A Jersey Girl in Paris: Getting Cultured

So Wednesday was my four hour class (in English), "From Modern to Contemporary Art in France." What a joke. Legit, I could have taught that class since I've already covered all the material at TCNJ and all the professor did was just show us slides of Impressionism and ask us what we thought- didn't even give any sort of background or history on the time or movement. I'm sorry, but where I come from, an art HISTORY course generally includes some snippets of historical information, and in regards to Impressionism, it's kind of important for explaining the development of the movement.

-Side art historical lesson for a moment: Before Impressionism, the French Royal Academy reigned over the art world. Art was only considered "good" and salon-worthy if it followed certain guidelines outlined by the Academy, in terms of both subject and style. Historical and religious paintings were valued, the brush technique was generally more solid to replicate a realistic effect, and more conservative colors were used (see works by Jean-Leon Gerome). Enter a few artists who essentially said "to hell with that" and began to paint in a completely opposite manner- painting scenes and landscapes from everyday life, using a much looser brushstroke and much brighter colors to mimic not the reality of the scene, but the "impression" they experienced upon viewing a scene (like Monet).- (This is my knowledge of the subject; feel free to research it for yourself)

So yeah none of the above info was covered, she just starting showing us slides for 90 minutes, then showed us a video that was completely pointless, in my opinion. But its not like this class counts really counts for anything, so I have no problem sitting through it and contributing what I know.

Wednesday night, everyone in the ISA programs here went to the Opera Garnier to see the ballet "Caligula." I probably would have liked it more if I understood the story beforehand, but it was still really good, if not a bit bizarre because of the interpretation. And the Opera house is gorgeous- exactly like in the "Phantom of the Opera!"

My other class this week was "The Main Periods of French History." It wasn't too bad. The professor seems like a complete sweetheart- she really just wants to grasp the main ideas from each era and won't test us on anything we haven't extensively covered in class (a.k.a the EXACT opposite of RMK).

I don't have class on Fridays so today I had me-time. After talking to my parents (at 6:30am their time- you guys are troopers!) I headed to St. Michel to grab a couple of books- Pride and Prejudice and something by Moliere- from the French bookshop (so when I'm reading in public or need to avoid the stares on the metro, I'm not pegged as the American with her English books), then had lunch in a nearby cafe. And as I was sitting there, I fully understood why Americans get a bad rep in foreign countries- this group of American college students was loud, obnoxious, and pretty rude when the waiter couldn't quite understand their ordering in English. (Newsflash: you are the foreigner in this situation. Not everyone is going to know English when you are in a non-English speaking nation. Please adapt.) After that, I headed over to the Louvre to look at some paintings I studied in class on Monday (French Art: Renaissance to Impressionism) and will see again this coming Monday as well. And let me tell you, there is nothing better than learning about something in class, then have the ability to go see it in person. Like this painting by Le Brun. On the computer screen or on a slide projector, it doesn't look that imposing, but in person, its about 12 ft by 30 ft. Ridiculous.

Other pictures from the Louvre: