MY TRULY EXCELLENT ADVENTURE OF 2015: A CLASS ON PARIS BOTH OLD AND NEW WITH A SPRING BREAK TRIP TO THE CITY OF LIGHT
When I scheduled last spring, I noticed that there would be an honors seminar with a study tour to Paris and I immediately was very interested in participating in the seminar. The class structure of this seminar was very similar to the Culture of Books and Reading seminar I took last spring. This seminar was on the city of Paris as a whole. We examined the culture, history, and people of Paris and then made several comparisons to life and places of Cincinnati. I made comparisons between some places I had been in Cleveland as well. Throughout the semester we had assigned readings from Paris:A Collected Traveler that introduced the city of Paris and aspects of everyday life there.
Over spring break we traveled to Paris and spent a whirlwind week running around the city seeing all of the sites we could in a week. While in Paris I kept a journal detailing what we did each day and some thoughts about comparisons between Paris and Cincinnati. The exact itinerary is as follows with some excerpts from my journal.
Day One (Friday)- Fly to Paris! I left right after an exam to get to the airport in the pouring rain... like we should have been building an Ark it was raining so much. It was a direct flight luckily so we didn't have to worry about changing planes.
Day Two (Saturday)- We arrived in Paris at 6 am their time and of course nobody really slept on the plane so we all were running on adrenaline until we could get some caffeine in us. We got through customs and got our luggage just fine and the next thing we knew we were on the bus ready to get our first view of Paris and it was amazing! I was tired and jet-lagged but in the morning mist the city was beautiful. After checking into out hotel, we went to get breakfast (caffeine finally!) and I had my first croissant in France. We spent the rest of the day at the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuileries gardens, the Orangerie (where Monet's water lilies are kept) and walking around the Champs Elysees before having crêpes for dinner. The size of the Arc threw me for a loop as did the number of stairs you had to climb to get up there and spiral staircases make me very nauseous. I love impressionism so I loved the Orangerie. Despite how tired I was the best part of this day was just walking around the city.
Day Three (Sunday)- We headed out to a huge flea market on the outskirts of Paris that was full of interesting finds. After the flea market we went to Notre Dame. Words cannot do Notre Dame justice. It is so unbelievably beautiful inside and out and huge! I spent a solid amount of time sitting in front of Notre Dame wondering at the size and beauty of Notre Dame. I also went to Sainte Chapelle (whose stained glass is not to be missed), one of the famous "locks of love" bridges, and the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was kept before her execution). We were supposed to go on a Bateau Mouche ride down the Seine but it was freezing so we just grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel.
Day Four (Monday)- The Louvre was on the menu today so after we woke up we headed off to the Louvre. Once in the museum we headed off in what I assume was a labyrinths to find the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was cool but it was a little anticlimactic as the Mona Lisa is very small and I far as I am concerned not the most impressive thing in the Louvre. Then I walked around the Louvre for several hours (only getting lost once!) before we went to St. Denis (still not tired of Churches) before we had a delicious group dinner.
Day Five (Tuesday)- Today was Versailles day! Versailles is a royal residence just to the south of France. The château was beautiful inside and out and the hall of mirrors was breathtaking. What impressed me more was the gardens. The gardens stretched for miles it seemed like and I could just imagine what it would look like when everything was planted. We also did the Eiffel Tower and the Bateau Mouche ride which gave us amazing views of the city all around.
Day Six (Wednesday)- Today we saw the Place des Vosges and Victor Hugo House, Carnavalet ( Museum of Paris), the Pompidou ( Modern art museum outside of which I twisted my ankle) and the Music museum in the park La Villette. I don't know if I was just museumed out by this point but I really didn't enjoy anything today besides the music museum which was very cool. When you walk into the museum you get an audio guide that allows you to hear all of the instruments in museum being played.
