le 17 juillet: le Louvre

Friday we had our second photo critique. I had some problems with my jump drive so I couldn't print out some of my favorite pictures. I wasn't as happy with these pictures as my last ones but I think they are ok. Here are the five I used:

And I wanted to use these two as well or in place of some of the ones I used for the critiqe:

We had to have class at the ISA office because we don't have the classroom on Fridays. It was good because I had some things I needed to give back to the ISA office.

After class, Brittany and I met up with Amanda to go to the Louvre. I wish I had my nice camera with me because my smaller camera was running out of batteries from Bastille Day. I was stupid for not charging it so I don't have many pictures but we for sure are going back, Brittany and I because we didn't see even a fourth of the Museum. We just saw most of the Egyptian section. Amanda really wanted to see the mummies. It was kind of creepy lol and I was thinking it is a bit odd that there is this dead person in an art museum. Like shouldn't that be in a natural history museum or something? But it was cool to see.

We all got a kick out of the tweezers that the Egyptians had. We were marveling at how old some of the things we have are, at least the technology for it. Like they had ancient dice and hair pins and tweezers lol and pretty much everything. Like modern looking hoop earrings and stuff.

We saw some Messopotamian stuff and I made us go see the Lamassu and Law Code of Hamarabi. We saw a lot of neat statues as well. We also went to see the Mona Lisa. There were a ton of people crowded around so we didn't get very close because we were meeting everyone for dinner. But the paintings were amazing and gigantic (except for La Jaconde which is rather small) but it was crazy to see all these things that I have seen in books in real life. We saw the Nike of Samothrose and also I made us run to see the Venus of Milo before we left.

That museum is incredible and gigantic. It was very easy to get lost. Madame was right of course, that we will have to go at least three times.

The Venus of Milo. Tres famous

A very blurry photo of the Nike of Samothrose

Me in front of the gigantic italien painting The Wedding Dinner. Can you find Jesus? We're wearing the same color lol seriously it is HUGE and there are tons of paintings just as big.

That's my Mona Lisa smile. It's not quite as captivating lol but I'm working on it.

This made me think of Blake cause the girl is taller lol.

One of my favorites.

Another favorite lol. The lion is biting some guys butt.

We are posing like the women in the statue ha ha. Aren't we so cute? I found a replica of this stature in a souvenir shop and I really wanted to buy it because we took this photo.

Lamassu

I'm in front of the Law Code of Hamurabi. I like the girl taking a pic w/ her phone lol

Here I am being an Egyptian scribe. I was being a really big dork that day lol.

Walking like an Egyptian in an Egyptian structure/tomb? I am not really sure but there were awesome hyrogliphs (yes, I just slaughtered that word but am too lazy to fix it) on the walls.

By the triangles made super famous by Dan Brown :D lol I have another one where I am in a dorky pose but I thought the hands on my hips was dorky enough for this post.

So then the night degressed from there. Alison wanted to go to this american diner or something and Amanda and Brittany really wanted to eat dinner with everyone so we went there even though I really didn't want to go. The stupid thing was that the other girls didn't even show up. We ordered without them because we were hungry and thought they would be there any minute. They got there when we were done and didn't even end up eating there. It was lame and I was kind of mad that I bought a second rate burger in France when I could have tried some new French food for the same price next door. GRR.

We went to the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore for a few minutes becasue Amanda wanted to see it. It was calming and there was this lovely lady playing the piano so that made me less angry and it also made me feel very cozy. I like that bookstore.

Another thing that brightened my day and made me feel better about eating a hamburger was that when we went into the metro there was this guy playing the guitar and singing and his friend was playing the flute lol and they were playing these great American/British songs. They played some Beatles and other classics and everyone that was gathered there was just happy and singing along and smiling. It was good to see people smile. I didn't realize how much I miss it. No one really smiles here just on the street. Madame is smiley but she is special, like random strangers don't smile at you. So it was like warm fuzzies to see everyone looking so happy in the metro there. I like being American. I like being an American in Paris he he.

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le 15 juillet et le 16 juillet: Repose and "M" Day

We didn't do a whole lot on the 15th because we were pooped from Bastille day but I noticed a lot of things started with M. Let's just pretend we're on Sesame Street for a while. First of all, I was in the Metro in the Morning and I saw some Missionaries.

If you look close you can see the missionaries behind me. I didn't have time to say hi because I was running to class late.

I had a Mueillefuille for lunch (making this up but it is possible) lol but Madame saw an eMmission (ha ha) on the TV about Mormons and finally understood why I gave her a Mormon tabernacle choir CD set.

