Monday we went to the Notre Dame cathedral.After we waited in line to visit the cathedral (it surprisingly went by very quickly) and we were lucky enough to see part of the midday-mass (we didn’t stay to watch it, though). Afterwards we went to L’Île de la Cité to get some lunch and some of the famous ice cream. Unfortunately the ice-cream shop was closed, but we had a very nice lunch with everyone. After running around with Tony and Caroline to find a metro shop with mobilisse tickets for the class we went to L’Orangerie next to la Place de la Concorde (the guillotine used to be here during the French Revolution. Now it’s a beautiful square with statues for each of the major cities (Rouen included) and a crazy roundabout. L’orangerie was amazing! They have a lot of different impressionist works, but it’s most popular for the Water Lily paintings by Monet. It was beautiful and very well done. There were 3 rooms dedicated to the Water Lilies, each with 3 paintings. The paintings were huge! They were approximately 4-5 feet tall and ranging from 20 – 40 feet long. The paintings were hung on white walls with benches in the middle of the room so you can sit and admire them… which we did. It was an incredible experience.
Afterwards we went to the Tuileries Garden to eat our dinner (sandwiches smuggled from the hostel... cheers for that!) and had some fun with the fishes and birds around the fountain, where we would give the fish a piece of bread, they would eat it, then the birds would scoop them up! It was sorta funny! After eating we went to check out the modern art museum, Centre Pomidou. Generally I’m not fond of modern art, but I liked the floor we went to. A lot of the paintings had bright colors and crazy patterns, or would take a well known monument, such as la Tour Eiffel, and distort it to make it their own. It was a cool museum. Plus, the really nice view of the city made it an even better visit.
At dusk we went to L’arc de triomphe to climb up and see L’étoile at night. We were able to catch the 10 pm night show at the Eiffel Tour, when the Tower lights up and glitters. It was very nice, worth the crazy spiral of stairs to reach the top.
Lisa
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Un week-end à Paris
Samedi
Samedi matin, tout le monde est allé au Paris. Nous avons rencontré avec Caroline et elle nous avons emmené à l’auberge de jeunesse où nous restons. Après, nous avons visité le Musée du Louvre pour visiter les pièces fameuses comme Le venus de Milo, la Joconde (Mona Lisa), les 3 frères, la bête-noir de Medusa, plusieurs autre que j’oublie maintenant, et ma pièce préfère, Winged Victory. J’aime le Louvre, mais il y avait beaucoup de monde, trop de monde pour apprécier les œuvres-des-arts.
Après le musée, j’ai emmené tout le monde à la Tour Eiffel pour voir les lumières et la tour à nuit. C’était amusant- nous avons apporté des bouteilles de vin et du chocolat et nous avions une bonne soirée.
Dimanche
Jour 2 du Louvre. C’était plus sympa aujourd’hui. Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses comme les sculptures Grecques, « The Seated Scribe » et les pièces plus vieilles que les choses que nous connassons, 4500-3000 B.C. !! Trop vieux pour la compréhension ;)
Après le Louvre, tous les étudiants sont allés au Champs-Elysées pour regarder la Tour de France! Il y a toujours plusieurs heures jusqu'à l’arriva des cyclistes. (Nous sommes arrivés à 13:45 et les cyclistes sont arrivés à 16:45!) Donc, pendant cette fois, Emerald, Becky et moi, nous avons parle une femme canadienne et un homme Parisien. Eventuellement les cyclistes sont arrives et nous sommes allées à la place St. Michel pour le diner. C’était délicieux et sympa. ;) Après manger nous sommes rentrées à la Tour Eiffel ensuite nous sommes retournés à l’auberge.
Bisous !
Lisa
p.s. I'll translate this soon.... basically the Louvre was crazy, we went to the Eiffel Tower at night, and watched the Tour de France come in :)
Samedi matin, tout le monde est allé au Paris. Nous avons rencontré avec Caroline et elle nous avons emmené à l’auberge de jeunesse où nous restons. Après, nous avons visité le Musée du Louvre pour visiter les pièces fameuses comme Le venus de Milo, la Joconde (Mona Lisa), les 3 frères, la bête-noir de Medusa, plusieurs autre que j’oublie maintenant, et ma pièce préfère, Winged Victory. J’aime le Louvre, mais il y avait beaucoup de monde, trop de monde pour apprécier les œuvres-des-arts.
