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