8-17&18-2013

Not much has happened to me over yesterday and today, except maybe the copious amount of bread and brie that I'm eating - but I seriously think I'm walking enough that I may still even lose weight despite eating extremely carby-cheesy-yummy french food. And if not, hey - I'm abroad in Paris, if I have one excuse to gain bread weight, it's that.

So yesterday we went to this crazy flee market (didn't see any flees!) with some great vintage collections. None of us got much other than these wonderful old old old post cards we found for 1euro apiece - some written on so full you can't see blank space, some with a few words, and some totally blank. I chose to get some blank ones so that I can write and send them. (in envelopes anyway because they're so fragile, but still.)

 

Last night we stopped at a couple bars and I had a couple excellent gin tonics - aka gin and tonics, super original, right? They were good, it was fun, all good.



Today has been a pretty slow day, nothing much to report other than homework getting done, would have loved to shop around but most french shops are closed on Sundays.

au revoir!
xx taylor

16-08-13

Not much really happened yesterday - which I suppose is why I totally forgot to write a post before going to bed! In intermediate french conversation we had to give presentations about a french song, the artist, etc. so we didn't go to any interesting tourist destinations. (which was actually a welcome break!) Here is the song I chose to present, the artist is actually from Quebec, but she is popular over here as well.

After class we came back to the studio for a while, but returned to a bar/restaurant we had visited a few days ago called Place Verte on Rue Oberkampf for dinner - and it was awesome! It boasts one of the best burgers in Paris, which the girls said was definitely true, but even my vegetarian salad with eggplant, pepper, sundried tomato, arugula, pesto, green beans, and some time of tasty slaw was delicious. I definitely recommend it, awesome location, very sweet waitstaff, totally great - just look at my food! (& sangria... & burger in the background)

I have absolutely no idea where this stereotype of French service people being rude comes from - literally all of them have been very very sweet to us.

à bientôt,
xx taylor

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