My Vacation in Paris

What I did after amsterdam….

I seriously can’t remember UGH this is why I shouldn’t wait to write blog posts.

Ah yes!

Musée D’Orsay: I live right next to the musée d’orsay and for some reason had never been until the Sunday after Amsterdam. It’s so close I guess I just always tell myself I’ll go in one day. I originally was planning on going to this special FIAC art festival at the grand palais with Natalie, who had a friend that gave her her pass to go. However, the ticket bouncer was not happy when Natalie didn’t have a second form of identification (to prove she was her friend), so we got kicked out. Oh well. Musée D’orsay was still really cool. I did the 5^th floor with all the impressionist works. They have a huge impressionist collection and at the end you can go in the cool room with the clocks that has an amazing view of paris. There’s so much in that museum so I definitely want to go back. Especially to see the splendeurs et misers exhibit.

Monday morning I went to class ran and studied at coutume in the afternoon with Liz and Wheeler. I also ran in to Ellie, which was a fun coincidence! So we all hung out. Then I had been dying to picnic on the Eiffel tower at night to see all the twinkly lights so I made my friends go with me J it was a little chilly, but not too bad, it was a beautiful night. We got some baguettes, cheese, and wine and sat out on the champ de mars just as the sun was setting. So we got to see the tower sparkle twice, once at sunset and once when it was completely dark. It’s breathtaking and really never gets old.

Tuesday I don’t really know what I did but it probably involved a lot of work and dinner at home cause it was a Tuesday.

^Lol this is FALSE. As I realized later when I finally got back to writing. I forgot that I had class off this whole week (except for Art History on Wednesday, because it was fall break at the Sorbonne and Diderot). SO!

Andy Warhol Exhibit at La Musée D’art Moderne: I ran in the morning and then met Liv, Steph, Ben, and Evan at the Andy Warhol exposition at la Musée d’art Moderne. I was pretty excited for this cause I love Andy Warhol but it was kind of a let down. It was at the museum of modern art and had a few of his good pieces but was pretty poorly curated. the pop art exposition I saw at the met a few years ago was much better done. I guess American museums just understand American art better... Anyways, I wouldn't say it was a total waste and it was kind of cool.

 

got in trouble for taking this photo so i couldn't take any more after that

but then i said screw it and took this one

another room in le musée d'art moderne

After Andy Warhol we went to Kozy café for a quick snack and to study. It was a beautiful day so Liv Evan Steph and I sat outside! Then I did homework which was gross and went home for host family dinner.

Treize (13 a Baker’s Dozen): Wednesday morning Evan Liv and I went to brunch at this little trendy spot in the 7th right near my apartment which I loved!! To be honest it was not French at all but brunch isn't French so whatever, sue me. The staff spoke perfect English, it reminded me of a sugar plum cake shop type place (I think they might be owned by the same people). Anyways, it was tucked away down this little cobblestone alley and we sat at a high booth in the corner. We were worried about it being crowded but no one was there at 1045 on a Wednesday haha. So we got to bond with the staff who were so nice!! It started to get bustling and crowded around 12 though. Treize is a southern brunch restaurant pretty much straight out of Durham. They had fresh BISCUITS. Like real fluffy southern biscuits. Liv and I got a quinoa porridge and Evan got "fried" (baked) chicken with French toast biscuits. Brunch came with a delicious juice and a coutume coffee. So good!

After brunch I went to another affordable yoga fitness Pilates class (same one as before) which I suppose I’ve become a sort of regular at which is cool. Then I had art history in the afternoon where I had to do my césar exposé. I think I blacked out for most of it but apparently it went well.

Wednesday night I had a wine tasting that was organized through EDUCO. It was so cool. There were about 20 of us and we tasted 4 different wines: a white sauvignon blanc to start, a red borgogne after that, followed by a rosé champagne, and a white dessert wine to finish it all up. She also had immense plates of cheese and baskets of bread for all of us. We learned how to describe scents and tastes. One of the wines smelled EXACTLY like a can of fresh tennis balls, which I used and everyone agreed and our instructor laughed. Thank you master somm. We also learned how to swish the wine around in our mouth and breath in to it to make the taste more powerful. And WOW it really worked. The first white was very citrusy. And the red dried out your mouth (cause all of the tannin which we learned!). I took notes I’ll show you all when I get home don’t worry. I’m on my way to being a master somm.

Moonshiners: After our wine tasting we headed to this speakeasy bar that is hidden through a pizza fridge. And it really is hidden. The pizza place looks totally normal and even has a different name. But the bar was really cool and played fun jazz music. The bartenders were funny and nice and the drinks were really good. Will definitely be going back there soon.

Thursday morning was woken by construction UGH.

Angelina: met my friends at the good old famous Angelina for brunch - on the bucket list! And I have to admit the brunch was pretty good. The hot chocolate was STRAIGHT chocolate. (The place is famous for its hot chocolate) Couldn't finish the whole thing but definitely satisfied my craving. Brunch also comes with a juice of your choice, mini pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin), bread, bowl of fruit, and eggs styled your way (I got eggs Benedict of course). The pastries were warm which was so yummy and my eggs were good.

After that we went suit shopping for Ben... He went to Sandro to get his size and tried on a €2000+ suit. He looked spiffy but after getting the size we promptly left lol. They were nice though.

Next came my hunt for Stan smiths. We went to THREE different stores and I still couldn't find them. After Ben and I ventured to the 4th store (which ended up being a closed warehouse) I sent him on his way and continued the journey on my own. I called my mom in distress while walking to the adidas store on the champs Elysée when lo and behold I ran in to the REAL galleries Lafayette which was HUGE and covered with Christmas decorations. Their shoe department was bigger than my house and I easy found my Stan smiths. Woo!

Maille Mustard Store: While wearing my fly new kicks I walked around place de Madeline for a bit and wandered in to the maille mustard store

Jeu de Paume: On my way home I walked through les Jardins des Tuilieries and le jeu de paumme was finally open! I had run past it lots of times and had been waiting for the exhibit to open even though I wasn’t really sure what it was. Turns out it was an exposition all about Philippe Halsman a famous photographer who did a lot for Time Magazine. Yeah he was American… and I’ve learned the French don’t curate American artists that well. The exhibit was probably cool but I was peeved I didn’t get in free and I was tired. He did a lot of shots of Marilyn Monroe which I think was the best part. He also was famous for doing jumping photos of people because he thought that loosened people up and let their true personalities shine through. Which I actually really liked and thought to be very interesting. My Lochearn friends and I used to always like taking jumping photos so it made me laugh.

Thursday night I just had dinner with the host family and packed for Barcelona!

It was really nice to have the week off between Amsterdam and Barcelona. Normally travelling two weekends in a row is really tiring and I feel like I miss out on Paris. But this time I had plenty of time to explore and got to do a lot of things I had been wanting to do!