Après le musée, j’ai emmené tout le monde à la Tour Eiffel pour voir les lumières et la tour à nuit. C’était amusant- nous avons apporté des bouteilles de vin et du chocolat et nous avions une bonne soirée.
Dimanche
Jour 2 du Louvre. C’était plus sympa aujourd’hui. Nous avons vu beaucoup de choses comme les sculptures Grecques, « The Seated Scribe » et les pièces plus vieilles que les choses que nous connassons, 4500-3000 B.C. !! Trop vieux pour la compréhension ;)
Après le Louvre, tous les étudiants sont allés au Champs-Elysées pour regarder la Tour de France! Il y a toujours plusieurs heures jusqu'à l’arriva des cyclistes. (Nous sommes arrivés à 13:45 et les cyclistes sont arrivés à 16:45!) Donc, pendant cette fois, Emerald, Becky et moi, nous avons parle une femme canadienne et un homme Parisien. Eventuellement les cyclistes sont arrives et nous sommes allées à la place St. Michel pour le diner. C’était délicieux et sympa. ;) Après manger nous sommes rentrées à la Tour Eiffel ensuite nous sommes retournés à l’auberge.
Bisous !
Lisa
p.s. I'll translate this soon.... basically the Louvre was crazy, we went to the Eiffel Tower at night, and watched the Tour de France come in :)
Impressionist Rouen
Wednesday was a nice quiet day in Rouen, gladly welcome after a busy weekend in Belgium, Etretat and Giverny (Monet's house), which was breathtaking, by the way. We had class (including a quiz on ancient Greek pronunciations (AHHHH!)) then spent the day in Rouen buying our train tickets to Marseille (it's amazing how much patience the trip planning people have), booking our hotel and planning our trip. After dinner we decided to check out the nightime art-light show here. 2 years ago they displayed a series of Monet's paintings with crazy renditions (complete with a flying witch) on the La Notre Dame Cathedrale de Rouen. This year they're showing a variety of impressionist works on the Musee des Beaux Arts. It was a really nice show. They had some very nice transitions, music, and twists on the paintings that gave it a new life.
It's days like these that I realize how much I love this city. :)
Le Musee des Beaux-Arts
Thursday we went to the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, where they're having a special exposition for Impressionist works from Normandie. The most impressive part was the 12 or so paintings of the Cathedrale de Rouen by Monet. Monet painted approximately 30 pictures of the Cathedrale at different times during the day with different lighting. The mayor wasn't very interested in the paintings when Monet painted them, so they were scattered all over the world (1 of them was from the MFA in Boston, btw). It was really nice to see a dozen together again. Our walking tour guide said that they've been working on this Expo for 10 years-- you can definitely see and appreciate their hard work. It was a beautiful collection.
After the museum I stayed in town to shop and grab lunch. (I LOVE the summer sales!) At 18:00, Becky, George and I met up with Caroline and Tony to meet some other international students for some cheese and wine. It was a nice evening. We got to practice our French with a French student from Rouen named Charlotte and learn about the education program here in France. It was nice- hopefully we'll hang out again sometime.
After this, Becky and I went with Caroline, Yannick and Vicky (Katie's old teacher and his girlfriend) to meet up with some of Caroline's friends to watch the Thursday night terrace concert. During the summertime in Rouen they have concerts on Thursday nights in different locations all over Rouen. Tonight was a jazz theme. Unfortunately, in true Norman style, it started to pour! (Il pleut comme le vauche pis <- new expression from Yannick meaning it's raining cats and dogs, except it literally means it's raining like a cow peeing). We got out of the rain and headed to Big Ben Pub where we met up with other students and had a nice evening out.
Gotta love the rain here ;)
Bisous,
Lisa
It's days like these that I realize how much I love this city. :)
Le Musee des Beaux-Arts
Thursday we went to the Musee des Beaux Arts in Rouen, where they're having a special exposition for Impressionist works from Normandie. The most impressive part was the 12 or so paintings of the Cathedrale de Rouen by Monet. Monet painted approximately 30 pictures of the Cathedrale at different times during the day with different lighting. The mayor wasn't very interested in the paintings when Monet painted them, so they were scattered all over the world (1 of them was from the MFA in Boston, btw). It was really nice to see a dozen together again. Our walking tour guide said that they've been working on this Expo for 10 years-- you can definitely see and appreciate their hard work. It was a beautiful collection.
