Paris, Arras, je t’aime

Hi everyone! I realize how ABSOLUTELY late this is! I have been back in the States now for a little over a month and I pretty much hit the ground running from the second my feet touched my home country’s dirt. Since my return, I have moved back to Washington College and started a job and an internship, traveling back and forth each weekend to hang out with friends and family. French majors also had a major thesis proposal due within weeks of being back in America, and so we have definitely been busy. As such, I have not yet been able to talk about my last Saturday in France trip to Paris, or my feelings about being back.

The Louvre

There won’t be many details in this post about Paris, as I have already visited twice before and this visit was way over a month ago. Don’t worry, however, as I will post approximately 50 million photos to make up for this ;)

Easter Island head!

Rembrandt Himself

My day began by returning to the Louvre in search of my Rembrandt paintings. Sophomore year of college I took an art history class that focused solely on Rembrandt’s life and his works; each student gave a 50 minute self-created lecture and wrote a 20 page paper on some aspect of this subject. My paper focused on the role of women in Rembrandt’s work and his life, particularly on the painting Bathsheba at Her Bath. The Louvre hosts this painting, in addition to several other Rembrandt’s that I studied, and so it became a kind of pilgrimage to finally see them in the flesh. If you have never seen a Rembrandt in real life, it is truly a treat and unforgettable thing. I can talk on and on about how much more beautiful they are in real life and that photographs do not do it justice. I won’t do this, but just take my word for it. These are the paintings that almost brought tears to my eyes and I stared at for a substantial amount of time:

Bathsheba at Her Bath

I also had the opportunity to see some Vermeer, another Dutch painting master.

After the Louvre I walked along the Seine towards the Latin Quarter. I had never explored this area, and it truly was a great experience. I stumbled firstly upon the Pantheon of Paris. This structure emulates ancient Greek and Roman temples and really is awe-inspiring. The other amazing thing about this particular Pantheon is its dedication to famous French writers and philosophers. This distinction is exactly how the United States of America differs from France: we honor our politicians, and the French honor their great authors (I prefer France’s fascination). Throughout this building one can find the tombs of the legends of France: Victor Hugo, Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, as well as dedications to authors who fought in wars and whose bodies have never been recovered (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

Underneath the Pont Neuf along the Seine

Latin Quarter

"Thank you for everything"

The Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon, built during the French Revolution

"To the writers, dead for France"

Once I fulfilled my time with these French greats, I crossed the street to the Luxembourg Gardens where I spent the afternoon eating oranges, reading Gatsby le Magnifique, and walking around enjoying the pretty Parisian day.

The Luxembourg Gardens

My final hour was spent walking back to Notre Dame (where I encountered Saint Sulpice). I ate my last street crepe of this journey (caramel- don’t worry, it definitely got all over my new bag, as if I expected some other outcome) and then walked back to the Metro, which took me to Paris Nord.

Saint Sulpice

The back of Notre Dame

Writing this now is giving me ridiculous nostalgia for Paris and all of its beauty, quirks, oddities, and personality. My family yelled at me on Sunday for claiming that I miss France because I was so homesick when I was over there, but I believe that I have the right to miss it even though I am thrilled to be home. I will always love France with all of my heart, and this was definitely a well-spent four and a half months. I find myself thinking back to my experience often and I am still trying to understand how I feel about it exactly. Having a full schedule the second I returned definitely helped my adjustment, but it still seems very surreal that this even occurred.

My little brother is at this very moment experiencing his very first day in France, and in Paris no less. I hope he loves the buildings, the people, the language, the food (bien sur), and the atmosphere as much as I did and still do.

Paris, je t’aime. Arras, je t’aime. Toujours.

Thank you to everyone who has been patient with this blog and enjoyed reading it! I hope you all liked it as much as I liked writing about my journey : )

Adventures in Boulogne-sur-Mer!

Hi everyone!!! I know it’s been a while since I’ve last posted, but since the last entry I have returned to the U-S-of-A! Grace and I landed on the 16^th and I have since moved back to my school to work and have an internship. So, it’s been really busy and thus the slow blog entries!

