Just finished my first reading assignment for our class taught by Dr. Costello, which is called "Paris as Spectacle" and (from what I understand so far; we don't start class until tomorrow) examines the ways that the city of Paris creates the identity of France (and that of the French themselves) as well as formulates its perception by outsiders.
The reading was kind of..political philosophy, about the conditions that create national identity & then the difference between memory and history, which was thought-provoking. It was kind of dense, so it took longer to read than I'd expected. I guess it needs to be dense since our class is THREE HOURS LONG. Rough.
Classes start tomorrow. We go to the Sorbonne in the morning to learn our grammar class placement & have the lit class in the afternoon--five hours of class in all. We get a nice three-hour lunch break, though.
Saturday we took an amazing excursion to Rouen (which is in Normandy) and Giverny, where Monet's home & gardens are located. We left at 8 a.m.; I tried to find a boulangerie (bakery) that was open to get some coffee and a croissant before we left, but the French are kind of lazy (a.k.a. they're my kind of people). They don't go to work until 10 a.m., so the earliest anything is open is 9 a.m.; even later on weekends. So I just went to the trusty McDonald's, where they sell croissants and the smallest glasses of orange juice ever (I see why the French are so thin; they smoke all the time so they have no appetites and can thus somehow subsist on the smallest glasses of orange juice ever).
Sooo the bus ride to Rouen was about two hours through the countryside. The city itself is tiny and extremely historical. We saw some AMAZING cathedrals and a little square with buildings from the 1300's, during the height of the Black Plague. The people used to dump bones there because the cemetaries were overflowing. There were lots of skulls and crossbones & other macabre art decorating the dark wood; apparently people would go there to look at the bones and reflect on how likely it was that they'd die in the near future, which I'm sure was uplifting. The buildings are now where Rouen's art school is located--I can't even imagine what it would be like to go there every day for class without a second thought.
The site of Joan of Arc's burning at the stake is also located in Rouen.
We had an hour or so to eat lunch and walk around downtown around the little shops--we went inside Hermes, which was pretty exciting if unattainable. I definitely want to buy a pretty scarf while I'm here (but preferably one that doesn't cost 275 euro).
After we came back to the bus we drove to Giverny and bought tickets to see the gardens and Monet's home. The gardens were exactly what you'd expect to be the inspiration of an Impressionist painter--lots of wildflowers, lack of structure, something to see everywhere you turned. There were also several Japanese bridges on the pond in the water garden, which had adorable lily pads (a few of the lilies, both white and pink, were in bloom).
The home was Victorian and gorgeous, with amazing views of the gardens from the upstairs. Each room was monochromatic--the dining room was a cheerful bright yellow. Japanese woodcut art lined most of the walls; clearly Monet was pretty obsessed with the "japonisme."
Outside, you could go inside Monet's studio, which is now the gift shop. I bought a pretty print for my room next year. Jenni and I were wandering through the gift shop when we were stopped by an old woman who asked us where we were from; she was American, too, and turned out to be the director of museum volunteers. She'd been coming to Giverny since 1980 to give tours and lectures on Monet, his life and his art (I assume she was an art history professor, but she wouldn't tell me what she did; she just said, "I just love everything!"). She sat us down on a couch in the studio (which we learned had actually belonged to Monet) and told us all about Monet and his family for about thirty minutes; it was a really nice gesture, a special way to experience the museum.
We came home after we were done at Giverny and I took a nap & then went down the road with Arden to get some dinner (brie & biscottes). We went up to the terrace and sat up there drinking wine with our entire group; it was really nice to get to know them. I admittedly got pretty inebriated; still trying to learn to like wine. We got kicked off the terrace when it closed at 11 p.m. and I walked Arden home (she's in a hotel for now since my French roommate hadn't moved out yet).
The next morning we got up pretty early and took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, which was huge. Then we made our way all the way down the Champs-Elysees (most of the shops were closed, though, because it was a bank holiday..also everything just has really weird hours here). We saw Cartier, Louis Vuitton, LADUREE (I'll go back and get some macaroons, Becca, I promise!), etc.
At the end of the Champs-Elysees (which is SUPER long..we walked at least five miles on Sunday) are the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, which are now art museums; one currently houses an Andy Warhol exhibit. There's also a gorgeous bridge, across which lies the French Institute (where l'Academie Francaise meets--I NEED to tour it; I'm such a nerd). After the two palaces is l'Obelisque, which is located at the site where Marie Antoinette was beheaded. It's kind of tall & has incoherent hieroglyphics all over it, and it mirrors the Arc de Triomphe at the other end of the Champs-Elysees. When you cross the street, you usually only make it halfway, where there are little islands of traffic respite because you'd meet certain death if they weren't there--there are no real lanes to speak of, and definitely no speed limits. I feared for my life even when I was safely planted on the oasis with all the Mercedes-Benz automobiles whizzing by (even the buses, ambulances, etc. are Mercedes here!).
After the Obelisque come les Jardins de Tuileries, which is a fabulous garden with sculptures, fountains and children's playgrounds (along with thousands of people milling around everywhere destroying artistic photographs). We ate at an overpriced cafe in the park. I got a hot dog with cheese, but the cheese was fried all around the hot dog and it was in a baguette and basically it was just NOT what I was expecting & I was kind of hungover, so I asked the waiter for a green salad, which made my lunch cost 11 euro, but I seriously could NOT stomach the hot dog.
After lunch we walked to the other end of the park, which had a sculpture garden that served as the foyer to the front of the Louvre, which is tremendously huge. We didn't go inside, but we sat outside near the glass pyramids on the edge of a fountain and people-watched for a while (by the way, I can kind of see why the French were so pissed off when they erected the pyramids in front of the Louvre..as if the huge palace wasn't gorgeous enough and desperately needed huge glass obstructions to beautify it). It was crazy to hear so many different languages as people walked by. A man next to us was feeding all of the gigantic pigeons from his hand, making them fly up near our faces, which was extremely frightening.
We walked back to the Foyer past Notre Dame, which is also (shockingly) huge as well as exceedingly crowded. We might return there on Wednesday afternoon since we don't have our literature class that day.
By the time we finally trudged home, I was pretty much dying. I was tragically sunburned, my feet hurt, and I had a massive headache (I'm sure all the wine from the night before didn't help with that one). I took a long nap, woke up and walked to the McDonald's since it was the only eatery still open around 9 (it's completely light out here until like 10 p.m., by the way, which is kind of unnerving). I had great difficulty ordering a plain quarter pounder ("Je veux juste le fromage, le boeuf et le pain...oui, JUSTE le fromage, le boeuf et le pain...oui, SANS les autres choses...merci..."--I should really learn the word for "plain"), but I was extremely satisfied once I finally sat down to eat.
Later that night I attempted to find places to Skype people since I still don't have Internet in my room. I went to the solarium on the 7th floor, but apparently I was too late because the front desk guy came and kicked me out; it closes at 11 p.m. Soooo I headed down two floors to the library, where I couldn't call anyone (too quiet!), but I could at least write a blog post and check Facebook, etc. The same guy came up to kick me out and lock up the bibliotheque at 1 a.m., but as he locked the windows, he called me over.
"Viennes ici."
I walked over to the open window. Paris sparkled beyond the balcony.
"There's Les Invalides," he said in French, gesturing, "and the Arc de Triomphe is over there. That's la Defense, and the Sacre Coeur is right there."
He pointed to all the lit-up monuments on the skyline, one by one.
"Mais la lune," il a dit, "est la plus belle chose dans la nuit." ("But the moon," he said, "is the most beautiful thing in the night.")
