Paris: Day 2

Anywho, by now it was Sunday, April 10th and day 2 of the joy of ART 361 taking over Paris. I got up early so I could take a shower only to come to the unpleasant realization that in order to shower I had to press a button to get water to come out of the shower. This meant that one hand had to remain pressed on the button the entire duration of the shower as long as I wanted water. It was an uncomfortable and unpleasant shower experience, but I should have learned by now that hostels are never the most luxurious places for a shower. They are more in and out as fast as possible for fear that something terrible will happen to you while inside them, than enjoyable.


After that gem of a shower, I got changed and went to breakfast. During breakfast, we heard all about the rest of the classes escpades from the night before. It seems as though the guys in the group had a wild night: one of them got woken up by the hostel staff for he had sleep-walked to the hostel kitchen and decided to sleep there, another got drunk and vomited and some random persons room, then passed out, and another woke up in the hospital with no recollection of the previous night. Typical study abroad spring break class trip!


Once everyone had eaten breakfast, we went off to the Bastille. There we saw the column with the Genius of Liberty and the Brussels Marathon which happened to be taking place that day. Then, we walked to the Hotel de Sully and the Place des Vosges, the square where Victor Hugo lived.

Bastille

Rosie, Elisa, Janice, Maisah, and Casey outside Hotel Sully

After listening to a student presentation on Victor Hugo, we went to the Carnavalet Museum which consists of the hotel of Madame de Sevigne and that of Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau. In the Carnavalet Museum we got an overview of Paris's history. We saw store front from the epochs, rooms devoted to the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic period, the Restoration, the turn of the century, and Paris today.

ART 361 paying close careful attention to Martine's history lesson

Patrick and Aaron reenacting Art in the Museum Carnavalet

In search of food, we left the museum and wandered the Jewish quarter of the city. In the Jewish Quarter, we visited the memorial to the 160 school children who were deported to the concentration camps back in 1943. Then, finally Elisa, Casey, Maisah, and I found a cute little French restaurant to eat at. NOM NOM NOM. Following lunch, we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, where we sat and enjoyed the lovely weather while some students gave presentations. On every trip we've gone on, students have had to give presentations about either a person, idea, place, or historical event that has to deal with that location. Its cool to hear about the historical significance of places when we are standing at them, seeing them years later.

Les Jardins de Luxembourg

Stacy and I!

From the gardens, we went to the Pantheon where we saw the tombs of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Rousseau, and Marie Curie. Once we finished there, we took a brief stop to sit on the steps and see the Eiffel tower in the distance while enjoying the nice warm afternoon weather just before the sun was beginning to set.

Pantheon

Voltaire's tomb

St. Etienne du Mont, which is located right next to the Pantheon was our next stop. Then, it was time for a couscous dinner. Dinner ended up being super awkward because there were not enough chairs at the long tables for everyone in the class, so Casey, Elisa, and I sat at a table by ourselves until our teacher told us we had to sit with the group. Again there were not enough chairs, so Elisa ended up sitting with the class, and Casey and I had a romantic dinner by ourselves. Rough, but once we finished we returned to the hostel for a quick nap before we went to spend the night sitting beneath the Eiffel tower. Sitting under the Eiffel tower at night is spectacular! It sounds super cliche, but its cliche for a reason, because when the hour hits and the tower lights up its simply wonderful. Once it got to be around 2am, we called it a night and once again took a taxi back to the hostel. Good thing taxis are way cheaper in Paris than they are in Brussels, otherwise we would have been swimming upstream without a paddle.

St. Etienne du Mont

Inside St. Etienne du Mont

Stacy and I at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower