20190705

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 tenfold and it was a little distracting. Either way, though, that nave was gorgeous!!

I wished we could have spent more time at the Musee de Montmartre, just getting to experience Toulouse-Lautrec and all the clowns by myself on my own time, but I know we have limits when we're travelling in a group, and I know I can't have everything. 

I thought the story of the Grande Guignol was really intriguing. I love that it's sort of our namesake and all and I love little puppet Guignol but I have some mixed feelings about the Grande Guignol. I can appreciate what it's done for underground theatre and practical effects, and I also would probably go and see it if they did it today, I mean it seems like a regular Qui Nguyen show in there every night! But I can't help but unleash the feminist art critic in me and think about how essentially men would pay to watch women be brutalized every night and that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Much to think about there.

Either way, Montmartre had a really interesting history and it's evolved into a cute little part of town-- the vibe is so different from the Latin Quarter and even St. Germain des Pres.

Jace and I also went to the Orangerie this day! We got there sort of at the last part of the day with just enough time to wander around and see everything before they closed. And wow. I'm glad I went just to be able to experience Water Lilies in the way it was supposed to be experienced. Minus all the people just taking pictures of the art and leaving to take pictures of more art. I don't get that, and frankly, it infuriates me, but I know it's just a part of life and I have to get used to it. But I felt so weird walking around the room, looking at the painting and trying to immerse myself in it (from a respectable distance) and also having to constantly worry about being in someone's family photo. it was weird. Anyway, the atmosphere in there was great and I'm super glad we went because it was absolutely worth it!