Day Seven (Thursday)- First we went the Cluny Medieval Museum which has some ruins of an old roman bath that was super cool to see besides that I really enjoyed the Notre Dame room because it had some statutes that you really can't get a good look at because they are so high up at Notre Dame. Then we went to the Pantheon and I went into the crypts which were cool but very creepy. Then we walked through the Luxemburg gardens to Saint Germain de Pres, the Rodin Museum and Napoleon's giant ego fest of a tomb. Then we went to what I was most excited about: The Orsay Museum. The Orsay is the impressionism museum of Paris. Some of you might recognize the Orsay from the Doctor Who episode: Vincent and the Doctor. Needless to say I was in nerd heaven.
Day Eight (Friday)- Today is our last day in Paris *sad face*. We went up to Montmartre ( Very uphill climb and not fun for me on my sprained ankle) to see Sacre Coeur and I bought some wonderful art. Then we went to see dead people in Pere Lachaise cemetery and the catacombs. The catacombs were amazing and totally worth the spiral stairs to get to them!
There is very little you can say about Paris that has not already been said. It might sound cliché but over the course of the week I fell in love with Paris. I loved just walking around the city doing normal things like grocery shopping and riding the Metro like a normal Parisian. I really did enjoy the touristisy things that we did but I really enjoyed just feeling like a member of the city. Over the span of this trip I discovered how much I enjoy the city lifestyle and I think that one day I want to live in a big city. I crave the hustle and bustle. I also realized about mid-week that I could travel on my own. I had no problem following how we were getting places and I felt more and more confidant figuring out the Metro. I gained so much more confidence in my travel skills and in my French language skills. I took French as my language in school but never thought that I was that fluent in the language until I tried to communicate with the locals and had very little problems communicating without having to switch to English. I had the week of my life and further explored my love to travel. As long and I have the opportunity to travel I am going to travel. There is very little else I can say about my amazing week in Paris that has not been said so I will leave you with my favorite quote about Paris: "And if you have the ability to go to Paris by all means, go to Paris."
Below in a link to the prezi I made for my final project. I looked at how long it would take you to see everything in various art museums and the Louvre. One thing the formula I used to determine the length of time for each museum assumes that you can see all of the museum's holdings at a time which is not true since most of the museums I looked at are active lending institutions.
http://prezi.com/pklqjv-xrtau/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Pictures are under the tab...if you have any questions about any of the pictures please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.
Over spring break we traveled to Paris and spent a whirlwind week running around the city seeing all of the sites we could in a week. While in Paris I kept a journal detailing what we did each day and some thoughts about comparisons between Paris and Cincinnati. The exact itinerary is as follows with some excerpts from my journal.
Day One (Friday)- Fly to Paris! I left right after an exam to get to the airport in the pouring rain... like we should have been building an Ark it was raining so much. It was a direct flight luckily so we didn't have to worry about changing planes.
Day Two (Saturday)- We arrived in Paris at 6 am their time and of course nobody really slept on the plane so we all were running on adrenaline until we could get some caffeine in us. We got through customs and got our luggage just fine and the next thing we knew we were on the bus ready to get our first view of Paris and it was amazing! I was tired and jet-lagged but in the morning mist the city was beautiful. After checking into out hotel, we went to get breakfast (caffeine finally!) and I had my first croissant in France. We spent the rest of the day at the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuileries gardens, the Orangerie (where Monet's water lilies are kept) and walking around the Champs Elysees before having crêpes for dinner. The size of the Arc threw me for a loop as did the number of stairs you had to climb to get up there and spiral staircases make me very nauseous. I love impressionism so I loved the Orangerie. Despite how tired I was the best part of this day was just walking around the city.
Day Three (Sunday)- We headed out to a huge flea market on the outskirts of Paris that was full of interesting finds. After the flea market we went to Notre Dame. Words cannot do Notre Dame justice. It is so unbelievably beautiful inside and out and huge! I spent a solid amount of time sitting in front of Notre Dame wondering at the size and beauty of Notre Dame. I also went to Sainte Chapelle (whose stained glass is not to be missed), one of the famous "locks of love" bridges, and the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was kept before her execution). We were supposed to go on a Bateau Mouche ride down the Seine but it was freezing so we just grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel.
