Je ne parle pas Francais

 Bonjour all!

It has been a fantastic first week, but also quite a tiring and hectic one. While I (thankfully, knock on wood) have been feeling only tired from the jetlag, quite a few other people in my class have been under the weather, so I'm hoping and praying that I don't catch whatever seems to be going around.

I forgot to mention that on Sunday we were also taken to L'Hospital Carnivale, a small unassuming museum made out of an old mansion that tells the history of Paris. As much as I would have loved to enjoy that visit, I was way too jetlagged, as was the rest of the group. In fact, the guide scolded our professor for taking us so soon after our arrival, since she knew we wouldn't have the attention necessary to appreciate the museum! I'd like to go back there one day, because the rooms we did see were stunning, and half the other rooms were closed off. The rooms were decorated in the advancing styles of the ages, and I got some great pictures of that, and we heard lots of stories about guillotines and Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, but honestly I don't remember much else.

Statue of Louis XIV as a Roman soldier... with a French wig!

The gardens outside the museum

Such intricate woodworking!

These facades were hand carved into the wall and then hand painted.

Love the color, love the fabric.

More great woodworking!

I don't remember the year/period this came from.

Closeup of the wall details!

Gotta love the mirror shots.

The furniture from Marcel Proust's bedroom!

Models of "humane" guillotines made out of what looks like bone.

On Tuesday evening, I went with some friends to the Tour Montparnasse, which, other than the Eiffel Tower, is the tallest building in Paris proper! You can pay to go to the balcony and get an amazing view of Paris! The nice thing is that normally to get a view like this you'd have to be IN the Eiffel Tower, and this way, our view was able to include the Eiffel Tower. The inside of the building had great pictures and information on Paris and the construction of the Eiffel Tower.

Step by step shots of the construction of the Eiffel Tower

We caught the light show at the beginning of the hour! (sorry for the blur)

We wanted it to be in height order to match the construction of the Eiffel Tower, but we really only had two very short people and four very tall people instead of a gradient. Oh, well.

View of Paris at night! You can really see how no other buildings even come close to the half the height of the Eiffel Tower.

On Wednesday, after class, we were taken to a wine tasting at a local wine shop. It was quite fancy, with delicious cheeses and bread laid out. We learned all about tannins, the difference between dry and sweet wine and how the winemakers harvest the grapes to get them dry or sweet, the different regions in France wines come from, and, of course, how to taste wine! The owner was this sweet grandfatherly older Frenchman who didn't judge us for knowing pretty much nothing about wine, which we were all grateful for.

Great-shaped vase for undrunk wine

On Thursday, we had an extra-long break between class and a review session, so I went with two of the people in my group to Musee de l'Orangerie, which is a small museum at the foot of the Tuileries Gardens. I had been spontaneously invited to this outing, so I had never heard of the museum and had no idea what to expect. After getting lost a bit (thanks, confusing Parisian signs!), we finally made our way there, getting a glimpse of the gardens on the way (if it's not too cold, I DEFINITELY want to come back and read/draw/study here).

The museum turned out to be one of the smallest and best-curated I've ever seen - everything about the building was designed to let as much natural light in as possible, and the exhibits were designed with as little fuss as possible, which let the art stand out on its own without information and placards and ropes and odd lighting getting in the way. The main part of the museum - and my favorite by far - were two large oval-shaped rooms, each with four enormous Monet paintings along the walls. No matter how hard I tried, my poor point-and-shoot camera simply would not capture his glorious colors, which for me is 97% of the point of his paintings, so I'll show you an overall shot of one of the rooms:

And ok, fine, here's a shot of one of the long paintings:

Yes, Mom, I will bring you here.

On Friday we went to the Menagerie and the Paleontology Museum of Comparative Anatomy. We went to the Menagerie to look at their orangutans, since one of our papers will be choosing an ape and discussing its life in captivity versus its life in the wild, and which one is desirable. I unfortunately forgot to charge my camera that day, so I have no pictures. The Paleontology Museum was possibly the most crowded museum I've ever been to, not in terms of people, but in terms of the exhibits. I loved it and would have spent much more time there. We were then left to wander on our own, so a bunch of us went to lunch (egg, tomato, and cheese crepe, yum!) and then headed back to the dorm for naps and relaxation. I wasn't tired enough to nap, but I definitely wanted to relax, so I set up the X-Files on Netflix and did some sample knitting for a pattern I had been sketching in class:

The start of my colorworking career! (haha)

Today the plan is to go to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the gardens, etc. - just get all the big stuff out of the way in one go so that we can start exploring the rest of the city. If you are observing Yom Kippur, have an easy fast.

Love, Naomi