Maybe you ended up here from Holmes Sweet Home, or maybe you just stumbled upon this, but this is my blog from my summer studies in France in 2007. During my Masters program at the University of Memphis, I did a summer study to earn extra credits in order to complete my degree a semester early.

I spent 4 weeks in the town of Tours, living with a fantastic host family and studying five days a week at a language school called Institut de Touraine. With just two days left in Tours, Jacob flew to France to meet me, where he was able to meet my host family and see the school where I'd been studying.

After leaving Tours, we spent a week in Paris and had an absolutely unforgettable week in the city of love and lights.

My first introduction to Paris was in 2004, and I didn't have a great experience. In order to save money, we decided to walk instead of buying the metro passes, and at the end of the two days, I actually thought that ...(I can't belive it as I type these words) ...that...

I ...didn't like Paris.

IMAGINE!!!

It's safe to say that I was wrong... really, really wrong because this second time was amazing.

(I highly recommend using the metro instead of walking all over town, and the company of a great spouse can make all the difference!)

So, I'm in love with Paris, have always been in love with French and anything "French-ish," and this is my blog to prove it.

:)

Paris Day 4: Sacré-Coeur, Amélie sites, La Sorbonne,
Notre Dame, La Comédie-Française, & Champs-Élysées

June 26, 2007

This was our last day in Paris, so we were determined to see lots of things. We saw so much, but it was surprisingly a very calm and laid-back day. We just hopped on the metro to see different things all day long. There is so much to see and do in Paris!


Our first stop: Sacré-Coeur

















Sacré-Coeur is built at the summit of Montmartre, the highest point in the city of Paris. You can see Paris behind me -- great views of the city from here.









































If you've seen my favorite movie, Amélie, you may recognize this metro stop near Sacré-Coeur.

Amélie was set in Montmartre, and there are many scenes in the movie filmed at this storefront.

Here I am inside the store. I only bought a postcard -- didn't really need any groceries!










It was very quiet and low-key... just the storekeeper, one other customer, and us.









We also found Café des 2 Moulins ("Café of 2 Windmills"), the café where Amélie works in the movie.

















The inside looked pretty much as it did in the movie, except for this giant movie poster hanging on the wall in the back!











There were "regulars" at the counter, then there were the obvious Amélie fans with cameras -- us and a young Asian couple!






If you haven't seen Amélie and are tempted to now... do it! (If you can stand reading subtitles!) Wikipedia has a synopsis of the movie in English. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Festival and was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. The full name of the movie is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain."

After leaving Montmartre, we took the metro to see the Sorbonne. The Collège de Sorbonne was founded in 1257.
















Next, we walked to Notre Dame. We took a picture from one of the many bridges in Paris on our way.





















I am in this picture -- if you can find me!










Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first Gothic cathedrals. Construction began in 1163 and was completed around 1345.



















Notre Dame apparently attracts some strange characters....

like this man with all the pigeons







and this man with the tiny birds!











Next, we headed to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the area famous as being the center of the existentialist movement. It's associated with writers Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir.


This plaque marks a spot designated "Place Sartre-Beauvoir."








This is Les Deux Magots, a famous café in the area. Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Ernest Hemingway were regulars.









From the official site of Les Deux Magots:

In the tense pre-war atmosphere, Saint Germain des Pres became the intellectual centre of Paris : Gide, Guehenno, Malraux and Chamson regularly ended up in discussions on the café terrace. Paul Eluard introduced Dora Maar to Picasso at "Les Deux Magots". Françoise Giroud would have a coffee with Saint Exupery while Paul Morand would be deep in conversation with his friend Jean Giraudoux.

Every morning, Jean Paul Sartre with Simone de Beauvoir would take his seat at "Les Deux Magots" and write for hours, often without pause, but sometimes stopping to talk to Ernest Hemingway, another regular customer.

We stopped at Les Deux Magots and had a coffee.








After this afternoon coffee break, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.


This is our hotel in Paris.











This is the restaurant where we ate dinner each night, Café du Commerce, founded in 1921.







The server was nice enough to rush our dessert at dinner because I told him we had tickets to La Comédie-Française. La Comédie-Française is the only state theater in France. It has its own troupe of actors and was founded by King Louis XIV in 1680.

Here's Jacob just inside the lobby at Salle Richelieu of La Comédie-Française. We saw Molière's Le Malade imaginaire -- Jacob didn't understand a thing, but he was such a good sport -- he knew how much it meant to me to get to go!





Going up the steps to find our seats... they weren't great seats, but they were seats! (These are the seats the nice guy at the ticket window found for us on Saturday, when it was listed everywhere as "complet" -- "Sold Out.")

