Today we started out at the Louvre. The meeting-up part was very not fun, as we were standing outside the pyramid waiting for it to open, which meant we were standing in a large open courtyard with plenty of space for the wind to get at us. But once we were let in everything got much better. The first part of our 3 hour tour was very interesting. We started with the history of the building itself which started out as a palace. We walked along what used to be the bottom of the moat which is now underground, and saw the foundations of the castle. Very cool stuff. Then we went on the quickest tour possible of the major areas and works of art. We saw a bunch of Greek statues, tons of French and Italian paintings-including the Mona Lisa. That wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. It’s quite small, and there’s always a large crowd surrounding it, so it’s hard to get a good look. Then we saw the two Michelangelo sculptures that are there-The Captive Slave and The Dying Slave, which don’t look very captive or dying honestly. I’m not much of an art person, so you really shouldn’t expect much awe or fascination with the great works of art I saw today. I looked at some art and it was pretty and then I was tired of standing and maneuvering through crowds, so I was tired and bored and ready to go.
And then we went outside. And I very much wished we
were back inside looking at the art again, because it was even colder today
than it was yesterday! They have some lovely, sneaky wind here in France. I
think it’s sentient, because it can curve itself around corners and knows where
to find the smallest gap between my hat, hair, and bare ears. I could have
become an art person really quickly if it meant I got to go back inside the
warm building.
Well, we didn’t go
back inside. Instead we walked around outside! We saw the passages of Vivienne
and Colbert, which are basically streets around the gardens of the Palais Royal
with lots of expensive shops and restaurants. The story behind the shops is
pretty interesting though. Apparently, one of the cousins of the king-I don’t
remember which one, sorry, but he was one of the first people to live in the
Palais after Cardinal Richelieu gave it to the king-had expensive taste and
liked to amuse himself. Consequently, he soon ran out of money. Then he got the
bright idea of building some housing around his gardens, and renting it out the
ground floors as shops and the upper stories as apartments. This was before the
idea of walking down a street full of shops was invented. Actually, this is
kind of the invention of a street full of shops. It was full of other sorts of
amusements too, like gambling, drinking, and prostitution, which made the place
very popular and successful.
We were freed for
lunch after that and split up into groups in search of warmth and food. I went
with three other girls, and we found cheap sandwiches in a warm café near the
school. Afterwards, we headed back to the school, found the Hollins classroom,
which was very warm, and we all took naps. Well, first we checked our emails,
and I read a bit, but we all ended up asleep for various amounts of time in
dubious amounts of comfort. Chairs and tables aren’t really made for
comfortable beds after all. The rest of the girls came up at 4:30 and we had
the bank meeting. Our accounts are being set up as I type, and we’ll get our
cards and the rest of our food stipends for the month on Monday.
We all hung out
there for a while, trading stories of our host families, and just hanging out.
One of the girls needs a new, warmer, coat, so I went with her to find the
local H and M shop, which is an American brand shop, so we knew what the prices
and sizes should be. There was still a bit of confusion about the sizing. Some
of the clothes had American, European, and other sizing system all on the tags,
and some only had the European system. But she found a coat that fit, so it all
ended well.
We had sausage and
puréed vegetables-celery, potatoes, and broccoli-for dinner tonight, as well as
the rest of the cake for dessert. I doubt very much that Madame Emanuely is
actually a vegetarian. The fish the first night could be explained by some
vegetarians not counting fish as a meat, which I know happens even if I don’t
understand their reasoning. But the chicken last night and the sausage tonight
don’t fit any form of vegetarianism
I’ve ever heard of, so I don’t know what’s going on with that. She does
eat/serve a lot of vegetables, which is fine, but it doesn’t make her a
vegetarian. It’s all okay with me, but I hope she’s not eating meat, because
she doesn’t want to cook just one serving of it, or because she doesn’t want me
to feel uncomfortable being the only one to eat meat.
No comments:
Post a Comment