First, La Fête de la Musique!! As some of you may or may not know, I live in a dorm at Tech called the International House. It's composed of about 50% American students who are interested in international affairs (A.K.A. Me) and the other half are students who come to Tech from different countries to study abroad in the US. I love living there and I get to meet a lot of people from many different countries. Through the I-House, I met a couple students who live in Paris and so I arranged to meet up with them for Fête de la Musique. More friends decided to come along, so eventually we were a group of about 14. We met up around 7:30 and headed towards the Latin Quarter. Things hadn't quite started up yet, but there were a few bands playing along the Seine and in the tiny streets of the Latin Quarter. It was really crowded so we kept wandering. Eventually we got to some area where a lot of bands were playing. I have no idea where it was name-wise. I'd never been there before. Here's a pic of one of the bands:
We eventually separated into smaller groups, which was good since we could move more easily. My group ended up at a rather large concert that was sponsored by a French TV station. The band was called Lunette I believe which means glasses. They were really good and I want to look them up when I get a chance (and better internet). In all there was a good variety of music and there was even a good bit in English which was nice. Here's another picture :)
This is going to be a picture-heavy post if you haven't noticed. I've gone to things this week that really can't be captured by words and I'm sure you'll appreciate being able to see them first-hand. The day following La Fête de la Musique wasn't very exciting. I just had class during the day and had a nice night staying in my room. I was pretty exhausted after all the excitement of the festival.
The next day our entire group went to see Versailles. We had to wake up really early (for college students) so we could leave by 8:00 am. We arrived at about 9:30 and waited in line for quite a while. It was then that I realized that the sunscreen I'd been considering bringing but didn't would've been a good idea after all. I'm now quite a lovely shade of red along my shoulders and cheeks. It's not as bad I thought it would be, but I kept to the shade as much as possible.We first went on a tour of Versailles the Palace. Some people told me that seeing the palace wasn't worth the money and that you should just go straight to the gardens. I don't know how expensive it was since the program paid for it, but I enjoyed it. Everything was very bea
utiful even if it was a bit gaudy. Everything that could be engraved, gilded, or painted, was. It was all expertly done, but having so much exquisite-ness in one room was a bit overwhelming. I very much enjoyed the hall of mirrors and the different rooms though. I think that I like being able to see the every-day aspects of history such as building and furniture.
The gardens were absolutely amazing I must say and definitely large. All in all my professor said that we walked about 8 miles or so just going to the different locations on the grounds. After the palace we walked down to the pond-ish body of water that had a few restaurants next to it. We had a lot of fun imitating the statues along the way.You could even rent a boat and row across the pond if you wanted. We had lunch and got some ice cream as well since it was so hot. Then we went to go see the palace of Marie Antoinette. Her husband Louis the XV built her this house to live in when they got married and it's pretty much a mini-Versailles. It's just as lavish and almost as big. There was this very pretty pink marble that you wouldn't immediately think that it would work on such a large scale, but it was very pretty.
After her main house, we went to see her so-called 'cottage' that she received for her birthday sometime. It's pretty lavish as well, not exactly what I would call a cottage. But I really enjoyed the grounds behind her cottage which weren't as manicured as the rest of the gardens. There was also a farm back there believe it or not. And THOSE buildings looked more like cottages. They were very cute and could almost be a village unto themselves.We walked the whole way back to the train station, which was of course, exhausting since there wasn't anything new to see. In addition, there weren't any seats left on the train so we had to stand. But when we got back we still took the time to watch a break-dancing competition going on where the metro let us off. It was pretty fun and really random. We got home and basically passed out since we were so exhausted.
The next day was our day to go to the Louvre. Why the planned both of our excursions back-to-back like that I'll never know. We were still pretty tired from Versailles, but I'd been looking forward to seeing the Louvre since I'd seen the outside of it earlier. We took the metro to the museum and waited in line again to get in. When it's one of the most famous museums in the world, you can bet that it's going to be crowded every day. We tried to divide into multiple groups again, but sticking together proved to be m
ore difficult since some people move at a different pace or want to see something different. I myself don't like to breeze through an exhibit and want to take time to see everything. We were there for about 5 hours and I feel like I got to see almost everything. Unfortunately the third floor was closed on Thursday so we didn't get to see anything up there though. My favorite piece of the day was seeing the Victory of Samothrace statue. I've always loved that statue and I actually wasn't expecting to see it so it was a nice surprise.Of course, I got to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well.
Some people say that they are disappointed with the Mona Lisa because of its size, but I wasn't. I felt that it was almost modest in its size, not trying to be a masterpiece by being massive, but by just being detailed and masterful. Of course we had to stay at least 5 or 6 feet away but I felt like I saw what I wanted to see of it.
I also really enjoyed the exhibit of the museum that was built exactly as the apartments of Napoleon were when he was king. It was almost like deja-vu since the looked very similar to Versailles. However, if you could believe it, it was MORE lavish and gold-plated and borderline gaudy. But, again it was still beautiful and I enjoyed being able to explore the rooms.All in all, I had a great time exploring the different national museums we got to see the past few days. It's something I would never get to see in the US so I felt that it was time well-spent even if it might've been on the tourist-y side. But hey, I'm still a tourist even if I have another month to go.
Today has been uneventful, similar to Tuesday. We had class which dragged on compared to the two days prior. I went to have a falafel for lunch which was AMAZING. There's a place close to the MIJE that is very well-known for their falafel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I'm just chilling after class, might go to the monoprix (it's like Target) and get some stuff I've been needing in a bit. I must say that I'm kinda regretting coming to Europe in the middle of the World Cup season. I really don't like soccer, it's just not something I'm interested in. It's probably the only sport I can't stand; it just has too much running and too little scoring for me. But of course, everyone else LOVES it and goes to watch the games every day. There's a pub near here that shows all the games and they get a lot of business from the LBAT program. So I'm unfortunately the so-called odd-(wo)man-out. But it's not too bad since I get some time to myself, but I wish it wasn't an every-day affair that takes up everyone's time. Anyway, that's my soccer rant, I'm not going to force myself to watch them just to hang out with people, but maybe I'll go if the US plays or something.
So there's my massive post for the day :D I told you it would be big! This weekend should be interesting too since it's Parisian Pride this weekend. A friend of mine is coming down from the GT Lorraine program so we can go together. Should be fun :) I'll sign off now and hopefully I'll post sooner next time so it doesn't have to be as massive. Love to everyone!!
-Austin
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