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

Week Three Begins

Another week has gone by. I'm starting to fall into routine now: classes, heading back to the apartment to take care of reading and other work, meeting up with friends a few evenings a week. That was the pattern this past week progressed along, culminating Friday with a trip to the house of Jean Monnet. Jean (and not Claude) Monnet is the "father of Europe." By laying the conceptual framework for a coal and steel community between France and Germany in 1949, his work led to the implementation and adoption of the ECSC, which paved the first steps towards a European economic community and, by extension, the EU.

Monnet was born in Cognac, France, son of a brandy merchant. Leaving school in his late teen years, his father sent him abroad to act as a liaison with their foreign clients, advising as he left to take no books, but look out the window and talk to people. The advisibility of that as a whole I might debate, but his business contacts helped him to become an important figure in the coordination of British and French shipping during World War I, and later parlaying that success into the number two spot at the League of Nations. But it was his proposal, presented in the Schumann Declaration (Robert Schumann, statesman, rather than Robert Schumann, composer) that sealed his fame. Fame being a relative term: when his ashes were moved to the Panteon in 1989, a minority of Frenchmen could actually identify him.

The Jean Monnet house (click to enlarge):


Caught more rugby on Saturday, Ireland against Georgia, which Ireland barely managed to pull out. There's another student doing her homestay in John's apartment, a senior from SMU, and John wanted us to meet her and some of her friends. Fun to meet even more new people.

Sunday (and actually Saturday as well, but I didn't find out until Sunday) was a Journée de la Patrimoine, a day on which all the museums, monuments, and government buildings in Paris are open and free to the public. We thought we'd look in on the Presidential residence, but the line outside looked to be a good six-hour wait, so we decided we could make better use of our time and headed south to the Luxembourg Gardens. There we were able to walk directly into the Senate tour. The Senate is housed in the Palace de Medicis, built by Marie de Medicis. Consequently, their official rooms must be among the most ornate used by a government. They even have a gold-leaf room. A gold-leaf room, but no power. In fact, the French Senate is a relatively weak body of their legislature, mostly a dumping ground for old statesmen who can continue to receive the perks of running things without taking on too much burden themselves.

The Senate chamber:


After this, we grabbed some lunch and walked to Les Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is housed. It was original built as the first element of France's ever-expanding social entitlement programs, a hospital for wounded veterans. The first piece of France's ever-expanding social welfare system. Donc, Les Invalides now house the tomb of Napoleon. Impressive in both size and intricate mural work, Joesephine as well as the WWI French General Foch rest there as well. Attached to the main building, in the Hôtel des Invalides is the Museum of the Army, of which the World Wars wing was all we were able to make it through before the day's walking got to us all.

Les Invalides:


I'll perhaps write about my experiences with food tomorrow, but for now, here's the rest of the set:
http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2093807&l=feb1e&id=2411663

"They're all about duty. And it's from Pinafore."

The Normandy Weekend

So this past weekend was our group trip to fine and fair Normandy. I'm sure it was designed as a group bonding exercise, and was pretty effective as such.
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Friday:

Wake up at 5:30, meet the bus in front of the Opera Garnier at 7:00. Sleep for half the hour-and-a-half bus ride, start reading Brideshead Revisited for the rest. First stop, the World War II memorial museum in Caen. Several interesting artifacts in the museum, including a shelf of bullet hole-ridden books, some tacky Mao merch, and the tanks. Didn't necessarily add much to my knowledge, but a good start to the trip.

The Germany cemetery was next. With all the war dead in France, it was created to burry those who were not returned to Germany, and is maintained by an international foundation that enlists young people to work on sites like this as a way of promoting international cooperation. The statues looked extremely, imposingly German. Strange to think that this yard was full of soldiers who were probably younger than me, and who likely had little choice or real knowledge of what they were getting into.


Point du Hoc, where Americans scaled the cliffs to disable a series of Germany gun emplacements that guarded the coast. This part of Normandy is a land where the terrain was created mostly by bombings evidently. On the whole, actually, Normandy reminded me a great deal of Ohio, only less gray. I was glad not to have matching bright orange hats like one tour group.


Omaha Beach, where you wouldn't know its history were it not for the monument up the hill. Expansive coast line, not particularly looking like a swimming area, but showing no signs of D-Day.


Finally, the last of our monuments was the American Cemetery, which looked like Arlington transplanted. The same long, symmetrical rows of white markers. This is evidently American territory.


We spent the night in Caen, at a hotel that was much nicer than everyone had expected. Went out with some friends in search of dinner, then met up with another group who had sampled local dishes. Went out to watch the first game of the Rugby Cup, in which France was painfully defeated by Argentina. Knew little of the game, but understood the action well by the end.
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Saturday:

Left Caen around 9:30, after a large breakfast of croissants and coffee at the hotel. Drove an hour to Honfluer, a small extremely picturesque seaside town. The streets near the harbor were filled with an open-air market that we wandered through for a while. Took a look through the winding, narrow side streets, then had mussels for lunch. Very tasty.


Drove next to Deauville, another seaside town, though this one leans more towards the beach-resort side. Spent two or three hours at the beach, swam in the Atlantic, played soccer. Then we walked through the town, past an American Film Festival that was wrapping up (though there was only a Ben Stiller film being promoted at this point). A nice, relaxing afternoon, and I definitely got some sun. My nose is finally starting to fade from red.


