Au Revoir Paris!

The next day was April 13th, and our last day in Paris. Since the Missouri kids had already left back to Brussels, there were only about 14 of us left and the whole dynamic of the trip had changed. Everyone was ready to be done, including Martine. Despite this fact, we continued to learn and see things, as if we would do anything else!

So, that morning we got up, ate breakfast, put our luggage into the hotels storage area, aka their dinning room area, and what was left of the class went off to the Arenas of Lutetia. They reminded me so much of the Roman Forum Baths that we saw in Trier.

 From the Arenas, we ventured over to the gardens of St. Julein le Pauvre, where I gave my stellar presentation on Moliere. Once that disaster of a speech had come to a close, we ate some cookies, passed by the bookshop Shakespeare and Company, walked across the Sienne to Notre Dame. No matter how many times I go inside Notre Dame, I am impressed by its magnitude and beauty!

this is where I gave my speech, pretty huh?

Notre Dame

Once we finished up with Notre Dame, we broke off for lunch. Then met back up at the Hotel de Ville, only to have it be closed during the time that we were to have a tour. Brr...Martine was not pleased. So, we were free for the next hour and half to wander. Elisa, Casey, and I broke into a hotel to use their bathrooms, then walked along the river looking at the sales. After our hour break had run out, we returned to the Hotel de Ville, not to visit the Hotel de Ville, but to visit the Sainte Chapelle located right next to it. The Sainte Chappelle is known for its 1100 biblical scenes in stained glass.

outside of Sainte Chapelle

inside Sainte Chapelle

  Next, we went to the Mussee d'Orsay to see the Manet exhibit, which hadn't been there when I went with Mom and Aunt Barb, so it was cool to see. After that, Casey, Dane, and I went to the Moulin Rouge just to say we saw it, and after a few pictures Dane and I split from Casey to return to the hotel to get our luggage to make our train back to Brussels.

Mussee d'Orsay

Moulin Rouge

 In the end, I would say Paris was a hot mess for ART 361, but an overall success! I had a truly great time.

Let them eat cake

Day 4 of our Paris trip started in Paris, but a majority of the day took place in the land of wealth and excess, Versailles!

It was Tuesday, April 12th and we started off our morning taking the metro to La Defence to see the Grande Arche built in 1989. The name refers to the Defence of Paris in 1871 when the Prussians surrounded the town during the Franco-Prussian war.

La Defence

The gang at La Defence

On top of the Arch!

 After La Defence, we set off to the grandeur that is Versailles! We arrived in Versailles around noon and walked from the train station to the Petit Trianon. Marie-Antoniette's play house given to her as a gift from her husband, Louis XVI. While admiring the architecture of the building, and the layout of the gardens, we listened to some student presentations, then had a fancy picnic, where we ran out of food! Whoops!

Janice, Casey, and Elisa exploring the gardens of Marie-Antoinette

Picnic in Marie's gardens!

Once our meal and all the presentations had ended, Martine looked at her watch only to realize that we were late for our tour of the palace, so we literally ran through the gardens of Versailles snapping as many photos as we could. By the time we got to the palace, half the class was missing; I guess they didn't feel like running right after a meal!

ART 361 at the Petit Trianon

Janice, Casey, Mary Claire, and Rob at Grand Trianon

In the gardens of Versailles

Les Grandes Eaux

 At the palace, we got a personal tour of the palace with the best tour guide I have ever had. He was fun, quick to the point, and knew when the audience was getting tired. He even had us sit down a few times. Versailles, is huge! Its like the Louvre in that once you are inside you have no idea where you are in relation to outside nor do you know how you got there with all the long corridors then spiral marble staircases it is easy to get lost.

A gem of a tour guide!

 Once our tour of Versailles had come to a close, we took the train back to Paris, said goodbye to the Missouri kids for the last time, and Casey, Elisa, Dane, Chris, Sam, and I went out to high class dinner at a place called Tennessee, named after one of the united states. It was an ok dinner, but relaxing and talking to friends made it a lovely night! 