Just an FYI: I still have at least two more entries to write, so don’t forget about this blog yet!!

This blog entry is about our May 4^th trip to a town on the English Channel called Boulogne-sur-Mer (Boulogne on the Ocean). Our International Relations department took us for a day trip to this city, which was only about two hours away from Arras.

Our day started with a tour of the old fort/city, which was started by the Romans (and wooden walls instead of stones). It was then changed a few times over the course of the years, being remodeled in the Middle Ages and again in the 1800s (I think- it’s been a while since the tour!). We had the opportunity to see the different evolutions of the walls while we were inside the courtyard.

Courtyard

Chateau

We then exited the courtyard to see more of the grounds. The coolest part about this chateau was the fact that THERE IS AN ACTUAL MOAT AROUND IT. Yeah, I was pretty excited too. These paths led around the original walled fort, where you can still see the outlines of the towers. The English Channel is visible from these walls, despite the couple miles of town between the old city and the water.

Moat!!

Old wall

The English Channel from the wall

A street in the old city

Our tour guide made a big deal about the belfry- so we had a chance to walk up the scary, narrow, spiral (of course) steps to the top of the tower. Before we climbed the steps, however, we were able to walk around the town hall that houses the belfry. Several pieces of modern art are displayed in the hallways, which contrast with the more imperial red conference rooms that boast large murals from the 1500s. At the base of the belfry’s steps sit a pile of English cannonballs from the many wars between France and England, a jail, and a layout of the town hall. The view from the belfry was beautiful, and totally worth the workout-inducing steps.

The belfry

Cathedral from the belfry

English Channel from the belfry

Lunch was eaten on the beach, which was absolutely huge. It took about 5-10 minutes to walk from the middle of the beach to the water that was obviously at low tide. I was able to see a bunch of little crabs chilling out in the shallow wave-less water, as well as the huge flocks of birds in the water. The water was actually quite cold, so we didn’t spend much time playing in it.

The beach!

Crabs!

The true treat of the day was our trip to the aquarium that sits right on the beach. For the record: I LOVE AQUARIUMS. And this one was pretty boss. Live, huge tortoises were light bathing in open air, you could look down into certain tanks, and the layout was rather confusing but created a sense of adventure as we explored everything. Grace’s favorite part was the shark tank, featuring pretty large sharks; mine was the exotic fish tank; and we both really enjoyed the (“Frenglish!”) sea lion show! We oooh-ed and awed as much as the French children!

Giant tortoises

Shark!!

Frenglish sea lions- they spoke both French and English

Our Visit with Rosie & Cara: Arras, Paris, and Versailles!

Two weeks ago, two of my and Grace’s closest friends came to visit us from their own study abroad home, Cork, Ireland. Cara and Rosie made the trek through the United Kingdom (where they did some touring), through the Chunnel (on a bus!), and finally to Arras. They spent four wonderful days with us; we visited Arras, Paris, and Versailles and in the meantime we caught up after not seeing each other since December!

Us lovely ladies!!!

Our first full day with our friends started with a tour of Arras. We started out with the Petit Place, where we took some time to go into the Hôtel de Ville (this was my and Grace’s first time visiting it too) and up the belfry to have an aerial view of Arras! (Belfries sort of became a motif during this trip.)

We took an elevator initially to get to the top of the tower, and then we had to climb 40 steps of a spiral staircase before we were able to see Arras from above. It was a pretty cold, blustery, and eventually windy day, but it was still really cool to see the city from a different angle! Out in the distance were old battlefields from World War I. There were also helpful little plagues around the belfry that showed what cities were how far away from Arras, which was cool to see too!

We then walked to see the theatre and a park that Grace and I adore. Circling around, we stopped in the town’s cathedral, which is a huge structure. It was initially built in the 9^th century, but was rebuilt in a classical (not gothic) style around the 18^th or 19^th century (thank you Grace, for that information ;)).

The park we love :)

The Labyrinth! 

Playing in the Labyrinth at the Beaux-Arts museum

Me and Cara!

