Day 10

The weather is so sporadic here, I've never experienced anything like this. Yesterday was hot and disgustingly humid and today was rainy and cold. It was a nice change from the heat though, so I'm not complaining too much. The only thing that is a bummer is that my umbrella broke in the wind. It was awful and like the movies when it gets blown inside out and then when you fix it its limp and you're stuck getting rained on... Anyways we went to Chartres, pronounced like shart, and yes I laughed a bit to myself every time someone said it. It's a small little town about an hour and half out of Paris on the country side. I would love to live in this town! It was adorable. I also just learned it is where stage 19 of the Tour de France will start this year, so if you want to see just how cute it is watch the Tour on the 21st. The Chartres Cathedral is absolutely humungous! Way bigger than Notre Dame and you can see the spires from 15 miles away on the freeway. We were there when a funeral was in session and it was a little sad because I felt our group was being disrespectful by taking photos with the flash on all while the priest was talking. But I guess they should've expected that since they held the funeral in a legendary cathedral. 

After walking through the church and walking the labyrinth in the floor we were released to roam the town and find some lunch. Some friends and I went shopping and then stopped and got chorizo pizza. It was dang good! And I snapped a few photos around town of things that caught my eye. Most of the buildings here were built in the 17th century, but there have also been a lot of additions since then.

After our lunch break we took a walk to the back of the cathedral to see the view of both it and the city.

This is a replica of the labyrinth inside the cathedral. I don't know why there is one outside, but if I had to guess it's so more people can walk it while in prayer.

We got back to our hotel around 5 and I went to grocery store with a few people and we bought ingredients to make chicken minestrone soup because we were all feeling vegetable deprived. Pam, the girl in blue above, is a phenomenal chef so she did most of the work, but our soup was a major success!

Day 9

Today I visited the Chateau de Vincennes and the Holy Chapel. Its been off and on raining, which just adds to the humidity of Paris. It's pretty gross, not going to lie. Below is the Castle, or the chatelet. It has 6 floors and we walked a combined hundreds of flights of stairs. 

These stained glass windows are all along the staircases and I loved them! 

This is the Holy Chapel which is now a museum. I don't think any services are held here anymore.

This is the interior of the church from the second floor. The sun came out while I was in the church so I was able to get a good shot of the windows. I was excited about that!

The guards are practicing for Bastille day on July 14th so we got to catch a little bit of their practice and hear the band play.

We left the Chateau to go to the Park Floral de Paris for a picnic. There was a really nice stream that ran through the park. We didn't get to get very close to it, but there was a hanging orchid garden right across from the stream.

A small group and I walked an extra mile to the pond and rented row boats. It was A LOT of fun. Andrew, the guy in the San Jose shirt is on the UCLA crew team so he rowed the boat for the 3 girls in black while my boat all took turns rowing. We had a few malfunctions, but nobody fell in! I was the last to take a turn rowing so Andrew and I decided to race. He beat me, obviously, but it was close!

This was the highlight of my day! After all the rowing in the hot sun everybody was tired and thirsty and complaining about wanting ice cream. Miraculously we walked right into a snack bar. I couldn't resist the iced lemonade!

For now I am going to take a nap, grab some dinner with a few friends and then watch the Germany, Italy game!

Day 8

FOOD!! I had my first 3 course French meal yesterday at the Aubrac restaurant.

All my courses came from the specials. For my entree I had the smoked salmon tartare (third down the list) for my plate, I had the rabbit (third down the list again) and for dessert I had the citron mousse. It was tres magnifique!

 The salmon tartare

Leg of rabbit. I don't think I have ever tried rabbit before, but I would definitely order it again. I was expecting it to be more similar to red meat, but it was closer to the white meat of turkey. It was served with salted and oiled fettucini, kinda bland, and some kind of gravy that was really good and I ended up just mopping up with my noodles.

