Museum hopping and a visit to Champagne

Saint Eustache

Sunday after I returned from my weekend in Tours was Easter Sunday. I slept in pretty late since I was tired from all of the sightseeing... so I missed the English Easter Mass that I was going to go to. I got ready and decided to go get brunch with one of my friend's Khaloud from ABS. We ate at this restaurant called Chez Justine and it was a huge brunch: bagel with smoked salmon, chicken ceaser salad, bacon, hash brown, eggs benedict, piece of french toast, mimosa and a fruit smoothie for 19e. For all of you that know Paris, this is a bargain. After brunch we walked around and talked for an hour and then I went to Sainte Eustache for Easter mass. It is one of the oldest and most famous churches in Paris, built in the 13th century.



Rose Garden in Jardin des Plantes

However it is most famous for its pipe organ that has over 8,000 pipes and I was lucky enough to watch a concert before mass. I can't understand how they could use 4 keyboards and petals but it was pretty awesome. Mass was in French which wasn't too bad since I could understand most of it. It was a cool experience to have Easter mass in this amazing church where so many famous people have been, and it was beautiful. After mass I took some picture and walked around until I went back home to get some homework done. I didn't have French class the next day since it was a bank holiday so I decided to have a "middle school" sleepover party with my friend Khaloud were we just hung out, watched videos and talked til late. It was fun and in the morning I attempted to make pancakes with not too much success... with no spatula and not the right pan but it was still fun!

That week I did some sightseeing of some places on my list of must-dos before I leave Paris. One of them is I went to Jardin des Plantes. It is a huge botanical garden which includes a labyrinth, zoo, 2  greenhouses and multiple gardens, horticulture institutions.

Centre Pompidou

I found a really pretty rose garden with sculptures and such and sat there doing some homework. I'm not a huge plant person but it was pretty full with people examining and looking at all of the different plants. It was beautiful to walk around the 5th afterwards and see sights such as the Arab Institute and some cool churches whose names evades me.

I also went to Centre Pompidou on Tuesday, the largest modern art museum in Europe. It was pretty awesome even though modern art isn't really my cup of tea. They had modern art ranging from the 1900s to present, including furniture, paintings, sculptures and some rooms/things that I don't even know what they are. It was really well done with artists ranging from Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol, Kandinsky and many more that I know have a great appreciation for. They had some art that was multi-senses, there was music that went along with the art. I would definitely recommend it if you are in Paris. There was also a room that was in ex-president Georges Pompidou, who helped to develop the museum, that is pretty trippy. After the museum I went to dinner with one of my friends at this amazing new restaurant that I have never been to. One of the things I love about Paris is the food... I feel like most of the time you can get something amazing to eat anywhere.



Artwork from Centre Pompidou





I wanted to do some more museum hopping on Wednesday because many of the museums are open later. I had class and then tried to go to Musee d'Orsay.... Unfortunately it was raining so everyone had the same idea so I just decided to go to Musee Quai Branly, a museum that highlights civilizations and cultures that aren't usually in popular art museums. They highlighted cultures from Oceania, Asia, Africa and the America's. Many of the displays that they had there were from the 12-19th century but they even had some modern artifacts from cultures. It was really neat to see some of these cultures that aren't normally explained and many I have never heard of before.

 

Totem Poles from Musee
du Quai Branly

Some of the most interesting things were the Oceania cultures with many of their ideologies and artifacts such as masks, idols, money and religious ceremonies.   I learned alot about non-tradition cultures and it was just nice to walk around and get out from under the rain. That night I went out to eat at a local Mexican place with my roomate Adrianna which was pretty decent, but nothing amazing. The French don't do Mexican very well but at least they had some good margaritas :)



Thursday was Cinco de Mayo but during the day I went to Musee d'Orsay. It was pretty amazing, highlighting artwork inbetween the 1800's and 1900's known as impressionism. It is in an old 1900's train station and was currently under some renovations but luckily most everything was still open. I had an audioguide so I got the full scoop on some of the major highlights. Many people actually like Musee d'Orsay better than the Louvre just based on manageability and concentration of time periods. They had some classic impressionism and then some rebels that made the art world mad. Some of the highlights including a huge collection of Degas and his ballet dancers, Renoir, Money, Van Gogh and many many others.



Musee d'Orsay



Not only including paintings but also sculptures, I was able to walk through the museum in about 3 hours. I was very impressed to see some of the classic impressionist but also find some new favorites. That night we had a mini Cincode Mayo party at our apartment where we made some sangria and entertained about 8 people.