It's suprisingly inexpensive for tickets to the theater -- 11 euros or 22 euros. We got the 11 euro seats, which was about $14.83 each.






This is a drawing of Salle Richelieu from Wikipedia and is listed as "Interior view, late 18th Century."





I'm using the drawing since we weren't supposed to take pictures in here, so I didn't... although some French high school kids in front of us were taking pictures of each other and of the theater on their cell phones! It still looks like this -- lots of gold and red velvet.


The main character in Le Malade imaginaire is Argan, a hypochondriac. Molière himself played the role of Argan during the first four representations of the play, and he died a few hours after the fourth showing in 1673. This is what Wikipedia says about Molière's death:

One of the most famous moments in Molière's life is the last, which became legend: he didn't die on stage, while performing Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), he collapsed on stage with a fit of coughing and haemorrhaging. The King, Louis XIV, urged him to rest but Moliere insisted on completing his performance afterwhich he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage and died a few hours later at his house.

Argan is seated in a chair through most of the play. This chair is on display in a glass case at the end of one of the hallways in the theater -- it's the chair Molière used when playing the role of Argan.










outside La Comédie-Française after the play










After the play, we decided to take a walk to see Paris at night one last time before leaving.

We walked toward the Louvre:























Then down the Champs-Élysées:


The Champs-Élysées is the 2nd most expensive strip of real estate in the world -- second to 5th Avenue in New York.










La plus belle avenue du monde

"The most beautiful avenue in the world"








enjoying a crèpe on the Champs-Élysées
















Jacob took these great shots of the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs-Élysées:





















By this time, it was midnight, so we decided to head back to the hotel so we could get up for our flight the next morning.

Our time in Paris was so fantastic -- much like a second honeymoon -- and we both loved Paris even more than we thought we would. Can't wait to go back someday!

La fin
The End

I'm still working on the pictures of our last day in Paris -- they're coming soon!


Here's something I'm loving right now:
Canadian Andrea Lindsay, who sings in English & French

"Les Yeux de Marie" ("Marie's eyes") -- parts of the video are in Paris!

Paris Day 3: To the top of the Eiffel Tower & the Louvre
Monday, June 25, 2007

"Deux billets pour le sommet s'il vous plait"
"Two tickets to the top please"











inside the tower, waiting for the elevator








views of Paris from the first level of the Eiffel Tower:






























looking up at the rest of the tower from the 2nd level










view from the 2nd level:

































the very top!









Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower -- you can see the Arc de Triomphe in this picture.









Jacob took this really cool shot from the very top -- you can see the bottom of the tower and a heart in the grass that someone had made.














back on solid ground


































I love this place!



































What a great day so far!










After visiting the Eiffel Tower, we picked up Croque Monsieurs and headed to the Luxembourg gardens to eat lunch. A croque monsieur is a super-popular sandwich in France. It's a grilled ham and cheese sandwich made with gruyère cheese with melted cheese on top. Wikipedia says that it first appeared on a Parisian menu in 1910! Jacob loved it!

The Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg gardens) is the largest public park in Paris and is on the grounds of the Luxembourg Palace, which houses the French Senate.



















































After eating our lunch in the Luxembourg gardens, we headed to the Louvre.


The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world.







Construction on the existing Louvre was begun in 1535, and work continued until 1876. It was a royal palace until Napoleon opened it as a public museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. The pyramid was added in 1989.






inside the Louvre













Napoleon's dining room










so many things to see:


a Corinthian soldier's armor























a real mummy!









This room was SO big -- look how small I look!










The Egyptian section -- Christian would have loved this part of the museum:



































We also saw the Mona Lisa (or La Joconde, as the French call it), but we obeyed the signs and didn't take a picture!



Remember how I said that the stick figures are always running on French signs? ...Look at this one!








It was drizzling after dinner this night, but we still made a quick stop to Place de la Concorde.













Some info from Wikipedia:

• During the French Revolution, a guillotine stood where the obelisk stands today.
• In the summer of 1794, more than 1,300 people were executed in a single month.
• King Lous XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed here.
• The viceroy of Egypt offered the 3,300-year-old obelisk to France in 1831.
• The obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833, and it was placed in the center of Place de la Concorde on October 25, 1836.
• Without warning, in 2000 French urban climber Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices, scaled the obelisk all the way to the top.

That's about it for Monday -- it was a very full day. The next day (Tuesday) was our last day in Paris before our flight back on Wednesday. Tuesday was probably my favorite day in Paris -- I'll post those pictures as soon as I can get them organized and posted!