Ha ha, I also went to the Monoprix (which, mom, used to be the Prix Unique) and I bought Bonne Maman cookies (notice the M on Maman).


So for dinner we had like a lamb steak and pasta and this really good baked tomato. Madame said they eat them a lot in the South of France. She lived there for ten years when she was Married to a Man from Nice. (ha ha, ok I'll stop w/ the M's). Our conversation consisted of that and talking a tinsy bit about religion. Madame said I was the first Mormon to stay at her house so that was special and Brittany is Episcopalian? or Protestant (can't remember but I should know) and Madame is Jewish. We accidentaly blew out her sabbath candle one night, we felt bad lol but she was understanding. And then Madame discussed her love for cats and inability to understand why some ISA students wouldn't want to live with her because of her cats.


She was asking us about pets in the U.S. and whether or not people normally had pets and if they live indoors or outdoors and what not lol. She was like I just don't understand why someone wouldn't like cats and saying how nice her cats are. I think there is definitely a little bit of a crazy cat lady in her. Brittany and I were laughing inside but we love Madame for sure.


Thursday we had photo class at a Museum. There was a Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit that was really great. His photographs have a great vitality and life to them. I thought of Tashi. I think she would have liked to see it.

After the museum, we took some pictures around the Morrais or Jewish district. We also did a little shopping afterwards. It sounds like I shop a lot and I guess that is true but it's mostly window shopping lol.

We came across this old man wearing a shirt that said "papy Dance". He was dancing around to Michael Jackson by the metro stop. We took some pictures of course. Brittany got a ton. We were close to our home so we walked home and stopped at an Amarino. (The glaciers who make your glace into a flower) I got a caramel, strawberry cream, and coconut cone. The coconut was so good. It had real bits of coconut in it. Mmmmm. (P.S. Morray starts w/ an M, too and so does Mmmmm but it was the next day so idk if it counts).

Isn't this woman awesome?

Pappy Dance

la Bastille

We took a load of laundry to the laundromat. We needed some jeans for the weekend excursion because it was going to be cold and we forgot to give our clothes to Madame on Sunday when she does laundry so we had to go do it ourselves. It was quite the adventure lol we were like trying to figure out how to work the machine. It was hard because it was in French and it's just different anyways. The owner came out and was really nice and helped us.

For dinner we had an oriental salade and pasta. Madame is a good cook. She just comes up with whatever. She had us try this salmon bread spread. It is very fishy flavored (lol big surprise) but it is good if you mix it with cheese. I love the cheese here.

We got a crazy storm at night. France weather is like crazy Utah weather. It's like sunny in the morning then freezing cold and cloudy then gets sunny and hot again then out of the blue there's like a little hail storm and pouring rain. Ha ha, makes me feel right at home.

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le 13 et le 14 juillet: Bastille Day

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So on the 13th of July I really wanted to go to a Pompier ball. The firestations all have dance parties the night before Bastille Day. Everyone that we hang out with and a few more people were planning on meeting for dinner then going to the ball. I stayed in to eat at my home-stay. I forgot to write down what we had and they days get all mixed up for me. But I do remember we had a cucumber and cheese salade. It was an interesting combination but it was good. I would have liked it with a little less cheese though I think.

Brittany didn't eat with us because her friend who is an Au Pair (nanny) in Versailles invited her to come down and spend the night at her house then attend the festivities of the morning there. I really wish I would have gone with her.

The people we were going to meet flaked out and decided to pre-game before the dance. Me, Christy, Courtney, Christina, Tinfang, and Amanda didn't want to but we were really stupid and didn't write the address of the pompier station down so we couldn't find it. I don't know why we didn't just ask someone.

But Courtney remembered there was one near a larger metro station that we were all familiar with so we went there. We found the station but the line to get in was gigantic. It was well over ten feet wide in places and wrapped around the block. We stood in it for a second and it was moving fairly fast so we thought we might make it. Unfortunately, Courtney had to go home to close the shutters because she couldn't figure out how to do it before she came. That sounds like a really dumb excuse but her host lady is insane and would flip out on her about it if she didn't. Christina and Tianfang were walking home with her that night so they left with her. Christy and Amanda and I stayed but they were like o this is lame now because now there are only three of us. Ugh.

So we went to the metro station closest to the dorms because the metros were closing soon and we didn't want to take a taxi. Christy thought there was a station near that metro stop and in fact there was one not too far away but of course we didn't have the address and it wasn't like right in front of us so we couldn't find it.

