Paris Part II: Days 21-23

Day 21

Sunday, July 7

Got an early start in the morning and headed out to Musee d’Orsay.  The Musee d’Orsay is located on the Left Bank of the Seine the museum building actually used to be an old train station.  It’s a beautiful open space with huge windows and a giant clock facing the river.  The museum focuses on works from 1848 to 1915 and holds the largest collection of impressionist art in the world.  This includes works by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh. 

Name that Art!

The museum is really beautiful and not quite as intimidating as the Louvre.  We were fortunate enough to go on the first Sunday of the month, which is free museum day.  The line was not bad at all though.  I was really amazed because everyone lined up in an orderly fashion and the line snaked back and forth without needing barricades or any people to organize them.  These French people really got it figured out.

The view from the balcony of the d'Orsay is really quite beautiful and you get a great view of the Seine and the Right Bank.  You can see the Jardin des Tuileries located behind the Louvre.

There's also a great view of Montemartre and Sacre Coeur.

My favorite feature of the museum is the giant clock centered in the middle of the museum. 

 

We were also chased around the galleries by a rather disgruntled museum curator for walking around with hot tea.  Note: no food or drink is allowed on the main floor of the museum.  I even ran into a former floor mate on my way out of the museum.  #4southfloorever #bruinsinparis Overall, it was a very productive morning spent soaking in the art and culture.

After the d'Orsay, we took a quick walk through the Luxembourg Gardens.  The gardens are beautiful and Parisians spend leisurely afternoons basking in the sunshine and relaxing in this beautiful garden.

The plan was to cut through the garden and go to Le Bon Marche, a giant department store in Paris.  However, it was closed.  We were all devastated.  Shopping would have to wait for another day.  We took the metro back and relaxed for a few hours before heading back out later in the day.

That night, we had the unique opportunity to attend a concert at the famous Sainte-Chapelle.  My friend Allyson and I managed to scrounge up some tickets by navigating the French websites with our limited (i.e. nonexistent) French language skills.  We got to see Orchestre Les Solistes Francais featuring Paul Rouger performing Les Quatre Saisons (The Four Seasons) by Vivaldi.  The beautiful violin music inside the breathtakingly gorgeous cathedral was spectacular and definitely one of my favorite parts of my entire trip.  

We also invited our professors to come with us and had a great time bonding with them!

After an amazing performance we walked back to the Bastille, but of course we had to make one last late night ice cream run!  It was too delicious to resist!  Instead of just walking back with our ice cream though, we decided to sit by the river and enjoy our yummy treats!

Day 22

Monday, July 8

We got an early start that day and were excused by our professors from class in the morning so we could spend a full day at the Louvre.  The Louvre is perhaps the most famous art museum in the entire world and houses nearly 35,000 pieces.  It basically takes up an entire block of Paris and is the world's most visited museum with about 8 million visitors per year.  The famous pyramid facade sits in the middle of a giant courtyard of the different wings of the Louvre.  Each wing could be an entire museum in itself.  

Inside the Pyramid

Our first stop was of course, the infamous Mona Lisa.  Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500s, this world famous painting of a woman has baffled and inspired attention for hundreds of years by everyone who sees it.  The Mona Lisa is actually quite small and is guarded by a glass case, a barricade, and then another wooden barricade.  

Just like in the Da Vinci Code

Had to take a selfie of course

The Crowd I fought through to get my picture

Besides the Mona Lisa, there are thousands of other famous paintings and so much to take in.  You could spend a year in the Louvre and not see everything.  Here are some of my favorite pieces from my short visit.

Massacre de Scio - Delacroix

Coronation of Napoleon (we'll see this again soon! :D)

Venus de Milo

Marat Assassine - David Jacques Louis

One of my favorite parts of the Louvre is the indoor sculpture garden.  Reminded me of the UCLA Sculpture Garden, one of my favorite spots on campus.

After the Louvre, we did what we did best: shop.  We went along Saint-Germain-Des-Prés and looked into all the fabulous stores (which were way out of our price range).  However, we did manage to go on a spree at Longchamp, a staple for any Parisian woman.  I've had a Longchamp for a while and it has become one of my favorite bags, so naturally I had to buy another...two or three.

After our Longchamp spree

After we shopped til we dropped, we went to Angelina for some sustenance.  This was a favorite spot of Coco Chanel and was very fancy and very cute.