 It was a lot of fun, especially drinking the sangria with fruit and tortillas that one of our friends made. We were going to go out but we were pretty tired so we just decided to stay in. It was really fun to be able to hang out with my friends and celebrate.

On Friday I had to wake up kind of early to make another day trip to Reims, which is the Champagne capital of France. It was only about a 45 minute train and so I arrived at about 12 pm. The city of Reims is pretty small so I was able to explore the city in a couple hours. I got to see a Roman underground "mall" from obviously the time of the Romans. It was really cool, it was a large passageway which supposedly held a market that was used pretty regularly. On the outside wias an ancient amphitheatre, which they were setting up for a photography exhibition. Its just really bizarre to see something that is thousands of years old in the middle of this normal French town. I got a glass of wine while trying to figure out where to go, then explored the city and I saw the Hotel de Ville (city hall), a church that hosted Joan of Arc a couple times and had a museum dedicated to her, and some beautiful gardens.

Inside

I then went to the cathedral which is one of the major sights of the city. The cathedrale of Reims is one of the most famous cathedrales in the world as it was where the 35 of the French kings were coronated. Clovis and his Frankish army were also baptised there as he is accredited for bringing Christianity to France. It was so beautiful and I was there about 6 days before its 800 year birthday. It was amazing being there since it was Good Friday and I watched the Stations of the Cross, in French of course. It gave me goosebumps since it is such a beautiful/holy place. Some of the stained glass was incredible as well. There were a couple shrines with one housing the supposed cloth that Mary wore when she birthed Jesus.There was a plaque that showed the apparent place of Clovis' baptism as well as some original artifacts of some of the kings were coronated.  I also visited the Saint Remi Basilica about a mile walk away. Saint Remi is the patron saint of Reims and the person who baptised Clovis. It housing his body and some artifacts of his life. Outside the Abbey, which was active until the 18th century. It was really beautiful, but hard to compare anything to Chartres or the main cathedral of Reims. There was a huge organ however that was one of the biggest I had ever seen, and the stained glass was pretty amazing.

Tasting some Champagne

After some more exploring I went to the Taittinger house of Champagne to take a Champagne tour in the caves and of course try some of the delicious bubbly. First we had a video explaining the making of Champagne and the story of Taittinger, one of the most famous Champagne houses in the world. The champagne is made in these chalk caves under the store/museum that was an Abby. It was awesome to explore the caves, and see the remnants of a mini chapel in the caves. I learned a lot about the delicate process and was impressed with all the work that goes into making a single bottle. For example if is forbidden to use machinery to harvest the grapes so to this day they still handpick the grapes. After exploring the caves and learning all about the bubbly drink we got a glass before leaving, which was delicious :) Before leaving I went a had a slice of pizza at the Mars Gate, an Roman Arch from the 3rd century that is near the train station and is surrounded by a beautiful garden. The train ride back was pretty quick so it was a really cool day trip to see the countryside of the France, try some authentic French Champagne and see one of the most important cathedrals in France/Europe.



Reims Cathedrale



now for a couple calms weeks in Paris...

After Kelly left I was conpletely exhausted after having the craziest 4 weeks in a row that I can remember! Since I'm about 2 weeks behind in my blog posts, I'm going to try to do some quick catching up since I'm leaving in 13 days for my Maymester.

I spent the beginning of the week doing lots of homework. I had a reseach paper due in my Intercultural Studies class and other assignments in my other classes, since I didn't have very much time do to homework with friends and family visiting! Tuesday night I went to have a drink with my roomate to celebrate her gettting an internship in the US. We went to a bar/restaurant near our place because they had 2 euro glasses of wine. It was nice to relax and we had a discussion about Charlie Sheen with a French couple that was sitting next to us... I guess its big news over here too.

Friday night was my friend Brittany's birthday so we had to celebrate her 21st. We went to Planet Sushi for dinner, which was a really neat Japanese fushion type restaurant where the sushi travels on a conveyer belt so you can as much or as little as you want. Since I'm not the biggest sushi fan I got some delicious salmon and chicken skewers with rice and miso soup. It was fun to be able to see some friends that I hadn't hung out with in a while.

The food wasn't very expensive either which was a plus of course. After some sushi we went back to Brittany's house to pregame and then we went out to the Bastille area on Rue de Lappe. There is a ton of bars, almost reselmbing a mini college town. There was some drama between friends but it turned out to be fun night with a couple different groups of friends.It is funny to see all the different groups of people, but especially to see all of the Americans near Bastille. When I was in the bars, I kept hearing English which you can't help to eavesdrop. Saturday I did some walking around my area for a while, seeing the Parc de Belleville which is just a couple of blocks away and I did another visit to Pere Lachaise, the cemetary thats about a 5 minute walk away since it was such a nice day outside.

