Catching up slowly but surely! This is a post about my Art 188 Study Tour in Paris. I must say that this was one of my favorite trips because of the massive amount of cool things we saw and the awesome people I got to spend time with. My professor was great and the 24 students were incredibly fun. We saw so much art and walked so much, I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the trip. Although I was tired during the majority of this trip, it was unforgettable! Here's a recap of my five days in Paris!
Friday, 26 September
We left the Luxembourg in the late morning and boarded our bus to Paris with lunch bags in hand and 'Monuments Men' on DVD. The four and a half hour bus ride flew by and before we knew it, we were in Paris! On our way in, the Eiffel Tower wasn't in view, so it looked just like the typical European city (I'm joking - Paris has it's own unique beauty that I can't find anywhere else).
We arrived at ou r hotel and dropped off our luggage in record time. All of us were ready to see the Eiffel Tower and the rest of Paris, too. We all successfully used the metro to the Sine River by the Eiffel Tower and took more selfies than I would like to admit. After we felt like we successfully documented our first walk through Paris, we boarded the Bateux Mouche where we ate dinner and sailed down the Seine River. We were able to see some of the most important sights of the city, including the Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Love Lock Bridge. We felt so fancy drinking white wine and slurping cold asparagus soup - it was a great way to start off the study tour!
Once we finished on the boat, we took a short walk through the city and made our way back to the hotel. Fortunately, we were able to see the Iron Lady sparkle. We returned to our hotel, caused a bit of chaos, went out for a little bit, came back, and slept well that night. Here's some pictures from that night!
Friday, 26 September
We left the Luxembourg in the late morning and boarded our bus to Paris with lunch bags in hand and 'Monuments Men' on DVD. The four and a half hour bus ride flew by and before we knew it, we were in Paris! On our way in, the Eiffel Tower wasn't in view, so it looked just like the typical European city (I'm joking - Paris has it's own unique beauty that I can't find anywhere else).
We arrived at ou r hotel and dropped off our luggage in record time. All of us were ready to see the Eiffel Tower and the rest of Paris, too. We all successfully used the metro to the Sine River by the Eiffel Tower and took more selfies than I would like to admit. After we felt like we successfully documented our first walk through Paris, we boarded the Bateux Mouche where we ate dinner and sailed down the Seine River. We were able to see some of the most important sights of the city, including the Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Love Lock Bridge. We felt so fancy drinking white wine and slurping cold asparagus soup - it was a great way to start off the study tour!
Once we finished on the boat, we took a short walk through the city and made our way back to the hotel. Fortunately, we were able to see the Iron Lady sparkle. We returned to our hotel, caused a bit of chaos, went out for a little bit, came back, and slept well that night. Here's some pictures from that night!
Saturday, 27 September
We woke up early and had an absolutely fantastic French breakfast consisting of a croissant, baguette, orange juice and hot chocolate.
We went off to the Louvre to see multiple pieces of artwork that we studied in our class. We saw some of the classics including the Mona Lisa and my favorite, Virgin of the Rocks. We saw some other awesome artwork, but I can't even begin to start listing them. I read the Da Vinci Code before I left, and I was happy to visualize what they were talking about in the book. Very cool - here's some pictures.
We woke up early and had an absolutely fantastic French breakfast consisting of a croissant, baguette, orange juice and hot chocolate.
We went off to the Louvre to see multiple pieces of artwork that we studied in our class. We saw some of the classics including the Mona Lisa and my favorite, Virgin of the Rocks. We saw some other awesome artwork, but I can't even begin to start listing them. I read the Da Vinci Code before I left, and I was happy to visualize what they were talking about in the book. Very cool - here's some pictures.
Afterwards, we walked around, grabbed some lunch, and then met back up with the class to tour the Palais Garnier (Opera house). This was the setting of the Phantom of the Opera so it was cool to see the Phantom's designated box seat. The entire building was absolutely amazing. The architecture was detailed and there were numerous painted ceilings. We had a tour guide to explain some of the history behind the building, but to be honest, we were all so tired from our adventures already that I think we were more interested in finding a place to sit while the guide was talking than actually listening to what he had to say. It was a really cool tour though that showed me some thing I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't have an expert explain what certain details meant.
All in all, this was a cool day!
Sunday, 28 September
This was probably my favorite day in Paris. It was filled with multiple museums with cool art, exciting fashion shows, and thousands of bones.
We started off with another amazing breakfast, then went onto the Musée Rodin. Rodin was a famous sculpture - some of him most famous creations being The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Kiss. I'm happy to say that I saw all of these and in doing so, I've decided that Rodin is one of my favorite artists. This post is already too long, so I won't go into detail about how the shape of the bodies he sculpted evoked emotions that allowed me to see the entire backstory and blah blah blah, but let me tell you, Rodin is awesome. Trust me on this one.
We moved onto the Grand Palais where there was an exhibit featuring Niki de Saint Phalle. She was an extreme feminist and human rights activist that tried to express her views through her strange art pieces. This place was incredibly strange and I'm not sure if I could even begin to understand some of the things she plastered together, but it's art. And it looked cool. So it's good in my book!
