Eighteenth Century Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Culture activity 2

                                            Pastry of the day: une tarte d'apricot. Super good.

 
Le Musee Jacquemart-Andre was incredible. It's a house that belonged to it's name sake in the nineteenth century. They were just a rich couple that decided to live it up by filling their house with decor from the eighteenth century. There's even a personal museum on the second floor that has things form around the world. A mural they bought from Italy took eight months to install. I love the palm tree touch. Reminds me of home.

 

The picture isn't very good because of the lighting in this room, but this chair reminds me of the electric chair and since it's in a room designed to resemble a church it seemed fitting to assume that the chair is a punishment for sinners.

One of my favorite paintings in the museum. It's by Eugene Boudin.

The Mr and Mrs bedrooms. They both have a women's touch because after the Mr died, the Mrs redecorated his room, though at the time the well off men certainly had rooms that would be considered feminine now, so whatevs. I like it.

On our way to the Parc Monceau which was created in the eighteenth century.  This park isn't a tourist spot, but it's very popular with the locals, so there were a lot of people from all ages. I've decided it's one of, if not my favorite parks in Paris. It's quite beautiful and there are fake ruins all over the park because they were popular during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This park is also where the first ever hot air balloon landed in 1797. Pretty cool.

 
This tree was planted in 1814. It's pretty cool.

A giant fork and spoon...why?

 

 

 Can you see now what I mean about this park being awesome? Also this tree reminds me of an elephant.

Le Musee Nissim de Carmondo is like the first museum, but smaller. It's quite impressive an houses some of the grandest furniture in Paris. The porcelain is quite nice.

 
This is an old fashioned elevator!!!!

 
Can I have a desk like this?

 
 I found the men's smoking room....

                                                         I want this library!!!!!!!

Saw this trinket in a shop by the park. Thought it was funny looking. A rhino on stilts? Your thoughts?

 This is called a Brioche. It's bread with sugar on top of it. Actually pretty good. Needs a bit more sugar though.

 

 Riding a random bus to the end of the line because we had time to kill and saw these things. :)

No, I wasn't being creepy, I was simply studying the relationship rituals of people in France and observing the world around me which happened to include watching this girl stuff grass down her, presumably, boyfriend's shirt, him standing up to empty his shirt, and then getting situated on the grass where she sat down next to him like this. They were flirting up a storm. Maybe I', weird, but I can live with that.

 
Moi, McKenna and Maddie at the semi-finals of the international poetry slam held in Belleville. It was actually quite good. Really cool to watch each contestant perform in their own language and see the passion and emotion that they performed with. There were contestants from Quebec, Holland, Brazil, Italy, USA, and Denmark. I've decided that Danish is a weird sounding language, a bit similar to Asian in the inflections used by the poet. My top three went on to the next round. Yay!!! I felt pretty cool being able to understand most of the french that was used. Also, they had bubbles at the door!!! This kid wasn't the only one who enjoyed them. The MC's Son performed a short poem in the beginning to start us off. It was so cute. This kid is the furthest from shy. He was up there dancing and singing on stage while waiting for the contest to begin.

Time Travel, Tricks, and Treats Around St. Sulpice 
Today was a really good day with no transportation problems. Whoo hoo! The sun was even out for a bit in the morning.  It was warm today too. We had a quiz in class today. I'm pretty sure I bombed it. I might have goten atleast half of them right, but I confused the political parties in my head, and simply didn't know some of the information. It was one of those quizzes where as soon as it's over you can't remember anything about it because your brain has blocked out the terrible memory....Ya. Before you say anything, I did study, and I was tired. Hopefully i'll do better on the next one. The walk wasn't too long and we got to see some cool things and revisit some others that we've seen in the past while exploring. I've discovered the thing called Snap Chat today. I've resisted getting it for months and finally gave in this morning. I have no idea how it works, but i'm learning and though it's not quite to the point of my host mother's excitement for Snap Chat, it's pretty close. I'm more in awe of the technology: how it works, then of the picture settings. We got home around four today, which means I have time to finish my blog early and work on my paper or study for my midterm...yay...

