centre national d'art et de culture georges-pompidou

So last night after my last blog post we went out for drinks on oberkampf (a street) and thoroughly enjoyed it! The food looked uh-mazing as well, so we will absolutely need to go back for that - though we saw a couple mice... assuming that's relatively normal in Paris?

Today we had the day off from school for some french bank holiday. (is it terrible I don't know what it is?) We slept in, went out to lunch, and went to the pompidou! Despite spending a few hours there, I definitely want to return allowing more time and maybe even get the audio guide to actually learn about what I'm seeing. I can definitely say that I saw too many Picassos to count! As much as I'm excited to see the classics, I'll always be a modern art fan, so I very much enjoyed it & I hope you enjoy these!

bonsoir,
xx taylor

une chasse au trésor qui a mal tourné

So for the second portion of class today we had a scavenger hunt in montmartre. But not really like a cute, fun, site-seeing scavenger hunt - a super long, impossible-to-complete-in-two-hours scavenger hunt. But seriously. I got some great views and pictures, but the visit was pretty tarnished with trying to find the answers to decently obscure questions that no one we asked was able or willing to help us with and eventually giving up less than half way through and 2 hours later.

On the bright side, that area of the city is absolutely beautiful (especially, obviously, La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre). Though because it was totally bustling with tourists, I'm excited to return during the later months of my visit when it will be much calmer and easier to navigate.

Martin Karplus

Alors, today was un autre day of class (duh), but this afternoon pour classe we went to the Bibliothèque nationale François Mitterrand to see work by Martin Karplus - one of the few people taking pictures in color during the '50s and early '60s around the world. Born in Austria in 1930, he moved to the United States when he was 8 years old. Though chemical biology was his career, color photography was his greatest passion, and after visiting the exhibit I can conclude he was pretty good at it.

However, on our way there we totally took a wrong turn that lead us 10 or 20 minutes astray, then got out of the wrong side of the metro which took us way further from the library than necessary, crossed a construction site, and finally found our professor who must have been waiting for us for at least 30 minutes.

Though I don't believe I'll be returning to the National Library of France anytime soon after the traumatic experience, lengthy subway trip, and pretty gross location (in the 13 arrondissment, a more modern area of France with the business district and actual tall buildings, unlike those with a max of 6 stories in le marais), it was interesting to see. It is home to The Globes of Louis XIV by Coronelli, which are actually amazing for having been crafted in the 17th century, and super interesting because they hadn't quite accurately mapped America yet, so California is it's own island (and other oddities). Click through here to see pictures because I totally forgot to take some.

So anyway, enjoy these snapshots of les snapshots de Karplus.

bonsoir,
xx taylor

un jour de la marche

Today was my second day of classes - with 9:30-12:30 being straight French and 1:30-3:30 being a visit to somewhere french and presentations by us of different quartiers and places. Today though, we had normal class until 12:30 then we went to rue des rosiers, got some wonderful fallafel at L'As du Fallafel. But it was like like actually pretty amazing, totally lived up to the hype.

Long story short we saw lots of beautiful things, talked about them in French, and basically walked for 3 hours. If I could remember any of the monuments, parks, or courtyards, I would totally fill you in, but I absolutely cannot so I'll have to return. (oh shucks, huh?)

For the first time I totally got around, all alone, and only used my map to reassure me of what I already knew. Totally stoked on that.

ps. also finally got a french sim card for my phone - yay!

bonne journee!

xx taylor

 

a not-so-lazy sunday.

the pompidou from the courtyard

So the fun thing about studying abroad in France is that you actually have to study... except some of the assignments are pretty fun.

Andrea and I (2 of 3 people in the intermediate french conversation class) were assigned two hot-spots in the marais district to go to, learn about, and give a tour of to the class tomorrow. In anticipation of this, we visited both the Pompidou (and had some excellent crepes in the courtyard) as well as Hotel de Ville - where the mayor of Paris lives and works, etc.

After taking lots of embarrassingly touristy pictures, we went to find HEMA again (a mini IKEA/Target type store) and got pretty lost. When we finally found it, it was closed, as was the phone store I wanted to go to because, of course, it was Sunday. However, this long and exhausting trip made us realize how close the HEMA is to the metro stop by the CEA campus - which is perfect.

Goals for tomorrow:
- Give a decent french tour of hotel de ville
- Get to Body Shop, Phone House, and HEMA between 3:30 and 4:30 to get home by 5:00 and skype with Forrest.
- Figure out what the vegan restaurant near school sells/specializes in
- Buy a baguette and chocolate (and maybe a croissant)

bonsoir!
xx taylor

hotel de ville

hotel de ville

une crêpe du fromage et des champignons 

des crêpes

stravinsky fountain next to the pompidou

the pompidou

fontaine des innocents