Chartres: Beauty & the Beast

First off, I just posted my first photo essay on our class blog, they are some of my favorites of the ones I've taken: check it out!

Second, yesterday was AWESOME. We went to Chartres, which is about an hour-and-a-half train ride outside of Paris. The cathedral itself is gorgeous, I don't think I'll ever understand how something so ornate can be done all by hand. They are in the process of cleaning and restoring it, so I totally want to go back in 10 years and see the finished product. In this picture you can see the difference. The top half has been cleaned, the bottom is what centuries of pollution and smoke does to it:


The inside is even cooler. They have found traces of the original paint and are restoring it to look like it used to. The statues were once painted different colors too, just like the Greek and Roman ones that we are so used to seeing in just plain stone. The first is one of the nooks they've finished restoring and the second is what most of the church still looks like.

 The best part was our tour guide. His name is Malcolm Miller, he's British, and he's been doing tours for  decades, really famous if you study Chartres I guess, I had never heard of him before. But he seriously knew his stuff, it was fascinating. We spent almost the whole hour and 15 min hour on only 5 stained glass windows. I was a little surprised when he mentioned how students sometimes come and stay a week or two learning about them with him, but after that tour I could totally see why. I felt like I only got a taste of it. I love history!

The windows and statues are so much more interesting when you know what all of the symbolism means. I never realized that the medieval churches had so much old testament stories and prophets depicted along with Jesus and the apostles. For example these statues are from left to right: Melchesidek, Abraham, Moses, Elijah and someone who I can't remember. But it was so cool! It made me want to go home and learn way more about it. 

After the tour we wandered around the town and gardens of Chartres, it's so quaint! Exactly how I imagined the countryside of France to look. Which was pretty impressive. I felt like I was walking around Belle's town in Beauty and the Beast. It was really nice to get out of the loud city, even though it's growing on me. 

So I hung out with friends, soaked up some sunshine and basically loved every minute! 

Les Jardins

I love the jardins in Paris. The whole can't-walk-on-this-grass-but-you-can-walk-on-this-section thing is kind of funny, but regardless, they are really pretty. If you are ever visit the Eiffel Tower, take pictures on the left side of the Champs de Mars. It is so much prettier and there are trees and a pond, it makes for a much more interesting picture à mon avis. We went there yesterday and took the typical touristy pictures-but it was so much fun. (Plus it was so nice!! It's been nice every day except for the first one, I think I got a little sunburnt today!)

Also, in our culture class yesterday we spent the entire time (are you ready?) tasting chocolates. It was so cool! I didn't know this, but you can buy plantation chocolates, and depending on the soil where the cacao beans are grown, the chocolate takes on some of the flavors. So one of them was grown where there used to be a strand of mango trees, so the chocolate has a hint of mango, all naturally-they didn't add anything. I thought it was so cool.

This morning we went on the Montparnasse/Jardin de Luxembourg walk before classes, it was so pretty. I would love to go there and jog, it's nice to have a break from the city. However, I hope that I never look like this when running! It was actually kind of hilarious but sad at the same time to watch people run by. Some of them were perfectly fine, but then you had guys in leggings waving their arms from side to side too.






BUT I got some really pretty pictures, and found the original Statue of Liberty (it is not on the water like in National Treasure 2, I hate it when movies lie!). Also the statue of Alfred Dreyfus, of the Dreyfus Affair, some adorable kids doing sack races, a guy smoking a pipe-it was a good day for interesting pictures.

Statue of Alfred Dreyfus

A beekeeping place (not sure if there is a technical name for that)

The middle of a pétanque field (I love the hangers for coats!)

Statue of Liberty!

Sack races

Fontaine Médicis

This guy was smoking a pipe! you can't really see it, but it was crazy!

 So after all of that....we still had class. So we walked over to the Institute, stopping at a book sale on the way. Before class started I went and grabbed lunch with a couple people. I had this delicious tarte italienne and tried my first macaron. SO GOOD. It was amazing. I should have taken a picture of it, but I was too hungry. Next time.  After class, we went by the Opéra; sadly the cheap ballet tickets were sold out, so we can't see the inside :( But the outside is still quite beautiful. 

 

Tomorrow we are going on an excursion to Chartres. I will take lots of pictures, should be really fun. Too bad we have to leave by 7 am.... à demain!

My apartment is as old as the civil war (!?)

