Le Louvre

Today I spent a nice rainy day at Le Louvre. But, after two art museums in two days I'm a little tired of museum-ing it. We started the grand tour with the Egyptian art which was huge. It made me super excited for my Egypt trip. Seeing the artifacts in cases is exciting....what's it going to be like inside a pyramid?!



   We saw some sarcophagi

       A mummy!

     Lots of artifacts

   Then we headed into the famous statues where we saw the Venus de Milo

      and The Winged Victory of Samothrace

The "Mona Lisa" Mona Spleesha. Psh. So many people came to look at this little guy and there were 2 guards and you had to stay feet away! C'est bizarre!

   Le mona lisa effect:

Then we wandered into the dutch painters (who were by far my favorite!). Dad, its your fault that I'm such a picky art liker. And into Rembrandt's room (yes they had a room dedicated to him!)

  Where I saw his self portrait....

which doesn't photograph well :(

                                

a nude I've never seen, but was my favorite!

  "Le Boeuf"

 then I ran into Vermeer's "The Lacemaker"

 and one I loved "The astronomer" by Vermeer as well.

The Louvre is gigantic and I'm glad I get in for free because I can't imagine ever doing it all in one day. We spent at least 4 hours exploring it and (I hate to admit...) skipping through A LOT of art and we still didn't see even half of it!

 I'll be back I'm sure.

D'Orsay

I've come to find after many art museum excursions as of late.....I'm a very very picky art liker. We went to the Musee D'Orsay and it was cool, but I wasn't that impressed. I guess I'm not impressed with impressionism. The museum was undergoing some serious updating so a lot of pieces were missing. Monet's bridge painting was gone, Whistler's Mother was gone, the famous Renior was gone. But I did see lots of Van Gogh (including his self portrait) and Lautrec (who's drawings I actually liked!), and various others.

I liked "Solitude" by Alexander Harrison

"Portrait de Georges Rodenbauch Vers 1895" by Lucien Levy Dhurmer

it was very unusual 

The painting by Huges Merle

And "Dante et Virgile aux enfers" by Adolphe William Bouguereau for obvious reason

Sorry impressionism....you're not for me. 

Le Weekend

I'm on a roll!

Friday during the day we took it easy and got some errand-y stuff done. We checked with a french travel agent about Egypt and its a lot more complicated than I ever anticipated! I never realized that the french holidays would make prices go up so much AND I never realized that if we set up our tour with a french travel agent that 1st we'd have to depart from France and 2nd that our tours/business would be handled in French. So I have some more work ahead of me.....But I shouldn't be complaining about planning trips. Sorry. After errands, Jeff and I headed to Au Bataclan for a fusion of french and american culture when we saw an American band, Medeski Martin and Wood play in a french venue. I love that the french are so relaxed (and quiet!). Everyone remains seated for the concerts and quiet through the whole songs and cheers and claps at the end of each. Jeff and I had a nice glass of champagne and watched the baby bubbles sparkle to the top of the glass until the last sip. I wasn't previously that "into" MMW, but seeing them live was great. They were really funky and the french loved them! MMW even did a double encore!

The next day was a gloomy chilly Samdi, but nothing is better than Montmartre to cure your woes. So, we headed to the 18th, (which of course is the arrondissement opposite ours :( , but still only takes 20 minutes to get to via metro). We explored (very briefly, it was cold!) where the artists (picasso, renoir, Lautrec, etc) hung out and played. It's a charming little nook of Paris. We saw the Moulin Rogue and it wasn't that great, I was a little disappointed.

