Cliche, I know, but the title is true. I was lucky enough to visit Paris this weekend with my Impressionism class. A few weeks ago, I traveled through Paris, but was completely focused on making my train/flight, so didn't really get to appreciate it. So, I am so glad I was able to go back. (Unfortunately, my camera actually has stopped working, so I've resorted to disposable cameras, which can't exactly be uploaded... So this blog post is going to rely on googled images, but I promise I was really there!!)
Anyway, we stayed at one of the oldest hotels in Paris, where the Three Musketeers are rumored to have spent time in. Is it true? Who knows, but it was a charming hotel!
It was very small, and at the end of a street that had a pub where Benjamin Franklin met to talk about the American Revolution. We were walking down and there was just a portrait of him in the window of this old building. Who knew?
Anyway, each morning we were treated to a cup of coffee and french bread at the hotel. I had been trying to stay away from coffee (me and Becca went through an absurd amount of coffee last semester, so I was trying to mostly stop drinking it) but it was so good here, I just drank it. And the bread was amazing. Baguettes! I don't think I've ever really appreciated it. All fresh too. It was such a nice way to wake up.
The first day we had a bus tour of Paris from a Swedish history teacher name Lyfe, who has lived in Paris for the past ten years. So, he basically just talked for 3 hours about the city while we drove around. Behind Moscow and London, Paris is the third largest city in Europe (with a whopping 10 million residents in the whole metropolitan area). There have been people living here for over 2,000 years, starting on the Île-de-France (which is now known as Île du Cite, since, accodring to Lyfe, other French people resented the name, since France is much larger than just the island haha). Anyway, this original settlement gave Paris its name, as the Celtic tribe living on the island were know as the Parisii. By the 400s, the Franks controlled the area, obviously giving the country its name. When Charlemagne was in power, the nation has 65 million inhabitants, which was a huge population for the year 800. We also learned all about King Louis XIII through Louis XVII, the details of which I only remember of the latest two. But! First we visited the Palace of Versailles, which is right outside the city. It's foundations were build by Louis XIII, who had overhunted the area of his current palace, so needed a new place to hunt! He chose this area, which was mostly farm land, and built it up! Then, it was expanded by his son or grandson, one of the Louis-es, and we have the grandeur the chateau is today!
It was absolutely beautiful. I've visited my share of castles this semester, but seriously, this was more decoration than I thought possible. Crazy!
Also, one more little tidbit of French history, the famous Louis XVI, who was killed during the French Revolution. I was always under the impression that he was somewhat of a tyrant, when really he just may not have been the best person to be king. According to Lyfe, he had "self-esteem" problems and wanted to say yes to everyone, so that's not good. Plus, the country was already in debt from Louis XV, and he invested heavily in the American Revolution, with hopes that he would get some of their colonies back which had been lost that did not happen, plus there was a massive crop failure in 1789, thus the people were not very happy with Louis. Interesting though, I had never known all the factors, just that there was a massive amount of poverty, which, compared to the over-excess of the royals (see: Versailles, which the royals moved to sometime earlier to get out of the main city and a little further from the angry crowds), was pretty stark. I also had never known about what happened to the son Louis XVII. After the royal family was taken from Versailles and held captive, they were taken out one by one and sent to the executed. However, the 10 year old boy was left in his room, all alone, with little food in dark and damp dungeons, until he died of illness. It's just so sad, he didn't have anything to do with his parent's decisions or politics, just happened to be the "official king" since his father's execution. Afterwards, the guards who essentially killed him were interrogated and, in attempts to avoid blame for the young king's death, claimed that it was another young boy who was in his place (why that makes this any better, I don't really get, but even the idea of a royal family is still kind of foreign to me). So, that would mean there was still a blood king. So, there were many men coming forward claiming that they were Louis XVII, which is very similar to the Anastasia story. But! Right after the execution, a doctor was sent to do an autopsy of the body. This doctor happened to be pro-monarchy (no idea what the actual term is), so he was very careful with the body and wanted to treat the young boy as a king. Apparently, it was tradition for royals to by buried in two places, one for their body and their heart elsewhere. So, the doctor took out Louis XVII's heart out and stuck it in his pocket. It sat on his desk in a jar for years. So strange. Eventually, it made it to the Louvre, where it was displayed until it had shrunken to the size of a prune and it was decided it should be buried with the other French kings and queens (again, so strange). However, there was still the question if it was even the right heart! For a good 2 centuries people wondered if the boy had managed to survive, up until the 1990's, where scientists were able to use DNA testing to prove it was indeed poor L XVII. What did they use as comparison, you ask? Marie Antoinette's nanny (or whatever they were called in that day) took care of something like 17 young princes and princess, and her way of remember them was to take a lock of hair and put it into a charm, which was placed on a bracelet. So they opened Marie's charm, took out a piece of hair, and compared it to a tiny slice of the prune sized heart. Really, such an odd story.