Tony and Gracie had gotten to Paris late on Friday night, so I met up with them and their friend Garrett, also from Northwestern, after we got back. We wandered through the city, amazed by Notre Dame at night.

Sunday was mostly spent taking care of reading for today's classes, on the systematization of the French language, the legal organization, and history from the Revolution through the First World War. Long classes today, but nothing tomorrow morning.

I was sad to see that Madeleine L'Engel had died. The Wrinkle in Time series was one of those landmarks of my childhood. Goodbye, Meg. This past year has been terrible for the greats: Vonnegut, Sills, Bergman, and now L'Engel (along with many other I'm sure I am forgetting).

For the rest of the weekend's pictures: http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092769&l=fea69&id=2411663

Pictures

So, as promised, pictures. I finally set up my wireless at school, so that should make life easier now.

I'm too lazy to actually copy them over, but everyone should be able to get into this album on facebook:
My first few days in Paris

Off to Normady tomorrow morning to spend Friday and Saturday there, seeing the beaches of World War II and some towns. It's pretty much a group bonding trip, and looks like it should be fun. My battery is going, so more when I get back.

So no pictures, but one of my journal entries instead

Found some more wireless at a McDonalds and, though I had to buy a milkshake to get it, thought updates would be good. I will hopefully have my Sciences Po wireless set up tomorrow, now that someone else has figured it out, and then I can do even more. These free WiFi places I've found so far limit you to 30 minutes, so that's been a pain.

A note on the food here. It's no wonder the Europeans are skinnier than Americans (something I was thinking about after reading that Times piece today). The food is overpriced and the portions are small. Which, yes, is probably better for you, but is kind of a pain every time you get your bill.

Ok, so you don't actually get pictures today since it seems the McDonalds WiFi doens't want to upload them in anything close to a reasonable speed. So instead, an update from yesterday, and today was just class and buying a phone, so not too much interesting there. It's overcast and I've got to head back for dinner soon. I've been trying to keep fairly deatiled track of what I've been doing, just to have something to read through in a few years.

TUESDAY:
So I again had trouble falling asleep. But I managed to drag myself from bed in time to arrive at school for my French placement test. It has been a long time since I’ve done more than stumble my way through a few simple sentences in French, but I was surprised to see how much came back. It certainly wasn’t brilliant; sloppy with the more complex tenses and moods, and my essay was more on the simple side, but nice that it comes back with some prodding.
First Lawmaking and Policy-making class today. The professor, German, seems energetic and knowledgeable, as one would hope. The discussion helped to straighten out some basic organizational points I had begun to glean from the text, but was missing the big picture on. The EU group seemed, during that class, to have established some level of camaraderie. I have my first project now, too. I will have to present on the role of the Czech Republic in the EU, what that represents being a newer member, a former communist nation, and hopefully I can tie in some of what I have been reading more recently about its push to be a champion for human rights. After, I ended up with the same people from yesterday, so perhaps that is beginning to develop into a bit of a group. Failed to get the wireless set up, since we had no idea what we were doing and Lucie was having some issue on her computer, trying to get us the client or whatever it was we needed on ours. But I got to check my email quickly, so that was good, just to make sure nothing major had happened while I was out of touch.
Walked all over the area north of the Louvre today. Up to the Opera and the Bank. We found a little street market where we got crepes. I will, at some point, have to buy food besides those. Found a small coffee place with free WiFi, so I was able to respond to some email, post some pictures, and promise more to come.
So it's not just me, after all, when it comes to Chicago. I always complain how it doesn’t make sense to me as a city. I’m surprised how quickly Paris is starting to make sense to me. I can already get myself to places, know relative locations, and am beginning to put together ideas of the different neighborhoods’ characters.
Failure trying to buy a phone. The store did not have any Orange phones (the main mobile company and the cheapest), and the others were more expensive, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get my internet issues straightened out then as well. Successful at doing all this in French, since the clerk didn't speak English and therefore automatically switch when he heard me speaking French like so many of them seem to.
Today’s wanderings were less directed towards specific sightseeing, but were nonetheless interesting and good time spent with the others.
Between waking up earlier and walking for at least four hours after class, I’m feeling rather exhausted tonight. I will probably eat, go over my reading, find a book for a bit, listen to some music, then go to bed.
Fish for dinner. And potatoes (again). Very good though. Talked with Mme Lancelot for a while while we ate. Her husband was a doctor and they lived in Africa for a while, years ago. Good practice for my French.

I Am In Paris

Got into Paris Saturday afternoon after flying for hours, delays, sitting on runways, and a little sleep. I've been doing lots of wandering, walking around to different sights. Taking lots of pictures. I'll upload more once I've got better internet. I'm at a coffee place right now, using half an hour of free WiFi. These are just some highglights, since the pictures are taking forever to upload. Anway,

First view of the Eiffel Tower as we drove in from the Airport.


Louvre and Pyramid during sunset last night.


Eiffel Tower last night. There much better ones than this in my set, but this is a nice full view.


Again, I'll update more when I'm not racing against my connection.

Also, just noticed the unfortunate fact that in the address "Un Americain" looks like "Un-American". Whoops.