Today we went on a day trip to Giverny to see the house and garden of Claude Monet. It was an hour long train ride up to Normandy.

Before we arrived at Monet’s house, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant.
It was one of our quickest meals using the express menu because we had a bus to catch. Normally we’ll do as the French and sit and talk for at least two hours!

The house was large and colorfully designed. Monet had a large collection of Japanese wood work art which inspired many of his paintings. The tour guide explained that one of Monet’s favorite color combinations was blue and yellow. So that is why his dining room plates are blue, the dining room itself is yellow, and the kitchen is blue. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the house.

The first garden originally consisted of fruits and vegetables, but as Monet earned more money he planted flowers for more of a leisure garden. There were many different plants of varying colors, textures, and heights. After awhile, he decided he needed a larger  and purchased land across the street. This is where he created his water garden with the bridge and water lilies. Later in his life he paints the water garden 250 times!

It was interesting to see the gardens he used as inspiration for some of his paintings we saw a few days ago at the Musée d’Orsay.

Rowdy enjoyed the trip and the gardens!

And tomorrow we’ll learn about medieval Paris!

From my perspective, Les Halles was the most interesting district we’ve visited so far for a few reasons. What I noticed at first was that, generally, the shops were not nearly as upscale; this of course made sense because of the districts infamous reputation for illicit activity. As opposed to when we visited the areas in Paris with department stores like the Gallerie Lafayette, I felt more comfortable in this district. Going into such extravagant Parisian department stores makes me feel like I have no business being there, and also uncomfortable with the idea that places like that were meant to drive out the impoverished.   Walking through the streets of Les Halles, I was actually able to find some affordable clothing at vintage stores, and, to be honest, the clothing in those shops are much more appealing to me than, perhaps, a 700 euro fur coat that you would find in upscale department stores.

Something else I really enjoyed about Les Halles was that there were a bunch of different restaurants from different nationalities. As professor Salmon and I were discussing earlier today, such a district would attract more immigrants because it is not as wealthy as other parts of the city.

Another noticeable trait of the district is the extreme contrast between contemporary and older architecture, sometimes standing side by side. Before we entered le Musée d’Art Moderne, professor Cadero-Gillette pointed out, right beside the museum and some urban  art of Salvador Dahli is an old church.

It has been interesting to see the progression of art by first visiting la Lovre, then le Musée d’Orsay, and, lastly, le Musée d’Art Moderne. Seeing the more contemporary stuff today after just seeing the work of post-impressionists such as Van Gogh was interesting because, even though there were techniques shared, art movements began happening so fast that it is almost easy to overlook the influence from previous movements. My personal favorite pieces were Picasso’s later works in which his figures became almost complete abstractions.

I’m ready for Monet’s home.

It’s been a full week since we arrived in Paris. Wow. I feel like we’ve been here for so long but it’s been a mere seven days. Seven days that have changed my, and I think all of the other students, lives for the better.

We’ve been really enjoying ourselves and, of course, today was no exception. We took the metro to the Champs Élysées avenue and walked from the Arc De Triomphe to the Guy Martin Atelier, where we were to receive our cooking lesson. The menu seemed like a simple plat du jour, or plate of the day, but in fact it was much more difficult than expected. We prepared a chicken breast, stuffed with almonds, raisins, and parsley, and then a rice dish that had diced carrots, raisins, and some spices in it. The chef taught us how to filet the chicken breast by cutting it in half but not all the way through, as to make a pocket for the “stuffing”. The chicken was then stuffed with whatever combination of parsley, raisins, and almonds that one wanted and then rolled into a small burrito-type shape. It was then wrapped in plastic wrap and put into the oven! We then started on the rice, which was boiled and then combined with raisins and almonds and some spices. By the time we finished with the rice, the chicken had to be taken out of the oven and unwrapped and then slightly browned in a pan for a nice golden color. Then the chefs sliced the chicken breasts in three pieces and put the rice in a pattypan-type mold so it would be round and then decorated the plate with a sauce that was made from the chicken broth and some spices. The food was incredibly tasty! And the chef was kind enough to make little pita pockets stuffed with goat cheese and some herbs.

Then we went to the Musee D’Orsay, and we visited the Impressionist rooms and saw the great works of Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, and Monet. The paintings were all the personal expressions of the artists and it was interesting to see how each artist had their own flairs and styles. Personally, Degas and Manet are my favorites (although I worship Monet also) so getting to see new paintings of theirs that I’d never seen before was impressive. Impressionist painters at expressing their emotions on the canvas, and you can literally see their emotions with every brush stroke and color choice. It was really cool to finally get to see some of the painting my mom has been telling me about since I was really young.