And ate at Cafe du 2 Moulins where Amelie was filmed and where she worked in the film. It felt a little less romantic simply becasue it turned into (an expensive) tourist trap. But it still had its charm with the garden gnome in the back and Amelie posters hidden around the corners of the resturant. We sat down for a traditional french lunch.  I ordered Salad au chevre chaud (which means a salad with large croutons with melted goat cheese on top!) which was great then I had the famous Amelie's creme brulee, (if you remember in the film one of the things she loved to do was to crack the creme brulee) which I'm starting to think is my favorite desert,  avec un cafe creme which was the BEST creme brulee I've ever had in my entire life. All of our meal was served on a placemat of Amelie images (which after a lot of delicate work, managed to take home as a souvenir!). The resturant itself was a little disenchanting because of the (loud!) Americans everywhere, hectic servers (one even dropped a large plate of food and broke the dishes on the floor!), and hectic atmosphere (at one point 3 servers were running around trying to catch a pigeon that had wandered inside!) but it was still a lovely lunch nonetheless. Jeff and I even sat where Joesph sits in the film. It was great.

outside the cafe

table mat/cloth thing.

  Then Jeff and I wanted to do more touristy things and decided to take Le Petit Train on a tour through Montemarte that went suprisingly fast, had cute french music, and a little automated tour guide (that was always just a second too slow showing us the main sights!) but it all added to its charm. It took us through Montemarte where we saw the artist hangouts, and drove us up the steep climb (which Jeff and I plan to do on a sunnier day) to the Sacre Coeur.

Le Petit Train

where artists hung out

the hike

The Sacre Coeur is another one of Paris's famous churches, which I'm beggining to think are a bit overrated and am very sick of seeing. I also am annoyed that to climb EVERYTHING in Paris you have to pay....even these stupid churches. BUT, I guess this church is famous because it has the largest bell in the world! It weighs 27 tons and when rung can be heard 25 miles away!! BUT is only rung once a year...Easter. The top of Montemartre (means on a hill basically) does have the best views of Paris. I can't wait to go back to Montemarte to fully explore every nook and street.

the view from the hill

Today we went to Versailles again. Luckily we went on our own before because we didn't even get there until 2 because of train mishaps and a late meeting time. So the lines for the palace were super long but Jeff and I were able to skip it and just spend the day in the garden. Unfortunately the weather was horrible. It was about 50 degrees maybe? (most likely warmer but I'm a baby..although it is 45 out right now!) and rainy. But I kind of like the rain, it's sort of nice. I like listening to the sound it makes when it touches different surfaces. But today we had tickets for the fountain show...which turns out isn't a show but you have to pay to see the fountains go on with music for an hour and a half, but was awesome. The fountains are breath taking. I love Versailles, its great wandering around the gardens for hours. Afterwards Jeff and I headed home and relaxed for the evening.

the orange groves

deer stole hahaha.

Gay Paree

Here are some photos on top of the Galleries Lafayette!

                              

Well 2.  But I like them and didn't know where to put them!


Because the Tour Eiffel never gets old...

Pink eye, Prost, and Pretzels.

So, Jeff and I left for the weekend to go to the opening of Munchen's 200th Oktoberfest. We caught the train (which is nicer than flying, but stressful too....Paris doesn't say which platform which train will arrive at until 20 minutes before the train is ready to leave! So everyone huddles around those screens waiting for the platform!) But we survived the 6 hour train ride, and travel by train is really quite an easy way to travel.
We got there a day early so that we could explore Munich a bit and luckily we did! We stayed at Wombats hostel for the first two nights there. It smelled of pee, puke, and beer despite the great ratings. But its all in the spirit of Oktoberfest...I guess. So Jeff and I started our trip by going on a tip based 3 hour walking tour through Munich (Munchen). I learned so much about the history of Germany and the Bavarians. Yes, Munich is where all the Germany stereotypes exist. The lederhosen, beer, and pretzels are taken VERY seriously! Go to Berlin and ask about their lederhosen, and you'll get yelled at! But the tour consisted of beer, potato salad, a pretzel, and of course gummy bears....I guess the Germans created those little guys. Of course we saw the Glockenspiel Tower.

We also learned that Munich was heavily destroyed practically during WWII, so the entire city (except for 4 buildings) had to be rebuilt. So the city of Munich is really around 60 years old is all. Everything looks old because they took the time to rebuild it to look like it did. I was a little disappointed to hear that....I thought it was original. But after the tour Jeff and I made our way to one of Europe's largest city parks (if it's not the largest...) where they have a river equipped with surfers! Quite the sight especially in the middle of a city! 

