I'm taking over Paris. Join me.

To my family, and loyal fans3

2010-04-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well since the volcano erupted and I'm stuck here, I decided to let my family and loyal fans enjoy Paris with me. Sorry Tura I didn't get one for you even though you read my blog, because I found out too late.

Strolling through Paris

2010-03-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

So for our last walk in the book, the professor from the French department decided we should just flow and wander, and get lost. Like a flâneur! Which is equivalent to lounger, stroller, etc...which sounds kinda lazy but is considered very cool and urban thing to do. Someone who appreciates his surrounding, and someone who enjoys life. Warning: This entry might be boring. It's more introspective, and for myself, kind of like a journal than anything.

Well I get lost plenty when I try to find places I looked up online, or even when I'm following the walks book. But this last monday, I decided I would go flâner! It was the warmest it had been in Paris since I've been here, and it was sunny, two rare things in Paris that seldom go together in these months. I had just watched a French movie called L'arnacoeur, and had a few hours to kill, and the metro was full of people rushing about after work so I decided to walk!

I didn't take any pictures as I wanted to just enjoy my surroundings, without thinking. I wanted to look at these magnificent architecture that everybody rushes by, or sees with their camera lenses more than with their own eyes. I started with wandering around Les Halles, where the streets were empty, and then I decided I would cross the river on the Pont Neuf!

Stopped on the bridge a while and admire Paris from both sides of it. Simply beautiful. There's a feeling, a feeling so strong of heritage, of history, or art, of love, of freedom, of thought. Its everywhere in Paris.

So romantic. If I ever find the woman of my dreams I'm going to bring her here. I've already decided on our honeymoon. I'm sure she won't complain. Then I strolled along the river Seine because the Parc du Square Galant was closed. Although the Seine isn't pretty by any natural standard, nor is it particularly clean, it is beautiful because of the bridges and the buildings surrounding it. It is beautiful because of the people walking alongside of it, it's a popular make out spot, as I noticed while walking along. Again with the romantic feelings in Paris.

Interesting enough, I didn't feel lonely. I felt happy for this couple, and all the other couples I saw. When I first got to Paris, I thought I was independent. I've lived alone for a while, I served a mission, etc...but that first few weeks I did not like traveling around Paris alone. I always wanted to go do what others did, or tried to invite others to do stuff with me. But now, I love traveling alone. In this grand and majestic city! In Italy as well. I know this is going off topic but I think Dr. Olivier wanted us to examine ourselves which is why he gave us this "get lost" walk. I'm more confident than ever, I've relearned how to enjoy my own compny, to slow down, and live a little, and to have fun. Something I seem to have forgotten in college, with work, and school, and other stuff. When I go back to Provo, I think I will probably be the best I've been my whole life. Things that happened on this study abroad reminded me of myself when I was younger. A more innocent, more simple me. A care-free me.

Pondering aside, I then decided to walk in and look for a metro stop, since they're supposed to be everywhere. While doing so, I passed by the Medical school of University of Paris, with Descartes name on it. And soon enough I found a metro station. I know this entry may seem short, but that hour and a half doesn't need to be described with words. It probably can't. There wasn't anything magical or super cool that I saw, it's just the fact that I was free and had no plans. I hope to remember to always enjoy myself in life, wherever I am.

La vie est belle.

Cemetery and Da Vinci Code!

2010-03-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am now down to one last walk. Finished my numbers 19 and 20 recently, and now I just have to "get lost" for my final one. I'll tell you how that goes later. So we finally made it to Pere LaChaise. I've been waiting for it to warm up a bit, and now it has. Rebecca, Rosalie, Haley, and even Emily came! Plus Shaina and Garrett. It was a pretty large group, larger than I usually do it, but it was fine and fun and we mingled around.

This cemetery was HUGE. It was so pretty too. Reminded me of Mt. Auburn cemetery in Boston but so much bigger! 188 Acres. The flora isn't as pretty as Mt. Auburn, and neither is there a Mt. to see the whole cemetery but it definitely has cooler tombstones. Take a look at this first pic. There's two roads beside it with their own names! I can't remember who this guy was and even looking in the Paris walks books it's too hard to tell. I just know Shaina said he's famous for some reason haha.

We then saw our first Chinese tomb, and Garrett insisted that I get in and do a peace sign. I didn't succumb to that idea but I took a pic next to it thinking there weren't going to be a lot of Chinese ones, but there turned out to be quite a few more around!

This is Oscar Wilde's tomb. We took a group picture where we all kissed it. I don't know who has it but I'll post it when I get it. It's interesting how all these girls kiss it even though he was gay. And then Garrett pointed out to me (he didn't kiss it) that it made me gay.

This is my favorite piano composer right now's grave. Chopin! I love his nocturnes.
This is Jim Morrison's grave. He's a famous american. I didn't know him before. But according to Wikipedia and my friend, he's really famous. He's in the Doors, according to Mike.
We also took a picture at the cemetery hiding behind tombs and this French guy got a little ticked at us. I didn't think it was being irreverent since we weren't desecrating anything but just peeking out behind the tombs. Oh well. I mean it's more like monuments but I see his point. We all pretended we didn't speak French and Rosalie pointed towards Garret as the French speaker in our group.

There was another walk we did just west of the Latin Quarter. I call it the Da Vinci Code walk because that's the main attraction for the walk. I mean there were some other pretty cool stuff like the little old streets too, and the two bakeries but this Cathedral was cool. It was full of Corinthian Columns. I think that's what they are at least. And the organ is amazing as you can see from the pic below. This picture directly below is the "Rose line" but really it's not. Dan Brown just based his book off these "facts" that were fabricated in the 1960's.

This is just a random statue the Ministry of Culture had commissioned in 1985. I think CC would like it.

5 walks in 3 days! Part 3 and a half

2010-03-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

So I'll finish off the last walk I did on Friday, the Latin Quarter one, and then I'll go through a walk I started my second week here, but finally finished earlier this week between classes. It was cold and the girls and Mike as well didn't want to finish it that time.

