At 8:30 in the morning, I woke up for my third full day in Paris. It feels like I have already been here for so much longer from everything our group has done as a group over the past few days. I had already seen the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame de Paris. However, there are still lots of great places in Paris I haven’t been to yet. Today, I got to experience a couple of those.

Our group was not scheduled to meet together until 2, so I had plenty of time to do some exploring in the morning. By now, I have gotten more familiar with the area surrounding our hotel and the cafés, bistros, and subway stations are all more familiar than before. Walking around in the morning is the best because it is quiet and there aren’t any crowds. I walked through Montmartre and I made the 222-step climb up to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. There was almost no line and upon entering, I was amazed by its beauty. The Sacre-Coeur has done Eucharistic adoration 24-7 for over 100 years, even throughout World War II. I went into the pews to pray and prayed for a little while. Then, the daily Mass started. Attending Mass in a different country was so cool because I got to see how the same event is different when performed in a different culture with a different language.

After Mass, I was hungry, so I stopped at a pastry shop to get some macarons. Then, a little while later, I stopped at a bakery to get a baguette to eat. Both the macarons and the baguette were delicious. It is so cool being able to walk around the city and go to shops, cafés, churches, gardens, or anything else. One of the things I have enjoyed most about Paris is how walkable it is. There are so many places I can go by just walking and there is even more I have access to with just my metro card.

At 2:00, our group met up and took the metro to the Musee d’Orsay. We met up with our professor and went inside the museum. The first thing I noticed about the museum was the shape of the building itself. The building was originally a train station, and the designs and windows on the walls and ceiling are impressive. However, what makes the Orsay special is its art. There were so many different works that reflected the different styles of art that were competing at the time. From sculptures of famous saints to paintings depicting everyday French life, there are works that fit so many different artistic tastes. My personal favorite kind of art is those which tell a story and evoke an emotion from the viewer. One painting from Orsay that did this really well was The Last Day of Corinth by Tony Robert-Fleury. However, there is also lots of value and emotion that can be expressed in simpler paintings. Another painting I really enjoyed was Jerusalem by Jean-Léon Gérôme. It depicts the famous scene of Jesus’s crucifixion, but from a completely different point of view than what is expected. I love how I got to experience both the old and the new, the traditional and the experimental. After hours of exploring artwork independently, I met up with our group and saw Van Gogh’s famous self-portrait, which was very cool. Finally, we walked out of the museum and back into the Paris sunlight.

Next, we made our way over to a Mexican restaurant where I enjoyed a beef quesadilla. Don’t get me wrong, I love French food, but there is such an amazing variety of offerings when it comes to food in Paris that I love trying them all. We took the metro back to the hotel, but before going back to my room I got a delicious raspberry pastry from the bakery.

In the end, I am very happy with what I was able to do today. Paris is such a wonderful city because it is so steeped in history and beauty, while at the same time it is always changing. Having the freedom to venture out into the city gives me a sense of freedom and the abundance of history and culture all around me gives me so many things to do. I am happy with my experience so far, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of this amazing trip unfolds.

     The UMass Lowell Honors College study abroad program gave students the opportunity to voyage far and wide to immerse themselves in the teachings and culture of another country. Each and every day, my classmates and I saw and learned many things as we traveled across Paris. Monday, June 23rd was no different. After meeting up and exchanging pleasantries we visited bookstores and cafes that Ernest Hemingway, author of our assigned readings, frequented. During periods of extreme cold or conditions that were difficult to focus in, Hemingway would often find himself putting pen to paper in a cafe rather than his own apartment, and we found ourselves in those same cafes! It was almost surreal, being able to walk through the same locations this extremely famous writer had, decades before. The fact that this happened internationally, thousands of miles away from home only added to our collective astonishment. 

     While reading his novels, I, as the reader, sometimes had a hard time connecting to Hemingway. He felt faraway, a narrator I could only sense through echos of the stories he created. Walking through areas where he very well may have written those same stories tethered me to him, allowing myself and my classmates to be there with him all these years in the future. I left these locations with the idea that you must put yourself in the shoes, or places of someone to truly understand their intentions and very being. Visiting these places that an author as great as Ernest Hemingway inspired me to review his writing with a clearer lens, as I could see the conditions in which he wrote. 

     During our venture across Hemingway’s typical route, my group and I visited statues, pausing to let our professor give context and overall explain their significance. Typically, I would have walked by these figures without giving them a second thought. These illustrations, however, gave me the chance to really think about what exists around me. I wanted to challenge myself to find meaning in everyday objects I would have otherwise walked right past. It’s incredibly common for large cities such as Paris to be populated with a plethora of trees, large ones that you can see from miles away. I enjoyed looking at trees from away as I walked around the city, up and down and around many different avenues. What I found interesting after staring at a certain group of trees is how clear the outline of one looks from far away. As you move closer to a tree however, you see the jagged disarray of leaves, branches, and stems. This stuck out to me, as I expected to come closer and find everything perfectly trimmed, as I saw from further away. This is where I began to solidify the claim that one has to really zoom in and put themself in a situation before coming to any conclusions and understanding context. Even a city as well loved as Paris has craggy, irregular tree branches, no matter how far you zoom out.