After the museum I stayed in town to shop and grab lunch. (I LOVE the summer sales!) At 18:00, Becky, George and I met up with Caroline and Tony to meet some other international students for some cheese and wine. It was a nice evening. We got to practice our French with a French student from Rouen named Charlotte and learn about the education program here in France. It was nice- hopefully we'll hang out again sometime.
After this, Becky and I went with Caroline, Yannick and Vicky (Katie's old teacher and his girlfriend) to meet up with some of Caroline's friends to watch the Thursday night terrace concert. During the summertime in Rouen they have concerts on Thursday nights in different locations all over Rouen. Tonight was a jazz theme. Unfortunately, in true Norman style, it started to pour! (Il pleut comme le vauche pis <- new expression from Yannick meaning it's raining cats and dogs, except it literally means it's raining like a cow peeing). We got out of the rain and headed to Big Ben Pub where we met up with other students and had a nice evening out.
Gotta love the rain here ;)
Bisous,
Lisa
Monday, July 19, 2010
Belgium and Étretat
This past weekend 7 other students and I went to Brussels, Belgium. We had a good time going around the city and visiting some of their most famous monuments, the Mannekis Pis (fountain of a peeing boy by Grand Place, not sure why it's so famous) and the Atomium. The Atomium was built for the 1958 World Expo, the first world expo after WW2. It's over 800 meters tall and is constructed to look like an atom (9 balls connected by tubes, making it look like an atom. However, any good scientist would know that deserve the nobel prize for this one: the central molecule has 8 others connected to it... an impossibility in the world of chemistry.... ok, science dorkiness ends here, promise!)
Overall we had a nice trip. We were saddened to learn that the "Belgium waffles" that we're used to are really a dessert food, not breakfast. This led to 2 mornings of searching for breakfast waffles that didn't exist... whoops! The dessert waffles... amazing, definitely worth the exploring.
Étretat
This is my second time on this Rouen, France trips. One of the great improvements of this trip to the last one is the day trips. The one we went on today was incredible! We went to Étretat, a beach in Haute-Normandy north of Le Havre. It's famous for it's cliffs and the natural arches in the cliffs and bright blue water. Instead of sand, like Dieppe, this was a pebble beach. It hurt walking on the beach, but it was definitely worth it. Liz and I ran into the crisp water (definitely MUCH colder than the GOT, but still nice) and I swam around for most of the afternoon. Daren, Emerald, Kyrie and I all swam over the cliffs to check out a cave and continued swimming out to the big arch. Unfortunately the current was a bit strong so we were unable to swim all the way over to the "private beach" that we found, but we had a long, fun swim nonetheless, and got to explore a tunnel and more of the cliffs from a view most people don't venture out to see. Good times all around. Everyday should be an Étretat day ;)
In the morning we have class (yay Protagoras!) <-hint of sarcasm there... and then we're heading off to Giverny, la maison de Claude Monet! :) <-real excitement there
Bonne nuit!
<3 Lisa
Overall we had a nice trip. We were saddened to learn that the "Belgium waffles" that we're used to are really a dessert food, not breakfast. This led to 2 mornings of searching for breakfast waffles that didn't exist... whoops! The dessert waffles... amazing, definitely worth the exploring.
Étretat
This is my second time on this Rouen, France trips. One of the great improvements of this trip to the last one is the day trips. The one we went on today was incredible! We went to Étretat, a beach in Haute-Normandy north of Le Havre. It's famous for it's cliffs and the natural arches in the cliffs and bright blue water. Instead of sand, like Dieppe, this was a pebble beach. It hurt walking on the beach, but it was definitely worth it. Liz and I ran into the crisp water (definitely MUCH colder than the GOT, but still nice) and I swam around for most of the afternoon. Daren, Emerald, Kyrie and I all swam over the cliffs to check out a cave and continued swimming out to the big arch. Unfortunately the current was a bit strong so we were unable to swim all the way over to the "private beach" that we found, but we had a long, fun swim nonetheless, and got to explore a tunnel and more of the cliffs from a view most people don't venture out to see. Good times all around. Everyday should be an Étretat day ;)
In the morning we have class (yay Protagoras!) <-hint of sarcasm there... and then we're heading off to Giverny, la maison de Claude Monet! :) <-real excitement there
Bonne nuit!
