It has been quite an eventful weekend here in the City of Lights! On Friday there was the Salon International de l'Agriculture, Saturday IES took us on an excursion to Chantilly and today I visited the Centre Pompidou museum and Sainte Chappelle. The weather is getting warmer, the people seem friendlier and I'm learning so many things about my home away from home.
Salon International de l'Agriculture
The International Agriculture Fair is an annual event in Paris. It is very popular and people come from all over France to see livestock, taste food from different regions, see scientific demonstrations and see a wide variety of other things. It reminded me of a state fair except much larger and much more international. There were seven pavilions with different things and Madeline and I set out early in the morning to try to avoid the crowds. Our plan didn't really work because we were stuck in throngs of people the whole time, but overall it was cool and interesting. Our favorite pavilion was of course the one with food. There were different companies and small producers of food that set up stands offering what they sell. There were free samples all over (a very good thing for a student on a budget) and it was fun to see all the different types of cuisine.
My second favorite pavilion was the one about the environment. It had different stations set up with things related to science (plants, animals, weather patterns, etc) and I really liked seeing the demonstrations. The other pavilion that we went to had a bunch of farm animals. It was weird to see chickens and goats in the middle of the city. It was actually kind of sad because there were just rows and rows of animals in cages, so Madeline and I didn't end up staying in that one for very long. Also, because of the crowds we didn't want to fight our way through to the other pavilions. We saw the three main ones, and from what I've heard those were the most popular ones to see and the most interesting. I've actually heard of the Paris Agriculture Fair from readings and things in my French classes. It is really well known and definitely a thing to do if you're in the area at the end of February.
Chantilly
Each IES student is allowed to go on two excursions for the semester. Saturday was the first one and I signed up to go, so 49 of my classmates and I met at 8am, loaded a giant double decker bus and took the 1 1/2 hour ride away from Paris to the small town of Chantilly, France. The town is known for the Chantilly Chateau so we were excited to see the castle and learn about medieval French history. However, the trip turned out to be less exciting than we thought. It all started when we arrived an hour before the castle opened. Bertrand, the IES staff member in charge of the excursion apparently thought that it would take longer to get to the town than it did so he told us to either stay on the bus and sleep or walk around while we waited for it to open. The term "walk around" should be read sarcastically because we were in a fenced in parking lot. Plus, there was a thick fog over everything so we couldn't even see the castle from the parking lot. Needless to say the boys got restless and we were all anxious to get inside.
Once inside, we split into two smaller groups and took a guided tour of the chateau. It turns out that the Chantilly Chateau holds the largest private collection of art in France. The castle itself was really nice but the artwork inside that covered the walls was amazing. However, after two hours walking around listening to the tour guide explain who is in the paintings and their significance we all became tired and bored. Luckily, after the tour we got to have a traditional French lunch right in the castle. The food was amazing and was a nice break from tours. Afterwords we went on another guided tour of the building that used to be the water area of the castle. Our guide spent an hour showing us the old techniques for washing clothes. It was rough. The antique water wheel area was pretty cool and there was also a vent in the floor where you could see the river running underneath the building, but it was pretty hard to stay interested in the guide's very detailed speech about water usage.
Overall Chantilly was cool to see but would have been better if we could have toured it ourselves. Also the town was cute and as we drove home we went through the main street and were bummed that we didn't have more time to explore the streets.
Centre Pompidou & Sainte Chappelle
In Paris, the first Sunday of every month means that most museums are free. Since today was the first Sunday in March we took the opportunity to go to the Georges Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. I like contemporary art, so I really enjoyed the museum. The coolest part about it is the design on the outside. Since it is supposed to be "modern" the building was made to look inside out.
Sainte Chappelle was also free today, so after the museum we walked across the Ile de la Cite (the small island in the middle of the river in Paris) and went to the cathedral. I had never heard of it so I didn't know what to expect and wow was I blown away. The cathedral was BEAUTIFUL. It didn't look like all the other nice churches I've seen. It had the most intricate stained glass windows I've ever seen. The designs on the stained glass depicted every story in the Bible and covered most of the building. From the outside, Sainte Chappelle looks like a normal Gothic-style church but from the inside it takes your breath away. I definitely want to go back!