We thought about just going to a cafe to get drinks so we sat down at one but it was very expensive so we just got up to leave. There was an older man there who asked if we were Italien lol we were so confused for a second. But we told him we were Americans and he was like oh, I would have never guessed and then told us how he thinks all Americans are, which was a pretty backed up stereotype. They hang out in big groups of at least 10 (yep, we do it a lot and I hate it lol. It just doesn't work, smaller groups are much better unless you really know what you are doing.), they wear sneakers and tee shirts and jeans and they talk loudly and a bunch of other stuff. He said we looked nice and refined or something. Christy was mad lol because he didn't say one good thing about being an American.

I was thinking about it later and thinking of all the things I like about America. Being here has given me a whole new perspective on life and culture. I think there is a lot that we could learn from Paris as Americans but I think that Parisiens could learn some things from Americans as well.

Anyways, we went back to Christy's dorm room. Amanda was smart and brought a bag of her stuff but unfortunately it was in one of the rooms of a girl that flaked out so they were who knows where and she couldn't get any of it. I was completely unprepared. Christy laid a blanket on the floor and let Amanda and I borrow a pillow. We slept using our jackets as covering. It was the hardest floor of my life lol but I actually slept ok. The night was just really disappointing.

I got up early the next day and went back home. I showered and ate a leisurely breakfast while watching the pre-parade TV specials. Then I went out to meet Christina and Courtney on the Champs-Elysees to watch the parade.

They had metro stations close to it blocked off so I had to get out early and walk for about half an hour but I found them easily. I just followed the crowd until I came to the street then found the store they were in front of.

We didn't have a great view but it wasn't terrible. The coolest part of the parade was the very beginning. Nine small jets flew over the Champs-Elysees with blue, white, and red smoke coming out the back so that they made a French flag across the sky.

The parade was very different than our parades. It was comparatively boring. They had a bunch of planes fly overhead and then there were a buch of soldiers and public service men. There were soldiers from other countries specially invited to march and then they had different branches of the French army. They also had a lot of police troops and firemen. They then had all these fire trucks and military vehicles and like tanks. No candy or waving though. Just stern poses and marching. The French cheered for the policemen and firemen but that was like the only excitement lol. The parade ended with helicopters flying over the street and then dropping parachgliders who had the French flag on their parasailes or whatever they are called.

Walking out of the parade was so crowded. People were all pushing and mashed together so we got out as quickly as possible and planned on eating lunch somwhere a bit farther away from the action. We met up with our friend Christy and went to a French sort of subway. We ate in Luxembourg gardens like we enjoy and I bought some potato chips in the Monoprix that made me think of my six girlfriends (especially Sarah, watch the slideshow and you'll know what I'm talking about).

After lunch, we walked around a bit and began preparing for a picnic at the Eiffel tower (which reminds me I still owe Christy 2 euro for that...) We bought a baguette, cheese, and grapes and I bought a pear and a big old bottle of water. And my friends bought some wine. We got to the Eiffel Tower around 4 pm and there were already lots of people but we found a great spot in front of the urban peace memorial structure at one end of the Eiffel tower. It was perfect for seeing the fireworks.

We didn't have a blanket to sit on at first though and the ground was really gross and covered with cigarette butts so Courtney and Christina went to their home stay to pick up a blanket, wine opener, and knife. Christy and I stayed and held our spot but people starting coming in and encroaching on it. We were scared we might lose it. One group of people even like sat down basically on my camera bag and just like moved it towards me. I was like uh... no. But I Just let it slide because I didn't want to get into an argument in French.

There were two concerts before the fireworks so that was really fun to pass the time. The first performers where Christophe Mae, a contemporary French band that sounds kind of like Jason Mraz. They were a fun band and had some hippie songs about changing the world and what not. Then Johnny Halliday performed. He is like an old rock star of France. He is 75 and put on a great show. Everyone was getting into his songs and singing along. I recognized some songs that he had translated into French from English. They sang a few songs in English even. There is a lot of American influence in the media here. They watch a lot of our TV shows and listen to a lot of our music. Madame's favorite television show is Desparate Housewives.

The final act from Johnny Halliday was spectacular. There was a great big stage set up at the base of the Eiffel tower and then speakers and screens set in intervals over the lawn so that people back where we were could see and hear. The final song ended with small fireworks and flames shooting up off the two lower levels of the Eiffel tower.

Then the lights all went out and the only thing slightly lit up was the Eiffel tower. It looked a tint of green and then seemed to twist. Then it turned red and elements of white and blue came in. Then they projected Lady Liberty Leading the People and other patriotic paintings of that style on the tower. They moved to music and fireworks began shooting up behind the tower.

Then the tower looked like it was being built piece by piece as little parts of it seemed to fall out of the sky and fireworks came off the tower itself. It was simply amazing. Years were projected onto the base of the tower, i.e. 1921 and then music would set the tone and there would be a light display on the tower and fireworks coming out. My favorites were this one with morse code and little dashes and dots moved up the tower and when the hit the top, fireworks shooted up as if the dash continued to go into the air. I also really liked the display representing the world wars. A globe spun around the base as bombs fell from the top of the tower onto the earth and fireworks and flames danced around it. The 1960s display was also quite amazing. Brightly colored flowers fell from the top and filled the tower then grew and spun around until it was just one flower spinning on its center and rainbow colored fireworks shot out behind the tower and out of it horizontally. Hopefully some of my pictures can demonstrate. I also took a bunch of video but can't get it to work on this computer, and it didn't show up well anyways but I'll put some up when I get home.

The 1990s started with the tower like shaking it's hips and lifting its feet, it was so cute and fun. The years just kept going up until 1999 when a countdown started and everyone counted down like at New Year's and then the tower lit up in white sparkles and big fireworks came out the top as everyone cheered. It was really fun. The ending show had a tribute to Gustave Eiffel and the other engineers. It is the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower so the end was like the tower was a birthday cake or something and the flames on the levels were lit up like candles. It was THE most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen. It was beautiful.

Getting home was disgusting and scary lol. Beaucoup de monde was taking the metro home and I pushed and snuck my way there quickly because the metro closes at twelve thirty and it was like twelve by time the fireworks show was over. They closed the metro stops closest to the tower probably because it would create such a big jam. It was already hard to walk anywhere with them closed. People litterally filled the streets, sidewalks, and any space inbetween. The doors to get into the metro had masses of people smashed up against them. It was like getting scary how smashed people were together and like some people were pushing. It was like being stuck in an out of control mosh pit almost. Not quite but almost.

The metro car smelled SOOOO bad I like almost threw up but I was just happy to make it home safe. I usually have Brittany to walk with so it was a bit scary walking home alone but our neighborhood isn't bad. Although recently Brittany and I have had some people walk creepily close to us and some others slow down when they were in front of us. We try to be very aware of what is going on around us.

It was so fun to see Brittany again after not seeing her for a few days lol. It is crazy how well we know each other already and how well we get along. She is really cute and telling me how well we're going to keep in touch. I think I will visit her for spring break this year, hopefully over Mardi Gras but my spring break is always crazy so I will probably be too early for it.

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Giverny and Auvers Pictures

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le 11 et le 12 juillet: Giverny & Auvers-sur-Oise

I am going to put pictures from this weekend in their own post, so check back :)

GIVERNY
So early Saturday morning, and I mean early, we got up and went out to the Gare St Lazare to go to Giverny. We had a little ticket fiasco so the morning was a bit hectic. We had bought the tickets online and then you can go to little machines at the station to pick them up. First of all, we couldn't find the right machine. There are ticket machines everywhere but we couldn't find the ones that we needed and we didn't even really know what we were looking for.

We finally found like the one yellow ticket machine in the entire station. Lol, ok there are more than one but there are comparatively few yellow machines than any other kind of ticket machine that I can't even tell you what they do only to find out our debit cards don't work with them. So we go back to the information desk to get the whole thing sorted out. But we didn't have our confirmation number. Brittany had ordered everything online and had our confirmation numbers but she forgot them at home, sweet girl and so she bought us all new tickets. I am going to try and get her something special to pay her back because I feel like it wasn't entirely her fault but she was so sweet to buy us all new tickets so we could catch the train, especially because I know she is on a tight budget like me.

We got of the train in Vernon. The ride was very pretty. Everything is green and the little houses are picturesque. I should have taken some pictures of the ride over there. We had planned on renting some bikes once we got there but it was kind of cold and we didn't want to enhance that as we were all pretty ill prepared for the weather. So we took a short bus to Giverny.

We got there and walked through this little path to a statue of Monet and took some cliche tourist pictures but it was fun. Then, we had breakfast at a little cafe. It was super cute. I got a hot chocolate and a croissant. My first French croissant and it was perfectly flakey. Yum. I felt super french because I wore my French sandals and skirt and my beret. It was for the aesthetics of looking french in the garden although no French people are actually wearing berrets this time of the year.

Anyways, onward. So we went directly to Monet's house and gardens. Monet designed the gardens himself and actually made them to create his own subject matter for his paintings which is kind of interesting. It was like he was planning a still life but not still lol. They were very beautiful. There were all sorts of flowers and the water lillies and bamboo and everything was just like his paintings. I will let the pictures to the talking.