So here goes. Latin Quarter, so named because of the many institutions of Higher learning in the area, which were originally taught in Latin, is really quite an interesting place. Very lively, and the prices are very reasonable even though it's really close to Notre Dame and surrounding touristy areas. This is because of the students that need to go there and eat! It has a lot of restaurants, and I can tell the night life is amazing even though we went around 3-5 pm. Here's two pics of the street.

Then we went to L'église Saint-Séverin. I thought this was amazing and one of my favorite Churches so far. Look at the unique type of stained glass they got. What I should've checked, (i just missed reading this on the walk) was to see the unique lights on the Church floor from the sun. I'll be back again! There's also this pillar that was built to look like a palm tree.
Oh and here's just random art in the Latin Quarter. I told you it's a lively place! Even Einstein hangs out there.
Then we walked along the Seine and passed by where the Academie Française meets. They're a group of people in charge of keeping the French language pure and allow new words to enter it. I think it's kind of dumb since I feel that the language belongs to the people who speak it. It is fluid, and will change on it's own. These people tried to create a name for e-mail but nobody uses it (it's in our textbooks but my teacher says they still say e-mail). But yeah, this is where they meet:
There's also a bridge Pont des Arts where couples can put a lock on and with their initials signifying their deep and undying love for each other. Quite romantic. I can't remember if this is Rosalie's or not, but she put one for her mission boyfriend. Well, that's it!
Now for the walk that I finished over 6 weeks. It starts at Notre Dame, and I know this sounds bad but it's so close to the school and I've seen it/walked past it/met up in front if it so many times I kind of take it for granted. It's probably one of my favorites on the outside, but inside I prefer some of the smaller Cathedrals. Here's a pic I took the first day! And the next one is from the back which I took during the walk.

Next, right in front of Notre Dame, there's a little museum called the Crypte du Parvis. It shows how Paris just keeps building on older and older stuff, kind of reminds me of Star Wars, where it talks about Coruscant and how things just keep going higher and higher and then the whole world is covered in buildings. It was pretty cool, and pretty cheap but not a "museum" per say I mean seeing a roman ruin underneath, and then a 18th century ruin only takes a few minutes.
We also found a fun little playground french kids play on!! I think we should add this to everywhere in the world!!!! So Fun!
And finally we went to the Conciergerie and Saint-Chapelle. Conciergerie served as a royal residence, prison at different points in time. Ironically, it is where Marie Antoinette was held before her death. I took a few pictures but then read a sign saying they're not completely sure where she was held as it had undergone many renovations so I feel like I would be lying by posting them and saying this is where she was. But it was still a nice pleasant visit. Then I went to St-Chapelle. Probably my favourite Cathedral indoors. Just look at its gothicness. It is so rich and vibrant and colorful yet somber at the same time. It's even free since I was a student so I'm definitely going to go back. Here's some pics. They're doing renovations so I don't have a pic of the whole main hall, but when I come back next year or so I'll take one!

Marathon of Walks! Part II

2010-03-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

Alright here goes the other 3 weeks. We did this all on Friday, yesterday. First we started Marais Walk 2. It was great because we got to eat Falafel for lunch! These chickpea balls! Serve me food like this and I can become a vegetarian. Also this Jewish Synagogue is designed by the Art Nouveau guy Hector Guimard as well, his wife was a Jew. It's supposed to look like an open Torah scroll.

Next we passed by this whole area just full of Jewish people/things/stores/restaurants. You see the stores with Hebrew words, and the men wearing yarmulke. Then we went to a national library, but I didn't think it was that cool as it was closing as we got in (at around 1 pm I think it was their lunch break). I mean the outside was very impressive. A huge mansion and other buildings interconnected!! But then we went to the Musée Cognacq-Jay and saw a lot of cool things. It was a smaller museum but still had a lot of famous people that I learned about in my Art History class such as Greuze and Boucher and Hubert Robert. Oh there were a few paintings by Monet too. Here's some cool furniture:

Picasso museum was closed...and has been for like 2 years and is doing like a 4 year renovation. I guess I'll have to wait till the next time I come back.
Then we did the Grands Boulevards Walk! Which is so titled because Baron Haussmann transformed Paris' old narrow streets into the beautiful Paris it is today. I really enjoyed this short walk because we got to see some pretty architecture and go around the shopping area. First we went to this Printemps store that had a promotion going on for Alice in Wonderland!! It was pretty neat! Also, the other pics are inside Galéries Lafayette. It's a cool department store kind of like Asian style because it's a few floors. But it is definitely the prettiest mall I've been too. And then the pics of me in front of Palais Garnier, the old Paris Opera house. We didn't pay to tour the inside because there were rehearsals and we wouldn't be allowed to see the main thing. The other tourists were dumb and still paid to go in. We'll just buy a ticket to a ballet in a few weeks and then I'll post pics but just from the bookstore I can tell you that it is really beautiful! Interview with a Vampire was filmed here, and The Phantom of the Opera is based on this theatre. There's even a tiny lake at the bottom too!!

Then we saw a Joan of Arc statue and Place Vendôme, which Napoleone celebrates his victories against the Austrians and allies. He melts down the cannons to make this! It's also the place of a lot of really fancy and expensive stores. Chopin lived in the little square and right across the street is the Ritz hotel where Princess Diana left the night of her fatal crash just a few minutes away. Her lover's father owned that Ritz hotel (he might still own it for all I know). The pic with the limousines is the Ritz hotel. Even Ernest Hemingway liked it. Just a few houses to the left of it was where Chopin died. It's not in the pic. And then the tower in the middle is just Napoleon in a Roman costume. And then Joan of Arc. Well I think I will have to add a part 3 and finish the last walk update tomorrow. Too tired.