Day Four (Monday)- The Louvre was on the menu today so after we woke up we headed off to the Louvre. Once in the museum we headed off in what I assume was a labyrinths to find the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was cool but it was a little anticlimactic as the Mona Lisa is very small and I far as I am concerned not the most impressive thing in the Louvre. Then I walked around the Louvre for several hours (only getting lost once!) before we went to St. Denis (still not tired of Churches) before we had a delicious group dinner.
Day Five (Tuesday)- Today was Versailles day! Versailles is a royal residence just to the south of France. The château was beautiful inside and out and the hall of mirrors was breathtaking. What impressed me more was the gardens. The gardens stretched for miles it seemed like and I could just imagine what it would look like when everything was planted. We also did the Eiffel Tower and the Bateau Mouche ride which gave us amazing views of the city all around.
Day Six (Wednesday)- Today we saw the Place des Vosges and Victor Hugo House, Carnavalet ( Museum of Paris), the Pompidou ( Modern art museum outside of which I twisted my ankle) and the Music museum in the park La Villette. I don't know if I was just museumed out by this point but I really didn't enjoy anything today besides the music museum which was very cool. When you walk into the museum you get an audio guide that allows you to hear all of the instruments in museum being played.
Day Seven (Thursday)- First we went the Cluny Medieval Museum which has some ruins of an old roman bath that was super cool to see besides that I really enjoyed the Notre Dame room because it had some statutes that you really can't get a good look at because they are so high up at Notre Dame. Then we went to the Pantheon and I went into the crypts which were cool but very creepy. Then we walked through the Luxemburg gardens to Saint Germain de Pres, the Rodin Museum and Napoleon's giant ego fest of a tomb. Then we went to what I was most excited about: The Orsay Museum. The Orsay is the impressionism museum of Paris. Some of you might recognize the Orsay from the Doctor Who episode: Vincent and the Doctor. Needless to say I was in nerd heaven.
Day Eight (Friday)- Today is our last day in Paris *sad face*. We went up to Montmartre ( Very uphill climb and not fun for me on my sprained ankle) to see Sacre Coeur and I bought some wonderful art. Then we went to see dead people in Pere Lachaise cemetery and the catacombs. The catacombs were amazing and totally worth the spiral stairs to get to them!
There is very little you can say about Paris that has not already been said. It might sound cliché but over the course of the week I fell in love with Paris. I loved just walking around the city doing normal things like grocery shopping and riding the Metro like a normal Parisian. I really did enjoy the touristisy things that we did but I really enjoyed just feeling like a member of the city. Over the span of this trip I discovered how much I enjoy the city lifestyle and I think that one day I want to live in a big city. I crave the hustle and bustle. I also realized about mid-week that I could travel on my own. I had no problem following how we were getting places and I felt more and more confidant figuring out the Metro. I gained so much more confidence in my travel skills and in my French language skills. I took French as my language in school but never thought that I was that fluent in the language until I tried to communicate with the locals and had very little problems communicating without having to switch to English. I had the week of my life and further explored my love to travel. As long and I have the opportunity to travel I am going to travel. There is very little else I can say about my amazing week in Paris that has not been said so I will leave you with my favorite quote about Paris: "And if you have the ability to go to Paris by all means, go to Paris."
Below in a link to the prezi I made for my final project. I looked at how long it would take you to see everything in various art museums and the Louvre. One thing the formula I used to determine the length of time for each museum assumes that you can see all of the museum's holdings at a time which is not true since most of the museums I looked at are active lending institutions.
http://prezi.com/pklqjv-xrtau/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Pictures are under the tab...if you have any questions about any of the pictures please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.