Catie Goes to Grenoble

08 September 2010

I love Paris

Today was our final day in Paris before I depart of Grenoble and get settled. While my aunt and I were sitting in a cafe drinking a cafe creme, I decided that I love Paris. It is so beautiful with its endless streets of cafes and designer clothing stores. Everyone wears really fancy clothes and shoes and I have seen quite a few women biking in heels. I love the fashion here. What is weird for me is that there are no coffee shops, just cafes that are a coffee shop, bar, and food menu all in one. The wine, cheese, and bread is almost all cheap and delicious. I am proud to say that I bought my first bottle of wine from a store yesterday! Almost everyone I have met here is pretty nice, except when I try to practice my French, most people just start speaking English. One of the best parts is walking through the tall streets and then coming to another random, beautiful church or other sort of monument. Paris is a huge maze.

Photo booth in Paris metro station
I saw someone fixing one a couple days ago, just like in Amelie

Random tower we walked by, but probably not as random as I think

Normal cafe scene with lots of cigarettes

I can order coffee, food, and wine!

Today we first tried to go the the opera house made famous by The Phantom of the Opera. It would have been cool to see, but the auditorium was closed because there was rehearsal. Next we went to the small perfume museum and bought some small bottles of Fragonard perfume. I bought a bottle of perfume from there when I turned 16.

Sculpture outside the opera house
This was also in the Orsay

Next we took the metro the the Mosquee de Paris. This was probably the most challenging, but interesting part of the trip so far. There were very few tourists in this part of the city and some homeless people. The building was very intricately decorated and very different from the style of the other parts of Paris that I have seen. There was lots of north African and Middle Eastern influence in the architecture of the building as well as the food. The man selling copies of the Quaran and other books in Arabic was very nice, and showed us where the restaurant was on the other side of the mosque. He welcomed us to Muslim Paris and told us he was from Algeria. We ate some tasty couscous and some of the best mint tea I have ever had! Very few people spoke English in that area, so I had to try a little bit harder with my French.

One of the many walls decorated like this in the mosque

Gardens inside mosque

Herald next to the best cup of mint tea ever

At this point it started to pour outside and umbrellas popped up everywhere. I didn't have one; no one uses umbrellas in Seattle! We made it to the Maison Victor Hugo after a rainy walk and looked around that for a while. He is one of my favorite authors, so it was cool to see a desk that he wrote some of his novels on.

Me and Victor chillin at his house

Where all of Victor's magic happened. I'm talking about the writing of course.

Stairs in his house

Finally, we made it to the Centre Pompidou where I saw a bunch of modern paintings and sculpture. We got to walk through the Jewish district, which was definitely a change from the cathedrals and mosque that we saw. It was pretty cool to see paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Dhali, but seeing so many museums in so few days is a bit overwhelming.

Sculpture garden across from Pompidou

Inside the Pompidou

Pretty art

Picasso

Furry painting

Cute bench

Love and art

07 September 2010

Walking and famous paintings

This morning we woke up to the news informing us that a bunch of French government employees protesting the change of the retirement age to 62 from 60. In words, a fraction of the metro system was closed because people were on strike. People seem pretty unhappy about the change in the retirement age because the French seemed pretty proud of it. Today was filled with a lot of walking for us, which actually ended up being pretty cool because we got to see lots of interesting and less-touristy streets than we would have if we used the metro (despite how efficient it is).

Because of my allergy to nuts, I have been a little afraid of eating a pastry for breakfast and finding out there are nuts in it. So this morning I picked up some yogurt from the supermarket next to our hotel. The yogurt I got was in little pottery pots so I got an infusions of two of my favorite things: yogurt and pottery. I am exited because I can use them as water glasses when I get to Grenoble.

Me with my pot of yogurt!

Anyway, this morning we first went to the Musee rodin where there are a bunch of sculptures which are some of my favorite artwork. Here is some of what we saw:

Thinking hard like I will be when I force myself to learn French

Not as much thinking when you don't have a head

Pretty emotional angel

Le Baiser, Ouai!

We next walked to the Musee d'Orsay where there were beautiful paintings as well as hordes of people. It was worth it though: we saw so many famous paintings by Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Vlaminck, and more. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but the art was really amazing. I feel a bit guilty not having taken an art history class and I think I would understand the artwork better and appreciate it more. One of my favorite paintings was Olympia by Manet, which I bought a postcard of.

After the Orsay, we visited the Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral and sat outside Notre-Dame because there were so many people. We stopped at a cafe on the way back to the hotel (which was pretty far) and got a crepe and some beer. In case anyone was wondering, NEVER order Panache because it is sweet and super nasty. 1664 is a really good French (?) beer though.

Inside the Sainte-Chapelle

Lower part of Saint-Chapelle

Notre-Dame, Our Lady over 800 years old
Quasimodo must be there somewhere in that symphony of stone.

Paris street

Pretty street poster

Apparently there is a request to see more pictures of Herold, so here they are!

Herold ready for the long flight

Herold on top of the Arc de Triomphe
He got some pretty funny looks by a couple British tourists

Herold chillin by the Seine and the Louvre

06 September 2010

All the rooftops in Paris

So, I made it to France! After months of anticipation and planning, it is amazing that I can actually sit in a Parisian cafe and drink a glass of wine while admiring the beautiful buildings and trying to use a little bit of French. My Aunt Debbie (who is traveling with me until I start school in Grenoble) and I did just that yesterday after a long flight and excursion via the Paris metro system that traveling with all my luggage didn't make any easier. The wine, bread, and cheese is so good here, just like everyone always says!

After getting our stuff to the hotel and eating dinner, we around the base of the Eiffel Tower. There were a ton of tourists, unsurprisingly, and various people selling miniature gold, silver, and bronze statues of the tower. It was interesting to see people from all around the world whether they were tourists or Parisians themselves.

The Eiffel Tower

Vendor near the Eiffel Tower

Today we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe which was also really touristy, but still really cool because I felt like I could see all of Paris from the top! I could see the Eiffel Tower (of course), the opera house, Sacre-Coeur, the Louvre, and a bunch of other cool buildings.

The Arc de Triomphe

The lots of stars to the top of the Arc

Statue at the top of the Arc
He looks a little unhappy

View from the top

The tourists (including myself) are always pretty obvious because of what they wear, but that is okay. I love seeing Parisians with really nice shoes, jackets, and jeans. I have seen quite a few Armani, Guess, Lulu Lemon, and Gucci labels, especially walking down the Champs Elysees. The stores had some really neat clothing and shoes that reminded me a little bit of Lady Gaga.

Some pretty hot manikins