Marathon of Walks. 5 in 3 days. PART I

2010-03-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Wow. So some of us decided we want to finish our walks soon so that we have time do do whatever we want at the end of the study abroad, and just go back to the ones we really enjoy. So Rosalie, Rebecca, and I have been going at it crazily! They are actually doing 6 in 3 days, but I already did that. So here goes Part I. The walks we did on Thursday, and Today (2 each), and the other 3 we did yesterday will be in Part II.

So the one we did on Thursday, right after the Salon D'agriculture (which was a blast fyi, I will post more after I'm done with the walks), was the Seizième Arrondissement walk. I thought we would see Mansions since it's like the rich area of town, but there were just really nice apartments. I guess it's like Taipei where some apartments are ridiculously expensive. Anyways, we started out at this tiny island Allée des Cygnes which is really a dyke meant to protect a harbor on the Seine. Here's me walking on the bridge that connects to the little island.

I guess in National Treasure 2, Nicholas Cage flies an airplane or something around here. It goes from the Eiffel Tower then back here and then he goes to this little Statue of Liberty that Bartholdi used to create the big one in New York City.

We then move on to see the building titled Castel Béranger. It's designed by Hector Guimard and shows Art Nouveau's style in France. It's a type of architectural design. The professor that wrote this walk, Dr. Robert Erickson, really likes this style. I think almost every one of his walk has something about Art Nouveau. It's a pretty cool apartment, but we just aren't able to go inside as it's still a private building. And the places he made us see on the Metro walk were just so far out of the way, when all around Paris we see some of the same Art Nouveau designs. Anyways, I saw a house by Hector Guimard that I really want to see. It's in Normandie though unfortunately. Enjoy these ones in Paris for now:

Then we walked down a cool little cobblestone path. It was really nice and quite, and I liked how we got off the main paths. It's rue Berton, and it's quite narrow. Supposedly it pretty much stayed the same in the last 200 years. There was also this museum we went to called Maison de Balzac, but since nobody knew who he was, we didn't feel like going in. I guess he's a famous French writer. There was a nice pretty garden outside of the house that we relaxed a bit. (the walk is really long distance wise, and we've been up a lot for the Salon d'agriculture). tThen we went to a tiny mall with bathrooms! I thought it's funny it's included in the walk, but I think it's great since we do need to use it sometimes and Paris does not have much public bathrooms. And then we left to the Park! Les jardins du Ranelagh. There was the little carousel with a man pushing it. Haha. I didn't expect it to be so old-school but it looked fun and the kids had fun trying to stick their sticks into the rings!

After that we went to the Musée Marmatton but we weren't allowed to take pictures. There were quite a few famous people in there, including Monet, Renoir, etc... and some other people we learned about in our Art History class. Oooh I feel so cultured now. I have a new favourite contemporary (relatively) artist. His name is otis or something but I lost the postcards I bought for now, hopefully I find it soon. I've just been so tired and busy, I got home Thursday and spent like 2 hours just relaxing and then went to bed. Friday I was gone 13 hours from 11 pm to a little past midnight. So I need a day to just relax and get everything organized cuz right now it's pretty much I wake up and then shower and rush out the door! I also saw Monet's first painting, Impression, Sunrise, that gave name to the Impressionism movement. Then we looked at the Bois Boulogne which wasn't that cool from the outside, but one of these days I might go back and stroll through it. Its supposed to be dangerous at night too. It was only 5 pm I think but we were just tired.

Today (saturday) we did the Bastille Walk, or the Walk of the Manifs (Protestors)
This walk goes through where French people have been protesting for hundreds of years, since the French Revolution. It's significant because they go down this road and it leads to where the old Bastille Prison was. We started by looking around at Saint martin Canal. It smelled a little bit and it's supposedly built in order to bring fresh water...but I guess that was like 200 years ago so. This looks so magical in Amélie the movie haha. Oh well. I think the music helps a lot too.

Then we went to the place de la République and guess what, there were people protesting!! I had hoped for the same since it was Saturday, and starting to warm up a bit. Shaina was saying they're protesting against the French law that forbids Muslim women from covering their head, among other things. It's like a group against female suppression I think.

They were even in the process of putting their "uniform" on one of the statues:

So the walk goes on for like another mile or two, but the book said we can just skip it and go to their end destination which is the Bastille area! This is where the former prison stood. Now there's a really new Opera house, and a ton of restaurants. This is what's left of the foundation. They found it while digging for the metro.

Then we went to this street that had a bunch of art boutiques, and on the top of it was this old railroad track they changed into a park/running track. That's jolly Bart. It was pretty cool but we didn't walk far since it was 2 pm and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. So we went to Quality Burger Restaurant !!! :)

Surprise on our walk!

2010-03-02T09:27:00.000-08:00

So this walk is pretty short, and not THAT interesting for me personally. Mostly because we can't "do" anything and the fact that the little cannon didn't go off. I'll explain what that is in a second. But it still became really fun because we sort of saw Angelina Jolie filming a movie. And we got interviewed by a French tv channel! Anyways, we started out with the Palais Royal, which is just next to the Louvre. It is here where we started the walk last Tuesday, and ended up not finishing it because Angelina Jolie was filming in this café right along our walk. I was right across the street from this café and was wondering what's going on when I heard these Japaense tourists next to me say "Angelina Jolie" in a very strong accent. I'm pretty sure I saw her back. She's pretty tall. Here's a pic the papparazi who I saw with huge cameras were able to take. They are very good at their jobs. I tried taking some but they kept blocking my camera with their hands or umbrellas.

Here's my across the street. You only see two guys there blocking the crosswalk which is why I was able to take this picture, but like 30 seconds later there were more guys who stopped me from taking pics.