This is Hotel Lutetia, a four star hotel built in 1910 and the first Art Deco hotel in Paris. It's currently under renovation. This hotel housed many famous people such as Picasso, Matisse, Andre Gide, and Josephine Baker. Charles de Gualle stayed here for his honeymoon. It's not too expensive. One can stay in the nicest suite for only 2,500 euros a night.

 
This place was built in 1720. Look at these awesome door knockers.

This is where eighteenth century aristocrat Saint Simon (1675-1755) finished writing his tell-all Memoires, which after being published in 1753 was immediately confiscated by the authorities.

This is a seventeenth century building that sticks out comparably against the surrounding buildings. This one has only three floors while the others have about five at least.

 
We love our bread. This is Poilane, the most famous boulangerie in Paris. Opened in 1932, this bakery specializes in traditional bread baked in wood-fire ovens, doesn't use conservatives, made of stone ground flour and raised without yeast. This place is legit you guys.

 
We're back here again. I can't say I missed the centaur, but i did miss the guy on the wall, who I have named Stanley.  McKenna and I were here the first week in Paris to find the money exchange.

                                                       Look guys! It's the shaggy dog!

We also love our pastries! This place is the cutting edge of pastry fashion and a bit pricey, as you can imagine. It's really good though. I got a licorice/ violet flavored macaroon, which was amazing even though it doesn't sound like it would be.

 

 

 

This picture doesn't do this chapel justice. Truly stunning. 

 

 

 
These are pictures of the second largest cathedral in Paris, the first being Notre Dame, St. Sulpice. Despite this, the cathedral wasn't a huge tourist attraction until "The De Vinci" Code became a best seller, and then film.  It's a shame, because this church is one of the most gorgeous I've seen this whole trip. I would go so far as to say it's in my top two. The architecture and the interior are beautiful and elaborate, but not overwhelming. No, the rumors about this church being built on top of an ancient pagan temple and in connection with the secret society, "Priory of Sion" is not true. That is just a rumor started by some punk who in the sixties planted forged documents in the national library as proof of the medieval origins. The Gnomon was actually built in the eighteenth century to help indicate the equinox leading to Easter Sunday.

This is a cool wall with the name Arthur Rimbaud on it as well as lots of writing, but I wasn't able to investigate what it was.

                                                      This satyr looks scary. Just saying.

This shop is from 1783 and sells figurines. :) They're pretty cool actually.

This street is old!!! Named after Catherine Marie de Lorraine, Duchesse de Montpensier et Princess des Dombes. 1552-1596.

 

 
This place was constructed in 1586 for le cardinal de Bourbon in charge of the abbey we'll encounter later, and is now a catholic school.

 

 

 

 These are images of le musee Delacroix, a famous painter from the nineteenth century. It's actually where he lived and died. We've been learning about him in class, so we decided to take a look around. We love his garden. Quite peaceful.

                                                      Cool light post outside the museum.

 

 

 

 
This is l'Abbaye Saint Germain des Pres. Yes, we've been here before, but let's revisit it now, shall we?  In the sixth century, King Childeberte I (496-558) founded the abbaye in the fields just outside of Paris. During the ninth century, vikings burned the original abbaye. The abbaye was rebuilt in the eleventh century and enlarged in the twelfth. The tower dates from this period. The rest of the building dates from a nineteenth century reconstruction, the older version having met its demise during the french revolution when it was used as a prison and as a storage facility for gun powder. You can imagine what happened when the building caught fire.

 
Having fun in the Monoprix. (It's like target, but more pricey, so a Cols and target mix)

These performers were right outside the abbaye in front of the metro station. They were good. I'm going to miss all the street performers, well those that aren't just doing it because they're homeless and need money.