Firenze 2006-2007

Paris

This weekend, Katie Dolton and I went to Paris to see the city and visit Amanda, who is studying there this semester. We were supposed to meet up with Daniel Willis and Kate Warner from Heidelberg as well but never really found them, so for the most part, it was Katie and I touring Paris.
We left from Firenze Campo di Marte Thursday night right after big brother/ big sister and dinner. We made to the train in plenty of time, and at about 9pm, we were on our way. We had a couchette and after talking some and entertaining ourselves to the best of our ability with what we had, we went to bed. When we woke up we thought we were just 30 minutes outside of Paris, but the train was a little late, so we had to wait an extra hour or so to get there. We ended up getting there at about 10:30 and left Paris Bercy in search of our hotel. We took the Metro to Republique, had a crepe and then met up with Amanda before heading to the hotel. After dropping the bags off, we headed on the Metro to the area of the Palais de Justice and Notre Dame.
(The Seine River with the Eiffel Tower in the background)
(The facade of Notre Dame)
(The back of Notre Dame)
(John the Baptist being beheaded in Notre Dame)
We saw the church, walked around both the inside and outside taking in as much as we could of the stained glass, flying buttresses, and art that covers the church before heading down the Seine river in the direction of the Tulieres and the Louvre. We looked around the piazza of the Louvre and then headed through the garden in the direction of the Champs de Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We walked all down the Champs and looked at some of the stores before making it to the Arc walking around it and back down the other side of the Champs. From there, we headed back through the Tulieres, stopping for a crepe before going to the Louvre at 6pm, when it is free for students under 26.
(The entrance to the Louvre)
(Me infront of the Arc De Triomphe)
(The Eiffel Tower at sunset)
(The Champs de Elysees and Arc de Triomphe at sunset)
We headed straight for the wing of the museum with the Italian and Spanish paintings, the most notable one being the Mona Lisa. I was pretty surprised at how many of the paintings there I was able to identify from either European History or my Humanities class, and that made the museum pretty cool to walk through. I had no idea that there was so much Italian art there, Rafaello and Leonardo in particular. We saw the Mona Lisa, and all the other works there before heading to the Ancient Greek and Roman section to see the Venus di Milo, something we had just studied in Humanities. We then took a quick look around most of the rest of the rooms, but the other one that I really wanted to see, the room with Italian sculptures was closed so we looked around a bit more before leaving.
(The Mona Lisa, sorry for the crummy quality on the pic)
(Venus di Milo)
(Where Mary Magdaline is buried according to the Da Vinci Code, the Louvre)
After that, we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and arrived there just in time to see it start to sparkle with all the individual lights that go off every hour or so. We watched it for a while, from the long grassy expanse in front of the tower. After that we went back to the hotel and Katie went to bed, while I went to meet Amanda at Sac Le Coeur, the church overlooking Paris. We walked around that area for a while and then I too headed back to the hotel to go to bed.
(The Eiffel Tower sparkling)
When we woke up on Saturday, it was raining a bit, so we prepared for a wet day, but it turned out to be nice for the most part. First thing we headed back to Sac Le Coeur to see the view at day and to tour the church.
(Sac le Coeur)
(The invisible man, a random statue)
From there we walked a short way to the Moulin Rouge, took a picture of it and went to the area of Paris near the Gare de Lyon, where the Pepperdine students live and study. We walked around that neighborhood a bit and then headed to the Eiffel Tower again, hoping to go up to the top but the top floor was closed so we decided to head to the Gardens of Luxembourg.
(The Moulin Rouge)
We walked around the gardens and ate a picnic style late lunch there before heading towards the Pantheon, looking around there and then heading back to pick up our bags, some more stuff for a picnic dinner on the train and then we went back to Bercy to catch our train that left just after 7. In our couchette this time were three Italians who kept up a pretty interesting conversation about Paris, Florence, and then language. One of them was wondering why Italian children had to learn English instead of French and the others were talking about which languages are more articulate and easier to learn, and then also about usefulness. From there they talked about Paris, and it was then that I realized that it was 11/11, the day World War I ended, so although we didn’t really realize it until too late, we were in Paris on a pretty famous day for Europe. After eating and listening to the conversation for a while we went to bed and woke up at about 6:30, and got off the train in Florence shortly thereafter. We made a beeline to Café Liberta and breakfast, then back to the villa for a shower and now I’m here writing this e-mail and looking forward to homework for the rest of the day.
(Me infront of the Eiffel Tower)
(The garden infront of the Palace of Luxembourg)
(A memorial in Notre Dame to those from the English Empire who died in WWI)
More pics later.

posted by Daniel Williams @ 00:52