<3 Lisa
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Don't let the devil pull you down! Quicksand!!
D-Day Beaches and le Mont Saint Michel
Monday we went to the World War II memorial museum in Caen, Normandy and then went to the American Cemetery where all of the American soldiers who died in Normandy, mainly from the D-day invasion. It was enlightening to watch the video in the museum showing the invasion and the progress the Allies made, then to go to the Cemetery. It’s hard to believe all of the horror that happened in this beautiful country, only 60 years ago, and how times have changed. It made me thankful to be living now in a time of (semi) peace, where I’m not terrified of my country’s enemies taking over and destroying everything I’ve ever known, and hurting my family and friends, and how unfortunate it was that 5,000 young men had to fight and risk their lives so that we could all live freely.
Our next stop was Mont St. Michel. This was my 3rd time visiting le Mont Saint Michel, but it’s just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as the first time. There was a spring tide and was still covering the parking lot, so we parked down the street a little bit, and we walked down. As we were walking, we realized that the tide was receding, so we called Tony and Caroline, and hitched a ride back with them, and splashed around a bit in the water. After our tour of Mont St. Michel (same tour guide as last time, btw), we raced back to the vans and headed to the other side of Mont saint michel’s bank (it’s essentially on an island, well it was back in the day at least), and met our guide to walk across through the tides to Mont St Michel. It was sooo nice! The guide pointed out a skate egg sac (mermaid’s purse), a cuttlefish bone, a bryozoans colony (I was quite impressed by this because of one of our trips in Bermuda and the time we spent searching for them), and some sponges. It was really cool to walk through the silt and get stuck in the quick sand! Mont Saint Michel was amazing, perfect trip
Joyeux fête de bastille!!
Yesterday was Bastille Day—French Independence Day. A group of us went into Paris to check it out. Upon arriving in Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, a thunderstorm hit. I guess it was due—it was the first time it rained since I’ve been here…. 3 weeks. After the rain subsided, we walked around Notre Dame, did some touristy shopping and headed toward la Place de la Concorde and walked down the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees was insane! Soo many people everyone! I was a bit surprised though. I was sort of expecting to see a bunch of red, white and blue (French colors too, not just American) everyone and a lot of celebrations, but it seemed like the rain washed away some of the cheer. Despite this, it was a beautiful afternoon. We caught the train back to Rouen at a perfect time. As we were waiting in line for a taxi, we could hear the fireworks going off. We raced down to the waterfront and got to see some really beautiful fireworks, and more people than I’ve ever seen in Rouen, combined ;) .
It's time for bed! Big day ahead tomorrow! Class and a trip to Bruxelles in Belgium for the weekend.
Bisous!
<3 Lisa
Monday we went to the World War II memorial museum in Caen, Normandy and then went to the American Cemetery where all of the American soldiers who died in Normandy, mainly from the D-day invasion. It was enlightening to watch the video in the museum showing the invasion and the progress the Allies made, then to go to the Cemetery. It’s hard to believe all of the horror that happened in this beautiful country, only 60 years ago, and how times have changed. It made me thankful to be living now in a time of (semi) peace, where I’m not terrified of my country’s enemies taking over and destroying everything I’ve ever known, and hurting my family and friends, and how unfortunate it was that 5,000 young men had to fight and risk their lives so that we could all live freely.
Our next stop was Mont St. Michel. This was my 3rd time visiting le Mont Saint Michel, but it’s just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as the first time. There was a spring tide and was still covering the parking lot, so we parked down the street a little bit, and we walked down. As we were walking, we realized that the tide was receding, so we called Tony and Caroline, and hitched a ride back with them, and splashed around a bit in the water. After our tour of Mont St. Michel (same tour guide as last time, btw), we raced back to the vans and headed to the other side of Mont saint michel’s bank (it’s essentially on an island, well it was back in the day at least), and met our guide to walk across through the tides to Mont St Michel. It was sooo nice! The guide pointed out a skate egg sac (mermaid’s purse), a cuttlefish bone, a bryozoans colony (I was quite impressed by this because of one of our trips in Bermuda and the time we spent searching for them), and some sponges. It was really cool to walk through the silt and get stuck in the quick sand! Mont Saint Michel was amazing, perfect trip
Joyeux fête de bastille!!