Coincidentally, there was the Kloe fashion show happening in the same building, so we were able to see some important fashion people (not that I could tell you who they were or if they were actually important), but some of the girls I was with were really excited about it. I heard that the girl who played Fleur in Harry Potter was spotted, but I left before I could catch a glimpse of the star. I probably walked right past her though, so that can count for something.
Some of my other classmates were going to the Catacombs, so I tagged along. There was a group of 10 of us - 5 girls, 5 boys. The perfect start to the perfect horror story. We got to the entrance and encountered an unexpectedly long line, but it passed quickly since we were in good company.
We finally arrived at the entrance and made our way down the incredibly long staircase and into a dark hallway with flickering lights. It was so strange because we didn't see any of the other people that were previously waiting in line with us. We were alone as we walked through the hallways which was rather unnerving.
After some time, we got to the burial grounds of thousands of people. I didn't really have a good idea of what the Catacombs were going to look like, but I definitely didn't expect this. The bones were organized and laid out in a certain way. The skulls sometimes made shapes in the wall of femurs and smaller bones were scattered on top.
We made our way through hallway after hallway of bones and eventually reached the end. It was very cool experience that I would recommend to whoever goes to Paris. Here's some pictures since I don't feel like I did a good job explaining how these Catacombs looked.
All in all, this was a cool day!
Sunday, 28 September
This was probably my favorite day in Paris. It was filled with multiple museums with cool art, exciting fashion shows, and thousands of bones.
We started off with another amazing breakfast, then went onto the Musée Rodin. Rodin was a famous sculpture - some of him most famous creations being The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Kiss. I'm happy to say that I saw all of these and in doing so, I've decided that Rodin is one of my favorite artists. This post is already too long, so I won't go into detail about how the shape of the bodies he sculpted evoked emotions that allowed me to see the entire backstory and blah blah blah, but let me tell you, Rodin is awesome. Trust me on this one.
We moved onto the Grand Palais where there was an exhibit featuring Niki de Saint Phalle. She was an extreme feminist and human rights activist that tried to express her views through her strange art pieces. This place was incredibly strange and I'm not sure if I could even begin to understand some of the things she plastered together, but it's art. And it looked cool. So it's good in my book!
Coincidentally, there was the Kloe fashion show happening in the same building, so we were able to see some important fashion people (not that I could tell you who they were or if they were actually important), but some of the girls I was with were really excited about it. I heard that the girl who played Fleur in Harry Potter was spotted, but I left before I could catch a glimpse of the star. I probably walked right past her though, so that can count for something.
Some of my other classmates were going to the Catacombs, so I tagged along. There was a group of 10 of us - 5 girls, 5 boys. The perfect start to the perfect horror story. We got to the entrance and encountered an unexpectedly long line, but it passed quickly since we were in good company.
We finally arrived at the entrance and made our way down the incredibly long staircase and into a dark hallway with flickering lights. It was so strange because we didn't see any of the other people that were previously waiting in line with us. We were alone as we walked through the hallways which was rather unnerving.
After some time, we got to the burial grounds of thousands of people. I didn't really have a good idea of what the Catacombs were going to look like, but I definitely didn't expect this. The bones were organized and laid out in a certain way. The skulls sometimes made shapes in the wall of femurs and smaller bones were scattered on top.
We made our way through hallway after hallway of bones and eventually reached the end. It was very cool experience that I would recommend to whoever goes to Paris. Here's some pictures since I don't feel like I did a good job explaining how these Catacombs looked.
After we were finished, we had free time, then met back up with the class for a night walking tour of Paris. Our guide talked about history, crimes, and legends as we made our way from the Louvre to Notre-Dame.
We even were able to see the Shakespeare and Company book store which was so cute and hipster - I loved it! Most of us went to get a crepe before we went back to the hotel and on our way, I saw my first French rat. I felt like I was in Ratatouille, but I'm getting off topic. I experienced some cool French culture today and I slept well after all this exploring!
Monday, 29 September
This was our last full day in Paris and I must say I was very sad about it. The day started with my professor buying us expresso (because it was national coffee day in the United States... I guess...) while we waited for the museum to open which was a very nice surprise!
We then went to the house of Gustave Moreau which featured most of his paintings. His house was comprised of a small first floor, a second floor with three small rooms and a bathroom, and then the two upper floors were giant, open rooms with an awesome spiral staircase connecting the two floors. Despite the cranky workers, the museum was really cool and Moreau's paintings were amazing especially due to his use of symbolism.
Afterwards, we wen to the Centre Pompidou to see the Marcel Duchamp exhibit. He's the guy that drew a mustache on a Mona Lisa postcard and took a picture of the inside of a urinal and called it art. We had a very strange tour guide who related every single art piece to how Duchamp wanted to portray masterbation or some other sort of sexual innuendo. Personally, I think that he was just making things up towards the end of the tour. Good thing the museum had wifi.
