Lazy summer days

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are our busy class days, so we’ve been taking it pretty slow.

Last night was another France football (sorry I got into the habit of calling it that… I mean SOCCER) game. We headed out pretty early (after a quick stop at the Monoprix – it’s hard to buy everything at once here and carry it all around!). We decided to go to our usual pub, Bombardiers, and got there early enough that space wasn’t such a big problem. We also caught the end of Happy Hour, which helped to take the edge off of the drink prices. Unfortunately, France LOST again. That means they are officially out of the Euro Cup. Beaten by Italy. There were a surprising number of Italy fans in the crowd, actually, which I found annoying. It would’ve been really nice if France had progressed and we could keep going to games. I’ve really been enjoying them.

Most of us went home directly after the game because this morning we had to wake up early. At 9:30 we had to meet our professor on the other side of down for a field trip. We met in front of the metro and went on a quick tour of the surrounding area. The professor explained everything in French, and I caught most of it, which was nice. He showed us the old Trinity church and told us how it was one of the first buildings to be built in Paris with a steel frame beneath the stone. We went inside for a minute and it was gorgeous. He told us about the architecture and the engineering of the building, but I was too absorbed in the beauty of the high vaulted ceiling, the stained glass, and the classical paintings to pay much attention to any sort of mathematical lecture. He led us down old side streets, reminding us that Napoleon the Third built up this area in his Nouveau Vision. We saw one house that had been there since before Napoleon, which was pretty impressive, since most of the city was overhauled.

The museum itself wasn’t that great. I actually hated the painter and completely forget his name. He used lots of dark colors and his subjects were all somber or somewhat gothic looking to me. I prefer the lightness and vibrancy of the impressionists. I listened to the lectures though and tried to focus on the amazing detail and the stories behind each painting, but I still can’t say I appreciate the art. The museum itself was neat, however. It was actually the artist’s house, which had been turned into a museum by a friend after the artist’s death. They kept the downstairs rooms furnished as they would have been during his life, and turned his art studio into a galery. I like seeing how people used to live, so that part was interesting.

Afterwards we grabbed a snack at a bakery near the metro and headed back. We got off the metro a few blocks of where school was, with plenty of time to spare. We saw a Starbucks, and we couldn’t resist. I know, shameful. We did our homework there as we enjoyed the benefits of ice coffee, an invention France seems to have not yet discovered. (Well, I had a hot chocolate, but you know.)

Class was class. And after class, I was so tired from staying out late and getting up early I didn’t want to do much except head back. So I did. I’ve been making phone calls and doing other mundane activities ever since. But I promised myself I’d go to the Musee d’Orsay tomorrow, to see all of my favorite impressionist artists. And if the weather is nice and there’s still time, I’ll go to the Tuilleries gardens again, or maybe the garden at Luxembourg. I’ll have more energy to sight see tomorrow if I rest tonight.

As a side note, please congradulate me on my decision to NOT go to Euro Disney with some of my friends. I don’t understand why you’d waste a day in another country visiting something that’s right in your backyard for the whole school year!! SILLY.

 

Oh and p.s…. After reading over the comment I left as a reply to some other comments, PLEASE excuse the many typos!! Awful!

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