I’m very excited for tomorrow’s trip to the contemporary art museum 🙂

Here are some pics of Rowdy enjoying his day with us! 🙂

Yes, the Mona Lisa is small.

Today, we visited one of the most renown places on the planet. The Louvre Museum is truly impressive. The building, itself, once the home to the French king, before the majestic palace at Versailles (at a time in France where the king’s head was safely attached to his shoulders!) is a piece of artwork in its own right. Once you get inside, however, the majesty of the place really hits home. You enter under the huge glass pyramid that has been become (in)famous with the building’s identity. Then, once you decide what genre of art you want to see first – a decision which could save you or cost you a lot of time in the long run – you head up a number of escalators and staircases into the bowels of the building. Then, be ready for artwork…

The first thing we saw was La Joconde – the Mona Lisa – Da Vinci’s most celebrated painting. It is small, not tiny, but certainly not a giant compared to the Louvre’s other paintings. Getting to it requires a bit of craft, as well. Hoards of people, hoards, jumble up together in a dysfunctional, claustrophobic mess that heaves and stretches in all directions. You really can’t get all that close to it, so it’s push, snap, and retreat. If you can do that within 10-15 minutes, you’re good. Very good.

The paintings are phenomenal. My favorite, by far, was Jacques-Louis David’s “Le Mort de Marat” – The Death of Marat. To see the original of such a famous work of art – in the flesh, inches away – is an amazing experience. Literally, you can turn a corner and find things you’d only ever see on television or in the movies.

As with a lot of things that I have experienced here in Paris, the Louvre really impresses over time. The initial expectation is that you’ll get blown off you’re feet. That happened to a certain extent when we first saw the facade of the building a few days ago. Coming back again, there wasn’t as big of a shock. Then we got exploring, and the hallways, corners, walls and open spaces spread out. It’s impressive. It’s finally starting to feel that it’s not a dream.

We are getting pretty good with rail travel. It’s definitely important to know where you are going, and with three methods of rail, how you get there matters. We know them all now: The Metro, the RER, and the tram. We are right across from the RER – the express connection line/commuter rail, so it’s easy to get a connection to another line that will literally bring you across the street of where you want to be. You learn your courtesy phrases rather quickly. “Pardon” and “Ecusez-moi” certainly come in handy.

It’s hard to believe a week has already gone by. We are starting to build our habits and to get comfortable. It’s quite a thought knowing that when you get up, history is waiting for you after breakfast, but we’re managing with it!

Still plenty more to come!

Rowdy had a busy Fourth of July.

First he rode the Metro.

And then he decided to go shopping with us.

Time for a stroll

He needed some espresso.

Garden walking

Happy Fourth of July to America, but to us in France it’s just another day here (just a bit more pep in our step).

Flag outside our house!

Today we visited two very large and very important department stores.  The first one was the Grand Magasin Au Printemps. They bought one of the buildings to create the store, when they wanted to expand they bought the building across the street. Soon, they knocked both of them down and rebuilt them to look alike, and not only did they rebuild the buildings but they added a bridge to connect them. The Galleries Layfatte is another large department store we visited.

Le Grand Magasin Au Printemps

The bridge that connects both stores instead of having to leave the building to cross the street.

The buildings decorative details inside are created by cast iron, so nowadays it’s harder to copy the beautiful details. They made a cast iron skeleton for the buildings and if you were to try to make the same gorgeous elements in stone you’d have to carve them.

It’s a picture of the iron detail work we saw in the department stores.

This was the dome ceiling that was able to be created for the department stores.

Each floor has its own category of apparel; one floor is just for shoes which I can totally agree with considering my obsession with them. Ladies in beautiful dresses would assist you, not unlike today where there are still attendants. However, nowadays you don’t have to wear a beautiful dress you can wear a stunning black outfit.

Women who work at the Au Printemps are given discounts and a stipend for buying clothes, getting their hair down, and buying makeup. The whole image of looking good helps with selling, it’s selling the image that people want.

In small shops you’d have to greet the owner and ask the price of whatever you wanted or instead of money it’d be the bartering system. When the department stores were created and started popping up, they gave everything a price tag so you would know what you needed to pay for the item, you would know what you would need to save and accents wouldn’t be as much as a problem so communication for buying would be easier.

In these ways, department stores changed how the culture of France. Society was changed, people were becoming poor that used to be working class because they owned their own little shops. This could cause serious strife for owners like we saw today in the movie, . Aside from department stores shaping and molding certain societal aspects, Haussman carved a part of the French culture of society. 