After the cathedral we took the girls to “our” café, Le Cercle, where the owners/our best friends ever were delighted to meet our American friends. Grace and I introduced Cara and Rosie to our favorite café drink: un cappuccino noisette, or a hazelnut cappuccino. After catching up at the café, we wound up back at my place to watch Ratatouille and eat some delicious pasta.

Saturday was our big trip to Paris. We started the day in Montmartre, one of my favorite areas in the city, where we saw the city from another aerial view (the hill of Montmartre is HUGE) and walked around the Sacré-Coeur basilica.

The stairs that we climbed up to Montmartre

Paris from Montmartre

Sacré Coeur

Sacré Coeur

We then wandered through the streets in an attempt to find the Moulin Rouge, but were distracted by the Montmartre Cemetery. Despite some confusion caused by looking at the wrong cemetery map in our guidebook, we were able to see Degas’ tomb before deciding to continue with our journey. We found the Moulin rouge shortly after that, in front of which Cara sang a bit and we took our photos before continuing our tour of Paris.

The Montmartre Cemetery

The tomb of Degas

One quick metro ride later we were in front of the Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame. As the line for Notre Dame was incredibly long, we continued along the Seine toward the Musée d’Orsay, whose line proved to also be too long.

The Louvre

As the girls really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, we headed over to the Louvre, whose line was shockingly not long and we were able to see La Jaconde very easily! I actually don't have a photograph of the Mona Lisa, but I have some other Louvre works!

Winged Victory

Da Vinci

Madonna of the Rocks by da Vinci

After a quick stroll through the Tuileries Garden and a quick pit stop at a fountain near the Place de la Concorde, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower! There wasn’t enough time to go up the Tower, so instead we ate in its shadow and had a massive photo shoot before returning to the train station and Arras. All in all, a very successful and exhausting day.

The most amazing place in Paris: Standing outside the Louvre, one can see the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysée that leads to the Arc de Triomphe, and just out of sight to the left is the Eiffel Tower

The Tuileries

The fountain, with the Place de la Concorde in the background

Les Invalides

Pont Alexandre III- part of a very famous bridge

Scenes from our "photo shoot"

On Sunday, Rosie and I woke up early again to travel to Versailles. Our trip included a train ride from Arras to Paris Nord, a metro ride to the St. Michel station where we boarded an RER train to Versailles. I think, in total, the trip was very close to 2 hours. But! We arrived at the town and the palace, and after waiting unnecessarily in line for an hour we were able to enter the palace for free!

The Golden Gates!

"To all the glories of France"

The palace tour included the rooms of various royal family members, the Hall of Mirrors, the king’s chambers, and the queen’s chambers. The queen’s chambers are decorated still with Marie Antoinette’s summer hangings, in case you were wondering. I guess I should point out before I continue to gush and post a million pictures of the queen’s rooms: I adore royalty and I adore Marie Antoinette. But, I slightly digress.

The Chapel, Marie Antoinette was married here

The Hall of Mirrors

The King's bed

The queen's bed/chamber

Marie Antoinette herself

As it was a Sunday, the palace was completely packed and terribly crowded, so after seeing the main sights Rosie and I ventured into the gardens. As it was a Sunday, fortunately, the fountains were on and from many, many speakers poured forth classical music. This was absolutely delightful as Rosie and I strolled through the gardens in the late afternoon sun, day dreaming of being royal and wearing our gorgeous 18^th century dresses. In addition to our daydreaming, we spent some time sitting by the Grand Canal, eating dinner and trying to evade the very persistent and unafraid swans searching for food. It was unbelievably pleasant, as it was a very warm day and several families were playing in the grass and taking out canoes on the canal. It was quite picturesque! Versailles typically fits this bill, it goes without saying.

The Grand Canal from the palace

Rosie with her favorite fountain!

The palace from the Grand Canal

We made it back to Arras around 11 p.m. that night, where Rosie and I joined Cara for a movie before heading to bed. Our last full day together happened to be that Monday and Grace and I had class and a final (the final went pretty okay!). Cara and Rosie made us dinner (a chicken, carrots, onion rice dish with macarons as a dessert) and us girls spent the night chatting and enjoying our lovely company before they returned to Ireland the next morning.