Outside the gates of Versailles

France

Paris: Day 3

Ok, so you guessed it, at this time ART 361 is still in Paris. By now, its Monday (April 11th, 2011) and its day 3 of the trip. 

Today, I got up and we had to pack up all of our luggage because we were leaving the hostel to stay in a hotel for the rest of the trip. Apparently, our teacher (Martine) had had trouble finding us accommodations because we were such a large group, so she took what she could get, a hostel for the first 2 nights, and a hotel for the rest. Once we got everything situated with bags and such, we left the hostel to walk to the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris).

ART 361 minus the Missouri kids

From the Pont Neuf, we went to the Conciergerie, which was part of the palace of Louis IX along with the Sainte Chapelle until the 14th century when Charles V abandoned it for the Louvre. The palace was then left in the hands of the Concierge, who turned it into a jail. Famous people such as Marie Antoinette were kept prisoner there.

Inside the Concergerie

Elisa, Janice, Stacey, and Emily at the Tower Bonbec

 Next stop on our agenda was Les Invalides. We got there and ate a quick lunch in the cafeteria where Casey and I got to meet a delightful couple from California who were traveling to Paris for the first time. I don't know what it is about me, but I simply love hearing people's life stories, especially those who are traveling. They always talk with such a sense of adventure and seem as though they have a wealth of knowledge about them. After lunch, we actually got to tour Les Invalides and see Napoleon's tomb.

Les Invalides

 

 

Elisa, Casey, and I outside Les Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

Inside Les Invalides

 Following the Dome, we waited to find some of the guys in the group who had wandered off to the Museum of War. Eventually, Martine got fed up and we went to the lawn outside Les Invalides and listened to some student presentations before we walked across the Sienne to stop at Place de Concorde to arrive at the art museum, the Orangerie.

Outside, Martine gave us Napoleons!

Dane, Elisa, Casey, and I crossing the Sienne

Orangerie

After having experienced some of Monet's works and finding my new favorite painting of the little boy dressed like a clown, I felt it was time for a nutella crepe. NOM NOM NOM. Then, the class walked through the Tuileries gardens designed by Le Notre, the gardener of Versailles to get to the Comedie Francaise where instead of me giving my presentation about Moliere which would have made sense given that is where Moliere played and died, Martine talked about Moliere and made me wait to talk until Wednesday. Following the Comedie Francaise, we went to the Basilica Notre-Dame des Victoires. This church is interesting for a few reasons. Number 1, Lully's tomb is found there. Lully was the composer of many of Moliere's works. Number 2, Queen Anne of Austria went to this church to pray asking her wish of giving the king a son a reality, and she did 9 months later! So, its a magical church where prayers come true. Number 3, in honor of this pilgrimage place, the church did a promotional thing where people could donate to the church and get their "thank yous" written on bricks that would then be used in the renovation of the church, so all over you would see bricks saying things like "Thank You for Helping My Father" or "Thank you for helping me ace that final," etc.

Monet's water lilles

BEST PICTURE EVER!

 After we left the Basilica, we went to another church, Saint Eustache, where the tomb of Colbert is found. We split the group after the church and we returned to the hotel to move our luggage from the hostel to the hotel. This process was a nightmare! 40 plus students with all their luggage trying to take the metros they don't really know to get to a hotel they had never been to before. Ahhh....hot mess. In the end we made it. Only to realize, Elisa, Casey, Dane, Stacy, and I were the last ones there. Since the Missouri kids were leaving the next day, Stacy wasn't allowed to room with us, so Casey, Elisa, and I went to our "4" person room, which only had 3 beds! WHAT? That's right, once again Casey and I got the shaft. Apparently the plan was for 2 of us to share a bed while the other 2 got their own double beds. I was pissed, so upset in fact that Elisa and Casey shared a bed, so I could have my own.