It was really fun, we saw two couples getting their wedding pictures there, wouldn't that be awesome? Wedding pictures in Monet's garden?! I am JEALOUS. It was really cool to see pictures in the gift shop of Monet in his garden and then later in the other museum in town and be like, I just stood there for a picture lol. So weird, and completely awesome.

We also went inside Monet's house. It was trop mignon (very cute). The walls were painted fun pastel colors of blue, green, and yellow and there were japonese prints everywhere. They had reproductions of Monet's work hung on the walls. Most of his work is in other Museums like the D'Orsay and the Marmottan. Taking pictures inside the house wasn't allowed but I got one before I knew that:

The kitchen was really cute. It was painted blue and there was blue tile all on the wall where the oven was placed and then above the sink and counters were bright copper pans. Then there was a gigantic pantry on the wall opposite the oven and a big table in the middle of the kitchen. Lol I don't know why but I really liked it.

After the house and gardens, we went to a little place for lunch. All the restaurants were pretty pricey but the one we went to wasn't too bad. I got a Tartine Chaude. It was a big slice of bread with salmon and fresh cream and lemons on top with salad on the side. It was really good. I saw another girl who got a tomatoe one with some sort of cheese (probably goat cheese which seems to go with tomatoes a lot here).

After our yummy lunch, we went to the Museum of Impressionism. They had a bunch of photographs of Monet and his family and gardens with some old documents that Monet used to plan the garden and all that. They also had a small collection of some of his work. Again, photographs were not allowed :( They had mostly water lilly paintings there but not any of the big panel ones. They were still really beautiful though. It was crazy to see them up close, and see how childish and scribbly they looked but then step back and they were beautiful.

We were able to use Alison's blackberry to go to our emails and get our confirmation numbers so we could get our tickets that we had bought online which was a lifesaver. Brittany and I made it home in time for dinner with Madame. She made us a yummy couscous with chicken and corn and sprouts. She also had bought some new varieties of cheese that she offered us. It was Rochefort and she said since it is a strong cheese, she likes to mix it with Ailet or another milder cheese. We had nectarines for dessert.

Ha ha, it was funny. Brittany was like saying she had eaten too much and Madame was like me too, il faut faire du jogging, or I'll have to go running and then she was saying how she is getting a belly ha ha, all animated like she does (sometimes we use body language to communicate lol) and then she was like I will take it all off and give it to Alexandra lol and she was like pretending to take her belly fat and throw it on me ha ha.

O and she also was very adament about making sure we were going to visit the Louvre. We are going this Friday we told her and she is like one day is not enough! You need three, four, five days at the Louvre! She kept saying over and over how we HAD to see it he he and we're like we know! and she was like no, you don't know, you have to go! Ha ha, it was fun. I like when she gets all funny like that.


AUVERS-SUR-OISE
The train ride to Auvers was less stressful but a little harder in terms of directions. We already had our tickets and I had some info about how to get there but nothing about how to come home. The trains were very empty we got another early train at like 8 am agian. We stopped in Vernon and tansferred to another train on which we were like the only people. It was me, Christy, Brittany, and Courtney. We had a grand time on the train just laughing and talking. The country side is gorgeous.

So we get to Auvers-sur-Oise and there isn't a soul in sight lol. But it was Sunday morning so what do you expect? It was really cute. About the same size as Giverny, maybe a little bigger but less touristy. There aren't as many things to see there.


We walked out to the main street and grabbed some pastries from a boulangerie for breakfast. The boulangerie smelled SO good. It was unbelievable. They had a cute little market going on but it was mostly food so we just walked through it and then onward.


We actually missed the inn where Van Gogh died the first few times we walked down the main road lol. Like I said, it was not as easy for tourists to get around. But we did eventually find it with some help from the locals. It is a very small inn. Well, it isn't an inn anymore but there is still a restaurant on the main level where Van Gogh went to dinner each night that he stayed in Auvers. He would go out to paint each morning and then return for dinner and to go to bed. They have the room where he died still intact. No one rented it after Van Gogh died there because it became known as the suicide room and was bad luck.


They had another room set up how it would have been around that time. It was a room rented out by another artist who sent for Theo, Van Gogh's brother after he shot himself. The other area on the top floor was turned into a theater where we saw a video with Van Gogh's paintings compared to photographs of the places he painted and exerpts from his letters to Theo. It was very beautiful. I love Van Gogh.


The second level of the inn was a gift shop. I just bought a postcard. They had some cool books but I already have a pretty awesome Van Gogh book and other than that their stuff wasn't that great. They have little plaques throughout the city in places where he painted and so you can see his painting versus the scene before you. They offer little walking tours to see them all but we were going to be leaving before the tour started so we couldn't take it but we got a map from the visitor's center and went around to some of them on our own.