This was supposed to be an orange mousse, but I'm almost 100% sure it was lemon... either way I loved it. Cold desserts are the best on humid days. There was strawberry sause, a huge dollop of whipped cream, and toasted almonds on top. 

 Following all the wine I needed some caffeine. After all, it was only 1:30 by the time we finished lunch.

After lunch I hut a couple of the sales that are going on. Twice a year France has a HUGE sale that lasts 2 weeks to get rid of the store's inventory. I went to H&M where everything was 50-75%. It's pretty much a zoo when you go shopping past 12PM, but I will probably continue to shop throughout the weeks!

Then we met back up with the rest of the class to begin our walk. We stopped at the church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois where Tony Parker and Eva Longoria actually had their wedding ceremony... and no wonder! It is so extravagant!

 We also went to the Garden at the Royal Palace and I saw these little kids being adorable. That gate is super heavy so I tried to help the little boy open it, but I scared them away.

 Next stop was the pyramid at the Louvre. Side note- I was having some serious bang problems in the wind. But underneath the Louvre is an entire shopping mall. We checked it out only because we wanted to escape the heat.

I ended the day by getting a crepe and watching the Spain, Portugal game with a couple of friends then going to bed. I'm not too into the night life here. The people are extremely rude and most of the clubs are super expensive. I'm much happier sharing some wine with friends at the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel tower... So be ready for that Madi!

Day 7

The Opera house was really cool, I'm glad I went on that excursion while the second group was at lunch with the professor. I have never seen so many marble staircases and crystal chandeliers in one place. 

The Marc Chagall ceiling and grand Chandelier. I just added that grand part, I'm sure that's not what it's actually called, but it's appropriate here. It weights 8 tons! I was so distracted by the ceiling I forgot to take a photo of the stage... whoops! 

This is on the balcony of Opera house that you can see from the photo below. Incredible view!

Inside the Opera house was really dark so it was hard to take good pictures that could really capture all the colors (and sparkle) but I did my best. 

After the tour, a few friends and I walked down Avenue de l'Opera and stumbled upon this magical place:

It's a chocolate shop that is actually pretty famous here in Paris, but we had no idea. We also hung around the tasting counter for a little longer than the chocolate girl behind the counter would have liked... The Amaretto truffles were to die for!

Then we continued our walked further and went to the international consulate square or something like that and played around on all these pillars.

Then we met back up with the rest of the class and went on a walk that wasn't particularly exciting. The only thing worth noting was walking around the Jewish neighborhood, the Marais, and getting falafel for dinner. Each pita pocket of goodness had to have weighed at least 1lb... And the pigeons wouldn't leave our group alone! They kept swooping on our food and it was disgusting. My friend Pam and I booked it for the metro and ate while we walked, hence no pictures documented this part of the day.

Also, our professor likes to take a group of 5 students out to happy hour to have a one on one and really get to know us so I went and ordered this refreshing little guy:

What a yummy mojito. The French know what they're doing when it comes to mixed drinks. It was refreshing to have a break from the regular table red. Oh yeah, did I mention that you will get scoffed at if you order anything other than water or alcohol when you're out at a restaurant? Theo, my professor, told us a story about Bill Clinton getting denied a diet coke at one of the uppity restaurants. 

As I am a day behind I will post about yesterday and today when we get back from our field trip. Sorry! I'm about to go to the castle where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker got married a few years ago! (Kinda sad that they are divorced today though)

Au revior!

Day 6

We went on a shorter walk today. Yesterday and the next 2 days our professor is taking a group of 15 out to an authentic Paris lunch. My day is Wednesday and I will for sure be taking photos! Yesterday we walked to the Latin quarter and saw some ancient Roman ruins that are still standing in the city. Like this one that used to be a church of all things:

 This restaurant has the BEST motto on its awning. "boire, manger, bavarder, a'amuser, flaner" which means eat, drink, chat, have fun, and explore.

 This is me in front of the Notre Dame at a side view. It's hard to find a view of the cathedral from this angle, but of course our professor knows where to find it!

So during our down time today while others are at lunch I am going to tour the opera houses. Specifically the opera house where the story of Phantom of the Opera takes place. It's going to be beautiful, I can't wait! Maybe I'll even see the phantom....

Day 5

It's been raining all day. I had plans to go to the farmers market and the flea market, but then decided to save that for another day and do something inside. Instead I joined some friends and went to the Musee d'Orsay. I took a few photos, even though we weren't supposed to. Dad, I must get that trait from you... remember the Vatican or the David??

These are the weird light fixtures at the museum cafe

 Edgar Degas

Renoir

 Monet, or as a silly little kid in a Colorado shirt next to me called him, "The old Claudster"

Van Gogh 

 My favorite Van Gogh piece

Portrait of the artist

 The inside of the Musee d'Orsay is beautiful. It doesn't look so big, but this clock is GINORMOUS!

This room was gorgeous. My friend and I came to the conclusion that it is the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast. It has a big balcony and a fantastic view of Paris

I didn't get any photos of the Seurat exhibit, but pointillism is incredible to look at up close. He's definitely one of my favorite artists. 

Well seeing as how it is still pouring I doubt I'll do anything in the city tonight. The 80 year old inside of me is super excited to go to bed early! I feel like I've been going going going ever since landing at the airport. I could use a relaxing night in. 

Day 4

The longest walk yet! But We went to the Luxembourg Garden and it is by far my favorite place. The Luxembourg Palace was built for the Queen of the Midici family, but she wasn't alive for the completion of it. It later turned into the headquarters for the Luftwaffe, and then used as a prison. Currently it is being used as the Senate building. The sun was out while we were there, which made the gardens and the building extra beautiful. We went into 2 old churches, but sorry Paris, you don't have anything on Rome when it comes to gorgeous ancient churches... We saw the cafes where the existential authors Sartre and Camus used to hang out at all the time. I want to go back and have lunch at one of them another day. We also went to the major shopping district and saw the top designer stores, which were so fancy I'm too scared to even touch the door knob.
For lunch we went down this alley way that has a ton of walk up restaurant windows, probably equivalent to an outdoor mall food court, but 10 times more aesthetically pleasing.
After our walk we had time to nap or do whatever. France was playing Spain in the Euro Cup so in the park behind the Eiffel tower (not the Champs de Mars) there was a big screen set up for the public to watch the game. We set up camp in the grass and away from the amphitheater because the crowd was a little smaller. There were thousands of people at the game! And as France wasn't playing too well and about half the crowd was rooting for Spain, things got a little crazy. It started with some guy lighting his cannon off multiple times after France subbed out 3 of their players and then the flare guns started. We didn't have to go through security to get into the park so there was literally no telling what would come next. We thought it would be a good idea to get out of the park before anything worse happened when a stampede came running down the hill and we had to run for our lives basically. Luckily a few of the guys in our group started locking arms with everyone so we wouldn't get split up. But what we thought was beer and wine bottles getting thrown everywhere (which they could've been too) we found out that the SWAT team that came into the park was breaking up the fights and riots with tear gas canisters. To avoid the crazies, our group walked out of the way to another bridge to cross the Seine. As we were walking back to the hotel we walked by a bar that was packed with people and so we stopped to see how the game had progressed and at that moment Spain made their second goal off the penalty kick and the crowd outside the bar started yelling and screaming. We were not about to wait around for another riot! People were all the way out in the middle of traffic and the street watching the tv, It was wild. Definitely an experience I won't forget.

The cafe de flore that I want to go back to

The falafel sandwich I had for lunch

An old American bookstore

Me outside the Senate building and in the Luxembourg Garden

My view of the soccer game. The tree was a nuisance because people started climbing it to get a better view.

One of the many flares that were going off all over in the crowd. I'm not sure if they were for Spain or to say France needed help.