Napoleon the Third was concerned with cleaning up Paris. As a result, he wanted Haussman to help him clean the city up. As requested, Haussman did just that. He destroyed buildings that were part of Medieval Paris to make avenues. In current day Paris, we have what Haussman created. There are large streets and centers of neighborhoods where roads and avenues split off like arteries from a heart. It helps with circulation.

A small center of the streets where the arteries connect to.

An artery that breaks off.

For the first time water and gas was offered in the houses he built. For the bourgeois class, this earned them bragging rights. In these mini heart centers on Sunday the Bourgeois want to be seen. They wanted to show people who they were and what they could do. A way to do this was dress, so on Sundays they would come walking out in their fancy dresses to almost flaunt what they got.

This building was equipped for gas.

I thought it was interesting to see how not only do people create societal impact, but buildings do as well. I mean of course those buildings were created by people, but it seems to me it was more of what the department stores meant to people. It meant losing jobs and putting families who always worked in small shops out of business. On the other hand, it helped with expansion and progress. Then Haussman created social impact with his houses, because Bourgeois were able to flaunt what they had and solidify social structure. I like looking at how culture and societies are affected in certain ways, but truly seeing the places that affected them is even cooler.

Today was the day that it really sank in, we are here in Paris!
We took an open bus tour around Paris to get ourselves acquainted with the city and our surroundings.

Rowdy at Le Louvre

Rowdy came along for our tour.

Rowdy is in front of the French University, this is where the French dictionary is made and maintained. It has a council that meets to discuss the words in the dictionary and the membership is for life. The are known as “the immortals”.

This monument that Rowdy is posing in front of was made in Egypt but was stolen by Napoleon. It was brought to Paris by a team of elephants! if you look closely you can see the hieroglyphs craved into the sides.

Our next stop was l’arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately I could not (safely) snap a picture of Rowdy here because if you think driving in Massachusetts is crazy then you have not been to Paris. It is a giant rotary but with no lines on the pavement and lots and lots of cars, trucks, buses and mo-peds everywhere!

We didn’t get to go up La tour Effiel yet but Rowdy got to take his picture with it.

We had lunch in the latin quater where we discovered that the french love to talk about love and politics. On our way back to the Cite Universitaire we stopped at a cafe to have a cold drink, people watch and discuss the differences we have already noticed between American and French culture. On our return journey on our metro line the RER we were all crammed into the subway cars. In America it is acceptable to look around at people and too make eye contact with other people, in France that is rude. I never noticed before how much eye contact I usually make with strangers instead of saying hello, or bonjour in Paris.

We completed our day by watching the film, Paris, Je t’aime, which is 20 short films about the 20 arrondisments of Paris. They all had common themes of love, communication, compassion and loss. It was the perfect way to end our day of just a taste of Paris.

Jaime Breingan          07/02/14  Wednesday                    Blog entry #1

I’ve found an immensely new found appreciation for architecture.  Yes, yes, you see or walk into a building – big deal, right?  But have you ever walked into a building and just thought to yourself; “Wow this is beautiful” – and you do not quite know what exactly is beautiful, but you feel comfortable and at peace.

Today, we took a tour of the Cité Universitaire (our dorm mini city area in southern Paris). My favorite house was the Maison de Suisse.   This dorm was created in 1933 by “Le corbusier” also known as “le corbu”.  He had a choice to design this dorm that would represent his country in a traditional way, or in a modern way. This architect chose to  create a very modern styled building that worked with the sun pattern to create a naturally cool element with the perfect amount of sunlight in every area.  The building angle along with the window styles and types all helped create an illuminated building, without the heat that normally comes along with it.

He also used an dual usage/open concept style in which he would separate the rooms with either furniture or open windows in which everything flows wonderfully.  The front left side where the natural stone wall is there to create a natural elements.  The right side is to reflect a more serious industrial/business style.  These two conflicting styles were put together in this particular building to demonstrate the importance of work and play as a student.  It is important to be in touch with nature and enjoy life, as well as work hard and be able to focus on your work.

I feel so lucky to be able to walk into a beautifully constructed building and feel overwhelmed in awh, and then be able to be told by a professional architect exactly what it is about the building that is moving me.

(Live here if you have an opportunity to! As professor Cadero-Gillette mentioned, “Fear stops us from experiencing life.”)

This was the most beautiful building that I have seen thus far.. and we haven’t even left campus yet!

P.S.  I won the word of the day!! “Bienvenue” = “Welcome”