La Dernier Journee a Paris :(

On the last day in Paris, I woke up fairly early and had coffee with my cousins Stephen and Nick in Montparnasse, at La Rotonde, one of the most famous Parisian cafes. At the cafes in this area of the city, many well-known writers during the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries gathered and worked on writing. It was so good to see them, and a perfect Parisian activity for my last day there. At lunch, I met with my French friend Sophie at a Japanese restaurant in the 17th arrondisement, an area I've never been to! Like the 16th, the boulevards are large and the buildings reminiscent of 19th century Haussmann architecture, but there is more of a financial district there, and so many cute lunchtime cafes, bistros, and brasseries. It was good to see Sophie before I left one last time, and to practice my French, of course!





I went over to ACCENT to return some books, and as I arrived in Bastille, the day was just getting more and more beautiful. I think that (without the bias of having a romanticized last-day-in-Paris) it was the most gorgeous day I've ever seen in the city. I met with Morgan and we stopped by the Latin Quarter to purchase some last-minute souvenirs, and stop by Shakespeare and Co., the very old English-speaking bookstore that has visitors from all over the world.

We went to Trocadero afterwards to take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower! Morgan and I will be roommates at our sorority next year, and so instead of taking a white-dress picture in front of the house to put on our door, we decided it would be much cuter to take one in front of Paris' most iconic structure! We set up my nice camera on self-timer and had a little photoshoot. Some people thought we were taking engagement photos! Ha ha. It was so warm and gorgeous there, and the water in the Trocadero fountain was sparkling in the sunlight. We sat on a bench in the shade for a while, and then headed to the Palais Royal/Louvre area to meet up with Kate for a last coffee in one of our favorite areas.

Coffee was nice, and Palais Royal was full of rollerbladers and street performers, and people of all types...now that more and more tourists are coming to Paris, the streets have become much more diverse! We had our coffee, and after a couple hours, I went home to have dinner with Madame. She made a wonderful last meal for me and Morgan, as well as one of her former students who happened to be visiting. We talked and laughed and reminisced for hours, and it was so sad to have my last dinner. I really cherished all the time I spent with Madame and was so sorry to see my time there ending.

After dinner, Morgan and I met up with Kate and some other girls in the Latin Quarter to go to our favorite spot for a while and dance before leaving in the morning. After the night was over, it was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. We've all become very close in the past few months because we've spent so much time together and grown so much as people, and it will be odd not to see them over summer.

In the morning, driving off in my shuttle van at 7 in the morning, I got my last glimpse of the Eiffel Tower reflecting the light bouncing off the Seine as the sun rose, and I cried...a lot :(

A Last Day Trip, to Chantilly!

On Thursday, the second to last full day I had in Paris, Morgan and I set off in the morning to the town of Chantilly, which is north of Paris. It is actually just a few minutes from the chateau of the family she lives with, and so we'd taken the train there before and knew the system.

When we got off in Chantilly, we had a lovely walk of about 20 minutes through shaded paths and a huge field until we reached the gigantic stone edifice. It was gorgeous and a bit foreboding, and had horses carved all over the outside. We spent some time walking around it trying to find an entrance, and circumvented it about twice (which took a decent amount of time) before we realized that what we were looking at were the stables. Chantilly was a hunting castle, and the family that lived there in the 18th century devoted an entire chateau to the horses.

Eventually we made our way through beautiful green fields to the actual Chateau de Chantilly, which is surrounded by a gorgeous, flat moat, and a large gravel driveway. Entering the Chateau was an amazing experience for me; in general, I don't particularly prefer touring the insides of old homes, I enjoy the grounds and gardens. But in this case, I absolutely loved going through all the rooms and seeing the beautiful art and sculptures the families living there had amassed over the hundreds of years since it was built. When the Chateau was given to the French state, the artwork was left as-was, and so there is an entire room full of paintings, hallways full of prints, stained glass and sculptures, anti-rooms with pottery and antiques, and a gorgeous, gorgeous library remniscent of the one in Beauty and the Beast.

After a full tour of the chateau, we went trompsing through the slightly muddy grounds and gardens for a couple hours. There were gardeners everywhere, repairing and tending to things, and so much wildlife! In one stone pond, we tried to feed a couple swans, who very visciously hissed at us -- in a big, hollow bush, there were a bunch of peacocks that kept making strange noises and glaring at us! It was hilarious, and so much fun. The weather wasn't sunny but it was really warm, and I think that it was perfect for the kind of wild setting of the French countryside.

We headed back to Paris, and that evening Morgan's host family took the two of us to dinner at a Southern French restaurant in Paris, where we had yummy foie gras and duck for dinner. It was nice to see them a last time before leaving, because I spent a lot of time with them and at their apartment!

The next day was my last day in Paris :(

Some more FANTASTIC photos of Chantilly to the right...it was my FAVORITE chateau that I've seen in France!!!

Modern Art

On the day after finals, I woke up with the strangest feeling -- being in Paris with, for the first time in months, nothing pressing to do! I walked to the Centre Pompidou with my friend Derrick to see two special exhibits there, one of Kandinsky and one of Alexander Calder. On the way, I had the last glimpse of one of my favorite walks through Paris: from my apartmnet, past the Eiffel Tower and Ecole Militaire, through the park in front of Invalides, and over the river to Concorde and down Rue de Rivoli.

The Centre Pompidou is really interesting as a structure -- it is completely inside out, and has the "inner workings" of pipes and metal on the outside, in multi colors. The building is all glass and virtually see through, with panoramic views of the city. It houses the most modern art of the Paris museums.





The Kandinsky exhibit was interesting, and very bright and colorful. Kandinsky was a Russian artist who painted mostly in Paris and Munich, and reverted painting to its natural, basic form, of lines, shapes and simple colors. The works they had there mainly spanned his mid to later periods, and were very free and experimental. I definitely appreciate modern art more now that I've finished a course in impressionist art, and I felt very happy looking at some of his paintings. The colors and combinations of shapes were very interesting in a large part of the collection.







The Calder exhibit was fun to see, as well. Alexander Calder was an American artist who worked with wire. He transformed wire into creatures and sculptures, and it was cool to see some of his smaller pieces (the exhibit didn't have his huge mobiles). There were portraits done in wire, and an entire mini-circus that he created.

After the exhibits, I went home for a while and then our ACCENT group had our last organized dinner at an adorable restaurant close to Bastille and Gare de Lyon, down the street from the dorms we stayed in the first week. We've really come full circle and it was nice to say goodbye to everyone before they started heading off!