After the whole hupla of the hotel was situated, we met up with Stacy and went out to the Champs Elysee so Elisa could pick out an outfit to wear at Versailles the next day. 2 hours passed, and by now we were all quite hungry so we found a restaurant on a side street and ate there. We had some delicious food, which happened to include escargots! When we were done with dinner, we took some pictures at the Arc du Triomphe, then we took the metro back to the hotel. On the way back we even got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle one more time!

Janice, Casey, and Elisa at Arc de Triomphe

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

ART 361 Does Paris

Alright, SPRING BREAK 2011, before I begin I just want everyone reading this to know what a feat I am about to take upon myself for SPRING BREAK 2011 entails a lot, it was after all 2 weeks of travels in Europe!

It all goes back to April 9th, 2011 when the ART 361 class met outside Vesalius College at 7:45am to take a bus to Paris. Along this lovely bus ride with 47 of my closest friends, we stopped at a rest stop for lunch (at 10am!) and met up with Dane, who had missed the bus earlier that morning. After we started back on the road, we watched Marie Antoinette as a refresher of the French revolution and in preparation for when we were to visit Versailles. Around 12:30, we rolled into the city of lights and did a quick bus tour. Then, we were dropped off at our hostel. This hostel was pretty funny because the room I stayed in was an 8 person room: 2 sets of bunk beds on the bottom, then there was a ladder up to another level with another 2 sets of bunk beds. It felt very Swiss Family Robinson-esqe, if you ask me!

After we got settled in our rooms, we went off to the Louvre! Despite the fact that I had been there not 3 weeks earlier, I was still kind of excited. I swear you can go there a hundred times and each time see something different. Also, you can still get lost.

 

 

 

The Louvre!

In the Louvre, we saw Napolean III's apartment, the Ruben's series on the life of Mary of Medici, the Flemish paintings, works by Philippe de Champaigne and Nicolas Poussin, works by Georges de la Tour, the portrait of Chancelier Seguier, the Life of Alexander the Great, lots of Rococo styled works, the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Apollo Gallery, Napolean's Crossing the Alps, Michelangelo's Dying Slave, and many, many works of great art!

The 3 Graces

Reenacting Art

Ladies...

My good friend, Mona Lisa

Patrick, Janice, Casey, and Maisah in the pyramid

Elisa, Casey, and Janice outside the Louvre

After a rush of art works and their histories were thrust upon us, a few of us went off in search in Starbucks to rejuvenate. Right after we got our drinks, we came to realize that the museum was closing, so we stood outside the Louvre talking about the buildings history. Outside, we looked at the statue of Louis XIV on horseback by Bernini and the Carrousel Arch built under Napoleon I.

Fountains outside Centre Pompidou

Next, we set off to see the Bourse of Commerce, aka the Stock Exchange, and Les Halles. We stopped outside the Centre Pompidou where we were given 10 euro vouchers for a dinner at Flunch. Yes, Flunch. And yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds! The class which had once been divided by Missouri and non-Missouri kids was able to bond over our combined hatred and distaste for Flunch. It was an American eatery with food that you would expect to find having sat out for a few hours at Shoney's. After that delightful dinner, we returned to the hostel to get ready for our first night out in Paris. Elisa had somehow contacted this fancy club on the Sienne under Pont de la Concorde, and got our names on the guest list. So, Casey, Elisa, Dane, Rachel, and I went off to Showcase! It was a really cool club with a great view of the river, obviously as it was on the river, and of the Eiffel tower as it light up at night! As 3am rolled around, I thought it best that we left, so we began the walk back only to deal with Casey's feet that were suffering greatly due to wearing heels the entire night. So, about 5 blocks from the hostel we took a taxi back, and from there it was straight to bed.

Janice, Dane, Rachel, and Elisa on our way to Showcase

Rachel, Janice, and Casey at Showcase

A theme you will quickly come to realize in my spring break travels are I got very little sleep, and I started off that trend quite early with the first night!