Paris Summer 2019

STOP #1 Place de la Contrescarpe  I imagine this place is much like it is now, crowded and not super nice, a side street where all the regular people come out and fraternize. There's something dirty about it, not dirty as in gross, but as in the earth. STOP #2 STOP #3 WALK THROUGH… Walk A:   STOP #4 STOP #5 STOP #6  (I also forgot to take a picture at 27 rue de Fleurus please have mercy I did this walk out of order!) Continue on your Hemingway Hunt as he describes his attempt to Walk Without Getting Hungry….(Take photos all places marked in bold)   Cafés and Brasseries and Restaurants where Hemingway wrote and socialized… STOP #7 Hemingway would go to Lipp, order beer and potatoes, eat bread, then get sausage and more beer. This is exactly what I expected of him and I hope part of the reason...

Today was our last full day in Paris. we got to go back to our favorite breakfast place on the corner Rue saint-Jacques and Port Royal. It's nice to have that sort of bookend on either side of our trip to Paris. We started with a good breakfast, and we ended with a good breakfast. The only thing that we had on the schedule today was going to lunch in the park together. I'm really sad that we hadn't found that sandwich place earlier, because that lunch was amazing! That smoked salmon sandwich, MMM! I've never had one better and I don't think I will ever again. I liked being able to sit down in the Jardin du Luxembourg all together, eat our lunch, and sort of take inventory. Today, I will sort of ready to be home. Jace and I had decided that 19 days, three weeks, was the perfect amount of time to be in Paris. But I was a little unsure after we all eat lunch together, especially after I heard Herman getting all emotional, I don't think I was ready to leave anymor...

Today was a really really cool day. The first thing we did today was go to a place called L'Atelier des Lumieres. I can barely describe what we saw there. I meas, it was essentially a multi-projection immersive audiovisual experience. We saw three different shows there, a Van Gogh show, a Japanese art show, and a nebula show. I personally liked the way the Japanese art show utilized the space and the projectors that they had, but the Van Gogh show had the best overall experience. The music that they used during the Van Gogh show was incredible-- I actually looked it up afterwards and found the audio programming that they used so I can add it to my Spotify later. I wish that the nebula show was longer, because I really think that it had something special, but it was really difficult to tell because of how short it was. It kind of felt like a preview. It made me think about this piece that I saw in the Pompidou, this immersive punk rock collective exhibition. That exhibition used a...

Picasso, the avant-garde, and absurdism is definitely my strong suit. Today, we went to the Picasso Museum was pretty much all that was on the schedule until the play tonight. the Picasso Museum was pretty cool, but not because of Picasso at all they had an exhibit that presented Calder pieces alongside Picasso pieces and it really made me realize why I like Calder and not Picasso. Sony exhibit revealed and touched on the concept of the void a lot, especially how the two artists represented it. And I realized that Calder created art from the void its present in all his work which all essentially contain the illusion of substance. He worked from the void up. Picasso, however, worked from representation down. Like, Calder reconstructed while Picasso deconstructed. he dealt with lack (and emasculation) by visually disintegrating the female form in his work. Gross. anyway, after the alarm went off and we went back in left, Jason. I got do-it-yourself Magnum ice cream , which was really ...

Back to the Pompidou today! After being in the Twilight Zone for a straight, like, nine hours yesterday, all I wanted to do was to go back to my happy place! So we got a super cheap and super yummy breakfast, and I set off! no hitches besides a little bit of a wait to get in. still as wonderful as when I first saw them. This is going to be a treat yourself day. Okay, so it did not end up being a treat yourself day. I loved being able to see all of the art again it just really is my happy place. I felt especially touched by Felix Gonzalez-Torres's piece about life, death, decay, and renewal. It's just so bittersweet, gentle, tender, and kind. he just does such a great job with taking everyday objects, and placing them in a familiar form in their own function and uses their inherent properties to speak about life and death.. I think he's my favorite artist. also, yesterday I got homesick bad. I walked circles around the Marais for 4 hours looking for somewhere to eat and...

Today was the 14th of July! Jace and I decided to ditch the city and have a picnic, and we were originally planning on going to the Bois de Vincennes, but Jace ended up buying us tickets to the Shakespeare Garden's production of Midsummer Night's Dream (la songe d'un nuit d'ete), so we ended up going to the Bois de Boulogne. It was a journey. So, we had to go get food and print out our tickets first; we did that in the morning, but apparently we woke up in the Twilight Zone. It was nice weather in that it was cool and overcast, which is good morning weather! I got my khakis to dry, and I got to wear my denim jacket it wasn't super hot! But the ambience was weird. Like, the streets were empty. EMPTY. all the storefronts were closed. It was sort of cold? A tumbleweed passed by. Like, everything was off. And then when we got to the Metro, and we had to walk between the Musee D'Orsay and les Invalides, and we ran right into the parade. literally. RIGHT into it. ...

EAT (and I cannot stress this enough) THE RICH Apparently my love for art can be easily overshadowed by my hatred for rich people. I got to go to the most amazing Museum today, Le Musee Gustave Moreau. He has the range! The impressionists could never ! He has a very expressive style-- he uses these rich, deep, and often dark colors, and has a thing for Orpheus. It's like neoclassical subject matter meets impressionist style meets symbolist sentiment, you know? And the paintings were huge! And you could see his sketches a lot of the time, which I really love. There was this painting of Mary at the site of the crucifixion, and her expression broke my heart. I also wonder what "victims" was all about, she was so striking. also, the bathroom was super cool (especially the sink). the floor is created a symphony. (Also was Moureau gay?) I have so many questions I will be googling later. now I'm sitting on the steps of the church very small in the middle of the rich part ...

Today was another day off and I fretted so much about what I was going to do that I just ended up having a day in. I went and got breakfast and I did did a lot of research that day about contemporary French art. I found that there weren't exactly a lot of sources, or at least fewer resources than I would have liked. I spent a lot of time just Googling contemporary French artists and even found a couple; there wasn't a lot of scholarship on them, and just as little information. I also researched contemporary art museums in the city, but a lot of them are under construction or aren't exhibiting a lot right now. I find myself sad that the city is largely under construction or closed to the public while we're here, I wish I could come back during the year— maybe in the fall or the winter so that I could enjoy the city with not so many people . I ended up spending the time that I didn't research today instead reading Les Mis and thinking about writing my own adaptatio...

I GOT TO SEE GRASS TODAY!! Wow, as many trees as there are in Paris, you'd think I'd be satiated but there really is nothing that compares to just walking in the cool, soft, flowered grass. Just, even seeing the tiniest suggestion of natural biodiversity really  rustled my jimmies. So much of this city is pruned, curated, and entirely artificial, especially  the gardens. I mean, the majority of Versailles is no different, but as you get out toward the Hameau and the little trails, you can see some clovers and little weeds and tiny flowers growing that just remind you of home. That was the best part about today. Walking around vast fields of grass and seeing people just leisurely walking around, taking in their surroundings, enjoying the beautiful day. It was really cool to wander through the trees and see all the fun corners of the garden with all the hidden waterfalls and just walking through the trees. I wish there was more of that around town. I also really wished we coul...

Okay, so apparently I have lost touch with the impressionists. I remember when I was younger, I used to love the bright colors and the sweeping sensations of their paintings, but now I find myself utterly disillusioned. I guess the novelty has worn off. I find myself loving and craving new things and learning about them rather than revisiting old ones. Curse the fact that I'm not sentimental. I just can't seem to connect with it. It's the same way I can't connect with Picasso. I did find an artist I liked in the Musee D'Orsay, though! Camille Pisarro. He was impressionist and neo-impressionist and I love the way he renders light * shadow. I guess that's a theme I find myself drawn to now. It's what I liked about Dora Maar, too. I mean Pisarro can backlight a tree like nobody's business! Maybe I'm just stuck on contemporary art because it branches way  further beyond stylistic rendering... I mean I get that it was completely revolutionary in style an...

Today we talked about the French Revolution, went to the Conciergerie and the Luxembourg puppet theatre, and then I went back to the dorm and did research. I'm sort of glad we gave the Revolution its own day (it surely deserved it) because I could never remember the details but now I sort of get (and hopefully remember) more key names and events/reasons for the Revolution. We went to the Conciergerie, which I think used to be a sort of barracks/palace and was converted into a prison during the Revolution. The main hall you first walk into in gorgeous!  It used to be an armory. The rest of the building was super cool because it had a lot of informational material about the Revolution and really helped put it into context. Anyway, my favorite part of the day was going to the Guignol puppet show. We saw The Tresor du Sultane  and it was so cute! The theatre was packed absolutely full of kids. I adored the style of the puppets, that very 70s sort of grotesque style, and I love ...

Today was our first free day, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to go the to Centre Pompidou. I just want to take a quick minute to reflect on the first 2 Pompidou exhibits before moving on. The first was a photographer, Dora Maar, and her use of shadow is absolutely masterful. She was also a surealist contemporary, one of the only female surrealists that was actually exhibited with and treated as a colleague by the men of the movement. I also found her relationship with Picasso sort of touching, and the care with which she renders figures in her photos. The second was a phrehistory-modern side-by-side exhibit, showing the archeological discoveries of the time and the artists inspired  by them. Firstly Picasso and the concept of the Venus (lookin' at you too, Willem de Koonig). There was one really really great piece in there where you crawled through this tiny opening in the wall. You let your eyes get accustomed to the dark and when they do, there's a huge  floor-t...

Waking up at 7am can be the worst but let me tell ya', I'd wake up at 7am every damn day if it meant I'd get to go to the Louvre. It was such a cool and mild morning, the walk and the wait felt like nothing! I was really upset when I learned how crowded the Louvre was, especially down that  hall of paintings. I mean I didn't know what I really expected, but I certainly did not expect a hellish amount of people there pushing and shoving and it was so hot. At one point I just wanted out . I didn't know how many people wanted to see, like, Raft of the Medusa. And I was I  appalled  at how many people were just there for clout! Like, just to say they've been and take a picture with the Mona Lisa. I know most of it is just me assuming and I'm probably way overestimating how bad it is, but there's just so much incredible  work on the second floor that no one saw because it was off the beaten path! Like all the Rubens Marie de Medici series????  They took up a...