Anyways, on to the walks. We started with a shopping mall called Le Louvre des antiquaires. It is really an antique mall and it's very expensive, so much so that almost all of the stores didn't list prices. The professor who wrote this walk said that he saw George Lucas shopping for furniture while he was writing this walk. One day I will buy a cool piano like this (but I also want a black/red one like that one in the Cité de la Musique):

Then we head over to the Palais Royal, where Cardinal Richlieu used to live, he just gave it to the King before he died. It's a nice little place, but we weren't allowed to go inside. Here's some columns a French architect added. When the government found out what he was trying to do, they tried to cancel the contract with him, but he won and ended up still building this:

It just doesn't really fit in with the old architecture, but then again, they thought the same about the Eiffel Tower. I think it's fine. Also those green pants I was wearing was filmed by Canal+ Le grand journal. Whether or not we ever got aired, I don't know, but I don't think so from what I saw online. This guy and his cameraman stopped us and asked if we were tourists. Then he asked us some questions about it, and says its funny that Angelina Jolie is filming a movie called "The Tourist" right there! What are our thoughts of Paris, and what do you think the Parisians think of us! One of the things I said was that Parisians dress very well but they need more colors. Then Haley or Chelsea pointed out that they need to wear colored pants like mine and the cameraman focussed on my pants. Haha, it was kinda crazy.
So the following is the little cannon that I read about online, and there's even a plaque there saying that it goes off every day at noon thanks to the sun. But I've been there two times, both cloudy and sunny and it hasn't gone off!! So that made me sad. Also Haley and Chelsea thought it was too small, I told them it was small but they didn't believe me. It was built when France tried to do their own Meridian of time. So that time "starts" there. But we all know it is in Greenwich! But for like 30-40 years in the 19th Century, they kept insisting on this until they finally conformed to the rest of the world.
Then I visited a covered passage/mall called Passage des Panorams, and the Bourse (French Stock Market).

From Marsh to City!

2010-02-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was Friday, and I decided I should do the walk titled Marais Part 1. Marais means marsh in french, and this part of Paris used to be all swampy and marshy! Until they started taking the water out and now voilà! It's really close to where the Church/Institute building we meet at is. It's quite interesting as the Marais area is now known as a place for the Jews to congregate (Saturday pretty much everything is closed), and also for the Gays. Two groups of people that have been persecuted throughout time. And then there's the Mormons.

Anyways, Chelsea was kind enough to show me around again even though she had already done it. She said it's a nice area, and she's quite right! It's really attractive and not many tourists at all go there. This time we didn't go into the really predominantly Jewish quarters. It was beautiful after the first 30 minutes of the walk when we were poured upon! So the pics may look nice but just remember that my hair was wet this entire walk because I didn't bring an umbrella since it was sunny when I left the house. Good ol' Parisian weather.

First thing worth noting on the walk is this wall. It's been here for a long time since Philippe Auguste aroun 1200 AD. Paris has become a lot bigger now. A LOT bigger. I guess it's not really that interesting. It's just an old wall but it's 800 years old!

We then walked past this place that I thought was a lock-smith. Look at those cool keys! Turns out it's just a antiques store that sells tools/old keys. And they were closed for this week's ski vacation. Yeah I know, pretty cool how they have a week off from school to go to the Alps huh? My host family went but the father got injured the first day and broke his leg so they came back early.

We then go to this beautiful square/garden/ park called Place des Vosges. It's so pretty and surrounded by these beautiful buildings. By this time it was nice and sunny and I was really enjoying myself. Henri IV who was a pretty smart king built the square, but he died before it was built. One side of the square was just for the royal family, but the other lots were sold to nobility who had to promise to build theirs with similar design to have one uniform look. I think neighborhoods should do that more often!

Then we went to Musée Carnavalet, a FREE museum that shows the history of Paris. It's actually pretty cool, and I was really impressed since Chelsea said it wasn't that good when she went in. But this time she really enjoyed it when we went to some different areas. Look at this replica below of the Bastille tower. It's actually made out of one of the original stones from the Bastille. The guy hired to destroy the building started selling these. He's a real businessman!

Also there was some cool stuff that belonged to Napoleon:

Next we have a walk that sees Paris in all of its' glory. Started out on Champs-Elysées, but we didn't go down it. We go to this bridge named after Czar Alexander III. It was built near the end of the 19th Century to show the strong relationship France had with Russia. Look at the halo around the sun too! We didn't notice it until Courtney pointed it out 20 minutes later, but it was hard to take pictures of it since we can't aim properly when the sun is so bright.

There's a pic of me on the bridge:

Then we went to the Rodin museum. It was way cool, I love the raw energy the statues exude. They are so big, and out there, yet so real. Their fleshy meat is imperfect yet so muscular, but also so realistic. That's the thinker. I spend the first 10 minutes of the time in the museum thinking about him.

These amazing hands!

And the Gates of Hell. I'm trying to figure out how I can get in.

I also looked at a few of Van Gogh's paintings. Then we headed to the EIffel Tower. I've already been here a few times and so I just took a few random pics. I've been collecting pictures of kis playing soccer or ball or whatever in the coollest places. Take a look at this one below:

I wish I grew up playing ball there!
Then we went to les Invalides, which is this musem place for the military of France. It was really big and really cool showing all sorts of weapons from the last few centuries. It even showed a few asian ones that I think they got from trading back in the day. Here's a cool Knight:

We were running out of time as the museum was closing and we only had an hour in it so I'll have to go back and actually look through the WWI/WWII exhibits in longer than 10 minutes. And also I want to check out the 19th Century weapons room. We skipped to Napoleon's tomb instead!

He actually did quite a bit of stuff and I can tell a lot of the French people there really respected him still. I remember in Choates history class learning about the equality he distributed to citizens, and the education he standardized etc... I guess France was in a mess after their revolution and he unified the country and made it another force in Europe!
Well that was a really fun walk! Ciao!

"Flea Market" Walk, and my Fabulous Destiny!

2010-02-20T09:05:00.001-08:00

So today I did another walk! It's called the Flea Market walk, but it's not really a flea market, at least not the ones I'm used to. It's more of an antiques/collectibles mall! Here's a few pics of what it looks like, with the pics that I was able to sneak without the owners seeing. It's cool but they're all expensive and all look the same after awhile. They just gild the furniture with gold and do the same fleur-de-lis like designs. Oh by the way, CC if you're reading this don't worry, I finished walk #10 so only 11 more to go then I can blog more about whatever I want.

