From Rome to Paris

1-30-2009

My flight to Paris leaves at 7 in the morning. Romina says there is only one bus to the airport this morning leaving at 5 a.m. We wake up at 3:30 a.m. She picks me up in a taxi at 4:15 and the trip begins. We get to the bus, buy our tickets and we're off. We spent the morning chatting and trying to take naps. I don't think either of us slept a wink. I didn't go to sleep until 1 a.m., and Romina didn't go to sleep at all the night before. Caitlin is going to meet us in Paris tonight because she had to take a late flight.

We waited in the Rome airport for about an hour and 45 minutes. I packed some sandwiches and we ate and talked. Our plane took off on time and we arrived in Paris around 10 a.m. From the airport in Paris we took a shuttle to the city. Eline, the French girl we are staying with met us at the metro station at Port Maillot. She helped us buy a day long metro pass and we headed to Eline's house to drop off our luggage. Eline made us a French lunch, some kind of ham and cheese pastry, and then we headed into Paris.

We walked all over Paris. We were so tired from lack of sleep. We walked to the Louvre and saw that there was free admittance for those under 26 years old after 6 p.m. So we decided we would come back at 6. We walked from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees. Eline took us to the most fantastic pastry shop on the Champs-Elysees called La Duree. Sophia Coppola filmed scenes from Marie Antionette at this very shop. It was the most beautiful, decadent shop I have ever seen. Eline bought us all a macaroon. She said it was very important for her to have us taste the French macaroon from La Duree.

We walked past the Arc de Triomphe and decided we would go see Nortre Dame. We hopped on the metro and headed to the church. It was soo beautiful. I can't even imagine how they were able to build such an elaborate maze of arches and buttresses. It was truly incredible. After Notre Dame it was time to head to the Louvre. We hopped back on the metro and headed in that direction.

The Louvre was awesome. I could have spent 12 hours there. My favorite sections are the 18th and 19th century French paintings. I saw most all of my favorite paintings. They look so different in person than they do in art books. There was the most famous Jaques-Louis David paintings, Ingres, Delacroix ... I LOVE Delacroix. It was amazing to be there in front of these paintings.

Also, Francois Boucher, the famous Rococo painter. I think seeing his paintings was the best. He was Madame Pompadour's favorite painter and really revolutionized French painting in general. I was given a lesson from one of the staff members of the Louvre on Le Dejeuner, a famous Boucher painting. It was fantastic. At the Louvre there are staff members all over waiting to educate viewers on the art they are seeing. How wonderful is that?

The woman at the Louvre told me that Le Dejeuner was a self-portrait of Boucher and his family. It was one of the very first times that the Bourgeois class was depicted in a painting. She pointed out the most fantastic attributes. She said that the painting is cropped unlike any paintings before. It is more intimate as opposed to showing the entire space. The desk leg in the painting shows the Bourgeois class borrowing from the nobility. This kind of desk would have been seen at Versailles or another palace, and now the Bourgeois people are buying this furniture for their own homes. There is also a fair amount of exoticism in the painting. This is showing the new French imports. There is a table with a red velvet lining, probably from China. They are drinking tea or coffee and this is exotic. Also, there is a tiny Buddha figurine just behind Boucher in the painting. I never would have seen the Buddha if she hadn't pointed it out!

I have to go back to Paris by myself one day. I would stay at the Louvre all day long. My companions were just not that into the paintings. Romina likes the ancient Egyptian artifacts. Pretty cool, I must admit. We wandered through the Egyptian section and I saw a mummy. Ewww! Eline has seen this all so many times. She was a bit bored, I think. It was difficult traveling with such diverse people. At times I felt I was the new girl. They know each other and so it can be hard to feel completely included. I'm still getting to know everyone. After the Louvre, we were so exhausted. We headed to Starbucks and lounged a bit before heading to Port Maillot to meet Caitlin.

We met Caitlin at around 10:30. We were so tired, we decided to go to Eline's and call it a night. Caitlin didn't mind. She was exhausted from traveling and from her day back in Rome. We hopped on the metro and headed towards Eline's. We had a full day planned for tomorrow and needed to rest up.