Vincent and Theo are also buried in Auvers. Their graves were probably the most simple ones in the cemetery. All of the others have the fancy coverings that look like they are above ground but Vincent and Theo's just had simple head stones and small bushes were covering the ground in front of them. Vincent's had a single sunflower in front of it.


We also stopped in a little cathedrale there. It was beautiful. All the churches here are just amazing.


On route to the cemetary, we found a big open wheat field and Brittany wanted to frolic in it lol. We took a ton of pictures of us frollicking in the wheat field and doing jumping pictures. It was so much fun. Brittany took this one of me leaping. I will have to see if I can get some of the ones on her camera up because they are awesome.


It was weird to think that we were walking in the same paths and standing in the same places where Van Gogh stood and painted. It makes me think how connected we really are to people from the past. We are just like them, you know. Especially looking at old pictures in photography class. Like our clothes really haven't changed much. We all work and play and go out to eat. We're all the same when it comes down to it. I know that sounds like I am really stupid lol but it is just something I have been thinking about. Like noticing the similarities between cultures and times and families and people.

We went out to lunch at a creperie. Brittany got a cheese salade and I got a crepe sallees (which is a crepe with not sweet stuff on it like cheese, tomatoes, ham, etc.) with chicken, creme, and mushrooms and then we split them. The crepe was so good. The chicken on it was so tender and the cream perfect and I'm normally not a mushroom person but sometimes I crave them and I was craving mushrooms so the crepe totally hit the spot. The salade was ok but there was seriously a ton of cheese.

We went back to the boulangerie where we got breakfast on our way back to the train station and Courtney, Christy, and Brittany all bought some maccaroons. They are a lot different here than in the U.S. they are like oreos kind of, well, nothing like oreos really but there are two cookies stuck together with jam or cream of some kind. I'm not a humongous fan so I didn't buy any but Courtney loves them. She is a celiac so she can't have wheat or dairy and she is also allergic to a bunch of other things too and macaroons are one of the few cookies that she can eat so she loves them. I think she eats one every day lol.

The train ride home was kind of scary. When we went back to the train station, luckily there was someone there because it was closed in the morning when we got there. He was able to give us some directions but we were not exactly sure what we were doing lol. We kind of got on the train hoping it would get us where we needed to go. All we knew really was that it was going back the direction from where we came but it was a different line and we transferred at a different station. I should have taken a picture. There were tons of lines there. But things worked out really well. Our transfers didn't take very long at all and we were home within an hour and a half.

We got home around 4 pm so I decided to spend a few hours in a museum. I went to the Orangerie because it is small, easily seen in just a few hours and it has 8 of Monet's large water lilly panels, so it was perfect to complete the impressionist weekend. And best of all, it was free because I am a student studying in Paris!


The water lillies were beautiful and gigantic. I rented a headset because it was free to get in and it said that Monet had always imagined his water lillies to be displayed in an oval room and in such a way that if you stood in the middle it would look like you are actually in the water in the middle of a pond/lake. It was pretty much how it felt. I took video of it (p. s. how cool is that? the museum let you take pictures and video!) so I'll see if I can get it up somehow. For now the pictures will have to do.


In the lower level of the museum, there was a large private collection of a prominant art dealer who lived in Paris. He had lots of Renoir, Cezanne, and african pieces. He also had some painters I am not familiar with and some Picasso, Mondrian (i think), and others... Wish I could remember, sorry. They were great. It was a wonderful collection. I especially liked this one guy's paintings. I should have written his name down but his people paintings are wonderfully expressive and characterized. This woman reminds me of Jenna Matheson and Christy in my program lol.


There was a temporary exhibition from a contemporary artist whose work was captivating. It was colorful and urban and vibrant. I took a couple pictures but I wish I had taken a more.


For dinner at Madame's house, we had ham with wheat and corn. I love wheat. It is so good. I think I'm going to buy some to bring home lol. We also had salade with sprouts and Madame gave us apple sauce for desert. She likes to let us try new things like different yogurts and cheeses she buys. She also buys little cookies she likes to give us. So sweet. I really need to take pictures of her.

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le 10 juillet: La Fille Mal Gardee

This picture is of Brittany and me at the Opera House! We went to the ballet La Fille Mal Gardee today. But first you have to read about the boring stuff:

So on Fridays we have a different French teacher which is kind of a fun experience. My intermediate teacher is a lot different than the elementary teacher I had. She is older and has that mean sense of humor. I kind of like it though lol. She laughs at us but it is fun. She has dark hair with little streaks of grey and white. I think they might come from her running her fingers through her hair after writing on the chalkboard lol not really but it is a funny habit she has.