     Our last group observation was located in the Montparnasse Cemetery, where philosophical writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were buried. Their tomb was the most decorated by far, every inch covered in kiss marks, pink writing, and flowers. I had never previously been to a cemetery with intentions of visiting someone I hadn’t known personally so this was an entirely new experience. As our professor contextualized the lives these two led, I though of how melancholy a place centuries were to me. Masses of graves surrounded us, some having been there for over a century. There’s a certain sting of melancholy drifting around every tombstone, resulting in a real sobering effect on anyone who enters. 

     Despite this feeling, learning more about the couple granted me the ability to find strength in the inherent solemnity, as the writing and ideas of these great philosophers is still celebrated and taught today. The outstanding amount of kisses and flowers on their grave instilled hope, as not even death could deny these people of greatness. In the beginning of this sight, I found myself walking into a cemetery and expecting the experience to be sorrowful, as we review the lives of two forgotten, buried souls. Upon zooming in however, really learning about the changemakers they became and ideas they contributed to existentialism and feminism, I found myself at peace, even in a setting as somber as a cemetery. Once again, I am reminded that a keen eye and a willingness to understand can have a powerful impact on the interpretation and overall understanding of a person, or experience.

As far as the start of a trip to a brand new country, I’d say this was a near perfect start! There’s always an adjustment period when going somewhere for the first time or meeting new people, let alone both, and we definitely experienced that. From some of us running late and having to meet up with the group after we’d started to misadventures on the metro.

Our trip opened with the Toot Bus, a fun name for sure, which took us to all the major locations in Paris. Starting at Notre Dame, we saw the amazing historical cathedral from the outside. It was definitely a sight to behold. Afterwards, to buy time for the rest of the group to catch up, we went to the museum dedicated to the people deported from Paris during it’s Nazi occupation in World War II. I never knew what role France played in sending Jews and political prisoners to camps, so it was great to learn something new about France, even if it was more sobering than the rest. It’s important not to ignore the darker parts of history just because of the prettier, more interesting features.

This trip allowed the group to catch up with each other, and our first day in Paris officially began with everyone together. Before hopping back on the Toot Bus we tried taking a peak at Shakespeare and Co., and while I was disappointed it is not Sylvia Beach’s original store, due to her closing it during WWII and never reopening it, that didn’t seem to stop other people. The line stretched far beyond the door, and not wanting to wait in the line only to be in the cramped walkways of the actual store, we decided to move on.

Next, we went to the Eiffel tower. According to the information shared by the Toot Bus, the most photographed and most visited monument in the world, despite it’s less than stellar with the Parisians when it was first put up. If only they could see it now. We stayed to take some pictures and overheard a man busking and playing the harmonica. He was very good and it really helped the atmosphere.

The Arch de Triomphe was an impressive sight to see, and the history behind it definitely peaked our interest. Me and two other students spent our lunch period trying to find out how much of it had been built before Napoleon’s. From our research, we found it had been constructed up to the second tier, the one which completes the arched entrance. This slightly disappointed me, as I thought it would be funny if Napoleon died before his arch was even an arch.

Our final destination for the day was a river cruise on the Seine. While the blazing sun made it uncomfortable, and I came out of it with a nasty sun burn, this was beautiful. Seeing all the monuments of Paris from the water gave an entirely different perspective of the city. Afterwards, we returned to our hotel for a little while before heading out for dinner.

Now here’s where the day got interesting. A classmate had spotted a restaurant earlier in the day while we were out, so we took a 30 minute metro ride over there. This is when we learned that, when travelling in a group of 8, it’s a good idea to make a reservation ahead of time. Shocker, I know. We waited an hour to be seated and have food, spending some of the time in a park close to the restaurant. Afterwards, on the metro ride back, we learned something new about the Paris Metro. Some of the trains, you have to open yourself, and after a certain time of day they must change how long the doors stay open, as this time it was about a five second period before the doors closed. This change, which we didn’t know about, led to one of us almost getting stuck in the door and two of us getting left behind by the metro. To reunite, the rest of us ended up getting off the metro at the next stop and getting back on when the next train, which our remaining two friends had gotten on. We got back to the hotel at midnight, exhausted from the day and our metro adventure, but overjoyed to be in Paris and excited for what’s to come.

Going to all the major monuments, even if just outside them, was a great start to the trip, letting us marvel at the sights everyone goes to Paris for before we really begin focusing on the purpose of our study abroad trip. And our nighttime activities really helped break the ice between the group and brought us closer together. I can’t wait for what comes next, Paris!

In this study abroad course, UMass Lowell Honors College students will explore the city of Paris through the American writers – their work and their lives – that have called the City of Lights home.

Looking for more information? Please feel free to contact us.
Please email: Julian_Zabalbeascoa@uml.edu.

For information about UMass Lowell’s Study Abroad program, please visit the International Experiences and Study Abroad website or contact Fern MacKinnon by email: Fern_MacKinnon@uml.edu.