day 18 - d'orsay, rodin, napoleon and snails

I am doing so much in Paris. I'm out all day and all night doing amazing things and it's been hard keeping up on this blog, but I am not giving up! It just may happen all in chunks :)

Things about Paris:

- It's really nice that traffic drives in the same direction as the US. I hated crossing the street in London, I always thought I was going to get hit by a car.

- Everyone smokes, just like London.

- I'm not sure if it was the area I was in, but I feel like people in London dress way better than the folks in Paris. I also really like the clothes shopping in London a whole lot better. So if you want to fashionably change your wardrobe, I would suggest shopping in London.

- I adore the beaux art style of architecture that's everywhere in Paris. It's gorgeous.

- It's warm in Paris! No more wearing sweaters in 40 degree, overcast weather. There's actually sun and heat. I am wearing shorts. What? Yes, shorts. It feels oh so good.

- Baguettes are delicious and cheap. Make for a great dinner. Especially when you have nutella ;)

- Everyone always tells me that Paris is dirty. I disagree. It's not dirty, I mean, there's not garbage everywhere or anything... but there definitely is a whole lot more graffiti than there was in London. So I guess that could give the sense of dirty.
- There are restaurants everywhere that have the tables outside in the open air with the chairs facing out so you can sit and watch while you eat. I adore it. I wish all restaurants where like that.

 Today we went to the d'Orsay Museum. I really liked it a lot. It had a lot of impressionist and post impressionist work. They also had an entire exhibit on Degas that showed work through out his life and career as an artist. It was incredibly interesting to see the development of his style and techniques through the years. He was ridiculously talented, I really love Degas. 

One thing that I've loved about going to so many museums is that it's a completely different experience seeing these pieces in person as oppose to seeing them in a textbook or a photo on the internet. There's been a lot of pieces or styles that I never liked when studying them in class, but seeing them in person has completely changed my perspective of them. For example, I never liked Van Gogh. But after seeing so much of his work in person (especially at the d'Orsay) and associating his work with his story... I was enchanted. My opinions toward his work has taken a new turn. I adore it now. There are still some pieces that I don't like much, but there was some his work that I couldn't stop staring at, it mesmerized me. I really have gained an appreciation for Van Gogh that I never had before. 

I've also decided that I don't like Monet after the 1870's. I don't mind his early work, it's completely different than his impressionistic work that he's so famous for but I just don't like his work that much. There's usually not a focal point or contrast and the colors are too much. It's bleh to me. But I adore Manet. His post impressionistic work is beautiful. I love Degas. I now love Van Gogh.... Those are just some of the conclusions I've come to :)

After the d'Orsay, he walked over to the Rodin Museum. He was a famous sculpture that completely changed the process of sculpture and basically gave other sculptures the freedom to experiment and enter the modern art era. His sculptures were placed around a lovely garden to walk through. Have you ever seen Midnight in Paris? There's a scene in the Rodin garden at the base of the Thinker. Made me smile. It was nice to eat lunch in the shade and talk with Tia, Rick and Clark while being surrounded by beautiful art. I sure love those guys :)

When we finished, we walked over to the tomb of Napoleon. It's huge under a giant dome in a gorgeous building. Pretty crazy that the giant thing was built for an emperor that had been exiled.
Clark and I wandered off in a happy fit of shooting joy and ended up loosing Tia, Rick and Mirielle. Oops. We had a really good time though, we got some pretty rad shots.

We went home and met up with the crew and decided to go out to dinner and enjoy the french way of eating out. We walked down the road to a great little italian restaurant that had enough room to compensate for our large group (11 people). I got a calzone and wow it was good. As in super good. Yum! And I even bought desert! Look at me splurge and live it up in Europe, haha :) And guess what else I ate? A snail! Yuck. But not really, because it actually was really good. It almost had the texture of a mushroom and tasted like the sauce it was cooked with which was a pesto-y goodness. I was surprised at how much I liked it, who would've thought?
It was such a fun night with friends. I'm glad I got to make a great memory with such great people.

We went home after and did school stuff. Psh, school ;) Kidding, I love school. John said I was like Lisa from the Simpsons. Made me laugh.

C'est tout pour jour 18 :)