This is a love lock bridge! There's one in most big cities, but this one was pretty much covered in padlocks. If anyone doesn't know what this, couples write their names and whatever else on the locks, then throw the key into the river. It's pretty adorable symbolism.
That night we visited the Louvre, which is the largest museum in the world. It was basically completely beautiful. It was a palace at one point, and I kind of knew that, but I did not expect it to be so decorated! I almost forgot to look at the art because I was so focused on the ceiling (almost that is...). There was just so much to look at. I can't even write more. It was fairly overwhelming haha. One highlight I do remember was Venus de Milo. I made sure to see her and was not disappointed!
The next day we visited the Musee de l'Orangerie, which houses Monet's Waterlilies. Again, I was completely overwhelmed (I mean this in the best way, just so you know). When you first walk in, everything is completely white, then you step into the next room and see this open, circular room, with waterlilies surrounding you. The room was designed by Monet, so has no artificial lighting. But, this means that the paintings look pretty drastically different, depending how much sunlight is coming in. If it is a cloudy day, some of them seem almost dreary, then the sun peaks through, and you see the hints of pink shining through. It was just such an amazing experience. There were just 2 rooms with 8 paintings total, but I could have spent hours in there, just admiring them. I could ramble on, about how modern the style was for the period, and how he creates shadow without touching black paint, and so on, since I am in a class about the Impressionism movement, but I think I've done enough of that already, so I will spare you.
We then visited d'Orsay, which was, again, amazing. It was originally a train station that was later converted into this beautiful museum.
We saw paintings by so many huge names, such as Monet, Renoir, Ingres, Manet, Degas, and the list goes on. We were on a tour given by an American grad student working on his PhD in Paris and he gave one of the best tours I've ever been on. We were able to see some of the paintings I've talked about in just about every art history class, such as:
which is huge and you absolutely do not get the full impact of without seeing in person (you actually do feel like you could just step right into that grave), and many others. He just knew so much and answered all out questions and we were able to see a good amount of the massive museum.
(Including this one, which is one of my favorite paintings of all time)
Afterwards, we had a few hours off, so me and a friend hiked up to Sacre Coeur (and by hiked, I mean walked up a hill and a few sets of stairs haha), which is a church built in the early 1900's on Monmarte, which overlooks the whole city. It was a beautiful church and a breathtaking view.
We then had a lovely dinner cruise down the Seine, which was so special. It was running, and me and my friend were late, and we didn't want the boat to leave with out us. So, in our dresses, we sprinted down a hill towards the Eiffel Tower to cross the river, in the rain. It was fairly absurd and hilarious, and we made it! So everything worked out and we got a cute story out of it.
One really special part of the weekend for me was mass at Notre Dame. We were able to go in and stay for the whole ceremony. I didn't understand a word of what was said, since it was half in French and half Latin, and we were towards the back with people walking around and admiring the church, so there was background noise (not that my French would have gotten me anywhere, but usually I can at least pick up half of what is being said haha), but, especially the hymns, were awe-inspiring. There was more to the Gothic architecture than just appearances. The acoustics were just amazing.
Anyway, that, plus a few macaroons, several baguettes, pain du chocolat, and meeting up with Rachael and her friends, were the highlights of my trip! (excluding the afternoon where I tried to navigate the city by myself. Needless to say, even with my map in front of me, I did not find what I was looking for haha... I still got to walk around the beautiful city and certainly enjoyed myself, and found my way back to the hotel easily enough, but my lack of direction was pretty evident haha). It was an amazing three days. I can't believe how lucky I was to go and get to see everything I saw. I am still trying to take it all in, and there are still many things I just did not have time to see. Such a wonderful city.