                                       

Then later that night we met up with the tour guide and some tourees (?) for a beer at the beer hall. After we met up with some people at the hostel and shared stories of our different cultures. During that day I met people from Australia, Norway, Finland, Germany, England, the states, Brazil, it was crazy. It was amazing to see how cultures perceive each other. 

The next morning I woke up and one eye wouldn't open....PINK EYE. Worst timing ever! But the eye wasn't that pink after awhile and I felt pretty good (except I had lost my voice completely). So we got ready to check out of the hostel....thankfully we were staying in a hotel the next night because we had a 6 person room hostel and sleep was very interrupted. So, we go to check out and the hostel lost my ID that I had to give them to check in with! Luckily I gave them my school ID instead of my driver's license or something. So we decided to get their 3 euro buffet breakfast while they scrambled to look for my ID. We get to the breakfast (after paying) and it was pb&j or corn flakes with warm whole milk or meat slices. We were a little miffed. But after my 3 euro bowl of corn flakes, my ID was still gone for good. They did give me 10 euros for the replacement which was nice since Oktoberfest is quite expensive. 

So we headed out to find the tent we wanted! We went to the tent where the opening ceremony happens. All the tents opened at 10am but no beer until the mayor taps the first keg at noon! So we got our seats in the hall (luckily!) along with two italians and a group of older germans. The Italians did not speak german or english and the Germans did not speak english, french, or italian....and us being americans obviously only spoke english. So communicating was funny. Before the festivities it was fairly calm and quiet. We ordered a coke (that came in a stein haha) and a vegetarian strudel, and of course a GIGANTIC pretzel. 

                                      

Then after a couple of hours (where we started to wonder why we came all the way to Germany for Oktoberfest) we heard the bells. And the group marched in their traditional outfits and lederhosen to tap the keg! After the keg was tapped the Polka music began, the beer was delivered (I still don't know how, those women are strong! I had a hard time lifting my one stein! and they held 8 at a time!!!). As the day grew the crowd got nosier, there were tons of Prosts, and lots of German drinking songs....which I still have stuck in my head. 

                                   

                                  

                                   

                                  

Sadly, pink eye and prost do not mix well, so I grew very tired and we headed out around 4 to check into our hotel where I slept until the next morning. We didn't plan for pink eye so our overnight train was at 3am and our hotel check out was at noon. So we had to kill lots of time. We made our way back to the festival grounds where Jeff bought a famed Oktoberfest cookie (which we still don't know the significance of), we bought shirts, and just wandered around watching all the drunks and lederhosen pass by. After awhile we wanted a little break from the Oktoberfest crazies! So we went to Resident Evil 3D at the movie theater and it was all dubbed in German which was quite the experience! In Munich you pay more to sit up close and have assigned seats (which we realized after we left). Before leaving Munich we tried one of McDonalds Veggie burgers which were not great, but better than nothing. We relaxed in the park again and just took it easy through the festival grounds and Munich. Finally the night rolled in and we headed to the train station where I was a zombie and where we discussed never taking a 3 am train again ha. And it finally pulled in and we rode it all the way back to Paris just in time for Jeff to go to class. 

                                     

With help from CEA I found a pharmacy to go to and got a new ID printed! The pharmacists were so friendly and helpful! They spoke english and they can prescribe here! I got medicine which only ended up being 11 euros without a prescription! Then I wanted a change of food since a sandwich didn't sound that great, so we decided on chinese....AND OF COURSE...because I'm miss unlucky. We got home and enjoyed it until I looked at the broccoli I was about to bite into and saw a piece of rice. LUCKILY! I picked it out because it was a dead baby maggot (I think). So needless to say, I'm never eating chinese food again, and I always check every bite I eat now....ugh. I can't wait to get back out in the city, I have cabin fever! But there is another strike tomorrow and a huge demonstration AND a terrorist threat, so I assume travel might be a little edgy and a little crazy, so maybe I picked a good week to be sick? We'll have to see.....