plates, silverware, lithographs from the 1800s, vintage jewelery, and vintage clothes. 

One of the many tiny streets in the Marche aux Puces

Many treasures on one table.  I was very tempted by the vintage keys for my Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters!

However, my great find today was in Au Grenier de Lucie, a vintage jewelry and clothing store. It is operated by a pair of delightful Brits, Jason and Heidi.  Finding the store was fantastic because I was nervous about trying to haggle over prices in French and because I love listening to British accents. We struck up a conversation as I was drooling over a pair of vintage fleur-de-lys earrings. They moved to Paris from London two and a half years ago. 

Au Grenier de Lucie

http://www.augrenierdelucie.com/ 

 The selection is quite fantastic, there is costume jewelry from Chanel and Dior, as well as vintage Yves Saint-Laurent shirts and dresses. Oh and tiaras. Oui, you read that right my friends, YOU CAN BUY A TIARA OR A CROWN IN THIS STORE.  The picture of the shop is up above, the tiaras are in the case next to the YSL shirt.  I couldn't get a great picture of them sadly because I kept getting glare.  Perhaps when my family come and visit, we will return to the marche aux puces and they can buy me a vintage tiara.  However, I did not leave empty handed.  After a small price negotiation, I bought the earrings.  They were made in the 1930s, and reset with the pearls around the perimeter.  I think I will wear them tomorrow.  C'est jolie, non?         





Oh but the day was not over yet dear readers!  After lunch, we decided to be touristy and go to Sainte-Chapelle, built from 1242-1248 to house the (supposed) Crown of Thorns.  J'adore Sainte-Chapelle.  But it's kind of difficult to not love it, or be stunned by its magnificent stained glass windows. 

Gothic Architecture at its finest

 King Louis IX, who built the chapel and later became a Saint. 

Good for you Louis!

 The main Alter, used to display the Crown of Thorns.  Notre Dame holds onto it now I believe, and the Church brings it out for Lent and Easter.

 The stained glass windows that surround the chapel depict stories from the bible.  About 70% of the glass is original from the 13th century.  Sacre bleu et mon Dieu!   

The Rose Window

It depicts the end of the world.  Doesn't look so bad to me!

After another lap around the chapel and Notre Dame, we headed to Shakespeare and Company, an English bookstore located just across from the cathedral on le Rive gauche (left bank).

It is literally CRAMMED with all sorts of books, and is very cozy.  The store asks that no pictures be taken inside so that the patrons can read in peace.  There are reading rooms upstairs with comfy chairs and views of the Seine.  I plan on doing my homework here one day!

Phew!  Like I said, a great weekend.  I know it was another long post, but I didn't want to leave any details out!  Now I'm back with my host family and there are some fantastic smells are coming out of the kitchen.  Later tonight I might try to find a bar that has the Patriots game.  Gotta rep Boston! 

Bisous,

Allison

      

  

  

A Market and Le Marais

Salut mes amis!
It's hard to believe but I've been in Paris a week(almost)!  It's Friday night here now, and last Friday night I flew out of JFK.  So I may be a few hours off in my calculation, but whatever.  I have some nice French music on in the background to get me in the mood for this blog post. 

I got to sleep in a little bit today, and then I headed out into the misty rain of Paris for a group picture with Sweet Briar.  As I got out of the metro, I was greeted with this delightful scene:

Oui mes amis, un marche!  Gosh I really need to figure out how to add accents because it's really bothering me that all of you are going to read this without the right sounds.  I read a bit of Markets of Paris by Dixon and Ruthanne Long last night as I was going to bed so I guess the market gods were looking out for me on my morning commute. Quelle chance!! I felt like Julia Child walking through all the vendors!  I allowed myself to be touristy and snapped some pics.  Et voila.... 

FROMAGE

Des poissons et des fuits de mer (Fish and Seafood)

Un chacuterie (kind of like a deli)

And yes, those are brains int the middle white case.  I asked my host mom how you cook them and she said that it takes a while and she never makes it at home (phew! dodged a bullet there) but she and her husband like to eat it from time to time at des bons restaurants. 

Apres the group picture, my Sweet Briar group went on a tour of le Marais, another one of the districts.  BUT FIRST we had lunch. I had a crepe, bien sur.  Jambon et fromage encore. 

We stopped into St. Paul, a Jesuit Church.  The outside is undergoing some renovations, so here of some pictures of inside the church!

If there's one thing the French do well, it's build churches.  And their cooking is pretty good too.  And their clothes are fantastic.  And their literature is very well written and engaging which brings us to...Victor Hugo's apartment!

Apparently Victor Hugo had a very large forehead.  All of the caricatures lining the stair case played that feature up.  The prevailing scientific thought at the time was if you had a large skull, your brain was large, and thus intelligent.  Alors, people played up their foreheads with their hairstyles. 

Some scenes from Notre Dame de Paris, which was written by Hugo.  (adapted by Disney for the movie, the Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Hugo was very interest in China, and decorated a room in the Chinese fashion in his mistress's house

Portrait of Victor Hugo

Writing desk used by Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Alexandre Dumas

Victor Hugo's writing desk.  He only worked standing up!

After the tour, I wandered around a bit with the other students, and then caught the metro back to the apartment pour un petit repos before I met up with some camp friends who are here in Paris!  A rainy day, but I'm in Paris, so it was still a good day :)