I'll have to admit, today was one of the least exciting days for me. I love history (probably more) than the next person and I totally agree that what Henri IV did for Paris was phenomenal, I think I was just a little too tired and out of it to truly appreciate it. I will say, though, I was so stoked to get to see St. Chapelle! I love  old churches (can you tell?) and I was ready for a change of pace after Sacre-Coeur. So going from essentially a 19th century church to a 12th century church was such a joy! Seeing that decorated ceiling on the lower level itself had my spirits lifted, but I don't think anything  could have prepared me for the experience of walking up those stairs and stepping out into a field of floor-to ceiling illuminated stained glass windows. That was such a magical moment for me. I kind of want to go to a church service while I'm here once, even though I'm not religious, just for the experience. I feel like watching the service in the space (or in...

Today we went up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur-- I was mostly excited for the Museum of Montmartre and to see all the gorgeous art in Sacre Coeur. (sidenote: for some reason I'm most excited about all the art on this trip. Most likely because theatre is sort of on the backburner schedule-wise but idk) Anyway! Sacre Coeur was pretty cool. It was awesome to see the black stone where it'd never been cleaned; not bad considering the building "cleans" itself. The interior was super grandiose but very new. Like, considering how much people loved it, I thought it would have incredible old art, statues, relics, but it was all a little polished. Beautiful, but polished.  Going up to the top was dizzying (literally) and my legs hurt so  bad. I wished that people would have been more respectful inside the church. There were people talking so loud and taking pictures even though there were signs everywhere  saying not to. It was really crowded, too, so every whisper compounded...

I must say I was pretty excited about Gastronomy day! I love food and do, in fact, consider myself a bit of a foodie. So I guess you could say I was a little excited to try all new kinds of French food. My favorite part of the day was going to the open air market and getting to look around at all the specialty shops (especially because I got to buy some really good butter & yogurt!) I am a little sad and disappointed that I didn't get to share my pate with the group-- I'll get it open soon and maybe everyone can have a little later. I wish so badly I could bring my butter home because it's just so good! Plus, my mom would absolutely love it. I also loved getting to walk around St. Germain des Pres even though it was super bougie and a little intimidating because of that. There were a few places that looked really good, though! I wish I had enough time to try them all, or at least I wish I had time to write down the names of the restaurants. I enjoyed getting to try a...

Truth be told, I don't remember what this journal was supposed to be about. Probably just reflecting about today. Well, right now I'm sitting in the grass in the Jardin de Luxembourg and a French woman just asked me to recline her stroller for her and I just can't believe that a) she chose to ask me  and b) I understood. That was just something I was a little proud of.  Today, we saw the Arene de Lutece and l'Eglise Ste. Etienne du Mont and the Pantheon and oh my God ! All the art and all the architecture... I cannot contain my excitement! The civic/romantic spaces filled with religious/patriotic imagery is astounding. That would make for a interesting paper... classical and religious imagery in civic spaces; intersections and divergences. But I feel like that'd be hyperspecific and I don't know if I want to pigeonhole myself like that. Like, we haven't even so much as looked at modern art yet! (also, there's an astonishing lack of direct attribution bo...

The past 24 hours in Pairs have been a whirlwind (yesterday doesn't feel like it counts, so :). I have no idea what I was really expecting, but it certainly was not this! Paris is, more or less, shockingly perfect. In the way that my dreamily glorification of it as well as my cynical brain version of it are actually both true. Like, the cobblestone streets and the cute buildings and the good food are here and real but also the hyper-commercialized more tourist-destination than real city are also very here and very real. I was actually surprised at how kind, understanding, and accommodating cafe workers are. I knew that salaried workers means no obligation to sugary sweet disposition, but everyone I've spoken to has been so kind and very helpful when I forget a word or something. One other thing I was definitely  surprised by (and happily so) was the price of food-- I mean I know its a little more on the expensive side, but it feels so much cheaper to not have tax and a 20% ti...

Wow. What a whirlwind of a day. It felt like both 4 days and 4 hours all at once. When we first arrived in Paris, it didn't really feel real. We were whisked from the airport to the dorm then to lunch then onto a bus and I don't really even remember much of the day at all. I remember falling asleep on the bus after we walked past the Eiffel tower and feeling so bad because I felt like I was wasting valuable time in Paris. Little did I know, there would be times later I'd have so much time I wouldn't know what to do with it! My favorite part of the day was getting to have downtime that night and going out with Jace just to a little bar somewhere where we just had ice cream, cheese, and wine instead of dinner. (We were still so full from lunch...) I felt super proud of myself when I went up to the bar to ask for wine and the bartender and I actually held a little conversation. At the end of the day, we were just so exhausted, I think we both just crashed into bed and fe...