I'M WATCHING YOU TOO!

Then I followed my own walk based off of the movie Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain! Here's where the beginning of the movie starts out in Montmarte, with the cobblestone streets:

And here's the mean grocer, M. Colignion's place:

This is the station Amélie takes the blind guy to, but it wasn't as cool because there was no accordion music, nor was the street connecting even the same as the one she took him down. The ones around the station weren't very lively at all.

And of course we couldn't do the walk without visiting the place she works at, les DEUX MOULINS!

It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and way crowded now that it's famous plus it was a Saturday. Notice the gnome in the background:
I love the table papercloth thingy they had! I wanted to take it home instead of eating on it ( I ended up spilling water over it anyways haha).

And the food I got was a Tartare! It's like raw ground beef with onions and some good spices and onions. It was deeelish. I didn't feel it was raw at all. Courtney got a burger medium rare, but it's more like a rare for an american like her haha and she couldn't finish it. But if you ever get a chance you should try this:

A Royal Garden, and an Aristocrat's house.

2010-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Two walks to update on, not to mention London I guess, but just been lazy plus tired after the traveling. But I need to update these walks or else I will never finish them and forget what they are about. So first we did a walk that started at the Montparnasse station. It's named after the Tour Montparnasse (it means Montparnasse Tower in english), and which is in turn named after a Greek Mountain by poets in Paris. I guess that mountain was believed to have mythical creatures or something. Anyways, most Parisians still don't like it cuz it's too big and just sticks out in the skyline. It is the biggest tower in France, and after it was built they banned skyscrappers so now every tall building is built in the Defénse district that I showed in the other walk. It's modelled after the World Trade Center, and there was supposed to be two towers built as well but because of the ban it never got built. It's a little interesting huh? now that the World Trade Center is gone.

Then we went to Alfred Dreyfus' statue. He was a Jew who was accused wrongly of treason and the French government put him in really harsh conditions for years until he was freed, even a few years after they found out he was innocent. It just showed the anti-semitism they had back then. He was a true patriot and still served his country in WWI after, and this statue was supposed to be placed in the Military museum but kept getting shunted all the way here....where no tourists know about it and the every day citizens could care less. It's kinda sad actually but I thought it was cool my history teacher I believe it was Choates told me a little about him.

Then we went to the Jardin Luxembourg. It's quite beautiful and it's another example of French jardin (garden). It's really rigid and symmetrical and you can't walk on the grass etc... Supposed to be the triumph of reason and culture over the disorder of nature with the firm geography. I thought it was pretty but not like a "fun" park since it's so orderly. I prefer a little chaos, call me an agent of chaos if you will!

It was sooo pretty but still cold. We thought it would be ok that day since it was sunny, but look at the fountain! It's still icing over. I'm definitely going to come back in March/April.

And now for the Aristocrats' walk! It was pretty much two museums that were owned by really rich people in the 18th Century and then converted to a museum. A cool local park was squashed in between but throughout this walk, I kept thinking about the type of house I would like to have and design. Definitely a lot of mirrors, and chandeliers! We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside either houses but it was true luxury! Every room was really extravagantly done! There were paintings in pretty much every room with awesome frames, and they collected some really expensive pieces of art. Also, there was gold in pretty much every room, and lot's of mirrors! I will have lot's of mirrors in my house too! In the musée Jacquemart-andré there was a few rooms dedicated to Italian art, and I think I'd like to have a few rooms dedicated to certain cultures as well. Pretty much every room had gold in it!

I'm more of a minimalist myself but I think I will have one room that will be extravagant like the way they did it. Oh and a double spiral staircase!!!! That was probably my favorite little architecture of the day. And I think I would like my portrait to be painted instead of just a picture. Each of my family members as well!

Anyways the outside of the Musée Jacquemart-André:

And I just had to pose next to an European Lion statue cuz it's so different from the asian ones.

Here's the Parc Monceau, it's not more english style cuz kids can play in it and stuff even though most of the grass is still marked off.

I thought it looked really real but these ruins are all fake and it was in vogue to make fake ruins back in the 18th century.

And that's it, time for more planning for my future house!

Monet...et Obelisk! (a walk)

2010-02-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Today was kind of miserable because it was raining. The only good part about walking in the rain, was that the area was simply beautiful. We started off directly at the Jardin du Tuileries because of the rain and went into the Musée Orangerie. Here's a pic of us in the beatiful gardens while under the rain:

So I guess this garden used to have a palace but during the French Revolution they destroyed it. Louis the XVI and his family ran fled through this garden (they didn't flee fast enough obviously). Here's a pic of the fountain that survived. It would be really nice in the summer:

The Museée d'Orangerie hosts a lot of stuff but the main exhibit on the first floor are Monet's impressionist paintings. They are in these huge rooms and are huge. In the background they play classical musical and it really feels like you're in a garden.

That's not saying the bottom floors didn't have anything good. There were a few Picasso's and I'm sure a lot of other famous people that I just didn't know. The temporary exhibit had a lot of cool things about children. The whole thing featured paintings of kids in different ways but we weren't allowed to take pictures there. Here's a Renoir, a famous French guy. The only thing I know was that mama said he likes to paint girls' cheeks really red.

Then afterwards, Lihui (He's the other chinese guy in the rain, he goes to school at the Sorbonne and wanted to hang out with us to practice english but he kept talking to me in madarin the whole time haha. He's from Chengdu-and I had no idea where it was but he says that's where the pandas come from) took us to little Chinatown to eat some hot chinese beef noodles. It was really good. There's one more little Chinatown that he will show me later. By the time we finished the Museum it stopped raining so we continued the walk. We walk to the Palais Elysée...where Nicolas Sarkozy lives. There were a ton of guard all around the palace. They really take this seriously. Here's a picture of one of the older doors,

Then we went to Place de la Concorde where the Luxor obelisk is at. This was called Place de la Revolution at one point and the guillitone was placed just nearby the Obelisk. During that time, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded here, and even Robespierre himself was guillitoned here.

