Saturday 9th August

Stade de France tour!! 

I was quite excited about this and it didn't disappoint :) Having been on a tour of Stamford Bridge before it was interesting to see how a national stadium compared. For one thing everything is equal, as in the home changing rooms are exactly the same as the away ones because they only host big events with mostly national teams. Highlights of the tour were walking out of the tunnel as they played dramatic music and pretending to be Jose Mourinho at the press desk as our tour guide asked me about our defensive strategy next season! 

Closest I'll ever get to Johnny! 

We did an actual organised pub crawl last night (Saturday)..from what I remember it was pretty great :) 

Thursday 7th/ Friday 8th August

It's so rainy in Paris this week! :( 

We're not letting that stop us though and we had a lovely day exploring Monet's house and gardens on Thursday. Some people were disappointed as it seemed a lot smaller than Monet made it feel but I liked it. Obviously it's not the same exactly as when Claude resided there as you are sharing the experience with 100 other tourists! But I preferred the natural beauty of the ponds and willows to the manicured geometry of Versailles or the Louvre. 

Today (Friday) we spent the afternoon at the Musee de Quai Branley which houses native art and artefacts from all corners of the globe. I enjoyed it but at this point it is hard to take anything in after so many museums! The French are very proud of their language and most of the labels are in French only so without an audio guide it's hard to know what you're looking at in order to really appreciate it! 

Having said that, today's museum housed my favourite exhibit so far! It's not really what we went there for but there was an awesome tattoo exhibit which went through the history and culture of tattooing all over the globe.

Tattooed woman from a sideshow

Prison tattoo gun!

We also walked under the Eiffle tower on the way home which we hadn't done before :)

Tuesday 5th/Wednesday 6th August

Don't have a whole lot to say about the past couple days but got some pics :) 

Had a more modern revolution walking tour on Tuesday which mostly covered the student protests of the 60's. We also talked a lot about the great American writers, philosophers and sociologists who have spent time in Paris over the years. This included a look round the famous Shakepear and company book shop and literary haunt founded by Gertrude Stein. I bought a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I have wanted to read for ages and got it stamped with the shop stamp :) 

Of course we ended the night with another round of wine by the Eiffle Tower..what? We're only here for three weeks, when else will we get the chance to hang out in the presence of such an iconic monument?! 

Today (Wednesday) we visited the Musee d'Orsay. It's a lot smaller than the Louvre and I think that made it more enjoyable because you could actually take everything in without being overwhelmed.

                       'Merica

 

Monday 4th August- Champs-élysées

Slight walking tour today around the Champs-Elyses and golden triangle. Gotta admit, walking past a load of designer stores that I couldn't afford to even breathe in is not my idea of a great time! Had a lovely spot for lunch however in a raised section of the Place de la Concorde, from which you can see many of the sights of Paris including the Eiffle tower, Cleopatra's needle, the arc du Triomphe and the Louvre. It was interesting to see how the city was designed with particular sight lines in mind so there are places you can stand all over the city from which you have great views of all the landmarks.  

After lunch we went into a tiny museum that housed some of Monet's last works. The paintings are huge and wrap around the walls so you have an almost panoramic experience. I really enjoyed the ones that were painted around dusk because they had great lilac tones which gave them an ethereal feel. 

Another room housed some of Picasso's pieces as well as many similar artists. I am not an art expert and I have never been overally excited by Picasso so I won't talk about the quality of the art or anything like that! 

What I did think was very interesting was the women depicted in many of the paintings. They were very very average looking. These women were all of average weight and body shape. Generally artists paint images that either themselves or their audience will find aesthetically pleasing, i.e. they paint beautiful things. This suggests that at the time the artists and their contemporaries found these women beautiful. I found it really sad that my modern brain couldn't find the beauty in them so easily. These women look like me and yet I couldn't help but cringe when seeing them so openly displayed as objects of desire because I'm used to seeing women like that in the 'shameful' sections of magazines. 

I don't personally think that one concept of beauty is 'right' over another. However, as someone who often prides themself on not being sucked in to the world of ridiculous modern beauty standards I found it interesting how strong my personal reaction was. It definitely made me re-evaluate how much the media crawls into your brain no matter how much you think you are blocking it out! 

Saturday/Sunday 2nd/3rd August

I can't believe it's Sunday and the first week is nearly over! Feels like we only just got here but when I think over what we've done this week we really did fit a lot in :) 

On Saturday me, Angelica and the New York girls had a chilled day wandering around Saint Michael and Madeline, which was a really nice area. We ended the day with a group pub crawl through the saint Germaine area! Mostly hitting up the Irish and Scottish bars, it was a great group bonding experience! Especially as some of the American students aren't of drinking age at home so we were there to witness a first ever shot or two! 

On Sunday we went to Bastille market, one of the professors gave us €15 each to explore the market and buy some authentic foods. Angelica and I went for olives, fresh fruit, pastries and Lebanese flatbread :) we still had some money left over so we bought a sugar/lemon crêpe- BEST CRÊPE EVER!! Afterwards we all went and ate our little picnic in the park accompanied with John's selection of wines and cider :)

All together a lovely day finished with a rather rowdy homemade game of Cards against Humanity! #passiveaggressivepostitnotes  

Thursday 30th July and Friday 1st August

I'm so bad at updating every day!! Been very busy and tired but will try to make up for it now!

On Thursday we went to the Cinematique Francais, a museum dedicated to France's influences in the development of film and cinema. Note: they were very influential and pretty much invented cinema! It was very interesting to see some of the earliest attemps at creating the illusion of motion right through to a macabre, live action version of La Belle et Le Bête (beauty and the beast). Now I know where George Lucas got his inspiration for the Chewbacca costume! 

Friday was an early start day because we went to Versailles Castle and gardens. I'm pretty sure one of the proffesers said it's the biggest castle in the world or at least in Europe. It's hard to describe the sheer opulence surrounding you in every room, it was actually quite overwhelming and hard to take it all in. Overall, it was an incredible place to visit and I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

Famous hall of mirrors- think they need a clean!

Spent another night by the Eiffle Tower, it seems like every 18-25 year old in Paris hangs out with some wine on the Champ de Mars after 11pm!