Day 49: My Last Day in Paris

So I'm not the type for sappy posts (I totally am but I know people don't want to read that) but I would be remiss not to put a little sentimental BS in this last blog post. These past two months have been such a roller coaster and I'm so grateful for this opportunity and experience. Paris truly is a magical city and I'm so lucky to have been able to stay here for two months. I spent my last night with some of the great people I've been able to meet in a wonderful part of this beautiful city. I'm also very excited to see my friends and family because I've been an emotional wreck all day just thinking about seeing them. To anyone who actually read my blog thank you for letting me think my life was interesting for a couple of months and I apologize for any days that I was too sick or tired to write an interesting blog entry.
And to Paris, vous me manquerai, c'était un été inoubliable. Je reviendrai bientôt. Bisous.

 This is the sign in Bercy Village for our metro stop Cour St. Emilion (I'm getting nostalgic already)

Some graffiti outside where we took classes. It says exprime toi which means express yourself.

This is the sign on the entrance to our classes. We got to punch in a super secret code to get into the building.

This is the hallway to get to class.

These are some fire shots to commemorate our last night in Paris and my last legal drink for a year and a half.

These are some super awesome friends as mentioned before (Lindsey, me, Claire, Sharif)

Day 48: The Day I Tried to be Zen

This morning I went on a field trip with my class to the Bois de Vincennes which is a giant forest on the outskirts of Paris in the 12th arrondissement. The Bois de Vincennes was first used in 1931 to house a giant colonial exhibition which was super racist and offensive and resulted in huge huts being built for no real purpose after the 6 month exposition was over. 

The first thing that we visited were some giant African huts which were used to showcase certain African colonies during the original exhibition but now were converted Buddhist temples. The first temple was the equivalent of a nondenominational Buddhist temple where all different types of Buddhism were accommodated. It's also home to the largest Buddha in all of Europe. It was a very peaceful place and we learned what each of the symbols inside represented. The coolest thing was when they talked about rainbows representing impermanence because they're so fleeting.

We then went to a Tibetan Buddhist temple where the Dalai Llama visits when he is in France (there were pictures to prove it). This temple was also beautiful although way more cluttered with candles and offerings and artwork.  We also had to take our shoes off to go inside which was my favorite part.

After the temples we went to the Palais de Porte Doree which is now the Museum of Immigration but was once the building that represented France in the colonial exhibition. The entire front facade of the building is a giant bas-relief (when stone is sculpted so that all that is left is the artwork). The bas-relief represents all of the colonies and their contribution to France (rice, coco, coffee, oil, rubber, etc.). Once inside there is this giant room that has a mural on the walls that represents all of the things France brought to the colonies (peace, liberty, science, work ethic, and other super ethnocentric things). The inside of the museum was pretty awesome and there was even an aquarium (which I didn't go to because it was pretty expensive).

This was the end of the trip so afterwards I decided to spend my second to last day wandering my favorite area instead of trying to cross things off my list last minute. So I walked around the Marais and bought myself some gelato and ate it in the Place des Vosges and just acted like a Parisian and just enjoyed where I was sitting: the warm sun, the fountains, the grass until a bunch of pigeons flew toward me and I practically ran away. I kind of then accepted that I'm not much of a zen person, especially not in a big city. So I shopped around and found this awesome book store with super cheap used books.

Then tonight we decided to head back to the Fete des Tuileries where we watched all of the carnival rides (because we don't have 10 euro to drop on a ferris wheel ride, no exaggeration). It was really beautiful especially at sunset. We then wandered around the jardin and found some great seats by a fountain with the carnival in the background. It was a great spot and so beautiful until the wind picked up and the fountain splashed us right in the faces. All in all, it was one of the best ways to spend my second to last night in Paris. 

Day 47: Night Time in Paris

Today I had an exam and a presentation due so after class I took a much needed nap. I then took a nice long walk on the Promenade Plantee which is absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite walks in Paris.
After that I headed to the Louvre because on Wednesdays and Fridays they're open until 9:30 which is amazing because you get to walk through the halls and there's barely anybody in the museum. Some of the areas were absolutely deserted. Obviously the Mona Lisa is surrounded with people taking pictures as if at any moment the painting might come to life and jump out, but you can't really ever expect anything else in that room. We saw some really amazing Mesopotamian cave art and sculptures and Napoleon's apartments which were two parts of the museum that I hadn't seen yet. Napoleon's apartment was absolutely amazing. Usually I think royal rooms are tacky and way over the top. There's usually an aggressive amount of matching wallpapers to bedsheets to curtains to rugs but Napoleon's apartment is magnificent.
I also got to get another great look at Winged Victory who looked beautiful and powerful as always. I also saw for the first time the Louvre in the Middle Ages exhibit which is really awesome because you can basically see the skeleton of the Louvre. It's a giant room that shows the stones and stuff that made up the original foundation. I didn't take a great picture of it but it's pretty trippy.
We then left and caught the Louvre at sunset which was amazing and headed towards Sacre Coeur where we spent the rest of the night. We sat on the Sacre Coeur and watched the whole city as the sky darkened and little by little the yellow lights came from the buildings. It was all pretty magical, or it would've been if every five seconds we didn't have some vendor trying to sell us beer or wine or some weird glow in the dark toy. They're aggressive there. If you don't look at them they're angry, if they talk to you and you don't respond they'll keep talking and heaven forbid they've tried to sell you something and you buy it from someone else they become enraged. One of my friends bought a bottle of beer from a street vendor after saying no to a couple because she didn't really want one at first and they came over and yelled at her and one gave her the middle finger. One even pointed to the sky and told her God was judging her. Crazy behavior. The view was breathtaking but honestly I could've done without the street vendors.

 The world's first hot dad.

 What I would look like if my head was the same and my body was an ancient mesopotamien scultpture (had to touch the statue to do this right don't tell the authorities)

 Super creepy statue is about to tell you a disturbing story in a creepy creepy voice.

This is a bust of a man who was mid sneeze when it was chiseled (Lindsey's joke).

Day 46: Sainte Chapelle

Today I had a lot of work on my plate since my final exam and presentation are both tomorrow but I made some time to visit Sainte Chapelle which had been on my list for a while. It's a church that was built in 1248 for Saint Louis to house this collection of Christian artifacts that he had. The outside of the church is pretty typical Gothic and it's under construction so its especially unimpressive but the real treasure is on the inside. The giant stained glass windows inside Sainte Chapelle are so amazing that it was worth the super long line. Each giant window represents a different part of the Bible and there are 12 statues placed around the chapel that are the apostles. It's all so pretty.

I also went to the movies and saw an awesome movie called Frances Ha. All in all a pretty lazy day but it was pretty nice.