Xan's Adventures in Paris

2007-07-17T00:43:00.001+01:00

le petite palais fountain and sculpture gardens (with my friend sarah pretending to be a sculpture)

leaving le petite palais to go to the louvre

salvador dali museum

my home base

2007-07-17T00:29:00.000+01:00

for five weeks i shared a tiny little apartment with three other fabulous girls. we had one bedroom, a living room, bathroom, and the kitchen was a part of the hallway. despite our cramped accomodations, we had an absolutely fabulous time living together in paris.

this is the view from my balcony.

the tiny closet that i shared with one other girl for 5 weeks, with only five hangers for the two of us.

this is the boulangerie across the street that i went to all the time. they had the best baguettes ever.

keep checking back!

2007-07-13T14:02:00.000+01:00

hello all!
i have not updated this in a looooooong time (i can't get wireless access at my hostel, so i'm at an internet cafe and can't upload pics). regardless, i have just spent a fantastic week in london meeting up with old friends and making new ones. today is my last day in london. once again, my jet-setting dad is in the same country as me, so i get to see him today! how exciting!

my flight back home is early in the morning, so i'll be back in the great state of colorado in the blink of an eye. the past month and a half that i've been gone has positively flown by, but it has been a fabulous experience and has once again sparked my travel-bug.

keep on checking back in, as i'll update this site within the next few days and upload pictures so you can see my adventures too!

carnival!

2007-07-04T08:01:00.001+01:00

Parisian carnivals are a blast!!

in the tuileries gardens of the louvre, there is a huge carnival set up with all kinds of rides and games and food.

it was fabulous!! we rode the ferris wheel at night and when we got to the top, all of Paris was lit up and sparkling beautifully. what a treat!

this was actually one of the most fun things i have been to in Paris!

2007-07-01T17:56:00.001+01:00

dad, this pic is for you. we went to an art nouveau house and the facade was absolutely gorgeous.

this picture is taken inside of the catacombs. we took a tour of the catacombs which stretch underground the majority of the left bank of paris. they are massive, beautiful, and so peaceful, not creepy like i was expecting.

of course, we had to go to notre dame cathedral. it was kind of anti-climactic as there were thousands of people there. we were herded through the church en masse.

i love going to the old churches here just so sit and think and look at the fabulous architecture. notre dame was beautiful, but it had a much different feel to it, as it seemed more commercialized and busy than the other churches i've gone to. still, it was a fabulous place to go (2 blocks away from st. chapelle also. gorgeous).

monet

2007-06-26T14:36:00.004+01:00

on wednesday, i went to giverny, france to visit monet's house and his gardens. i got to explore his lilly pad ponds, gardens, took a tour through his house, and hung out in his town. there is an adorable little church in giverny, where monet is buried in the cemetary behind (where lots of sheep also hang out).

being in such a beautiful old town makes me think of growing up in my town in england. i thought i was only a city girl, but being here, i could definately see myself living in the country (for a bit). how beautiful is this!

saturday june 16th

2007-06-19T22:06:00.000+01:00

on saturday, rea and i went to the Arc d'Triomphe. it is absolutely gigantic! so much bigger than i ever thought! we had to go through an underground pass to get to it, as you would otherwise have to risk your life trying to dodge the oncoming cars. for a fee, you could take the stairs all the way to the top for a fantastic view of the city (which we didn't do, because it would be so much cooler to see the city at night with the lights than it would be during the day).

(the pic above this is rea at the Arc)

(yes, this is me in front of one of the sides of the Arc d'Triomphe. it really is that big)

eventually, we left to walk around the Champs-Elysees. high-end stores line the road... you can even buy a car from one of their boutiques! we stopped in to see a movie at one of the theaters (which turned out to not be as good as we were hoping). it is called "Coeurs Perdus" (broken hearts) with John Travolta and James Gandolfini. it is one of the most graphic, violent movies i have seen in a while. it was a riot to see the movie with french subtitles and to know that the majority of the people in the theater didn't know what the actors were saying without the subtitles. the theater itself only had about 20 seats, and we had to go down a back staircase to reach our theater, which would have been a complete fire hazard in america, but the french don't seem to mind that kind of thing.

we caught a late metro back to our 14th arrondisement after the movie.