At lunch, I had to run to Gare du Nord to buy tickets for our weekend in the countryside. We tried to go the SNCF boutique where you buy all the tickets for the high speed trains but they like couldn't do it there for some reason. Finding the ticket booth was way confusing but there was a really helpful guy at the information desk who wrote down directions on what time trains were leaving, which directions we needed to go and where to make our transfers.

I think buying tickets was the first time a french person was really mean to me. The guy we bought the tickets from was so short with us when we were asking questions about how the tickets worked. He was like disgusted that we were speaking to him in english but we weren't sure how to phrase our questions in French and he like had an "I speak English" sign in his window so he was just dumb. The tickets to Auvers-sur-Oise were only like 10 euro round trip which was great. We were thinking it would be around 30.

Christy came with me to buy the tickets and we bought a little pizza thing in the station because we had to run back to class after figuring everything out. We went to Les Halles for photography. It was a pretty fun area. There were a lot of restaurants and boutiques but then it kind of meshed into a sketchy area with peep shows, like there were older women on the streets dressed in skanky clothing and holding like lanyards with a bunch of keys on them. And Brittany and I were like yeah... let's head back to where we were ha ha but we were really bad actually. We saw a shop that had cheaper clothes in it for the first time and we just had to go in. It was called Kookai. I bought a little skirt there. Mom, I know you are going to love it. It is blue and white striped like Maddie's pants that I like to borrow and it has a little bow tie in front and has these sweet little pleats and some pockets. Brittany bought a plaid dress I found for her. It is funny how well I know her taste already. She loved it. She also got a little top that reminded me of Tara for 5 euro! I know, unbelievable.

We got out of the shop and felt pretty bad for shopping on class time but we took a bunch of pictures to make up for it. But we couldn't stay longer because we planned on going to the ballet that night.

We ran home to get ready and Madame made us an early dinner so that we could go an hour early to get standby student tickets. She made us a big salade that was so good. It had rice and sprouts in it and like ham and tomatoes and cucumbers and lettuce of course. It was so sweet of her. She is the nicest lady. I am so glad we got her for a host mom. When we left to go to the ballet she made a big show of saying how cute we were all dressed up. She was like, "Oh, wow! Super!" and like tried to do a whistle lol.

So we went to the Grand Opera house and went in to see if they still had tickets. They had us go sit in a line for the standby tickets with a bunch of other students. We stood there for a long time until they finally started moving us through. We had to show our student IDs and pay in cash but the tickets were only 15 euro and when we were seated, we were on the THIRD ROW! like really close to the center, too! It was unbelievable. The seats we had were probably at least a hundred euro.

The ballet was called "La Fille Mal Gardee" or the badly garded girl. It was a comedy ballet and so great. There is like this country girl who has a little love affair with a country boy but her mother wants her to marry the son of this rich guy. The son is this clumbsy little thing that always dances awkwardly and is really childish, like pretending that this red umbrella is his horse all the time. There were beautiful pas de deux with ribbons and there was a May Day celebration where the main girl stood en pointe in the center of the stage holding onto ribbons that corps dancers held the other ends of and danced around her in a circle and she did this arabesque turn while they danced around her, the ribbons kind of acting as her male partner.

The main guy was really great, too. His jumps were breathtaking and so graceful. He did a really great job as well and their chemistry was unlike any ballet I have seen. Ha ha, it was definitely very French, like the two people seriously made out on stage. I really think they must have been dating in real life because they actually kissed all the time.

The mother of the girl was hilarious. It was played by a man dressed as a woman like the stepsisters in Cinderella. He did a really fun dance wearing wooden shoes. It was like a little tap dance and some corps dancers also put wooden shoes on over their pointe shoes and did some of it with him. Everything was very fun and vibrant. There was a beautiful rainy scene during the May Day celebration.

The plot was pretty simple. Girl and guy in love. Girl gets betrothed to the rich stupid boy and her mother like signs her marriage agreement but all the while she is sneaking off with her love then the son and father find out and break off the deal and the mother lets her daughter marry the boy she loves. It was really cute though and so well played. The dances were beautiful and the rich son was constantly in this amazing character of like stupidity and ungracefulness. He wore like this straw colored wig and this face that was like he was stunned and so awkward the whole time it was great.