Last of all, just to prove that in the movies, no matter where you are, the Eiffel Tower always seems to be in the background:

Chinatown and a walk @ La Défense: Modern Paris

2010-02-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

So today we were deciding what we wanted to eat for lunch, people all had suggestions and what not and then I said I wanted to eat rice. And Dan was like ok! Let's go to Chinatown so he pulled out his nifty book and off we went to Chinatown. We couldn't really find it at first and we figured all of the buildings would all look the same because the city probably wouldn't let them tear down the old buildings. Finally we ask a storeowner and we found Chinatown, even though it's really just asian stuff in general, mostly Vietnamese. There weren't even that many asians around it either but here's some pics:

I wanted pho because it was chilly but my well-travelled friend Dan thought that the girls wouldn't like it so we didn't. I'll go with him next time ourselves. We ended up going to the "Garden of Eden" and had some pretty traditional stuff. I had some Pai goo Fan (fried pork steak with rice) and it was good. Just good to have some rice after always eating bread and more bread.

We then had went and did our walk @ la Défense because we figured we could do our shopping there as well. The reason it's called La Défense is because of a statue that is there from 1883. It was created to remember the people's defense of the city of Paris against the Prussians in 1870.

What I liked about this walk was we really got to see the metroplitan side of Paris. I mean, sure it's not as cool as the old historic stuff in Paris, but I really like skyscrappers and the big city! Here is where all the businessmen and women are! I guess the reason it was built here is because the ground is soft in Paris with the metro and the sewers, but also because the Parisians didn't want downtown Paris to be ruptured by super tall buildings. Bart prefers the downtown historical feel but I don't see why we can't combine both? He feels that it would not work well. I liked Boston even though they had old and new together. It's kind of how I feel I am, both Canadian, Taiwanese, Chinese, American, and what not. I don't see why one can't mix it all together. Take the best of all of the worlds. Here's some pics of what it looks like:

This walk was only an hour long. It looked nice but I wno't post more pictures because you can honestly see them at any major cities. Bart is right about one thing, historical Paris is much cooler, which is why I think they should just let it meld together (I'm in no way suggesting they open it up completely but that the government allows some buildings to be built that will still preserve architecture). The esplanade (or the road) is what we pretty much just followed. That is all!

College, dead people, and a wild animal...

2010-01-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was freezing but we did a walk kind of as a group. At least 9 people were together, and 4 more were behind (we bumped into them as we finished each museum). Anyways it was the Lutetia Pulchra Est walk, whatever that means. It was really cool, except for the fact that it was freezing. We started out at the Musée de Cluny, which is a Medieval museum. Right next to it were Roman baths but I couldn't get a good picture because it was surrounded by tall fences. This museum used to be a hotel from the 15th century so just walking around and looking at the walls and ceilings was cool enough. My favorite room was the ones with the stained glass. They had artificial light from each side of the wall! I keep marveling at how they made it. See!

We spent about 45 minutes in there and then continued to see the Sorbonne. I guess we aren't allowed inside because back in the 60's people protested there and they don't want rowdy crowds there to protest. Not that anybody would protest when it's FREEZING! It was cool though, it put most of BYU's buildings to shame.

After that, we went to see the dead people in the Pantheon. Here's me looking sick in all black:

A pic from the outside:

There were quite a few famous peole therethere, and still a lot of empty spots for future famous French people. The ones I knew of were Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc... I think this one was Rousseau's:

There was also some murals about St. Genevive. I guess it was originally a Church built in her honor, but before it was finished the French Revolution happened and they seized control of it and started putting famous French people there. Here's one mural:
So it wasn't heated very well, at all....and thus I couldn't wait to leave. We then went to St-Etienne-Du-Mont Church and it was cool but they all kind of looked the same to me by now. We then walked by Pascal's house (math whiz, I heard about him before), and then there was this old wall that Rebecca was saying about how important it was. It used to surround Paris. It was alright, just an old wall, so I'm not gonna post a pic up here. The coolest thing I thought was this old Roman Gladiator arena. I guess it could seat 15,000 and they found it about a hundred years ago when they were digging here. There were even cages for the animals to come out and fight the gladiators! Just like in the movie! Take a look below to see people playing soccer there. It's crazy to think that here in France, an old Roman ruin has become a park. SOO much history.

Finally, the wild animal:

Sensual Walk & a Fake Walk

2010-01-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

So this post will have two walks, one from last week, and one from just yesterday. Let's start with the one from last week. So last Saturday, we did the Madeline Walk: also known as Marcher Le Nez au Vent which translates into something like the Follow your nose to the wind walk. So that's why I call this a sensual walk. First of all, we have our eyes being wowed by the Cathedral of the Madeline. It's a really cool Cathedral, unique in it's Greek-style columns.

Here's a few pictures. The one inside is actually illegal because I saw others taking, but then I found out they weren't supposed to either.

Then we had our taste buds tantalized!! It's called Ladurée and it's really famous in Paris. We had these macarons that were invented here and I had chocolate, orange flower, rose, and strawberry. My favorite were rose and strawberry. Chocolate was alright, I prefer just real chocolate, and orange flower was disgusting. No one else wanted to try it. I tried some of the girls' vanilla and that was good! Caramel was alright too. Here's me trying one:

And look how pretty the inside of the store is!! (That's Brooky's cute hat)

Then we went to this tiy Chapel called Chapelle de L'Assomption, where there was just two elderly ladies worshipping. No tourist at all even though all around were so many tourists shopping. Finally, our noses were awaken by this Perfume "Museum", called Fragonard Musée du Parfum. I didn't take pics at the Church because it was so small and we couldn't take any at the Perfume Store/Museum. But basically this lady took us on a tour but she didn't know english and had pretty much memorized it. She showed us some ways to make perfume, like putting the flowers in water then evaporating the water and letting it condense. The tour itself was only like 10 minutes but the French speaking tour in front of us was way longer. I think I understood more of that than her english. She gave Rosalie a sample ingredient and said it was like Mint or something, but we both smelled it and know for sure that it is NOT what she said.