(yes, these trees on the Champs-Elysees are acutally square.)

i could move to paris simply for the food

2007-06-18T22:39:00.000+01:00

i could move to paris simply for the food. every time i go to the market, no matter what i buy, i know it will be absolutely amazing. simply because it is french.

i don't know what it is, but the bread here is absolutely to die for. every day you have to buy fresh bread because not only is it so good that you ate the entire baguette in one day and are entirely out of bread, but it never tastes as good the second day.

we were out all day yesterday and didn't get a chance to eat the bread or the cheese that we bought at the market. so late last night, sarah rushes into my room and said "oh no! we didn't eat the olive bread! it'll be bad tomorrow!" so rea, sarah, and i immediately have to go to the kitchen and polish off the baguette with our absolutely amazing cheese all in one sitting. (amber couldn't join us because she's a vegan so she doesn't eat cheese, but she hates olives to had to also boycott the olive bread). sarah and i are only vegetarian though, so it was not a problem at all :) .

Strange Parisians

2007-06-17T16:00:00.000+01:00

Parisians are weird because:

they wear winter jackets, even when it is 95 degrees outside
there is no such thing as a to-go coffee cup (all coffee must be consumed in the cafe itself)
if you smile at someone, they think you are either flirting or are a bit daft
they let their dogs poop all over the sidewalk and consider it an issue of "pride" because they feel like they "own" the city and can do whatever they want
it is always 10-15 degrees hotter in the metro than it is outside
you don't go to a bar to meet people, everyone there already has a group. they all sit at circular tables instead of mingling anyway
grocery stores do not sell bread. you need to go to a boulangerie for that.
you can't go into a regular library, you must stand in a huge line outside (100-300 people long) before they let you in. only a few people at a time can get into the library. it is more exclusive than some of the clubs i have seen.
they walk and sit extremely stiffly. they can tell you are an american simply by the fact that you swing your arms or hips when walking.
they watch american MTV, but it is dubbed. they also listen to bad american pop songs, which they think are really cool.

dad!

2007-06-13T21:15:00.000+01:00

my dad came to visit me in paris over the weekend! he was on his way from london to germany and decided to stop in and hang out for a bit.

he arrived on friday night and i ventured over to the 11th arrondisement to get a (very late) dinner. we went to a crowded, noisy little restaurant that was decorated in an art nouveau style. beautiful. finally, after gabbing for a bit, i jumped back on the metro, and luckily i made it on the last train of the night.

saturday morning, i had a lecture on romanticism at the louvre and met up with dad afterwards. from the louvre, we went to the Marche aux Pouces (flea market) at St. Ouen on the very north side of the city and then trekked all the way to the Paris Jazz Festival at the Parc Floral on the very east side of the city. After a few acts, we left to go to mass a Sacre Coeur and listened to the nuns sing. We walked around the Montmartes area around Sacre Coeur and eventually went back to the Left Bank to St Michel to get dinner after a very full day!

chagall

2007-06-13T20:49:00.000+01:00

i have been incredibly busy ever since i arrived in paris. there are so many places to go, things to do, people to meet, and also tons of homework and research. my biggest accomplishment of the trip so far was to give a talk at the Paris Opera House about the ceiling of the main auditorium, which was designed by Chagall in 1964. it went extremely well and i'm feeling incredibly relieved.

j'adore paris

2007-06-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

oh paris, how i love thee. i arrived in paris this morning with my friends emily and marisa. at the parisian airport i met a few other of our friends on the program also. after waiting three hours for the shuttle, it finally arrived to take us to our apart-hotel. In our tiny little room, we can squeeze in four people... we'll just see how comfortable it is in five weeks with all of us here.

everybody seems to be getting along famously so far. the group seems great and i'm really looking forward to the dynamics and the general interaction in conjunction with the sight seeing and all of the fun things that i am anticipating (eiffel tower, bateau mouches, etc.) what a blast! despite all of the impending adventures, there is actually a lot of work to do! i have a bunch of research to do for my chagall talk at the opera house and we have several quizzes and paper to write. in the meantime though, i'm absolutely loving paris and all that it has to offer.

Bonjour!!

2007-05-29T18:45:00.001+01:00

As requested by friends in the Dead Theologians Society, I've created a blog to act as a travel journal. I'm venturing to Paris for 5 weeks and then off to London for a week. I'll be in Paris studying Art History and doing a bit of research but London will just be a chance for me to sight-see and hang out and explore the city by myself. I will try to post as often as possible and upload pictures, etc.