We all really loved it and the Opera house was incredibly beautiful. There were like four balconies and the ceiling had paintings and golden statues and a gorgeous grand staircase. We had such a great time. It was the first ballet that Brittany had ever gone to and she was loving every second. It was so fun to be with her and Courtney and Christy. We were all really glad that we were able to go.

Me, Courtney, and Christy. Courtney is actually like one inch taller than I am but I am wearing heals.

The beautiful painted ceiling and some of the gold laid sculpture


Another one of me and Brittany in our THIRD ROW seats! Isn't her little dress adorable? She got it at a little girl's dress shop lol. I wish we would have thought to get pictures before we ran out the door because it was really sweet.

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le 9 juillet: Pere Lachaise

So a short(er) post to follow previous gigantic post. :)

Thursday we ate at our newly found boulangerie from which we bought the chocolat pastry. I bought a fougasse (some weird kind of stuffed bread) that was tres bon. Then we both broke down and both got huge pastries. I had an almonde/croissant thing with powdered sugar. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

(I forgot to take a picture of the pastry but this is my fougasse)

Yeah, we felt like pigs. My fougasse was huge and my pastry was huge and now I will be huge lol. For photo class, we talked about surrealism in photography. First we talked about its base in painting and how surrealism was the first era in which photography made a significant impact and changed the direction of the movement. Interestingly enough, surrealism lead to photojournalism.

I was surprised by how posed the surrealist photos were. They were all done with manipulated lighting and in highly controlled studios. I was thinking they'd be like random bad shots of stuff lol. I didn't really like most of the slides we looked at but there were a few cool ones. We talked about Lee Miller. She was a model turned photographer in Paris who later moved to New York then acted as a correspondant during World War II. Her photographs from the frontlines were the begining of photojournalism. And were surrealism met realism in a world where reality was surreal. That was a horrible sentence but we can pretend it made sense and move on.

So after we had our little surrealist chat, we went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery to take pictures. It was big and beautiful and creepy all at once. There were like little house things where people could go in to pray. There are alters inside and glass windows in the backs with representations of Mary or the crucifix. I was wondering around and got separated from my friends and kind of spooked. But I met the sweetest old woman. I saw her from afar at first, she was dusting off a tomb with a lace handkercheif and arranging flowers on it. She saw me and we smiled at each other. I wanted to take her picture so I came up to her. She asked if I was alone and I said yes. She told me to be careful when I walked between the little tombs/buildings. It is not dangerous she said but be careful when you go through the little pathways. It kind of made me nervous but it was sweet that she was watching out for me. I could feel her sweetness. It was just in her face and radiating out of her. I asked her if I could take her picture and she said yes, with her family and she stood by the grave. I took my picture and thanked her. I felt like I was intruding a bit so I left her quickly although I would've liked to have stayed just to be near her and feel the love that she had for her family.

I saw another woman on my way back to the front of the cemetary. She was also taking care of a grave. Dusting it, sweeping away fallen leaves, and carefully removing dead leaves from floral arrangements. I clumbsily asked to take her picture. She also immediately stood by the grave she was attending to and I took it. She told me it was her mother there. I said that I could tell she loved her very much. I wanted to capture her sweet face but she wouldn't let me take a close picture. She kept saying that she wasn't pretty. Which was so not true.

These women had such a palpable tie to their families. It reminded me of taking flowers to graves on Memorial Day with Grandma Maddie and Nancy. How they know our family and stories about them. I felt as if I need to know these people.

I didn't see any famous graves in Pere Lachaise. They were hard to find. But I did meet two beautiful women. I wish I could have captured their love and sweetness in the photographs but I felt like I was intruding a bit so I didn't stay with them for long.

For dinner, Madame went all out. We had like a three course meal. First, she gave us legume soup. It was very good, it was like vegetable soup but like the vegetables were all purreed into it so like no chunks. Ok, horrible description but then we had pates (pasta) oh my goodness. Brittany was freaking out lol she was like "OH! oh! oh! I love pasta!" and like you should have seen her face lol. Madame was very pleased. She likes cooking for us. It was like that bow tie pasta and she had made a cheese sauce with ham. It had Rochefort and another kind of cheese and cream in the sauce. And I know I say this all the time but it was SO GOOD. I ate way too much and then we had salade. We usually eat salade after the main meal for some reason. I don't know if that's how all the French do it but interesting anyways. Lol but the salade had sprouts in it and we asked how to say it in French and she asked how to say it in English. After we told her, she was like "Sprout, s, p, r, o, u, t. Sprout" lol like to remember it or something, I don't know but it was cute.

O and then, she brought out the chocolat noir glace much to Brittany's pleasure lol. I think she is starting to like us. We like her very much. I need to take a picture of her so you can see her :).

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