This weekend was full of activities and adventures, some better than others, and I can't wait to go to bed tonight- I'm exhausted! It was definitely a great weekend to explore the city and I'm looking forward to warmer weather and more free museum visits.
Salon International de l'Agriculture
The International Agriculture Fair is an annual event in Paris. It is very popular and people come from all over France to see livestock, taste food from different regions, see scientific demonstrations and see a wide variety of other things. It reminded me of a state fair except much larger and much more international. There were seven pavilions with different things and Madeline and I set out early in the morning to try to avoid the crowds. Our plan didn't really work because we were stuck in throngs of people the whole time, but overall it was cool and interesting. Our favorite pavilion was of course the one with food. There were different companies and small producers of food that set up stands offering what they sell. There were free samples all over (a very good thing for a student on a budget) and it was fun to see all the different types of cuisine.
My second favorite pavilion was the one about the environment. It had different stations set up with things related to science (plants, animals, weather patterns, etc) and I really liked seeing the demonstrations. The other pavilion that we went to had a bunch of farm animals. It was weird to see chickens and goats in the middle of the city. It was actually kind of sad because there were just rows and rows of animals in cages, so Madeline and I didn't end up staying in that one for very long. Also, because of the crowds we didn't want to fight our way through to the other pavilions. We saw the three main ones, and from what I've heard those were the most popular ones to see and the most interesting. I've actually heard of the Paris Agriculture Fair from readings and things in my French classes. It is really well known and definitely a thing to do if you're in the area at the end of February.
Chantilly
Each IES student is allowed to go on two excursions for the semester. Saturday was the first one and I signed up to go, so 49 of my classmates and I met at 8am, loaded a giant double decker bus and took the 1 1/2 hour ride away from Paris to the small town of Chantilly, France. The town is known for the Chantilly Chateau so we were excited to see the castle and learn about medieval French history. However, the trip turned out to be less exciting than we thought. It all started when we arrived an hour before the castle opened. Bertrand, the IES staff member in charge of the excursion apparently thought that it would take longer to get to the town than it did so he told us to either stay on the bus and sleep or walk around while we waited for it to open. The term "walk around" should be read sarcastically because we were in a fenced in parking lot. Plus, there was a thick fog over everything so we couldn't even see the castle from the parking lot. Needless to say the boys got restless and we were all anxious to get inside.
Once inside, we split into two smaller groups and took a guided tour of the chateau. It turns out that the Chantilly Chateau holds the largest private collection of art in France. The castle itself was really nice but the artwork inside that covered the walls was amazing. However, after two hours walking around listening to the tour guide explain who is in the paintings and their significance we all became tired and bored. Luckily, after the tour we got to have a traditional French lunch right in the castle. The food was amazing and was a nice break from tours. Afterwords we went on another guided tour of the building that used to be the water area of the castle. Our guide spent an hour showing us the old techniques for washing clothes. It was rough. The antique water wheel area was pretty cool and there was also a vent in the floor where you could see the river running underneath the building, but it was pretty hard to stay interested in the guide's very detailed speech about water usage.
Overall Chantilly was cool to see but would have been better if we could have toured it ourselves. Also the town was cute and as we drove home we went through the main street and were bummed that we didn't have more time to explore the streets.
Centre Pompidou & Sainte Chappelle
In Paris, the first Sunday of every month means that most museums are free. Since today was the first Sunday in March we took the opportunity to go to the Georges Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. I like contemporary art, so I really enjoyed the museum. The coolest part about it is the design on the outside. Since it is supposed to be "modern" the building was made to look inside out.
Sainte Chappelle was also free today, so after the museum we walked across the Ile de la Cite (the small island in the middle of the river in Paris) and went to the cathedral. I had never heard of it so I didn't know what to expect and wow was I blown away. The cathedral was BEAUTIFUL. It didn't look like all the other nice churches I've seen. It had the most intricate stained glass windows I've ever seen. The designs on the stained glass depicted every story in the Bible and covered most of the building. From the outside, Sainte Chappelle looks like a normal Gothic-style church but from the inside it takes your breath away. I definitely want to go back!
This weekend was full of activities and adventures, some better than others, and I can't wait to go to bed tonight- I'm exhausted! It was definitely a great weekend to explore the city and I'm looking forward to warmer weather and more free museum visits.
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