Monday, February 22, 2010

quelques photos pour vous

If you click any picture it will get bigger (mom) 
Miss you!

Chantilly

Hotel d'Invalides

The perfection that was Montmartre

Sacre Coeur 

My favorite picture from Valentine's day:
Champagne and people watching at the Eiffel Tour

I just found this amusing

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Updates

So much is going on! Lately I have pretty much been waking up, heading to class at 9:30 or 10, and then not coming home until dinner. Between all the sites, classes, and homework I've barely had time to update on here. But here are a few highlights:

-I went to a museum in the Tuileries called l'Orangerie with my art history class. It was a lot smaller than the other ones, way less trafficked by tourists, and entirely worth it.  Monet's water lilies are housed here, as are a bunch of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. It's in a great area right next to the Place de la Concord and I could easily spend a few more afternoons there.
-My Sorbonne class has started to pick up. I wish we did more speaking, but it's serving as a nice grammar class regardless. There are a lot of international students (Japan, Spain, Sweden, China, etc) and so the entire course is conducted only in French.
-Chantilly! Yesterday was another CEA excursion to the Chantilly castle. We walked the grounds and garden, got to peak at the chapel and large art collection lining the walls, and attended a horse show in the stables. I haven't updated any pictures yet, but I'll get on that soon. Everything was beautiful per usual, despite the cold.
-We stumbled upon a great hookah bar last night called La One. I'm getting sick (super congested and all that good stuff) so I skipped out on actually trying it, but I managed to gather from my girlfriends that the tobacco was good but a little harsh; the apple flavor tasted like black licorice; and the mint was great along with nutella crepes. It's a Turkish place and the decor and music are traditional and really pretty--engraved wooden wall pieces, comfy couches, etc.  They don't serve alcohol because of their religious beliefs, but they have a small food selection at reasonable prices for the big portions (8 euro for a large chicken and cheese galette with a big side salad//12 euro per hookah pack).

That's it for now. Pictures to come soon!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

My life is a joke

Seriously! This is too good to be any sort of reality. What kind of person has a day like the one I had today. Observe...

Today we woke up fresh from a night of hanging out at the Art Cafe (in the Bastille area) and late-night crepes to head to Montmartre. We followed an itinerary mapped out by one of my roommate's guidebooks, which took us to:

-Le Bateau Lavoir, where Picasso once lived. It's now a museum, but wasn't open for some reason when we got there.
-All sorts of beautiful side streets! It had just snowed and everything was gently dusted and extremely picturesque. Which is why it's only fitting that my camera battery died while we were there.
-The square where a bunch of artists congregate. We watched people get their portraits done and browsed through all the different vendors. It was so nice to see their different takes on the city (some in bright hues, some darker, textured canvasses, which angles they chose to paint, etc, etc).  While here we actually were interviewed by a cable news team getting their caricatures done and, although we don't have a tv, we're assuming we made it on tonight. We were a little bit giddy.
-La Moulin de La Galette! Renoir and a bunch of other artists got their inspiration from this cafe. It was frequented by all sorts of artists who would meet up and talk for hours. We attempted to do the same (although I'm thinking our conversation was a little less inspired) and were happy the lunch plate prices fit our budgets a little better than the regular menu.
-The Sacre Coeur--of course!

We cut the trip a little shorter than we intended to because it was below freezing out, but this was definitely my favorite spot since I've been here!

Musee d'Orsay


This museum was so amazing! My art history class met there on Wednesday, and I have an obscene amount of pictures of the artwork there-- But I figured this was most appropriate to post since I had just posted my own view of Etretat below. Looks like Gustave Courbet and I have something in common now. 

Monday, February 8, 2010

Super Bowl

Went to an American bar last night to watch the super bowl.  Considering the fact that it aired in France at 12:30 am and I went to the movies the last time the Patriots played in it (I know, they lost, my fault), this is a big feat pour moi!

We stayed until halftime and then left and it was actually a lot of fun. But in our quest to find a bar that aired ESPN, we overlooked the fact that the super bowl commercials wouldn't be aired in France for the same reason that "football americain" wasn't playing all over the place-- no one here cares! (And they don't have the rights to distribute them, same reason why I can't watch 30 rock on hulu, sadly.)

But lucky for me, my friend Sam watched and picked probably the best commercial ever for my purposes and sent it to me. Watch it below and check out the CEA website cameo appearance!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Fecamp & Etretat

Well I was told last night that I've been slacking a little on the posts. Which I am. But it's been so busy lately!  Yesterday CEA had an "excursion" planned for us. I really like this program! All the group events (there are six or seven trips and then weekly events at the Paris center) were included in tuition, so yesterday I just had to wake up (before 6 am! ah!) and show up at the train station. The first excursion was a "mystery tour" so we had no idea where we were headed until we were already en route!  We ended up going to the Normandy region to two towns: 1) Fecamp, a small harbor town known for their early fishermen and 2) Etretat, another seaside town with beautiful cliffs

We had all day to split between the two and each got $20 for lunch (great seafood, wasted on me entirely), crepes (tried an apple puree type one yesterday. I will never be disappointed!), and cidre (which the region is known for). 

I uploaded all the pictures onto facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034635&id=1326810108&l=d881790bcf )
But here are a few highlights:

View from atop our first walk up to a Chapel at Fecamp

Etretat:



Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Also of note

Murses (Mom, this would mean "man purses") are everywhere. Saw a Prada one this morning. So now not only do French men dress better than me, they accessorize better too. Oh mon dieu!!

Monday, February 1, 2010

l'arc de triumph!

It's really so much larger than I expected! The views from the top were fantastic & my new sorbonne ID helped me get in for free :)