My Duck Foie Gras salad

(had to have it in Paris, since you can't get it in California!)

So after our fancy meal, we headed back to the hotel before our evening activities.  

That evening, we were able to go on a river boat tour on the Seine!  We joined forces with the Global Studies UCLA Travel Study program and had a grand old time taking in the sights by boat.  

Here we are on the boat passing the d'Orsay on the right hand side if you can make it out.

After the boat ride we of course had to stop for Ice Cream AGAIN.  I wasn't kidding about this being the best Ice Cream in the world.  I also may have made another crepe stop that night....#theeuropeandiet

Day 23

Tuesday, July 9

Yet another early start for all of us as we climbed on the bus to another famous French landmark, Versailles!  

This historical palace became the center of French political life in 1682 when Louis XIV moved from Paris.  It is seen as a symbol of the monarchy during the French Revolution, due to it's grandeur and overall opulence.  Kings Louis XIV-XVI lived in the palace during their reigns and would often invite various aristocrats to stay in this enormous chateau.  This not only allowed neighboring aristocrats to admire the palace, but also served as a way for the King to keep an eye on his noblemen.  This acted as a method of control to crush any forms of opposition that may threaten his sovereign power.  Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.  Anyways, Versailles is ginormous and is definitely the grandest place I have visited yet.

Front of the palace

We got to take a guided tour throughout the palace, but unfortunately a lot got lost in translation because we were traveling in such a large group.  There were also like 5000000000 other tourists there at the same time.  Versailles is very popular.

This breathtaking ceiling belongs to the Chapelle Royale.  This is the 5th version of a chapel built in the history of Versailles and is where the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette took place.

This is the Hall of Mirrors.  This long hallway is defined by the 17 arched mirror displays on the left side of the hallway, each arch contains 21 mirrors.

It was super crowded.  Like way crowded.

What makes these mirrors so remarkable is that this was these mirrors were the largest mirrors that they were able to produce at the time.  The square mirrors pictured below were the biggest mirrors of the time.  

We continued to tour the rest of the palace, including Marie Antoinette's bedroom.  Can we say bling?

Guess what we found!! Told you it would show up again!  This version of Napoleon's Coronation has some slight differences to the one hanging in the Louvre.  The style of dress is changed to fit the fashion at the time, Napoleon's mother has been painted into the portrait (she was missing from the original) and the author has painted himself into the top balcony as an onlooker.

Where's Waldo the artist?

After the tour of the inside of the palace, we wandered outside to take in the entirety of Versailles.  The golden gates (not bridge) were pretty impressive.

Then we ventured out back to the famous gardens of Versailles.  These were legitimately the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen, and they go on FOREVER.  Here are some highlights:

View from directly behind the palace (unfortunately the fountain was under construction)

Bassin de Latone

I fell in love with these trees.  I don't even know what kind they are, but the way they frame the open field is just gorgeous.

We then wandered around the labyrinth of hedges that frame the outer edges of the gardens.  We would run into amazing scenes such as this after taking a couple turns.

Next, we wandered into the Orangerie.  This is where the orange and other citrus trees would be stored during the winter, since they can't handle the harsh temperatures.  To our surprise they were housing a photography exhibit instead.

The photos were by a South Korean photographer named Ahae.  On display were a number of absolutely beautiful nature shots from Korea.

What made this exhibit interesting was that all of the shots were taken by Ahae out of a single window in his cottage.  Below is the rough size of the window that he was able to take all of these shots from.  

All the shots were gorgeous and it was a very pleasant surprise to run into when we thought we were just going to see the orange groves.

After emerging from the Orangerie we got to take a final look at the amazing gardens.  All of the well manicured lawns and shrubs look almost unreal when looking at them from a distance.

After saying goodbye to the gardens, we set out to catch a train back to Paris.  We did have to stop at our friendly neighborhood Starbucks though for some much needed ice coffee (this is not a thing in Europe, they just don't do iced coffee there).  After a bit of jostling and some chaos, we all made it on a train back to the city.  

After getting back to Paris, me and a few friends decided to go visit the famous American bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.  This historic bookstore was a gathering place for a number of American writers in Paris including Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.  The bookstore was the home to many writers of the "Lost Generation".  The store is also featured in the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris.   

Oh hey Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris

After making a few purchases (I bought a copy of The Great Gatsby for myself and a copy of Le Petit Prince or The Little Prince for a friend), we headed back for some much needed rest.