Afternoon in Montmartre

Not a bad place to "do homework" (meaning people watch.)

After doing some reading, I made my obligatory stop by the Moulin Rouge.  Not much to do besides take a picture and leave.. so that's what I did!  

Also today I reserved two of my three trains for spring break using my Eurail pass.  After my family leaves, I'll meet a friend in Seville and from there we will head to Granada and Barcelona: I can't wait!  This will be my first experience on a night train..I'm not looking forward to that at all..but, c'est la vie! 

Praha: Czech it out!

After a two hour delay and multiple mice spottings in the airport, my friend Heidi and I finally made it to our hostel in Prague at about 1:30 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning.  On Saturday we got up early and meandered our way over to the Prague Castle.  On the way we saw the Powder Tower, which was built in 1475 as one of the original gates to the city, and in the 1600's was used to store gunpowder.

Then we crossed the Vltava River on the Charles Bridge.  It's a beautiful old stone bridge lined with 30 statues, and there are artists and people selling jewelry all along it. 

Finally we climbed up a big hill to the Prague Castle (In Czech: Pražský hrad) , which is the biggest medieval castle in the world.  The castle has been there in some form since 870 and has a cathedral, a basilica, four palaces, a riding school, and lots more.  We spent lots of time exploring!

Then we grabbed some goulash for a traditional Czech lunch (actually quite good!) and went to the Lennon Wall.  It's just a random wall on the side of a Prague church, which has been painted with Beatles and John Lennon related graffiti since the 1980's.  

Since Prague is the "musical capital of Europe," we decided to go to a classical music concert in the early evening.  They played Mozart, Bach, and Vivaldi and it was in a beautiful old church.  Then we rested a bit at the hostel, went out to dinner, explored, and went on a pub crawl with a few Cornell students we met at our hostel.  It was fun but Paris nightlife is way more exciting!   

This morning Heidi and I did some shopping, then checked out the astronomical clock: on the hour there is a little skeleton that rings a bell.. I can't say I quite get the appeal of these things.

Then we shopped a bit and headed to the airport.  Once again our flight was delayed which means that in the past seven days, I've had three delayed flights!  All in all I loved Prague, it was a beautiful, perfectly sized city with a great vibe.  The best part was all of the buildings:  they seemed very European in style yet totally different from any I've ever seen before.  

The Pantheon

Yesterday, my Paris Civilization & Culture class met at the Pantheon. 

On the exterior is St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris.  It was completed in 1790 and was a Christian church until 1885, when Victor Hugo was entombed here.  Since then it has become a secular "temple of the nation," where French Presidents may honor citizens by entombing them. 

Famous people entombed at the Pantheon include Pierre & Marie Curie, Voltaire, Rousseau, Alexandre Dumas (author of the Three Musketeers), Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables and the Hunchback of Notre Dame), and Rene Cassin, writer of the Universal Declaration of human rights.  The crypt was a bit creepy.

The coolest part was Foucault's pendulum, which was an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth in 1851.  This was the first dynamic proof that the Earth rotated.  Wikipedia quote about it: "The experimental apparatus consists of a tall pendulum free to oscillate in any vertical plane. The direction along which the pendulum swings rotates with time because of Earth's daily rotation." 

In just a few hours I am heading off to Prague for the weekend!  I am quite excited for this trip because everyone I know who's been there has raved about it.  Also, we have received several recommendations ranging from hostel accommodations to pub crawls, so I think we should be set (except for the whole speaking Czech thing...)

 

Parisian Chic

Today I witnessed two very Parisian things: a strike, and a fashion show (kinda).

Students here have been striking for weeks-- the government is attempting to restructure the university system here.  From what I understand, they are lessening the focus on research/scholarly studies, most likely because of the cost.  I haven't been affected by a strike at all yet, but there are some AU students here who are attending another school who have not had class at all yet!

One strike that I most likely will be affected by is occurring next Thursday, March 19.  It is a general strike, so the metro, the buses, and who knows what else will all be closed!  Basically this means I can't go to class (I google mapped it, and my class is 4.5 miles from my house.  I'm not that dedicated of a student). I'm thinking about sleeping over at a friend's apartment the night before because she is in walking distance to everything.  

This week is Paris ready to wear fashion week!  Of course I had to creep on it a bit, so today a few of us went to the Chloe show.  Well, we didn't actually go to it, but we people watched and saw everyone who DID go, except for the VIPs who had a back entrance.  Chloe is a Parisian designer who in the 1950's was one of the first to design ready-to-wear (instead of haute couture).  

Okay, so, you want to dress like a Parisian fashion show attendee?  First, you must be at least 5'10, and you probably shouldn't eat for the next year (literally..I never want to eat again after seeing everyone!).  Then, you must don a combination of the following:

a) leather leggings

b) IMPOSSIBLY high heels/boots.  4 inches plus only.

c) super short skirt/dress with black tights

d) huge fur coat

e) chanel purse

f) immense black sunglasses

g) something ridiculous: feathers in your hair, a headband across your forehead, a bright yellow vest (see photos),  etc.

h) don't forget your blackberry!

& voila! You are ready to attend!  Just remember to NEVER smile for photos.  See ya there! 

The 17eme and the 8eme

As you probably (possibly?) know, Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements which spiral out from the center of the city.  

I go to class in the 5eme and the 11eme (in French 5eme is equivalent to 5th) so I spend lots of time in those areas.  You may have also heard the 5eme referred to as the Latin Quarter, which comes from the initial language of the Sorbonne and its students when it was a religious school in the 1200's.  The 11eme is where the Bastille was-- now there's just a monument and the new Opera house.  I live en banlieue (in the suburbs), in Levallois on the northwest of the map.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I spent time in the 17eme and the 8eme arrondissements.  In the 17eme the main attraction is l'Arc de Triomphe.  I had forgotten how huge this sucker is!  The Arc also serves as the center of a huge traffic circle-- it is like six lanes with no actual marked lanes and no traffic lights.  Luckily you can go underground to get to the Arc!   

On one side of the Arc is the Champs Elysèe, where you will find my personal mecca, the Sephora flagship store.  

On the other side is La Defense, a booming business area.  Since it's outside of Paris, skyscrapers are allowed and taxes are lower.  You can also see the Grand Arch out there!