Then we had a perfume sampling thing which was quite fun actually. I wish there were a cologne sampling. She showed me a few of the cologne being sold but there was hardly any selection. Thanks meimei for the D&G light blue you gave me for Christams btw.

Now time for the fake walk called METRO WALK. You pretty much just sit in the metro most of the time. I decided to do it since it was raining and I just wanted to get it out of the way. Mike was sleeping from 10 am to 4 pm so I just left without him. Started out dumb....then I found a mall, but all the clothes were for girls. There were two H&M's but one was H&M Femme and the other one was H&M Lingerie. That made the walk suck more. Anyways the Paris Metro was built a long time ago, starting in 1900. This is why most of the lines suck compared to the ones I been to. Taiwan's by far is the best but it's only built in 2000. Boston's started in 1905 but overall they updated it better except for a few ghetto stations. But Paris has sooo many ghetto stations. I will admit though, they do have the most amount of lines than any of the other two. It covers more area and is spread throughout Paris.

Take a look at this following picture at our first stop St-Lazare. It's from 1911 which is why the ceiling is vaulted. The colors green and white with some brown shows the two different companies at that time that had their own separate metro systems. This station was created then to allow connection between these two private enterprises. It was later on combined and I think the government owns it now.

This is not part of the walk but I went to Abesses to find a store my host family's son told me about, but I couldn't find it anywhere. But going up the metro station I noticed everyone waited for these 3 elevators to go up...everyone except me. And I saw these cool paintings all up the stairs...and I was like "HA! Those lazy bums are missing out!" But it kept going up, and up, and up, probably 4 stories.

Next stop was Rotonde de la Villette by Jaurès station. This was a tollhouse built by Ledoux to surround Paris to get taxes and stuff but people tore down most of these and the walls around Paris too during the revolution. This survived and because of the rules that forbade construction to be 325 feet away, it allowed for new roads to be built and eventually the Metro system was able to use those free space as well.

Close by was where little Amelie Poulain threw rocks and I think her gold fish:

Then we went to Porte Dauphine to see Art Nouveau Hector Guimard, but I totally saw it and thought it was supposed to be way cooler and then walked all the way around. Turns out it's just this pic below. And since he had similar stuff around Paris I thought it was dumb we had to come all the way here to see it. It was cool to see it that first time in Montmarte but not to ride forever to get here.

Then I finally found a shopping place by Place D'Italie. It's an American-style mall in that everything is inside. There even was sort of a small food court thing. And I bought a sandwich for dinner and some clothes and felt much better. Than to finish off I went to Bastille and looked for the foundation but could not see it anywhere. (later on Bart and them told me it's really small and hard to see unless you get out of the train exactly there). I did see these paintings on the way of the station though:

And then Bart and Dan and Emily sees me and goes crazy with laughter. Turns out that Emily saw an asian guy that she thought was me earlier, and Bart and Dan just started pointing out all the asians after saying it was me, and they were doing it to me, and when they saw my face they couldn't believe it really was me this time. So we finished the walk together by getting on line 14, the newest line, which is the only one that is as nice as the one in Taiwan. If all of Paris Metro were like this I would be happy.

We grabbed hot chocolate after and had a fun time gossiping! The walk didn't turn out so bad after all!

Quickie at the Eiffel:

2010-01-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we had class for the first time. French 201 seems pretty standard. Since I took accelerated French last semester it's schedule is about the same. We only have 90 days here and class is not 5 days a week like it is back in Provo. Then I went shopping at BHV Homme! It was the happiest time of my time here so far. I finally found a place with nice stuff at an affordable rate. Earlier we keep going to these really expensive places that when on sale...at 50% off it's still hundreds of Euro for a pair of jeans or some slacks. One place I got excited to see 60% off.....but it was 60% off of 1000 Euros.

I'll show pics of my new coat later. I also bought a man-purse (the lady assured me it's very masculine) and then got a shirt with skulls on it. The lady told me it's called tête à morte in French. She thought it was funny I liked stuff with skulls on it.

Skye wasn't feeling well so it was just me Rose, Brooklyn, and Mike that went to the Eiffel. We were gonna do a Paris walk but didn't have enough time to get back to the Ricks' for family night. And we just saw the Eiffel Tower was right there and so close we just decided to walk there. Not many people there which was good and it was so exciting. I think our whole lives we always seen it as a symbol of romanticism which is what made is to exciting. It was weird to see these French soldiers in Machine guns patrolling around but at least it's safe right?

We decided we didn't look good enough to take too many pics yesterday, so we'll take more later on and when Skye feels better.

The whole gang (minus Bleue):

This post has been updated a bit.

Paris, Day 4

2010-01-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

So I've been here a few days now but I need to catch up a little bit on stuff from before. I'll start from yesterday, Friday. Everything's good, but Paris is a little dirtier and full of bums/beggars than I thought. They're everywhere! Even more than in Boston and the metro system is quite disgusting. But once you get out to the main streets everything is beautiful! So we went to this Arabic place and ate some Middle Eastern Food. It was alright but a little tame on the taste. Not strong enough I mean. Couscous was good though and the sauce would be too if it had some flavor! Here's a pic of the people on the cool table (Sorry Ro!):

Then some of us went and did the Montmarte walk. It's this area called Montmarte and the most famous thing is the Sacre Coeur Basilica Cathedral. Here's a pic of that:

It was pretty cool! I couldn't take picture inside though. The view from the top was really good too:
Coming up those stairs though, at the entrance are several "Jamaican" guys. They will make you put up a finger and tie this quick bracelet and ask for donations. They are really aggressive so beware. I got tricked into it cuz i was looking around alone and wandering slowly. I noticed these guys were up to something but they will corner you so I figured what the heck I'll pay them 2 euros to avoid trouble. Then they asked for bills and I said no but there is 3 guys by then surrounding you and they try to tough you up. I gave them 2 or 3 more euros and they still weren't happy. By then I got really angry and looked at each of them in the face and said No! And then they backed off. They're not really dangerous so much as con artists. So just beware when you go, especially women. I read online that they intimidate 10-20 euros from women. Anyways I just need to travel more confidently and act like this is my country now! So from then on I been rolling the way I do in the States and in Taiwan. Two French ladies asked me for the time today (meaning I look local now)! No one's gonna mess with me anymore.