After doing some exploring, I went to hang out at my friend Valentina's house with some of her friends that I just met. She lives in such a nice part of Paris, right on the Place de la Concorde so getting off the metro being in some of the most beautiful areas of Paris is pretty cool. We hung out there for a while, looking at youtube videos and music and such, and then I went to my friends Matts for a "French" party. Everyone was supposed to dress French and have a good time.I wore a sleeveless blouse tucked into a long flowly skirt, heels and red lipstick with a barrette in my hair. It was really fun to see everyone in there costumes ranging from Moulin Rouge dancers to Tour de France bicyclists. Drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese as the French do, it was great. I met some really cool people so overall it was fun.

Sunday I was a bum for most of the day. I went to the Pharmacy with Adrianna to try and get her some medicine for her being sick. In France, pharmacists can give recommendations on what medicines to take when you are sick and can do pretty much everything except write perscriptions. After helping her out I went to Buttes Charmonte, which is this really amazing park/lake/really hilly area in Paris. Napoleon 3 built it to be a "sightseeing area" in Paris for the poor Parisians so they could feel like they were in other parts of Frace. I went with Valentina and we drank some wine and ate some cheese on the rolling hills. I can't believe I have never been there before though! There was so many people hanging out and even some were "laying out" Parisian style. We walked around for a while since the park was so big, There is a temple on top of this huge mountain thing surrounded by a lake with bridges all around... There even was a 20 meter waterfall. It was really neat especially since it is in Paris to see all of this open green space. After walking around the park we went to get some mussels at Leon de Bruxelles on Champs Elysee which was so delicious yumm!

On Monday I didn’t have class in the morning so I spent the night at Valentina’s place near Place de la Concorde. We ate lunch at this cute little Italian place near her house and then I decided to do a little sightseeing. I really wanted to go to Musee Rodin and I got all the way there before I realized it was closed. However as it is near Les Invalides there is a lot to see so I spent some time looking at some really beautiful parks and churches until I had class until 4:30. After class I hung out at my apartment catching up on some of the television shows I had missed in the US.

Tuesday I had class in the morning and then I spent a couple hours at the Canal St.Martin near school, eating lunch, drinking wine and hanging out with friends. It was really warm outside and I think I even got a little bit of a tan. It is a really popular Parisian activity to do some hanging out by the Canal/River so it was a lot of fun.

Hector Guimard's work

Wednesday I had a walk for my French civilization class. We met in the 16^th arrondisement which is about a 40 minute metro from my apartment instead of the usual 7 so I wasn’t happy we were that far away. 

Our teacher went over the architecture through the decades through the 20^th and 21th century and showed us examples from the buildings. There were some really cool things and examples from Hector Guimard who designed the famous metro signs.  The 16^th is famous for being a really nice area of Paris so it was exciting to do some people watching there. After walking around for a while, we went into this architecture museum/house of Le Corbusier who is a very famous Swiss architect that started the Art Deco movement in France. We had to wear these medical booties over our shoes so we wouldn’t get it dirty and it was a pretty weird place. Almost no furniture and some random paintings were the only things remaining except for the strange/interesting architecture. Apparently he designed many other buildings around the world and especially in Paris.

the thinker

After that part of the walk we went to the Palais of Tokyo which houses some awesome modern art. We saw the largest mural in France which shows the evolution of technology since the middle ages.  We also saw the Trocadero gardens and the area around the Eiffel Tower. 

After doing the walk I went to Musee Rodin to see the sculptures and the gardens… It is in an old house with some of the most beautiful gardens in Paris, some people don’t even go to the museum! I was able to see The Kiss, The Thinker and Gates of Hell as well as some other pieces by him and his ex-lover Claudel. After the museum I walked around in the gardens, which apparently Hugh Jackman was visiting the same day! I wish I could have seen him but no luck. There was also some paintings by Van Gogh and Monet for him since apparently they were friends .

inside chartres cathedrale

That night was my friend Chadi’s birthday so we celebrated by going bowling on Rue Moufftard which is a street full of bars that resembles USC’s Five Points. After some bowling we went to a couple bars and I went home pretty early after having a long day

Friday I decided to take a day trip to Tours, Chartres and the Loire Valley. It was amazing trip and it was great to be able to discover different parts of France. I took the train to Chartres which is a city about 45 minutes away from Paris. It has one of the most beautiful and famous gothic cathedrals in Europe. I had a delicious lunch literally 10 feet away at a small restaurant while I people watched tourists, locals, and the homeless begging out in front. Inside, I realized it was Good Friday and I was actually able to see them act out the Stations of the Cross.