Micayla researched this place called the Pretty Box and we decided to check it out before our time in Paris came to a close. This place was a vintage, designer thrift store. As soon as we walked in, I felt super out of place. The workers looked like something out of a 70s fashion magazine while I was standing there with my ill-fitting jeans, hiking boots, and a light sweater with sweat marks. I sifted through some of the clothes - none of which were under 100 euros - and decided that I was done. The others I think felt the same, but it was interesting checking out this store. Overall, it was cool.
At the end of the day, we went to a final dinner with our class. It was really fun hanging out with everyone and enjoying our time with our awesome professor, Claudine.
Dinner was great - we had some good wine and when our waiter came out with a platter of meats and sauerkraut, he oinked. Ok, that sounds weird, which it was, but it was an experience!
Tuesday, 30 September
Our last day we went to the Musée d'Orsey and saw some more cool art including Van Gogh, Monet, and Manet. The actual museum was awesome because it was previously a train station. I can't say this was my favorite place as far as artwork was concerned, but it was definitely one of the coolest buildings I've been in.
We moved onto Montmartre where we saw the Basilica and parted ways with our class. It was rather sad seeing everyone go, but I knew that we would all be joyously reunited in less than a weeks time.
Allison, Micayla, Anna and I went to search for the Moulin Rouge before departing for our hotel near to the airport in the outskirts of Paris. It was somewhat hard to find, but we did it and it wasn't as extravagant as Ewan McGregor made it out to seem.
Overall, I absolutely loved this trip and I can't believe that I saw as much as I did. I made some great friends and I truly did gain a new appreciation of art. Our professor, Claudine, did an excellent job of planning out all of our museums and tours and I felt like I now have a good grasp of the essence of Paris. It's a beautiful city with amazing culture. This is definitely one of my favorite trips so far and I don't see it being knocked out of my top 3!
Here's some extra pictures that I didn't include before. Hope you enjoyed :)
We even were able to see the Shakespeare and Company book store which was so cute and hipster - I loved it! Most of us went to get a crepe before we went back to the hotel and on our way, I saw my first French rat. I felt like I was in Ratatouille, but I'm getting off topic. I experienced some cool French culture today and I slept well after all this exploring!
Monday, 29 September
This was our last full day in Paris and I must say I was very sad about it. The day started with my professor buying us expresso (because it was national coffee day in the United States... I guess...) while we waited for the museum to open which was a very nice surprise!
We then went to the house of Gustave Moreau which featured most of his paintings. His house was comprised of a small first floor, a second floor with three small rooms and a bathroom, and then the two upper floors were giant, open rooms with an awesome spiral staircase connecting the two floors. Despite the cranky workers, the museum was really cool and Moreau's paintings were amazing especially due to his use of symbolism.
Afterwards, we wen to the Centre Pompidou to see the Marcel Duchamp exhibit. He's the guy that drew a mustache on a Mona Lisa postcard and took a picture of the inside of a urinal and called it art. We had a very strange tour guide who related every single art piece to how Duchamp wanted to portray masterbation or some other sort of sexual innuendo. Personally, I think that he was just making things up towards the end of the tour. Good thing the museum had wifi.
Micayla researched this place called the Pretty Box and we decided to check it out before our time in Paris came to a close. This place was a vintage, designer thrift store. As soon as we walked in, I felt super out of place. The workers looked like something out of a 70s fashion magazine while I was standing there with my ill-fitting jeans, hiking boots, and a light sweater with sweat marks. I sifted through some of the clothes - none of which were under 100 euros - and decided that I was done. The others I think felt the same, but it was interesting checking out this store. Overall, it was cool.
At the end of the day, we went to a final dinner with our class. It was really fun hanging out with everyone and enjoying our time with our awesome professor, Claudine.
Dinner was great - we had some good wine and when our waiter came out with a platter of meats and sauerkraut, he oinked. Ok, that sounds weird, which it was, but it was an experience!
Tuesday, 30 September
Our last day we went to the Musée d'Orsey and saw some more cool art including Van Gogh, Monet, and Manet. The actual museum was awesome because it was previously a train station. I can't say this was my favorite place as far as artwork was concerned, but it was definitely one of the coolest buildings I've been in.
We moved onto Montmartre where we saw the Basilica and parted ways with our class. It was rather sad seeing everyone go, but I knew that we would all be joyously reunited in less than a weeks time.
Allison, Micayla, Anna and I went to search for the Moulin Rouge before departing for our hotel near to the airport in the outskirts of Paris. It was somewhat hard to find, but we did it and it wasn't as extravagant as Ewan McGregor made it out to seem.
Overall, I absolutely loved this trip and I can't believe that I saw as much as I did. I made some great friends and I truly did gain a new appreciation of art. Our professor, Claudine, did an excellent job of planning out all of our museums and tours and I felt like I now have a good grasp of the essence of Paris. It's a beautiful city with amazing culture. This is definitely one of my favorite trips so far and I don't see it being knocked out of my top 3!
Here's some extra pictures that I didn't include before. Hope you enjoyed :)