Anyways we followed the walk around Montmarte and saw a bunch of places where artists used to live but the only one I knew was Picasso. A lot of the other students knew Renoir but I didn't. This restaurant, called La Maison Rose (or the Pink House, I don't know why...) is where Picasso used to eat lunch at.

Then lastly, we finished at Moulin Rouge. I'm surprised this is part of the walk. Some of the girls that were following me didn't believe it was actually part of the walk and I was making it up. (haha it shows that type of reputation I have). It wasn't as impressive as I thought. I never seen the movie so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Anyways I thought the best part of the walk was when we were just down the street going towards Van Gogh's old house there was all this eatery and stuff and we passed by an elementary school with these cute kids that came out to their parents taking them home. It was just so real and really felt like France. I think I'm often more impressed by simple things like that then just buildings or tourist attractions. In Boston, I remember there was this beautiful street in Charlestown that nobody went to. It was just a residential area that was just so pretty! This neighborhood where I live feels the same too!

3 days to Paris!

2010-01-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

So I was gonna post every other day but I'm leaving in like 3 days so here goes:

Oh and here's the disclaimer: This is not a list of things I intend to do while on this study abroad with BYU as we have the honor code and other study abroad regulations. It is just a list of things I would like to do in France at some point in my life.

1. Visit scenes from Amélie! Adore this movie and Audrey. Here's the Moulin she works at:

And here's the Grocer's shop.

2. Go on strike or Protest something. (Won't be done this trip)

3. Go to a Rugby match. Or football (soccer to us). It's what the locals do! Allez les Bleus!

4. Kiss in a Cemetery. I know this sounds kinda creepy but if you watched Paris Je T'aime you'll know what I'm talking about. They have some amazingly beautiful cemeteries. I'm going to have to do this another time as well, when I'm not on a trip with a bunch of beautiful college girls.

5. Performing on the street! I bought an ocarina this week and hopefully with some of the other students' help we can form a little group and make some money on the street. It's gonna be wicked!

6. Hot tubbing in really expensive hotels. Enough said.

7. Ride on a scooter!! I had one last summer in Provo and it was wicked fun but I'm sure it'll be even more fun with the cool architecture! Just like this scene from Amélie:

11 Days to Paris Countdown: FASHION SHOW

2010-01-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

Sooo there's 10 days left till I leave Asia....and then North America and head to EUROPE! Yes, I know, I feel like those giddy girls that say they're so excited and they've always wanted to go and whatever. But I really am. I've wanted to go since I was 11 years old. I feel like one of the Ashleys from the TV show Recess. Anyways the next ten days I will post a few things I wanna do while I'm there that's not a typical tourist thing (so NOT Eiffel Tower and what not, of course I will do that but I wanna go beyond that and create my own memories).

My first item on the list is to attend a fashion show. Paris is a city of fashion. Of form over functionality. Of style of sensibility. They understand an important truth in life, that appearance does matter. It will be so fun to see clothing I can never pull off! To take pictures of things I'll never afford to buy! To see women I shall never be able to kiss! And to be around people I will never be tall enough to look in the eye.

I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to do this because it's usually by invite only. And I don't even have any idea where they are held at but I'm sure if I dress up nice and go with some hottie boomalotties we can get in. Or I'll just slip the bouncer 20 euros. Or just sneak our way through the back. What I'll probably end up doing is just pretend to be a model and walk in the back.

We should've watched this for our Study Abroad Prep class

2010-01-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

So I watched Paris Je t'aime the other day, which I think everybody who likes French culture should. We really ought to have watched this in my study abroad prep class. I mean the security stuff and intercultural diplomatic thingy were all nice, but I could've summed it up in about 30 minutes. It really shows the real urban mix in modern Paris. It doesn't just show a specific class or race of people, but instead that Paris is truly a diverse group. It even shows the vampires of Paris. Be warned however that this is Rated R in the US, for those who haven't seen one or know what that means, it means it's REALLY good.

Some of the stories were kinda like what? I didn't get it. But in general they were all good pieces showing love in Paris. My favorites were Tuileries, Bastille, Tour Eiffel, Place des Fêtes, and Père Lachaise. Oh and don't forget Faubourg Saint-Denis, with Natalie Portman that took me a few times to get it. And of course the final 14e Arrondisement with the American woman speaking very poor french. I'm sure I'll relate to that, but hopefully I'll be having me some sweet loving, unlike her.

Tuileries: Avoid eye contact on the metro, or else...

Bastille: I'll never look at a woman in a red trench coat the same again.

Tour Eiffel: Cute story about Mimes. xoxo.

Place des fêtes: Reality of Paris and Love. Sometimes you only have one chance to love.

Pére Lachaise: I'm gonna need to be funny to get a girl.

Fauborg Saint-Denis: LOVE this story about a blind guy and an American girl.

14e Arrondisement: Lonely American in Paris. But she ends up falling in love :)

I'm going to have art classes in the Louvre

2009-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Don't be jealous, but be hating. Plus I will be only having classes Mon-Wed. Oh there's some pretty cute girls in my group too :) They're kinda ritzy but whatever.

So that's it, I really typed all this to test out the blog and what not. See if I can spruce it up a bit.