Chartres

Even though it was French I understood most of what was going on, and it was a really amazing service to see somewhere that’s about 800 years old. In the cathedral, they have a chapel featuring a relic of the cloth that supposedly Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. It was a gift given to the Cathedral of Chartres during the 800’s. After walking around the Cathedral I decided to do some exploring of the city. It was very small but I found myself sitting and hanging out next to the Eure River…. very different from the hustle and bustle of Paris. I saw this really neat Museum of Stained Glass. Since one of the things Chartres Cathedral is known for is its glass there were some cool explanations/displays of the stained glass. It had an old town feel as there were ruins of medieval fortifications in the city. After finishing up exploring the city, I took a bus through France to the city of Tours, one of the biggest cities in the Loire Valley.  It was a 3 hour bus ride because we stopped in the train station in pretty much every tiny town on the way. Fortunately I slept most of the way and I finally found myself in Tours at about 9 at night. I went to the hotel and dropped my stuff off and decided to just take the night to relax and watch some TV because I had a busy day planned for the next day.

Cathedrale of Tours

I woke up at about 7 am because I wanted to explore the city of Tours before I took my van trip to some different chateaux in the Loire Valley. I arrived to the beautiful City Hall surrounded by gardens! I wasn’t really sure where to go so I just looked at a map and picked some of the areas that looked pretty cool. I bought a day pass on the bus so I could bus around everywhere along with doing some walking. I first walked through some really cool gardens with some statues of some famous people from Tours… Tours is referred to as the Garden of France and they really aren’t kidding, my allergies were horrible the entire time I was there! I went to see the Theatre, the Musee of Beau Arts and the Cathedral of Tours. It was really beautiful, as most cathedrals in Paris are but it was really great to walk around for a while. After walking around and taking a lot of pictures, I walked to the Chateaux of Tours and reached the Loire River.

There was this really pretty French resistance statue, talking about the French Freedom forces that existed while they were occupied by Germany.  I did some more walking and saw this huge market similar to the ones I have seen in Paris, selling fish, fruits and vegetables and some cool vintage clothing. I had lunch at a small pizzeria and then made my way to the Tourism Centre where I met up with the bus tour to take us to 2 different Chateaux in the Loire Valley. It was a small van of an American family, a Japanese couple and myself and luckily our tour guide spoke English. There are more than 1,000 Chateaux in the Loire Valley alone so outside of being able to visit 2 I saw about 4 more passing through the little villages.

Chenonceau

Our guide told us information about detailed information of Tours, the history of the Loire Valley and about all the chateaux that we were able to pass/tour. We went to Chenonceau first which started as a “house” for one of the King Henri VI’s favorite mistresses Diane of Poiters. Lots of drama happened since then of course and at one point it was a military hospital during WWII. But it is really an amazing piece of architecture as most of the chateux takes palce over the Cher River, with archs so boats can go under.The land included a farm, 2 large gardens and a really cool labrynth with a temple/tower thing in the middle. It really was amazing considering it is now owned by a wealthy cocoa farmer family, which I can’t even imagine how much it costs.

Chambord

The furniture and such still mostly remained from the time before the French Revolution which is pretty neat.  After exploring all the chateux and the surrounding gardens we went to the chateuax of Chambord which was about an hour drive away. We passed through tiny villages and beautiful landscapes of vinyards and canola oil fields (looks like yellow flowers) Chambord was owned by generations of kings and was eventually passed down as the hunting lodge of the emporers and now presidents.

The land surrounding the castle is the size of Paris and its 20 arrondisements, which is amazing. If Mr. Sarkozy wanted he could shut it down to go hunting on the land with him and his friends, but he doesn’t seem like the hunter type J The castle has a couple awesome double helix staircases which means 2 people can go down the stairs at the same time and not even see each other! The terrace was my favorite part because you can see the land, which involves acres and acres of lakes and forests, and also includes a small village.

I saw the chapel, the bedrooms and also some interesting hunting memoriabilia… not that I am a hunting fan but oh well. There were also some artifacts from different kings, queens and counts which was cool to see and read about.  After doing some more exploring we had to go back to Tours, so we got to see the city of Bloise on the way with an amazing medieval fortress and cathedrale. I had about 2 hours left in Tours so I ate a relatively quick dinner at this wine cave, since I really wanted to try wine from the Tourraine region. It was probably the best wine I have had in France and it was only 5.50 for a glass so it was a win-win for all.  I was able towalk around the city to see somethings I hadn’t seen yet, and then I took the train back to Paris. Overall,I was really happy that I was able to see more of France than just Paris since it is such a beautiful country with much to offer!