I went to the Louvre two nights ago. It’s free for students every Friday evening. It’s a really incredible museum. I love the Art Institute in downtown Chicago, but the sheer size of this place just lets them show off so much of their collection. You’ve got rooms with paintings stacked three high on the wall. As far as the famous ones go, it’s true what everyone says about the Mona Lisa (la Joconde for the French). It’s small, you’re back way too far from the painting, it’s behind a few inches of glass, you can’t see any of the interesting detail in the brushstrokes, and the crowds are a pain in the ass. And I also have to say I totally underestimated Chris. That painting on the opposite wall is the most impressive thing. The Madonna of the Rocks (or Virgin on the Rocks, as Gracie called it) is a much better example of daVinci, though there are many others I love more than him. That Italians Hall also manages to have like eight different paintings of St. Sebastian. But I guess everyone loves a martyr shot full of arrows. The Delacriox of Victory on the barricades is great. The Goya ink and watercolors in the special show were fantastic. And surprisingly funny. They have two Vermeers, both smaller than you expect, because you (meaning, of course, I) forget that you had read that about them years ago. One looks nothing like a Vermeer, the other pulls out all the classic Vermeer light tricks. The Richelieu wing, where the North European painters are, increases its impressiveness by surrounding an interior sculpture garden. The exterior of the museum at night might even be better than the exterior while the sun is setting. And of course, there’s a new facebook album for it.


(Click to enlarge)

I've always had this habit of running into poeple I know in the most unlikely places. Like old friends from high school at a crosswalk in midtown. That really hasn't changed at all here. Wednesday, after class, I had lots of free time to kill, so I decided it would be a good time to finally check out Shakespeare and Co., the famous English bookstore. (It's really great, by the way. The upper floor is set up like a small apartment with cots and typewriters and walls full of books for reference.) I'm browsing one of their outside displays when who should find me there, but Tony's girlfriend Anna. Turns out that they had also decided to go visit. So we, along with a high school friend of Anna's, ended up spending the afternoon wandering around. Then Friday, at the Louvre, Garrett and I manage to run into half a dozen NU students from the IES Nantes program, visiting Paris for the weekend, and while talking to them are discovered by another four or five kids from my program. So you end up with a dozen Northwestern students all congregated in a hall of the museum by chance. Small world.



This city certainly has its moments. When you’re walking through the middle of the city and suddenly catch a glimpse of the illuminated Eiffel Tower from across the Seine, it’s a little magical. And the Tower itself, while it looks unexpectedly small from far away, is really impressive when you get under it. I’ll have to go up at some point, though I’m going to have to go with someone so they can force me into those awfully precariously suspended elevators. And just to be able to wander around and find yourself walking past Notre Dame. As, I think, Tony said last week, no wonder they were all so religious. You get some farmer in from his provincial little town, show him that, and think he’s not going to accept the idea of divine power?



And of course, the full album:
http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094482&l=63ae8&id=2411663