Yesterday was Bastille Day—French Independence Day. A group of us went into Paris to check it out. Upon arriving in Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, a thunderstorm hit. I guess it was due—it was the first time it rained since I’ve been here…. 3 weeks. After the rain subsided, we walked around Notre Dame, did some touristy shopping and headed toward la Place de la Concorde and walked down the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees was insane! Soo many people everyone! I was a bit surprised though. I was sort of expecting to see a bunch of red, white and blue (French colors too, not just American) everyone and a lot of celebrations, but it seemed like the rain washed away some of the cheer. Despite this, it was a beautiful afternoon. We caught the train back to Rouen at a perfect time. As we were waiting in line for a taxi, we could hear the fireworks going off. We raced down to the waterfront and got to see some really beautiful fireworks, and more people than I’ve ever seen in Rouen, combined ;) .
It's time for bed! Big day ahead tomorrow! Class and a trip to Bruxelles in Belgium for the weekend.
Bisous!
<3 Lisa
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The lone "intrepid" traveler
Bon soir tout le monde!! Sorry we haven’t written in a while…. Life has been very busy! So from this point on, this is Lisa. I’m currently in Rouen, capital of Haut Normandy where Monet painted and where Jeanne d’Arc was tried and burned at the stake. I met up with my professors and classmates this past Wednesday. Since then it feels like we’ve been going non-stop! We spent some time in Rouen taking a guided walking tour and exploring—it’s a wonderful city. You should definitely check it out if you ever have the opportunity. It’s incredible how much history and charm one city can hold (generally true for all of the towns and cities I’ve visited so far).
This is the summer holiday for many Frenchmen, so my desires to catch a last minute train to somewhere exotic were crushed, but we learned of the most amazing deal Haut-Normandy has to offer: the weekend regional pass. We jumped on a train and headed to Dieppe, a town on the coast, to explore more of Normandy and to go to the beach! Unfortunately it was insanely overcast at the beach (which is made of pebbles, not sand), so after dipping my feet in (other side of the Atlantic!) we went to tour the château-musée here, which was full of maritime history, ivory statues and carvings and impressioniste paintings. Even though we couldnt travel as far as we wantted, Dieppe was the perfect little day trip!
Today was really nice—started with a French, catholic mass at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (a bit of culture shock there to an American, Lutheran girl), but it was definitely worth the confusion to attend mass in a medieval cathedral! Afterwards, we went to the outdoor market—soo many fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and other things! It's a nice tradition. Everyone has been so kind and helpful, and perhaps even amused by us! It's been great :)
In the morning we’re headed to the D-day beaches and memorial, then south to Mont Saint Michel where we’ll walk to the island!! That being said, bonne nuit tout le monde!
Bisous !
Lisa
Ps. The epic post will be a collaboration from the 3 of us…. Get ready for it!
This is the summer holiday for many Frenchmen, so my desires to catch a last minute train to somewhere exotic were crushed, but we learned of the most amazing deal Haut-Normandy has to offer: the weekend regional pass. We jumped on a train and headed to Dieppe, a town on the coast, to explore more of Normandy and to go to the beach! Unfortunately it was insanely overcast at the beach (which is made of pebbles, not sand), so after dipping my feet in (other side of the Atlantic!) we went to tour the château-musée here, which was full of maritime history, ivory statues and carvings and impressioniste paintings. Even though we couldnt travel as far as we wantted, Dieppe was the perfect little day trip!
Today was really nice—started with a French, catholic mass at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen (a bit of culture shock there to an American, Lutheran girl), but it was definitely worth the confusion to attend mass in a medieval cathedral! Afterwards, we went to the outdoor market—soo many fresh fruits, vegetables, fish and other things! It's a nice tradition. Everyone has been so kind and helpful, and perhaps even amused by us! It's been great :)
In the morning we’re headed to the D-day beaches and memorial, then south to Mont Saint Michel where we’ll walk to the island!! That being said, bonne nuit tout le monde!
Bisous !
Lisa
Ps. The epic post will be a collaboration from the 3 of us…. Get ready for it!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Can you ever just be whelmed? I think you can in europe
Happy fourth sorry we haven't updated in a bit French hotels don't have all te wifi that they promise but stolen wifi from the applestore outside the louvre works! We are safe and sound and having a blast don't worry we will have am epic post to update you soon.
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