My fireplace

So you remember those pictures I posted of my room? Yeah it was built in the 1860s. It's blowing my mind. Today at dinner we asked Madame if she knew how old it was, and she said she guessed around the 1860s, late 19th century. The floor, fireplaces and mirrors are all original. BUT, she goes on to say...well it really isn't that old....We looked at her and said, for us it is!! Houses from the Civil War era in the U.S. are turned into museums that you walk through with ropes separating you from the original floor, and you aren't allowed to touch anything. And here I am, doing my makeup in front of a mirror from the 1800s, and walking around barefoot on wood floors that are more than 100 years old. Just one more reason why Paris is awesome.


So today, other than finding out how old my apartment is, I went to the first day of classes and took pictures for my photography class! Me and Erin also did our "Flâneur" walk, which required us to get lost in Paris. So we wandered down past Notre Dame, found the Seine and walked along it for a couple of hours taking pictures, and ended up right down the street from our apartment. Here are some of my favorites:

Along the Seine

The park behind Notre Dame

Along the Seine

my lovely roommate Erin

under a bridge

walking home

I'm obsessed with lanterns

looking out the into the courtyard of the Institute

This little bird was hopping around the courtyard at lunch. Reminded me of the chickadees in North Carolina that I thought were so cool when I was little.

Hope you liked them! Tomorrow is another day of classes, I think we are going to go to the Eiffel Tower afterwards (it's crazy that I can say that). I have got to get some more pictures of myself! Also, I think I am getting braver speaking in French, I asked Madame how she made this delicious carrot dish and understood almost all the directions. And she explained what was in dessert too, some sort of flan with raisins and lemon zest I think, mmm so good. I'll have to look up what it's called, because i've never heard the word before. I think she is getting more comfortable talking to us too, as we've continued asking her questions, tonight she asked us if we believe in miracles, and two nights ago we talked politics with her son-in-law. It's so cool to be able to carry on real conversations and understand what they are saying!!!

Le Marais

So I am living in Le Marais, in the 3ième arrondissement right down the street from the Place de la Bastille, where the famous Bastille prison used to be, before the people tore it down during the French Revolution. Here are some pictures of my room. It's so French with the blue and white, I love it.

My window opens up onto a little balcony

my bed!

desk and window

So we live super close to everything, 2 metro stops from Hotel de Ville, which is a block or two away from Notre Dame. Me and Erin decided to wander around the neighborhood on Saturday, and guess what we found? This: La Place des Vosges. It's the oldest planned city square in Europe, so pretty!

Plus, it's now a beautiful park in the middle!

And....Victor Hugo lived there while writing Les Miserables.  So we went and saw his apartment, it's now a museum. And we got to use our student art cards for the first time, they are seriously magic. The guy looked at them, a little puzzled at first, then said "ah! oui, oui!" and handed us our free tickets. I didn't think they would actually work!  

Walking...so much walking

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures! This about sums up Day 1

 This was the view from our hotel room for the first night, it's very French n'est pas? However, as we learned by wandering around, it was also very ghetto. As my roommate pointed out this afternoon, aren't all French people supposed to be classy? haha. I love that we have all these romantic notions of Paris, but really it's a normal city.







This is where we have church and class. So cool! I'll get a better picture on Tuesday, but it's from the 1600s, and right across from the Pompidou Centre.

              Here is our hotel room, I had a much better picture, but for some reason one of my memory cards deleted all of the pictures on it :( but basically the entire hotel was from Ikea. Which was actually pretty awesome, even if it was in the sketchy part of Paris. They even had those wavy mirrors , the ones my sister has in her room, by the elevators. Oh! and I almost forgot! The shower had lights that went along with the temperature around the showerhead. Green for cold, blue for warm, red for hot. And blue and red for in-the-middle. Crazy. 

 The Institute is also a block or two away from Notre Dame, I've already been to Notre Dame about 5 times now, just walking past it. For my family: do you remember when we were on the top of Notre Dame watching those rollerskaters racing? I walked by them the other day, can you guess what the little colored things they were using as markers were? Yep, kid's cups from Ikea. I am seeing a pattern here. My host family even has them in the bathroom for our toothbrushes!

 This couple was just too adorable to not take a picture. This is classic Paris.

 The first night in Paris, we went on a boat ride down the Seine to see Paris. Here are some pictures:

This is actually on the way to the boat, the bridges are so pretty!

Eiffel Tower, of course

There are all sorts of people just hanging out on the banks of the river on nice days. This girl was playing a guitar.

Musée d'Orsay

on the boat

The most beautiful bridge in Paris

Hotel Dieu, the first hospital in Paris. The original was built here in AD 700

Here are some pictures from the Latin Quarter:

Well there's Day 1!